"Not the Best Day, Yesterday..." by Richard F. Yates

Hey folks... So this post, besides my sketchy art, is also going to be a bit more personal than I like to get, so... Beware!

I had a doctors appointment yesterday to establish care at a doctor's office...after not going for a checkup in a LOOOOONG time... And when they checked my vitals, my blood pressure was through the roof. Part of this was from MASSIVE anxiety. I have severe "White Coat Syndrome," but it clearly wasn't JUST that...

I ended up being sent to the E.R. They did a bunch of tests, and then sent me (and my wife, who came with me), to the waiting room while they got the results back.

Despite having an I.V. line stuck in my arm, I did some writing and sketching to try to calm myself down. The drawing at the top of this post was one of these sketches... Here are a couple more:

(I took a picture of the I.V. in my arm, but I decided against including it.)

After a bit I was called back into the little room, again, and my blood pressure had come down a bit, but they told me they'd decided they were going to admit me... Didn't expect to hear that....

They stuck me in a wheelchair and rolled me into a hallway, and Mariah started calling the kids. (Needless to say, my blood pressure jumped back up.....)

BUT, after I'd been waiting in the hall for a while, the cardiologist on my case showed up and said that they DIDN'T need to keep me after all. (???) (Mariah made a few more calls telling the kids NOT to come to the hospital.) Jeeze...

By the end of the day, I did get to come home, but now I get to take two different blood pressure medicines AND an anti-anxiety med. Meanwhile, I've (we've) got some serious LIFESTYLE changes to make, as well.

No salt---or much less salt (this is tougher than we thought. MOST of the food I eat has....or HAD....a lot of salt in it.) I need to get more exercise (we went for a walk today), and we've decided to start meditating. I'll probably even start going to Weight Watchers with Mariah. (She's been going for almost a year, I think, and she's lost over sixty pounds!)

Life changing day, one of those wake-up-call situations. New diet, new motivations, new MEDICATIONS...if I want to be around to see my grandkids grow up---and finish even HALF of those book projects that I want to complete.

So there you go... True confessions AND some panicky punk art... That was yesterday's fun fun fun!!!

---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

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