For those of you who don’t know, I suffer from a potentially life-threatening disease called EDDES. There is no known cure for EDDES as it appears to be hereditary. My father and grandfather suffer from EDDES and my sister may also have a mild case. Although painful at times, I think EDDES is most difficult for those who must live with the person suffering from this disease. My only hope is that some famous celebrity will be diagnosed with EDDES and it will then receive the attention it deserves.

I don’t know the scientific name for my condition but I have termed it Early Death Due to Extreme Stupidity. And yesterday, I suffered a major attack.

I’m suppose to be on vacation. You know, taking time off, enjoying the good life, kicking back and drinking beer. Unfortunately, due to EDDES, I decided to set myself on a break neck course for an early death. I was working on several projects for 10 hour days. After a cup of coffee and a mile walk, I’d throw myself into my project and wouldn’t look up until 5pm. Skipping lunch and always pushing myself are classic symptoms of EDDES. My poor body couldn’t take it and just gave up. My back, well, just crumbled under the stress.

Poor Kevin, he actually took me by the shoulders and began shaking me saying, “Now I know how your mother feels. You must take care of yourself. I don’t want you to die before me. You must take care of yourself!”

This last plea must have reached me because I dropped the paintbrush from my twisted hand and proceeded to collapse.

There is some crazy Terry curse I have inherited. We don’t know how to pace ourselves and slow down. Once we start something, we get this maniacal focus and go go go go go until it is done. So my dream to re-do a room in 5 days was, well, a tad ambitious. I mean, if all I wanted to do was vacuum and tidy up, no problem. But then EDDES kicked in and I attempted a major month long renovation by myself in under a week.

I know that EDDES is hereditary because my dad has it. He tried, at age 50 something, to re-roof his house BY HIMSELF. My grandpa Terry, at age 80 something tried to climb up a ladder and prune his tree BY HIMSELF. Both gentlemen fell. My father, luckily, had tied himself to the roof so instead of hitting the ground, he hit the end of his rope and swung back and forth in front of the bedroom window. My grandfather wasn’t so lucky and broke his hip on his fall. However, both of the gentlemen, clearly suffering from EDDES, came within inches of doing serious harm to themselves causing their wives and families significant stress and muttering.

And now, at the tender age or 20 something, I find that I too appear to carry this horrible disease. Yesterday, while trying to replant my entire yard by myself, I appear to have injured my back. So today, I rolled out of bed and, feeling better, I laced on my shoes and took the dog for our normal mile stroll. My back pain, much to my surprise, resurfaced. I was, honestly, planning on going inside to lie down but on the way in, I spotted my plants. They were scattered all about from where I left them yesterday. Some in pots, some not. Open bags of dirt and gloves and shovels all over. Before I know it, the EDDES had kicked in and I found myself squatting over the dirt, digging away. Kevin says if I end up in a wheelchair due to permanent back injury he won’t take care of me for the first month since I’m not listening to him. I don’t think he realizes that I’m in the grasp of a horrible disease and cannot be expected to control myself. I did, however, lie down for the rest of the afternoon and watch back to back episodes of Emergency Vets. Although I have not found any more dead birds in the house, you can never be too careful.