The best laid plans and all that. Trigeminal Neuralgia has played havoc with my plans of late in the form of sharp shooting pain in my eye and ear; the kind of pain that brings any activity to a screeching halt.
Because I’ve had this pain for so many years and it’s had such a significant impact on so many areas of my life, I’ve been struggling more and more with coping, trying to not let the reality discourage me too much.
As anyone who has dealt with severe, debilitating pain can attest to, the longer we have daily pain to that degree, the more we’re challenged when it comes to coping, which is the main reason I recently started seeing a counselor.
In this morning’s session, we focused on coping skills, and she reminded me that sometimes we have to take small wins even when the major plans get derailed. That brought to mind a comment by a friend on Twitter/X yesterday. I’d posted about how frustrated I was because the TN interfered big time with a plan I had for the afternoon. This is her comment, “You accomplished something and that is far better than nothing!”
That was a perfect affirmation, and receiving it raised my spirits a bit yesterday.
Today, my therapist talked me through a strategy to help me keep that kind of support in the forefront of my thinking, even if it takes more than a few minutes for the pain to subside enough for me to switch from the anger and frustration, to more helpful emotions.
We also talked about acceptance versus giving in. I told her that my attempts to come to a point of fully accepting my limitations, it’s always felt too much like giving the TN permission to control my life. We didn’t get very far with that today, and my homework before our next visit is to research the difference between accepting and surrendering to an enemy.
Since that kind of research is something that was most satisfying when I was more active as a freelance journalist , that will be a deep dive that will be enjoyable.
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Now for some humor from Slim Randles. I appreciate him so much for sharing his columns with us. He doesn’t charge me, or any of the newspapers across the country that publish his missives. I’ve come to see the characters at The Mule-Barn Truck Stop as friends and their antics never fail to amuse me. Hope you feel the same.
Today, Windy Wilson is taking the stage. Enjoy!
Now one thing’s for dang shore, everwho come up with drugstore language should be roped and dragged out in the brush and wearin’ a big sign that jest says “Guilty.” No need to get more infinitesimal than that until he’s through bouncin’ through the puckerbrush.
As I’m shore you know, since our choice of subject today is arithmeticals and has to do with the language we speak, this here is yore ol’ pal and philosophizer Windy Wilson. Slim usually does these, but he looks the other way sometimes if I sneak by him. You know. Only when it’s a universal primalchordium that applicates to all of us, of course.
So here’s the skinny, and I’m shore you recognizate it, too. Drugstore language was invented by some guy who thought he was educationin’ the world by teachin’ ‘em a new language. Used to be, there was aspirin. Now that ain’t too bad. Spelled it right, too, cuz we been starin’ at it by the sink since Spot was a pup.
But you know how them educators get. You don’t stop at aspirin, oh no, you gotta rename all the pills ever made so no one can pronounce ‘em. Like
Tramexabuteral. That one has somethin’ to do with curin’ the miseries, but I don’t rememberate which part of you needs to be fixed.
But don’t you worry, cuz them druggist guys and doctor guys went to college for a hunnert years to learn that, and it’s dang few that want to share.
Wouldn’t it be a heckuva lot easier to jest walk in and ask for a pill to make it easier to use the … little house? You know. But that would jest make sense and would embarrass the doctors and nurses and pharmacinders in our lives cuz they couldn’t show off any more.
Wish we could try it out, like askin’ for a bottle of Leftleglimpnomore or Catchanoserunnin’. That’s why it takes down-to-earth kinda philosofickals like me to set the tone for universality-type improvements. And you can tell ‘em I said so.
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Brought to you by Tractor Supply Company. A nice place to find feed, seed, and other things you need, like maybe a new puppy..
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Before you go, don’t forget to pre-order your copy of my humorous memoir, A Dead Tomato Plant and a Paycheck. This new edition is a rewrite of the previous one with new content added, professional editing & formatting, as well as this terrific cover. Thanks to The Book Khaleesi for the art and all the rest.
Only .99 to pre-order before release date of August 28.
