An Update (7/2/2017)

It has now been a full month since my latest surgery which marks the significant date specified in my discharge instructions to start doing more things. More things, such as lifting my left arm above my head and lifting heavy objects (like laundry baskets full of clean clothes) to ease myself back into the routine of my life.   As of this weekend I will not able to milk the “Sorry, dear, I can’t do heavy lifting…doctor’s orders you know” any more.  Drat!  

I am also easing back into my exercise routine.  At one time, which was a number of years ago, I would do 45 minutes on my stationary bicycle.  In more recent times I have only been able to do 20 minutes at a single sitting.   In more recent times, say the past twelve months, I have struggled to reach that humble plateau.   I started yesterday and stopped after five minutes; today I made it to six minutes.  Slow and steady wins the race.

So for all those who wanted updates, I believe that I am getting better albeit slowly.  I will have more answers in a few weeks when I see my cardiologist.  In the meantime, I am sure I will still have the occasional shortness of breath, but I am already noticing that these events are not happening as often as they were earlier this year.

Still, it will be a challenge.  I am convinced that about this time last year I began sinking into a funk, not a full fledged psychological breakdown, but rather a decline in my overall emotional optimism into a depression that gnaws at my psyche.  My mental state may have influenced a worsening of my pre-existing heart condition.  A historical article in the morning newspaper recounted how President Calvin Coolidge’s grief at losing his son may have aggravated his cardiac health and contributed to his death at relatively premature age of 61.

My mental lapse somehow coincided with the rise and subsequent election of our current President.  Many might see my condition as an overreaction to his election and that he really isn’t as bad as my mind makes him out to be.

Oh, really?  Based on recent events I am now more convinced than ever that my depression is fully warranted because the President of the United States is a deeply disturbed individual.   His psychoses are contagious.

Yay!   Make America Sick Again!

The President’s most recent attacks on MSNBC’s Morning Joe co-anchor Mika Brzezinski has dominated the news cycle in the last few days,  drawing attention away from the GOP effort to outlaw healthcare in the country and more mounting evidence that Putin did indeed influence the 2016 Presidential election.

Misogyny reared its ugly head again in the President’s seemingly uncalled for and inexplicable Twitter attack on a morning news show.  Naturally the rants were followed by a round of condemnations, and many of these came from within the President’s party.

Strange and SAD.  Someone, anyone, should have seen this coming before they crowned this mental midget at the Republican National Convention last year.  Oh, right, the GOP was too busy selling its ideological soul to notice.  Now they condemn him?   WTF?

The Morning Joe hosts, Mika and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough, responded eloquently to the President’s attack and endeavored to take the high road.  The President’s timing also showed a total lack of decency and decorum: Mika is still dealing with the recent passing of her father, the highly respected former Secretary of State Zbigniew Brzezinski.  The President’s remarks on her mental well being and overall appearance came at a very vulnerable time for Mika.

To her credit, she stood up for herself, addressed the President’s wildly inappropriate remarks, and then went on a vacation, the start of which was delayed by this controversy.  The President felt compelled to respond to their response to his attack, which swallowed up another news cycle.  I sincerely hope that when they return from vacation Morning Joe will resist responding to the President’s attacks and shift the focus of the news cycle back to the healthcare bill in Congress and the growing investigation into the Russian influence on our democracy.

Lastly, I should mention my mother, Anne Lauren Gunther.  She would have turned 81 today.  In past years, there would have been a celebration and, at least once, a birthday cake resembling the American flag baked by my cousin Paula.  This year I will remember as much as I can about her. 

I won’t resort to the old Nixon protestation (“My mother was a saint.”) because to be sure she was human with flaws like the rest of us.  Still she loved me and gave me a good understanding of the correct ideals worth fighting for.  Okay, so she didn’t give me a good physical heart, but that is forgivable.

Thank you, Mom.

(Thank you for reading.  May everyone have a good day and a good heart.)