OUT OF THE FIRE

This has been an interesting week. My second daughter had surgery over the weekend that took over 8 hours to complete so she was pretty sick and sore. My oldest son and his wife got full custody of their kids back from DCFS through the courts. My spouse went North to help my daughter, I went south to represent our family in court. Both efforts were successful depending on how you spell success.

On Tuesday I went to the Doctor to see if things are getting any better with my Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) that has been diagnosed (and I believe the diagnosis is incorrect). I don't know if this was successful or not but the Doctor told me he couldn't believe how clear my lungs sounded and wanted to know if there was anything else that I needed checked. I talked to him about the phone calls I get from the insurance company every month and the questions they keep on asking. He ordered a breathing test at the hospital, to answer the questions asked by the insurance c ompany, from which he will determine how bad my breathing really is (I keep telling him it is only in the bronchial tubes and not in the lungs at all). At the hospital I told the technician what was ordered and why. I also told him I thought the diasgnosis was incorrect. He ran the tests and the results haven't been delivered to the doctor yet but several things I could read from the test were: I have over 500 percent additional breathing capacity than I use when breathing normally; I can expel 25 percent more air from my lungs than I expel when breathing normally - good or bad (?) I don't know but it looks pretty good to me; my oxygen saturation level is at 103% - which I do know is very high and very good - I have never seen anyone else tested that came in at over 98% - and I see a lot of these tests in fire camp; they gave me a breathing treatment with albuterol and then retested all the parameters - every single test came back worse after the treatment and they should have improved significantly with the medication if I have COPD; as I was leaving the Technician muttered "you in fact may be right." I stopped to get the results today but they haven't yet been delivered. I keep telling the Doctor that the only place I have trouble is from my vocal cords to the root of my tongue - I think he believes me now.

He gave me a pretty thorough physical and ordered blood work for prostrate cancer screening and other things like glucose levels and cholesterol. The cancer test was negative. The glucose level in my blood was elevated so I have to have that checked again in six months. My blood pressure was good (120/78) so he said I could take the baby aspirin a day to satisfy the people in my insurance company that keep asking me about that if I wanted to but that I didn't really need to. My colesterol levels are elevated. I can't give you the numbers because they didn't show on the test result sheets I got back but he recommended medication so I will take it for a while - unless it makes me light headed like it has several of my co-workers - then I will flush it and never take it again.

How does all of this add up to out of the fire?

When the judge made the decision to give full custody back to my oldest son and his wife I decided that I have had enough work in my life and am going to get out and enjoy the rest of it - if that is possible - I cannot see things ever getting any better than they are right now. Nothing, not the work situation nor my health so January 2, 2010 is the end of my career. THE END of a very long career. Thirty nine years of which I probably really enjoyed somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty seven and a half years (and maybe a little more than that). I have dearly loved my job and don't appologize for what I have done but I have, in fact, had enough.

ENOUGH.