Flirting with Stress Limits

To become a fulltime caregiver for my wife (who has dementia) I had to give up as many stressful activities as I could, or I wouldn’t cope.

I ended up left skirting the edges of tolerance to any added stress that comes along. So, I have a low threshold level for tipping over the top.

Two stressful events happened near to each other recently. I had to settle a new pet into our home (see my last blog post) and I had a public health (free) hospital appointment to get to last Wednesday.

I’d waited over a year, for the latter, to have a basal cell carcinoma on my face checked out by a specialist.

So, there was anxiety over arranging relief care for my wife, over what the outcome would be at the hospital,over getting to the appointment on time in rush hour traffic, and guilt that I’d prevailed on my working daughter in law to take time off to be my driver.

I ended up with the complication that the hospital couldn’t do a skin graft if, post-op, I used a CPAP mask that covered the bridge of my nose. (I use one nightly because of sleep apnoea – I stop breathing if I don’t.)

I’m trying to find a medical solution but don’t know if there'll be one.

All this lowers my energy level & I keep postponing the planning of my next novel.