I was hopeful that this would be the summer that I could escape without contracting poison ivy. Foolish, foolish, me. Those little, waxy, greenish-red plants are strangely attracted to me- joy. I, however, am far from culpable in this case. Did the yard really need just a little more mulch? No, not really. Despite protests from Scott and the kids, I headed off to Home Depot to buy another 10 bags. In hindsight, I should have recognized it was a bad sign when they had to dig around to find enough mulch to sell to me.
In classic poison ivy presentation, the telltale red streaks appeared two to three days later, accompanied, of course, by virulent itching. As you may have gathered, I’m no novice at this and I immediately headed off to the doctor to get oral steroids. Seven days later, I was still scratching uncontrollably and often inappropriately (!!!) with no signs of abatement. Desperate times call for action and so, I returned to the doctor, this time to get a shot of the good stuff.
Wow. The juice is powerful. I can see how professional athletes get hooked. As many of you know, I am already just a little high energy- so adding a pharmaceutical punch has been, well, interesting. I am doing everything faster. My knees hurt because I have picked up the pace on my evening runs. I am typing, talking and making decisions faster than ever. Like Lightning McQueen (got toddlers, anyone?), I feel like I AM speed these days.
I was brought down from my euphoria when my tween-age daughter profoundly said, “Mom, why the hurry?” This made me think, because it’s not just the ‘roids at play here. Throughout the day, I literally run from thing to thing. I’ve tried to implement dozens of organizational systems, quick fixes and processes that will allow me to cram as much as possible into every 24 hours. Some days it gives me a high, but on other days I just collapse- mentally, emotionally and physically.
So I’m actually looking forward for the juice to work its way out of my body and I’m conscientiously going to TRY to slow down a bit. I’ll keep you updated!
