The past two days have been very stressful. On Thursday we took my Dad to the doctor. The doctor was thorough and thoughtful. His assistants were kind and patient. However the whole experience reminded me how cumbersome and bureaucratic health care has become. If anything could make me more committed to preventive health care and the Blood Type Lifestyle, this would do it.

They had told me that an aide would come to the car with a wheel chair to get my Dad. We called when we arrived in the parking lot, but 15 minutes later no one had come. My husband had to go roust the aide out of a visit with her friends and make her find a wheel chair. The doctor wanted to redo one sonogram test to convince himself that my Dad had not had a stroke. That was probably a good idea, but the sonogram technicians had no idea how to get a man out of a wheelchair and onto the table.

The doctor was willing to authorize a handicapped-parking permit for my Dad. But there were no applications in the office. One person at the county court house told me that I could get a permit if the doctor wrote a prescription. While my husband and Mom waited with Dad while he got blood work, I raced across town with the prescription, only to be told at the courthouse that the doctor had to sign an application. By the time I got back to the office with the application, the doctor was at lunch. By then I needed some lunch too! It was bad BTD planning to leave home for a doctor appointment at 9:30 without snacks!

When we finally got home at 3:00, my Mom and I were exhausted, but strangely enough Dad was energized. After lunch, he decided to see if he could operate the wheelchair by himself, and he could. He spent the rest of the day wheeling up and down the hall getting on the computer in one room and looking things up in files in another. I had an e-mail from him yesterday, so he must have been strong enough to get himself from the bed to the wheelchair. I have much to be thankful for!

I returned home Thursday night with my family to find a whole different set of stresses. It wasn't that there were an overwhelming number of things to be done, but it seemed as if there were problems with everything I tried to do. The lady at the post office didn't like the envelope I wanted to mail, and made me buy one of the post office envelopes. The copier at the bank was broken, so I had to make two trips. After a series of those events, I was ready to explode or cry.

My daughter said something that made me realize my sense of humor was missing. The stress of the past week had depleted my ability to deal with daily difficulties. I recognized that what I needed was protein - not just a normal Type O amount of protein, but a lot of protein. Within a half hour of an hefty serving of meat, my mood was returning to normal. Today I feel much better, and I'm even optimistic about dealing with the lady at the post office after I finish this blog!

I am again thankful for the knowledge of my body that I have through the Blood Type Diet. Without knowing that I needed protein, I could easily have lapsed into anger or depression.