The Brochure on Gratitude As A Daily Decision

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What do you hold onto when the week unravels—when a hospital discharge turns into a maze of home care, a storm flattens your Halloween decorations, and the cat needs an ER visit at 1 a.m.? I walk through a stretch of days where everything asked for attention at once and explain how I kept moving by choosing a glass half-full approach.  

We start with my husband’s recovery plan: two bulging discs, a broken rib, and a team effort that includes a visiting nurse, physical therapy, a wound specialist, and a weekly aide. A standout moment arrives when our PT coaxes a first walk—20 or so steady steps that feel like a miracle. From there, the scene shifts to the front yard, where rain and wind test my Halloween display. An eight-foot headless horseman topples. Inflatables deflate. Lights go dark. I share the hacks that brought it back to life—tarps, patience, and an unglamorous amount of duct tape.

Mid-chaos, my own chest cold demands a slowdown, and then our diabetic cat crashes—vomiting, lethargic, glucose running high—pushing us into the overnight vet grind. IV fluids, anti-nausea meds, a dawn drive home, and a long nap later, he’s eating again and the house relaxes. These aren’t tidy plot lines; they’re the lived lessons of caregiving, pet health, and home logistics. Through it all, I keep returning to gratitude as a daily decision: a way to find small wins, protect energy, and set priorities that actually fit inside a human day. Recent losses in our circle underline the point—time is not guaranteed, and attention is our most powerful tool.

If this resonates—if you’ve juggled caregiving, recovery, or just a week that wouldn’t quit—tune in, ride along, and borrow what helps. Follow the show, leave a review so others can find it, and share this episode with someone who could use a reminder that small wins count.

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Episode Transcript

Tracy (00:00):
Welcome to the Only Child Diaries Podcast.
I'm your host, Tracy Wallace.
Have you ever felt like youdidn't receive the how-to
brochure on life?
That you didn't get enoughguidance about major life
issues?
So did I.
You don't have to be an onlychild to feel this way.

(00:21):
In my podcast, we'll exploresome of the best ways to better
navigate adulthood.
Doing so.
Welcome everyone to the OnlyChild Diaries Podcast.
Today I'm gonna tell you aboutmy philosophy on the glasses

(00:49):
half full.
That's right, I'm a glasseshalf full kind of person, kind
of gal.
But sometimes it does get to bechallenging.
Now, this has been a week whereit's been challenging.
If you're a regular listenerand you listened to last week's

(01:11):
episode, you know that myhusband was in the hospital and
he came home and he's home andhe's he's recuperating.
I guess that's the word that Iwould use.
Um he's got kind of a longerroad ahead of him.
He has two bulging discs in hisback and a broken rib.

(01:32):
And we have the visiting nursecoming and also a physical
therapist coming to the houseduring the week.
We're also going to have anursing assistant come once a
week uh to help clean him up.
And I mean, that's not that'ssomething that I could do for

(01:55):
sure.
But since it is available as aservice that the home health
agency provides, I say why not?
Because it's one thing that Idon't have to do.
And I'm grateful for the help.
And then we're also gonna havea wound care person coming at
some point.
I'm not sure when that's gonnabe, but um, because he does have

(02:18):
a wound, and although it'slooking better, uh, we you know
it doesn't hurt to have thatextra help.
So there's that.
We also had some well, I can'tsay severe, not severe, but for
us we had uh pretty goodrainstorm this week, and there

(02:42):
was some wind with it.
And now uh I shared the uh ashort video on social media with
my Halloween decorations, ourHalloween decorations.
My husband did help me in thebeginning of the process before
he got injured, and so our frontyard, we love to decorate for

(03:05):
Halloween.
I love to decorate forHalloween, and I just it's so
much fun, and we get to interactwith the neighbors and the kids
love it when they cometrick-or-treating.
And so the rain is when youhave inflatables and you have
like decorations and lights andanimatronic figures.

