Christmas Letter 2023
I was looking over my old columns for the Dziennik Zwiazkowy and realized I haven't written a Christmas column.
For a couple hours, I sat banging my head against my computer trying to come up with an idea and nothing came to mind.
And then it did.
I remembered the advice I always gave my students in the writing courses I taught for 35 years: WRITE ABOUT WHAT YOU HATE AND WHAT YOU LOVE!
So that’s what I’m going to write.
Dear Friends,
This Christmas I want to tell you about the things I hated and the things I loved this year.
First, let me get the things I hated out of the way.
I hated the medical problems I ran into. I have a rheumatoid condition called undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy. It consists of a series of problems. I get back pain that radiates up from my buttocks. I get a general painful stiffness all over my body that develops during sleep and gradually simmers down during the day. I get swelling in my legs, feet, and hands. I get joint inflammation throughout my body, and this inflammation often affects my eyes.
And those symptoms are just the ones I want to tell you about! You wouldn’t want to hear about the ones involving my bowels and intestines!
I saw a rheumatologist for 3 years to solve these problems. There wasn’t one in Lynchburg where I live, so I had to drive 75 miles to Charlottesville to see one there.
He tried out all of the medications available to solve the problems I was showing. He put me on a variety of medicines that I had to inject with a syringe into my stomach once a month. These meds cost about $1500 an injection, but that’s no big deal for me. I’ve got medicare advantage.
At the end of my visit this February, he said none of the medicines I was taking had had any effect on my condition and that it would just continue to worsen and that I was wasting my time seeing him.
He suggested I see a neurologist. He wouldn’t be able to fix all my health problems, but he might be able to help with the nerve problems in my feet that were making it increasingly difficult to walk because my feet don’t seem to be aware of what it means to walk. My rheumatologist then shook my hand and said goodbye.
So I sought out a neurologist. There wasn’t a good one in Lynchburg, but I found one 110 miles away in North Carolina.
He ran a lot of nerve and blood tests and told me that I have peripheral polyneuropathy. That means that the nerves in my feet and hands are dying and that there is nothing that can be done about it. He told me this and then shook my hand and said goodbye.
That’s most of the bad stuff that I hate that happened this year. So, let me now tell you about the good stuff, the stuff I love, that happened this year.
We moved into a spectacular new house on the edge of a forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We’ve got an enormous glassed-in back porch that’s like heaven to sit in. Everyday I see deer playing in our backyard and munching on our grass.
But that’s not all. If you’ve been reading my columns, you know that my wife Linda and I are cruise addicts. This year we’ve gone on six great cruises. The best one was the 12 day cruise we took around the Italian peninsula, visiting Venice, Ravenna, Sorrento, Naples, and Rome.
We saw 1000 year old cathedrals with gorgeous mosaics, statues by Italian masters, marble fountains surrounded with great restaurants that served the greatest Pizza in the world, better than any pizza I ever ate in Chicago or New York or Brooklyn!
And finally, what I love more than cruising and statues and pizza was with me constantly during my bad experiences with my doctors. My family was always with me, my wife Linda and our daughter Lillian and our granddaughter Lucy.
They made the pain from undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy and peripheral polyneuropathy just a blip on the screen of my life this year.
So wishing you all a most Merry Christmas full of family and love.
John Guzlowski
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My latest column for the Dziennik Zwiazkowy, the Polish Daily News of Chicago.
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