Caregiver – Care for Yourself!

Wow – yesterday was a tough day. And I spent nine hours of it at work – how tough could it really have been?

When I got home from work, I only had a few minutes to collect M and get back in the car to go to our every-other-month bloodmobile appointment. I think I’ve mentioned, M has O positive blood, so he’s VERY popular with the Red Cross and all the bloodmobiles in the area. There’s a church near us that has a scheduled collection every two months – and they have GREAT snacks – so we’ve been going there for the past five or so years.

The bloodmobile was on the calendar and I had reminded M about it before I left for work, but – of course – he wasn’t ready when I got to the house. And we didn’t have much time to get there before it closed. I asked him to put the new puppy, Bella, in one of the dog crates and then we would leave. First, he decided he needed to look in his wallet for his blood donation card.

Sigh.

After pulling everything out of his wallet and getting frustrated, he stomped up the stairs to go to the bedroom and look up there. I told him there was no reason it wouldn’t be in his wallet. Then I walked over to the mess he had made – and picked up the card he was looking for. It was right there, all along.

He took Bella downstairs to the crate and all the other dogs followed him because they thought something good was going on. Then he got confused about which dog was going into what crate, so I had to go downstairs and sort all that out. It wasn’t a big deal, but more time was wasted and I was getting frustrated.

When we got to the bloodmobile, they had some new computerized check-in system that no one truly seemed to understand. It didn’t matter – we were there and waiting, but I could feel myself becoming more impatient about it.

By the time I was called over for my assessment, I was just over it. So when the technician took my blood pressure and she said, “It’s a little high,” I wasn’t all that surprised – although it’s typically low. But when she said it was 145/110!?!?! I was STUNNED!! I’m surprised I didn’t have a stroke then and there. Then she checked my iron, and it was low (no, I haven’t been taking my Flintstone chewables like I’m supposed to.)

So, the bottom line is – I have high blood pressure and low iron. I guess all the self-medicating with carbs and chocolate hasn’t been as successful as I’ve thought.

Tonight, while M is at wing night with my dad, I’m going to the running store and I’m getting a new pair of shoes. And I’m going to haul my fat ass out of the house and out onto the street and I’m going to start running – again. I’ll start slow – v-e-r-y-s-l-o-w-l-y – but I need to do something, or else.

Once I finish this carton of mint chocolate chip ice cream.