(03:27):
Rain, especially, is bad, it'sjust it's stressful because you
buy these things and you try toprotect them as best you can, at
least I do.
But nature has its own ideas,and so we have the eight and a
half foot headless horsemanfigure out there, and I had gone

(03:51):
out with a plastic tarp and Icovered him with that because he
has some very sensitiveinternal electrical parts and
with the ribcage, and I meanthey're not they're not encased,
they're exposed.
So I covered him the best Icould with the tarp, but then it

(04:11):
got very windy, and I had to goback and keep adjusting the
tarp.
And then it rained, and Ithought, okay, well, at least
he's he should be okay.
And the inflatables, it was sowindy that I had to deflate the
inflatables.
Uh, and one of them, the olddinosaur, the oldest thing that

(04:34):
we've had for four years, I camehome and he was already
flailing.
I had gone out to do someerrands or something, go to the
market, and he was alreadyflailing around.
And so there was that um issue.
Uh so I deflated theinflatables so they wouldn't get

(04:55):
hurt anymore.
Then everything got soaked.
It was it was terrible.
So yeah, the rain reallydrenched the yard, and it it
ended up soaking everything.
The lights didn't come on.

(05:16):
I mean, the lights are outdoorlights, but if the circuits get
wet, if the plugs get wet, theyhave to dry out first.
And so it was pretty dark outthere.
Uh the first the first drynight, everything had to dry in
the sun.
And but the the night, themorning after this storm, I woke

(05:38):
up and I looked outside and Iwas horrified, absolutely
horrified to look out and seethat the horseman, this eight
and a half foot statue basicallythat has a base, had actually
turned on its side.
It had it had been knocked overby the wind, I guess.
I didn't think it was thatwindy.

(06:00):
So and it was all wet, and soeverything wasn't covered by the
tarp anymore.
So, anyway, mostly things areback up.
It it took a lot of work.
The big dinosaur had a big holein him, so I temporarily fixed
it with duct tape, and I'm gonnahave to go back and maybe fix

(06:24):
it with a um inflatable repairkit, because they do have those,
but I just for now I just he'shis hole is off to the side
where no one can see it.
So I covered it with duct tape.
It's gonna be a sticky mess.
Anyway, and as if that's notenough.
So imagine I'm here taking careof my husband who is in bed.

(06:46):
The the physical therapist thatcame, the PT guy that came, is
absolutely wonderful.
I mean, you can almost see ahalo and angel wings on him
because he's so good, he's sosmart, and he's so kind, and
we're very lucky to have him.
Anyway, second day that hecame, he actually got my husband

(07:10):
up out of bed and walking, andso grateful that Bill didn't
have any pain, and I'm not sureexactly why that is, but not
complaining, but I'm not trainedor strong enough to get him up
by myself, so he remains in bedum for now, and he's got

(07:36):
exercises to do so that he canmaintain some strength, and um,
you know, it's gonna be a littleslower going.
Oh, and here's the other thing.
Here's the other part.
I got sick.
I'm not sure why did I talkabout that last week, but I did

(07:56):
get sick.
Uh, I think I did, because Idon't know if I picked it up in
the hospital or what happened,or if it was just because I was
exhausted from going to thehospital every day, but I did
end up with a scratchy throatand nasal congestion.
And then it for me, it alwaysgoes down into my chest, my

(08:18):
bronchial.
I have like bronchitis orsomething.
So I just tried to will it tonot get too bad.
And I started taking coughmedicine at night so I could
sleep.
And for the most part, I thinkI'm pretty good.
I think I've mostly recovered.

(08:39):
I still have I'll get like awild ass tickle in my throat and
I'll have to cough, but for themost part, I'm much better,
even though I do sound kind ofcongested right now.
So the other night, Fridaynight, um we're getting ready
for bed, and I was trying to geteverything in order, and

(09:00):
there's a lot to, you know,there's a big punch list of
things to get in order to geteverybody situated for bed,
right?
And uh Bubby, our cat, threwup.
And that's not an uncommonoccurrence, he does throw up
occasionally, but something wasclearly wrong.

(09:24):
Um he looked miserable, hewasn't feeling good, he wasn't
interested in eating, whichyou'll say, well, okay, he threw
up.
But usually when when Bubsthrows up, he is interested in
eating again because eating isone of his main hobbies.
And so he looked, he justlooked miserable.

