It’s been a long week… I don’t know how much detail I’ll feel like going into. Not much in fact now that I think about it. I’ll hit the most important point for now, then get some sleep.
Flagg is fine. For those of you familiar with the crew here you may already know that he spent most of the week in the hospital for various tests, prodding and humiliating insertions. In general this is much more in the way of non-critical intervention. Something had to be done, but it isnt like he was hit by a truck.
In short, Flagg had a combination of illness (flu or some such), infection issues and trouble keeping food down due to those factors as well as stress and insulin issues. However, the situation is well in hand, and I have a lot of faith that moving forward he will be in good shape as long as he keeps on top of his situation… and he is a smart guy so he’ll pull that off.
The most important think in my mind is to avoid “enfeeblement”. This danger, that you may feel and thus act as if you are feeble, is prevailent in many chronic illnesses. The trick is to have an accurate asesment of your health and what you need to do but not give into the concept that you have already lost the battle.
Find out what you can do, find out what your risks are… and find out how you can get as strong as possible to minimize the negative effects of your condition. That works for just about everything. Either one pulls into a “boy in the bubble” mentatlity or one looks at the options to maintain control of their lives.
Fortunately, Flagg isn’t the kind of person to just sort of lay down and go “well, life will pretty much suck from here on in!”. He’s already handled pressures and situations since I have known him that would crush lesser men – and he comes out of it better off each and every time.
Now, am I advocating he go out and do sugar cube shooters, ignoring the diabetic issue? Fuck no. However as scary as the hospital stay was (for all of us) it is important to note what DIDN’T happen. No dialysis for instance. No total panic on the part of the medical staff. Not even much head shaking. Basically it looks like Flagg is actually fairly well off for his age among the pancreatically challenged. Considering his past abuses of himself (in every sense of the term) that is astonishing and speaks of a strong constitution.
So, intelligent, deliberate management of his health is in order… while avoiding the urge to lay down and treat himself, or allow the rest of us to treat him as if he is a 80+ year old guy on the edge of being put in a home. The latter part may be the hardest. We all really care about the big sadistic bastard – and the temptation is to go “ok, we’ll get you a wheelchair and you can just wait here for systemic collapse while we overprotect you like some sort of crippled veal”.
We’ll just have to avoid that – and I am sure he will slap us if we get out of line. He is a smart guy and ultimately he is the one who actually knows whats happening in it’s entirety. Our job, all of us who care about him, is to help him with whatever management plan he comes up with – not to try and manage his health for him.
So there you go, the rant / recap ๐