Jim's Place

True friendship

It's a rare friend that will support you when you have a rare disease...

My own private ICU

I know that even some supportive friends get tired of hearing about my daily challenges with chronic illness and over the years I've had some people imply that I'm just focusing on it too much.

Funny, but those same people would be anxious for daily or even hourly updates if I was in the hospital. What they don't realize is that every day on the couch sick is like being in my own private "Intensive Care Unit" - trying to cope with a medical situation that demands ongoing care and treatment just like a serious injury. And the harsh reality is that this "injury" effectively reoccurs every day and it's unlikely that I'll ever get "released" from this "medical facility"...

"Maybe I'll order from Vermont Teddy Bear instead..."

I often have some bizarre dreams, but sometimes they're actually quite humorous. Last night, I dreamed I was part of a team of undercover agents whose mission was to infiltrate a large corporation that was suspected of being a front for terrorist operations. So I managed to get hired and began investigating.

But everyone seemed normal and their business seemed perfectly legit. Their main product was giant teddy bears and like their main competitor - Vermont Teddy Bear - they specialized in sending out teddy bears for Valentine's Day. So I contacted my team leader and insisted there must be bad intel - "Boss, I can't find any sign of terrorist operations. There must be a mistake!" Then he started screaming "The teddy bears! They're putting bombs in the teddy bears! They're timed to explode on Valentine's Day! They'll be shipping them all over the country! You've got to stop them!"

So one of my guys "neutralized" the terrorist who was sneaking bombs into the teddy bears and the rest of my team then gathered up all of the "infected" teddy bears and snuck them out of the plant, telling the security guards that we were taking them to a nursing home as part of a goodwill gesture by the company. Once we were all clear, it dawned on me why the intelligence folks were so suspicious of this particular company. Above the entrance to the main office was a big neon sign - "Achmed Teddy Bear Company". ;)