The Meat & Potatoes of Life

During the summer months, I envision myself wearing a floral sundress and straw hat, my skin and hair kissed with the tawny tones of the sun, strolling lazily along a sandy shoreline, selecting ripened tomatoes and zucchini at a local farmer’s market, and sipping wine in an Adirondack chair at an evening concert under the stars … But inevitably, these dreamy visions are thwarted by one minuscule…

I grabbed the bundle of letters in my mailbox and walked directly to the recycling can, expecting all junk. “So wasteful,” I muttered judgmentally, tossing them one by one into the blue bin.  “You’ve been approved!” a credit card offer read. “Free gift inside!” two charity solicitations promised, one containing return address labels with my last name spelled wrong, and the other with a small…

“What can I do for you today?” my new Primary Care Provider said, after tap-tap-tapping on and opening the door of the examining room at the Naval Health Clinic. This was my fourth — or was it the fifth? — new PCM in the last two years. I’d lost count.  I told this civilian Doc that I’d made the appointment because my prescriptions were expiring, but also, I was worried about my high blood…