Monthly Archives: May 2023

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BRAINS

On Thursday and Friday I spent six hours daily glued to zoom, for the Inflammatory Brain Disorders Conference. Speakers, both physicians and scientists and physician-scientists, from all over the world, spoke. The research is intensive and ongoing. They spoke about Long Covid, both the immune response and “brain fog”. They spoke about anti-NMDA antibody disorder (the book Brain on Fire) and now there have been over 500 people identified with that disorder and a whole bunch more antibody-to-brain disorders! They talked about PANS and PANDAS and chronic fatigue and Mast Cell Activation Disorder and about the immune system over and over. The new information is amazing and I need to reread all my notes. Psychiatry and Neurology and Immunology are all overlapping in research, along with Rheumatology, since these disorders overlap all four.

It is a medical revolution in the making.

Best news was that 96% of Long Covid patients are better by 2 years from getting sick. That is tremendously reassuring, though the number may change. And the definition of Long Covid is still being sorted out and we do not know if people relapse.

I felt that MY brain was MELTED by the end, but I managed to enjoy the Rhododendron Parade on Saturday and just puttered around the house on Sunday.

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Fine fettle

Our giant salmon is in fine fettle
Stuffed with rhodys and not with nettles!

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Taken at the Rhododendron Parade in Port Townsend, Washington, on Saturday, May 20, 2023.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: nettle. Gosh, telepathy or prescience or something. I took the picture two days before the prompt and those are the only photographs I took of the fabulous parade!

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Naps

Naps are for the very young, then we forget
or scorn naps for years. We think of those who nap
as old when we are 8 or 10 or 20, still wet
behind the ears. Once we climb down from the laps
of those who try to teach us about the whirled
and we’ve mastered running free, we fight the time for bed.
My son would cry right before the pearled
evening would close his eyes, fighting sleep with dread.
He might miss a fun filled happening. We run
fast and learn until we reach an age or illness where we tire
and fall asleep in day on a couch in spite of sun.
Wake climbing out of sleep like from the ocean or swampy mire. Our children now make fun of us, they fill the gaps,
as we have reached the age where we once again need naps.

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I took the photograph from a train in 2017, going from Edmonds, Washington, to Chicago.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: nap.

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Untie

Untie my heart and go find
I am not looking anymore
I am playing for the summer
Back to work in the fall
but my heart is untied
and has escaped control.
It might be wild or quiet
or silly or angry. It might
like this today and that tomorrow.
It might wail with sorrow
and then laugh and laugh.

Heart untied and

Gone.

The white furry object is not a tie. It is a Barbie stole made of rabbit fur and lined with pink fabric. Both cats are enjoying carrying it around the house and shaking it and pretending that it is a live rabbit. That stole has to be nearly 50 years old, so I am letting the cats choose it as a toy. Good that I have great ancient cat toys.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: ties.

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Control

If control is the goal
this is not love.
If I listen to others
yet don’t share myself,
this is not love.
If you hoard information about others,
this is not love.
If I reject people I can’t control,
this is not love.

If you have to be the smartest,
this is not love.
If I have to know the most,
this is not love.
If you keep everything secret,
this is not love.
If I share nothing with others,
this is not love.

Is it fear that keeps me from loving?
Is it anger that keeps you from loving?
Is it hate that keeps me from loving?
What keeps us from loving?