SUNDAY 16TH APRIL 2023
A pretty non-descript week followed by a family gathering at my mum’s on Saturday as a type of memorial for dad that is set to become an annual affair. She did offer me a glass of Pimms twice – clearly my alcohol-free state isn’t foremost in everyone’s mind!
MY WHY
I am very grateful to be able to say that I’ve never really suffered from ill health. In fact, my good health has been quite literally rude in that it has often made me less sympathetic than I could have been about the ill health of others, which is something I’m working on. Anyway, whereas I might once have considered myself to be the opposite of a hypochondriac, I am well aware that I am of an age where basically anything can happen. I used to hear about “old people” dying, then people my mum & dad’s age, but it has now slipped into my generation. Whereas physical health was not one of my main motivating factors in taking a break from alcohol in the first place, I’d say it will be a major deterrent to going back to drinking the way I used to. You can’t unlearn stuff. The links between alcohol and liver disease have been well documented but I learned a new fact on a podcast just this week – a woman’s liver capacity reduces by up to 40% once she gets into the perimenopause. Shit! No wonder the hangovers get worse as we get older. Alcohol consumption increases a person’s risk of developing heart disease and having a heart attack. Earlier this year I found out that the partner of one of my cousins had died of a heart attack. She was younger than me. She was also a heavy drinker. There are also clear links between alcohol consumption and the risk of having a stroke. About 18 months ago, a good friend of mine had a massive stroke and was given just a 50% chance of survival. Thankfully, he pulled through and has made a near-full recovery, but what a wake-up call. And now for the one that really scared the shit out of me – it came to my attention last year that the mother of a child in my son’s year at school was also recovering from a stroke. Now I reckon she must be 5 – 10 years younger than me, she’s slim, a non-smoker, and I’d be very surprised if she were a heavy drinker. Of course, I know that the grim reaper is indiscriminate and people die of all sorts of things all the time, whether or not they drink, but the thought of leaving my children motherless due to dying of a condition that could be attributed to excessive alcohol consumption is just too much to bear.
Theme Tune: Staying’ Alive by Bee Gees