This morning I started out listening to the BBC Arts and Ideas podcast, Rethinking Civilisations. But after doing dishes and making coffee, I felt compelled to pull up Danez Smith’s playlist and start at “It’s a Family Affair.”
It seemed like the right soundtrack for the morning. The play list is still playing, right now Miles Davis’s mellow tune, “It Never Entered My Mind,” has just ended. Now the Temptations are singing “I can’t get next to you,” in a wonderful live recording.
I have an agreement with my doctor. If my BP is over 140 for more than seven days in a row, I will call her and we’ll presumably about it. A couple years ago, it did that and she called in an extra pill to supplement what I had been taking. At that point, my brother and my wife suggested I might need to see out a talk therapist since I seemed stressed to them. This was a happy occurrence, especially in retrospect, since my eventual search for a therapist led me to the office of Curtis Birky who has been a delight and an incredible intelligent resource for me.
The day after my Mom died, when I learned of her actual demise, I was just about to take my BP. Unsurprisingly, it was elevated. Since then, up until this morning, I have been watching it peak occasionally up into the region where I’m supposed to contact Dr. Fuentes.
A couple days ago I decided I should start skipping my evening martini and drinks. My drinking had been increasing a bit even before Mom died. What this is means is that I have a daily evening martini (rarely two), followed by 2 or 3 glasses of wine. The increase is that I would follow that with some whiskey.
Besides the alcohol, I would snack all evening. I think it’s a combination of this habit that has kept my weight higher than I (and the doctor) would like. I also think that when I try to cut down on drinking and snacking, my …
Oops, time to go see Dr. Birky.
To be continued