Life'll Kill Ya!

Quite a flippant title for a post like this one, even I think. But, I'm not to terribly concerned about what people think most of the time.

This past Sunday/early Monday morning, my mother delivered some heavy news to me. She's been having trouble concentrating on mental tasks to the point that she got lost on her way back to her office, but she had gone no more than two doors down from it. She's been diagnosed with an auto-immune disorder, but it hadn't been narrowed down. Rhuematoid Arthritis is one she knows she has, as well as fibromyalgia, but she had been awaiting blood tests (ANA - Anti-Nuclear Antibody patterns) for a while.

Those blood tests came back this past week. It came back as having a strong indicator for scleroderma. I did some research on the disease, and it commonly hardens the skin on the hands to the point where the hands become useless. That's bad enough, but up 'til that research, the only information I had to go on was what I learned about Bob Saget's sister roughly ten years ago. Well, I don't know how else to say this, so I'll be blunt -- or, as blunt as I've been before. My mom may well be screwed. It's now my mission to try to convince her to get out and enjoy this life as best she can while she can. Even if this blood test (which she's told me is not completely conclusive yet) turns out that it's really indicating a different kind of problem (something she's described to me as being 'multiple connective tissue disorders), then she's still going to have to put up with life restricting pain. That is something that's going to grow to the point that she would not want to get out and go. I wouldn't blame her for that. I just want to see her get out and do all the things she's always wanted to do before anything robs her of her mobility.

But, then again, I don't know what would be worse for her; memories of things she will no longer be able to do, or regretting that she didn't do anything while she had the chance. All I can assume is that her personality is similar to mine (lots of people of varying degrees of credibility have said so), and urge her to get out and experience life. Don't wait for the regrets. That's the way I'd go about it.

The Humpday Quote of the
Week!

From the President of the United States
To the lowliest rock and roll star
The doctor is in and he'll see you now
He don't care who you are
Some get the awful, awful diseases
Some get the knife, some get the gun
Some get to die in their sleep
At the age of a hundred and one

Life'll kill ya
That's what I said
Life'll kill ya
Then you'll be dead
Life'll find ya
Wherever you go
Requiescat in pace
That's all she wrote

-----Warren Zevon from the album and song "Life'll Kill Ya"