That might have been a bit too ominous.

So, my son finished camp yesterday.  I finished the summer school session as well.  That means, we’re going to take a relaxing father/son trip.  He gets a little more than 3 weeks to have fun.  I get . . . a little more than 2 weeks.  You know, I’ll take it since it’s been a rough year so far.  He’s with me for 12 days and then I’m on my own for a bit until the next school year starts.  I can use those days to hopefully recover.  God knows, I desperately need those days.  He should since I’m sure he’s behind things.

Writing-wise, I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked, but I did accomplish what I expected.  I finished two chapters of Darwin & the Beast Collector last weekend and into Monday.  Had a feeling writing time would disappear as soon as Monday was over since so much was going on.  I was going to try to write on Wednesday, but I didn’t like starting a chapter and then not touching it for over a week.  Besides, things started going sideways at this point.

One incident, I can’t talk about because it was fairly private and it could cause trouble if I make it public.  All I can say is that decisions were made and stress was induced by several people, including me.  Will there be negative fallout from this?  I don’t know.  It really depends on some factors, which I can’t get into.  I will say that it definitely stressed me out a bit since so much was beyond my control.  Didn’t help that I had a post nasal drip, which was aggravating my sleep apnea and making me have a bunch of panic attacks.  Of course, Wednesday didn’t help.

This is a health-related thing, which I’m guessing people gloss over.  People come here for the writing stuff like Do I Need to Use a Dragon? has 2 5-star ratings.  Thank you for that.  Anyway, these posts are about my life and maybe what I go through will help someone about to go through the same stuff.

Now, I was checked by a cardiologist a week ago.  Everything was fine and I even had relatively good blood pressure.  The only issue was a slightly rapid heartbeat, which I’ve had for about a decade at least.  To be safe, I was set up to have a stress test.  This is when they connect a bunch of electrodes to you and have you walk on a treadmill for 10-15 minutes.  I’ve done that before and it isn’t bad.  Heck, I even factored it into my daily exercise plan.  Made sure not to take any caffeine or blood pressure stuff (beetroot) and stopped eating at noon.  This part should have been a clue that I was about to walk into a different situation.  Showing up and seeing everyone else had some kind of mobility issue should have been the other.

I was unaware that there was a drug-induced stress test used for those who can’t do the treadmill.  Why would I know since I can use it?  No idea why I was given this test where they hook you up to an IV then slide you into a CATscan machine.  I spent 30-40 minutes with my arms above my head and unable to move.  They start with a non-reactive substance that they won’t call a dye, which shows my heart while ‘normal’.  Then, they injected me with something that simulated walking the treadmill.  I was told 60 seconds of stomach cramps, headaches, and other discomfort.  My anxiety shot up and I struggled to count the seconds.  I had trouble getting up because I never moved my legs, so they were useless.  Driving home through horrible traffic was a test of will and I felt ‘wrong’ for the rest of the evening and most of Thursday.  Everybody was shocked and confused on why this was done to me.  I won’t hear about the results until September 7th too.  Mostly, I want to know why I wasn’t given the treadmill.

I think this incident and the one I can’t talk about is another reason my appetite has been low/gone lately.  I’m eating, but not nearly as much as I used to.  Mostly fruits, healthy grain brains, and vegetables.  No snacking.  Had my only soda of the week last night.  I’ve lost about 2-3 pounds this week.  Not sure if this is healthy though.  It’s because I can’t bring myself to eat a lot.  Yet, I’m walking a ton and maintaining 8,000-10,000+ steps a day.  Could this be a good thing?  I don’t know.  Still betting a lot on the sleep apnea test at the end of the month because my sleep is ragged.

OOOOOHHHH!  I almost forgot about the big victory of the week:

I finished Lego Rivendell!  Want a tour?

I finished it when I didn’t have the time or brain power to write.  I had ‘Good Omens’ playing at the time too.  So, I was distracted at times when I got to the new episodes.  Still, I got this massive project done.  The James Bond Aston Martin, Darth Vader and Obi Wan Brickheadz, and Wolverine claw I did afterwards didn’t quite measure up, but what really can to this challenge.  I don’t have the space for anything this big again unless I get a new place and make a Lego room.  Back to jigsaw puzzles once I get time to return to this kind of stuff.

I don’t have a real plan for the week. Not one that goes beyond the father/son trip.  We have a bunch of fun stuff planned, which I’ll post about next Saturday.  It’ll definitely have to be a day-by-day one and I hope to have pictures.  Pokemon Go is going to be a large factor, but not the main focus.  After all, we have tons of outings planned.  We’ll fit it in at some points though.

Goals of the week?

1. Finish packing.
2. Have a safe trip there.
3. Enjoy our time.
4. Relax.
5. Notebook work if we’re hanging around the hotel.
6. Have a safe trip back.
7. Pokemon Go when possible.
8. Relax.