I'm Back: The Threes Tried But Won't Stop Us

     It may be an annoying cliché, but events occurring in threes are certainly affecting Val and my lives at the moment, as good a time as any to restart this blog.

     In the space of less than a week, Val underwent emergency surgery, I became unemployed (hopefully short term), and we endured an actual blizzard a part of some pretty bad weather.

     My current job loss, after serving as director of communications for the Erie County Legislature for two years, followed a previous term of unemployment and service with the Erie County Legislature from 2004-2010, when I lost my job for the basic same political reasons that would bore you if detailed. We will come out of this better, but it never makes one’s self-esteem increase.

     Val’s surgery, of course, is the most important and scary situation. She had been having acid reflux for a while (one of her multiple sclerosis side effects), and the new MS medication she is on can cause digestive track problems. So, when she had worse stomach and intestinal problems in the last year or so, she thought that they were for these reasons and had been trying to further revise her diet.

     But, on December 30, her pains were so bad that we ended up going to the emergency room at Buffalo General Hospital, and spent from 7:15 p.m. until 3 a.m. in the ER when her problem was diagnosed. There, on the ultrasound screen, was a big, not exactly bouncing gallstone. Val was admitted and had her surgery later that morning, and the surgeon removed a 2-centimeter gallstone as well as an inflamed gall bladder; the surgeon said she had never seen a gallstone that large.

     Val was in the hospital until her release New Year’s Day, and is recovering at home, and like our dog Harold and me, is suffering from cabin fever due to the blizzard. If the blizzard had to hit Buffalo, it came at the right time for us, because Val wasn’t exactly up for much travel or partying, and because I had done the grocery shopping on the usual day, we were more than prepared for a few days of being shut in except for me shoveling and starting the car. Oh, and walking Harold; we only missed one day of that, Tuesday, when the cold and wind were too much and he barely would go in the backyard to do his duty.

     Val has made her first trip out of the house post-home rest after surgery today, and we’re hoping that the rest of the items are on the upswing, So you have something to look forward to, my next post here will detail some of the, er, astute and heartwarming comments from a woman who shared some time in the same examining area with Val in the emergency room. Real Hallmark stuff, believe you me.