Hi Rex, so good to hear from you even though we're also FB friends and I'm following your progress there. I'll be delighted to hear this mysterious illness and source of infection has been traced and can be treated.

Out here we're having a wet winter which is good news but  we're both fluey and rather bedraggled from all the rain! Hopefully the dams and rivers have filled up enough to ensure we don't have water rationing through next summer.

Sending all love to Judy and  you're lucky to have her there. With luck, you'll be planning holidays in Florida again soon!

xxMary

Good morning all,

I just wanted to check in and say hello. The autumn season is well underway here in the midwestern U.S. and we have survived 2 1/2 years of a Donald Trump presidency. The weather is cool but not cold yet and leaves are starting to turn colors but not many on the ground today.

I was in the hospital last week for 5 days with another attack of sepsis or bacteremia whichever you'd like to call it. I have been diagnosed with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis. It's a rare autoimmune liver disease which is oddly not brought on by alcohol abuse but is causing recurring battles with blood bacteria infections. I am now going to the local hospital each day for intravenous antibiotic infusions which should be ending late next week. Soon after that I will be returning to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for more tests (another ERCP with liver biopsies).

I am so sick and tired of our political climate that I don't even pay attention to the news anymore. Everyone hates everyone else and it just makes me sick to listen to. The right is far too right and the left is far too left. No one cares about the probably 80% of those of us in the middle but only about the loud, ugly rhetoric coming from both ends of the spectrum.

I'm so afraid that Mr Trump will be elected again because many of the Democrats are so far to the left that they are unelectable IMO.

Judy just became a great-grandmother for the first time a couple of weeks ago and she is scheduled to repeat that experience again next month, one of each; a boy and a girl. The month after (December) I am to have my fourth great-grandchild but I seldom see them because they live several hundreds of miles away in a different part of the country.

Now that my days are growing shorter I realize how fragile life is and how much of my prime years were wasted sitting in bars and pubs in various degrees of inebriation and how many people I've hurt over the years. These were and are good people who loved me. It makes me very sad.

But I am thankful for the two ten-year long periods of sobriety I was able to carve out in different stages of this thing called life.

I still struggle with the subject of spirituality and still read and talk about it sometimes but the truth is that I don't have a clue what it means or how to attain an understanding of it. I try to keep an open mind and be vigilant should I be struck by a bolt from the blue with would give me clarity. 

I will pass my tenth anniversary of my current period of sobriety next month and rarely think of it nowadays. I can't imagine ever having another drink in my life. I'm just not interested even though micro-breweries are popping up all over our country the last few years.

I'm going to close for now but wanted to say hello and let you know you're all in my thoughts often and I'm grateful for this forum being a huge part of my sobriety. I hope you're all safe and healthy doing well.

Thanks for your reply, Brian. Aside from the PSC and Bacteremia episodes I am doing well. But every time  I’m hospitalized with sepsis it sets me back several weeks with extreme fatigue, and lack of strength and endurance. 

i still have my show cars which are always an outlet for creativity and energy and of course money. They will be put away shortly for the winter but I can plan for changes and additions next spring. 
 

I’m glad you enjoyed Hamilton. I haven’t seen it yet but many of my friends have and enjoyed it.

Are you still welding? And enjoying it. 

I go to my family business about 20 hours a week when able to which gives me structure and purpose and gives me a chance to interact with my two surviving kids on a regular basis. That’s a true blessing for me.

Once again thanks for the post. When these medical issues start piling up I do have a tendency to feel sorry for myself. 

Hi Rex

I've had the usual ongoing computer problems but have been able to follow you on FB, hoping for the best with that battle with sepsis. I love pics of your  glossy show cars!

Here we're having a good summer so far, watching the Australian bush fires in horror because  we usually have our fires at the same time and  it is very early in the season for NSW or Queensland to be facing such devastation. Work is slow but steady enough and I am busy working in the garden most days, sorry not to have a chance to travel down to the coast this year (too expensive to take a holiday). My small dogs are well and  all is reasonably peaceful in the countryside for now. Reading, listening to music and cooking in a wood-burning hearth!

All love to you and Judy

xMary

Hi Mary,

It's always great to hear from you whenever possible. Yes the cars are put away for the winter which has come early and viciously to the midwestern United States. We have snow on the ground and have had 2-3 snowfalls already and record low temps for the date recently.

In the last 6 weeks Judy has become a great-grandmother on two separate occasions so she is quite thrilled about that. All was well with mothers and babies in both instances. And I will become a great grandfather for the fourth time next month. All of mine live several hundred miles away so I seldom see them except on FB.

Glad the dogs are good. Our housemates (three cats) are all well too.

Love to you on the other side of world.