Call me Noah (A tale of chemobrain and stress)

[rhondalea]

I reported in another thread that the many supplements I take have gone a long way to healing my cognitive dysfunction. Today, however, I discovered that I have a stress threshhold, and if I exceed it, chaos will ensue.

For the last couple of years, I've had custody of my daughter's red-eared slider. Jessie is a big turtle, so she lives in a big tank (in my kitchen). Periodically (every two weeks), I drain and refill the tank with a sink siphon. Sink siphons require running water to work--you fill the siphon with water and then you flip a switch to start the backflow into the drain. If you turn off the running water, the siphoning action stops.

Today, after a week of high stress, I forgot to flip the switch before I left the room. When I finally came back to reality, there was a half inch of water on the kitchen floor. That wouldn't be so bad, but the hall carpet was dark and squishy from the living room to the bathroom. The pièce de résistance was the dripping lightbulbs in the basement reflecting off the stream running toward the sump pump.

Oh, it was glorious. And y'know, I looked at it and thought, "There's no way I can mop up all this water--I'll just have to wait for it to dry."

Can you imagine? Seriously? "Wait for it to dry"?

I was so boggled by it all that I zoned out to the fantasy of telling my husband he'd just have to wade to the refrigerator until the flood waters receded. (Serves him right for laughing at me half a year ago when I contemplated the purchase of a wet vac.)

Anyway, I have mopped it up, although there were several associated messes early in the process because I could neither think nor focus on account of the added stress imposed by the flood. Ultimately, the clean-up--a slow and methodical process--was relaxing, so I'm pretty okay right about now.

I just hope I don't do it again.

[Jackie07]

Seems I've heard a saying: "Whenever it rains, it pours!"

Watch out for the molds to grow out of the wet carpet! It happened to our bed room in 2007 - right after the diagnosis of my recurrence! One early morning we woke up to water dripping down from the light on the ceiling directly above our bed! Turned out there's a leak on our roof from a previous hail storm... We contacted our insurance agent who sent adjustors to check it out. I called around and located a contractor, ... etc. The Insurance company would only pay for half of the roof! Hubby was furious and went to the agent's office... (We'be been their customer for almost 20 years and bought more than one product from them...) They sent another adjustor and eventually agreed that we're due for a 'complete' new roof...

Before the roof was repaired about 10 days after the rain leak, we noticed black molds sprouting along the wall... I was due to start my chemo within a few weeks, and my 2nd Sister had just arrived from overseas ready to take care of me... That was the most stressful summer in our life!

[NanaJoni]

And it would be easy if we could just identify stress before it happens but seems like something that once seemed so simple can end up being stressful these days...Jackie has a good point about the mold. We have several carpet cleaning companies who do water removal and drying that will prevent the mold but you have to get them in pretty quickly after the flood. If there is serious damage to the floor or wall or basement ceiling, then homeowners insurance covers damage. We had a toilet overflow once and it ruined all the carpet in our hall and living room/dining room. Our homeowners covered cleaning and replacment (of course with a deductible but that was less that us replacing it).

[NEDenise]

Oh man! What a mess!
I have to admit...when I read the title of the thread, I was hoping for an animal story. You know...like you left the door open and now have two of several different annoying animals...raccoons, mice, opossums, wasps...

Maybe Jessie should get a partner in honor of this auspicious day...well, memorable anyway.

I hope everything dries out quickly! Yikes!
Denise