An Auspicious Start

Well, so far since turning 63 around last Labor Day weekend, it's been and oddly auspicious start to this  year, but in ways both good and bad. It didn't start out good, in fact badly with a bladder infection which evolved into Protratitis, an infection of the prostrate. Yeah, real fun.

Anyway, two weeks later, all was well with the world again and the lesson was learned to always wash all fresh vegetables thoroughly. Over the next few months I slowly worked with the drugs I was taking for another issue and discovered by November the two drugs, but one specifically, has been part of the digestive problems.

Ok, stop taking the one and lower the dosage of the other and most of the problems went away. Only most since the other half of the digestive problem is food itself, meaning my system is very food sensitive and finally finding a gastroenterologist who actually had useful information to help, the problems lessened dramatically.

What it left me with is a short list of foods I can eat which don't cause problem and time where I can have food experiment days to try old foods, in moderation of course, and new foods, in sample sizes, and judge from the results with my body.

That list makes shopping hard and eating harder most days as it excludes wheat and most grains, most common vegetables, especially all leafy or green ones, most common fruits, all artificial sugar/sweetner,  etc. Just Google "fodmaps" and you'll see. You can see what it eliminates at the grocery store, cafes, etc.

Anyway, by January it's helped a lot where I've been walking 5-6 miles 4-5 times a week to get back in shape as much as the Siatic nerve allows my legs, which isn't much some weeks and more other weeks. They said the Siatic nerve could easily take 1-2 years to heal and considering my lower left leg is still numb after 6-plus months, I believe it.

And also in January after facing my frozen annuity 2 of the last 4 years and the other two years with only small to modest increases, the cost of living has found me where there's not much extra spending money anymore, especially repaying the money investing in my small photography business.

But I dug the financial hole and I'll fill it up over the next 2-3 years and be even, or near what I can achieve and if nothing financially disasterous happens. That doesn't include surgeries I'll need within the next 3-5 years, for which there is no money right now.

Yeah, not good news, so why auspicious? Well, knowledge is power and now I know where I'm truly sitting and what it takes to have a life. And that's auspicious to me and a better start than the last few years.

And as a friend always said, "It's beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick."