Little gifts

Negotiating the "side effect" waters...

So the "gift that keeps on giving" from my stay in the hospital is a handful of drugs, none of them MS-specific. A few things that do what, I don't know, but they tell me they're supposed to help my annoyingly-functioning bladder. But whatever it is this stuff does, I do know that it's all very clearly stickered to warn me that it may cause drowsiness, be sure not to drive!

Now, it's one thing to wander around as high as a kite when you're comparison-shopping medical-marijuana varietals, but bladder pills? Not nearly as much fun, I'm guessing (what little "thinking" can happen while buzzing on bladder pills). And more than a little odd, especially when you're trying to do something requiring, y'know, clear thinking...

I haven't had the wherewithal to deal with trying to write music right now, I've only managed to sit at that machine very, very briefly, since I came back from the hospital. But, I am trying to accomplish something! For years, I've attended the McBride Magic and Mystery school in Henderson, Nevada (just minutes away from Las Vegas), and for years I've made presentations there, even being the first presenter at the symposium, a spot I might very well be scheduled for this year! No pressure, right?

So I'm practice-giving my presentation over and over and over, not just to rehearse it but to help me find places to fine-tune the script or to cut, cut, cut! for time. Well, that's going pretty well, all things considered, but what I'm really concerned about is traveling to another state while being in the Cath Club.

We haven't really really really decided whether to do the plane or the car... By car alone, it'll take around four hours, door to door. By air, it'll take a half-hour from home to airport, hang in the airport for at least two hours, flight for one, at least a half-hour to get outta the airport and off to the hotel (maybe longer, depending on what else is going on in Vegas that day) which makes the total time into... uh, four hours? At least?

I think one of my friends also in the Cath Club has done so on an airplane, but I'm kinda ginchy about that, and having to explain to TSA that yes, the betadine IS medical and your web site says I can take medical liquids, and no you can't stick the "am I an explosive" test strip INTO the bottle because that'll destroy its sterility which is the only reason to be traveling with it, but I can squirt it into something else for you to test-strip it, and no, you can't have it because if you take it I can't pee, anywhere, ever, until I can find more of it somewhere which will take MORE time and... yeah, maybe the car's the way to go. Besides, with my wife's new Prius, it'll cost less than flying, the gauge on the front panel regularly reports that she's getting between 50 and 100 MPG, which the airplane definitely doesn't.

So, we'll see. In the meantime, it's back to hacking at the presentation, but in the meantime... Do I feel... hungry? Even sort of? Kind of? A little?

That doesn't happen much. But to this I say... thank you!

Little gifts are still gifts.