New Job - New illnesses

 I recently started a new job at the beginning of September and my body and mind have been through the ringer since I started. The job itself is good, fairly low stress and a good team of people... But for some reason every time i start a new job i end up catching the office cold. During the first week on the job my Gallbladder (which has been giving me issues since last year) decided to start acting up. While it could be a lot worse, i am just grateful that that is calming down. This past weekend however, when UBER driving on Sunday, I started to feel a sharp pain in my back which can be linked to one of four things - Stress, Muscle spasm, Gallbladder Disease, or a Heart Attack. My initial thoughts were that the issue was a heart attack after sitting for an extended period of time, but that turned out to not be the case. The pain went away on Tuesday and started to get better and now i only feel slight pain if i twist the wrong way... so im chalking that up to a muscle spasm. Tuesday however i also started coming down with the office cold that had been going around and today i am full blown sick. I've been hacking up a lung for the last day and a half and its a bummer. Today I ended up going home sick to get medicine and get some rest. 

 I like the new job, which is why I'm concerned. Leaving early 3 days in 3 weeks isnt the greatest. Especially because it's my first three weeks on the job. I am hoping that by the end of the week i am in better shape and able to move forward for the next few months without a problem. Overall i like the job though. My title is Support Engineer which a bit of a step down from my last job (Senior Help Desk Supervisor), but sometime you have to take a step back in order to move forward. Personally i like Help desk work better than managing so its worth the change. Plus, they are already putting me on special projects which should be fun in the long term. 

 Things with Katie and I are going well. She was staying with a friend because there was a need to be with her friend so I had the house and the cats to myself over the last week or so... But she's home now and that makes me happy. It's surprising how a bit of time away can spark a flame that burns bright. The first time she went away (earlier in the summer), i ended up cracking on my NO Cigarettes. I had made it 99 days and due to what her friend was going through, i ended up caving and buying a pack. It's been about 2 months of on again off again cigarette smoking and now that her friend has recovered, i am actively trying to quit again. 100 days of smoking is $1,519. That's basically a rent and cell phone payment so its time to quit. My therapist offered me that advice.... while $15.19 might not seem like a lot on a daily basis, Think about it in terms of 100 packs is actual money. It's sound advice for anyone looking to quit smoking cigarettes. And the Nicotine patches only last 56 days when doing the full program... which is roughly $120 dollars if you get the Equate Brand patches at Walmart.  

 

I do resolve to write more. Lately I've been finding that FOMO is keeping me from doing things i would normally do. While there's plenty of reasons to stay home, the tug and pull of seeing the drama that plays out in the bars in Providence pulls me in more often than not... leading me to understanding the lives of dangerous individuals but not really contributing to my overall mental health. I might write a book on it one day..... one day in the distant future when I'm long retired with nothing better to do. Until then, i am going to focus on my goals of getting healthy and staying healthy.

 

Have a good day

T.A. Michaels