(09:49):
And about this time, it's timefor his insulin shot.
And I knew that he had beensleeping, he had been napping,
and he hadn't eaten, and hehadn't used his litter box, and
I started to get worried that hewas dehydrated.
He, since he wasn't eating, Icould I I didn't feel good about

(10:10):
giving him this big insulinshot because that could send him
into a low blood sugar, andthat would be upsetting.
And oh, I'm gonna go to sleep,not gonna go to sleep.
So I packed him up in hiscarrier, which is usually a very
difficult thing.
Usually I need Bill to help meget him in the carrier, and

(10:32):
basically he went right in.
Uh, we got to the emergency vethospital, and usually when he
goes there, he will meowconstantly in the waiting room.
Um, he meowed a couple timesand then he was just quiet.
So I was very concerned.

(10:52):
I will say that we got there at1 a.m.
And they had some criticalcases.
I mean, Bubby wasn't critical,he wasn't injured, and he was
alert, so we were kind of moveddown the chain, but they did
some diagnostics on him andeverything checked out, but his

(11:15):
glucose was high.
So I I don't know.
I mean, my bubs is a is astrong cat.
He's a he's got a bigpersonality, but you know, he
has got he's got diabetes, he'sgot asthma, he'd been having a

(11:35):
lot of asthma episodes recently.
He also has um a very sensitivestomach, like his dad, and so I
don't know what it was, but heuh he uh got some IV fluids and
he got a shot for nausea, and uhwe came home and it was we left

(12:02):
at 5 30 in the morning, and youknow, I used to stay up late,
that wasn't a problem.
I mean late, late, but um I'vebeen so tired lately and I've
been so overwhelmed with lifethat staying anywhere till 5 30
in the morning was was a lot toask.
So by the time I got him homeand settled and I had to do

(12:29):
things for Bill because I justrushed right out of the house, I
got to sleep around 6.30 in themorning, and then I woke up and
I I woke up at 10.30, I think,and I wanted to check on him,
and he was eating, so he wasgood.
I went back to sleep till12:30.
So needless to say, that nextday was I was pretty out of it.

(12:52):
Uh and I'm I'm not as young asI used to be.
I hate to say it that way, butit's true.
But, you know, all thingsconsidered, I just try to focus
on the positives that myHalloween decorations are up.
I try not to think about thefact that I'm gonna have to take
them down soon and pack themback in the garage.

(13:14):
It's gonna be a lot of work forone person.
Uh and uh, you know, I'mfeeling mostly good, and the
weather is mostly good, and mycat is I love my cat so much.
I love my dog too, but I lovemy cat.
And my husband is slowly on theroad to recovery.
So uh I am still very gratefulfor every day.

(13:39):
I I still believe that everyday is a gift.
I know that it would be easy tobe depressed about everything
that happens to me.
Uh, but I also know that well,I'll I'll just say it that

(13:59):
there's several people that Iknow of that have been maybe
they're not close personalfriends, but they're people that
uh I've known, maybe they're umrelatives of people that I've
known pretty well, or peoplethat I worked with that I

(14:21):
haven't seen in a while, or ummaybe there maybe is that one
degree of separation or a halfdegree of separation?
People that I've known, peoplethat I've talked to, or maybe
it's been a while since I'vetalked to them.
Three people in the last whatis it, three months, two months,
that have died in their sleep.

(14:43):
The youngest one was 54, whichis pretty young, uh, younger
than me.
Uh I'm very grateful, eventhough Bill is is really having
a tough time of it.
I'm really grateful when I lookat somebody like Ace Freley
from the band KISS, who died, hefell in the I guess in a

(15:06):
recording studio.
He fell, hit his head, ended upwith a brain bleed, and they
took him off life support.
And all because of a fall.
So uh I still choose, I stillmake an active choice almost
every day to look on the brightside and to look at the glass,

(15:28):
have full side, and to begrateful for what I have because
I know that it could always beso much worse.
Always.
I will leave you with that.
Next week, we'll tackle anothertopic together.
I hope you'll join me.

(15:49):
If you like this episode,please follow the Only Child
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And consider rating Only ChildDiaries and writing a review.
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Please share it with a friendyou think might like it as well.

(16:10):
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Child Diaries Podcast.
Thanks for listening.
I'm Tracy Wallis, and these arethe Only Child Diaries.