What the eff is she thinking?! (July 20, 2009)

If you've been noticing my sporadic posts of late, you're aware that I've been working from home a lot and taking care of my wife due to her suffering from severely high blood pressure. Recently, she switched to a new medication that is taking care of some of the problems, so finally her pressure is staying below 140/100, and sometimes even down to below 120/80. The medication might be working, and things might be getting better.

So what does the relative we rent from do?

They invite one of our kids to come 'visit' for a couple of weeks. Unexpectedly. Just 'hey, you remember how I finally agreed this kid needed to be evicted because she was physically and emotionally abusive to all of us, oh, yeah, I invited her back for two weeks and I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want to hear you complain about it.'

All day L's blood pressure has been 130/90. Sometimes it's even been below 120 on the systolic. Just now it shot up to 161/105 and it isn't going back down.

So, yeah. Add this to the fact that I had already arranged to catch a ride to work from a coworker for two days this week, and therefore won't be home if things go south, and you have a recipe for one very upset Laura over the next two weeks... which means rapidly rising blood pressure... which makes me very, very concerned. There is no amount of well-written prose or off-the-cuff profanity that can properly express how I feel right now, so I'm venting here so I don't vent in some less constructive manner.

I need to take my mind off of this. I need to stay calm, and ensure L stays as calm as possible.

I want to do more writing. These past few weeks, I haven't even been able to write for characters, let alone myself, and that bothers me. I've been stressed, exhausted, suffering from migraines and pains all over, and generally feel like I'm running on empty, and I have to be at my best to deal with all of this. Does anyone have any ideas for trying to calm down?