The "After Event" (or, I Should Have Known It Was coming)

It happened again this year, as it usually does after a really big, highly anticipated event.  Christmas was over and after saying an early Sunday morning goodbye to my youngest daugher and her family, Tom and I went back to bed and slept for hours.  I started the first of several loads of laundry and dishes (trying to be realistic about what leftovers we could actually consume in just a couple of days), and Tom went to work.  Monday was more of the same -- getting the house ready for Tom's daughter and family, who couldn't be with us on Christmas, to come on Tuesday evening.

It started Monday night.  It didn't help that I had consumed a lot of leftover sweet-and-sour meatballs and seven-layer dip instead of a reasonable person's after-Christmas meal plan.  I was sick, sick -- oh, so sick!  That's all that I will say (and maybe that's too much) but I was really, really sick.

I managed (with my sweet husband's help) to get back to bed and to sleep.  Thinking that I was just paying for my eating choices, I thought that I would get up Tuesday and continue getting ready for our company.  I tried -- I really did -- but I finally threw in the towel at about 3:00, explaining that I couldn't do it.  I encouraged Tom to continue with our plans without me.  I went to bed and threatened Tom with bodily injury if he invited anybody into our bedroom to "just say hello" or for any other reason.  (He actually introduced this possibility to me.  He backed down when I said, "Look at me!  Do you think I want anybody to see me like this???")

I'm up and about today (Wednesday) and feeling much better, but I have a rash all over my neck, arms, chest and back.  This tells me that it wasn't the food -- it is the "after-event" of something big in my life.  It happened last year in January -- a week or so after I retired.  All the rushing to get things in order at work, the receptions and farewell gatherings, plus Thanksgiving and Christmas -- all good things that I participated in with great enjoyment -- were also stressful.  So I paid later -- and got sick.  It's a pattern and you would think I would try to change it.  I had even commented to my daughter that I would probably get sick after Christmas.

The challenge is how I should change it.  I believe that (at 64), I need to build up my reserves.  Not to change Christmas, or Thanksgiving, or any of the events or holidays that we enjoy.  Instead, I should pay more attention to those days when an event isn't on the horizon.  Taking better care of myself everyday will help build my resistance to whatever is lurking in the background, waiting until I have exhausted myself with a really good time.

I'm starting that today -- now.  I'm going to take a nap.

Annie