We all have hard moments in life. They are not dramas to me but also opportunities to improve myself.

When I get into trouble, I have a miracle formula. I’m learning (slowly and sometimes violently)  to surround myself with powerful, intelligent women and do what they tell me to do without argument or equivocation.

This has turned my life around and is pointed in the right direction.

I am very fortunate to have a close circle of such women to talk to now as I wrestle with my new health issue of brain bleeding:

Maria, my wife; Emma, my brilliant daughter; Sue Silverstein, my angel friend and saint candidate; and Dr. Nicoletta Daraban, my cardiologist and friend.

To that, I have added a couple of men, religious people, with the proper prayers at the right time. It’s a potent combination.

Each one has reached out to help me and transformed the experience from something dreadful to something I can understand, deal with, and move past. I am blessed to have this assistance; I can’t imagine where I would be without it.

This is the value of life’s interruptions and traumas: I always ask what I can learn from them. And there is always something to learn once I get past self-pity and complaint. My friend Steve McLean, a minister, is a Jesus Guy. I’m a Hope guy.

I’m struggling to deal with a brain injury, the first of my lifetime that I know of, affecting all of my life, work, and body.

This is new to me and, at times, frightening, painful, and confusing. The mystery of my brain injury is why I fell in the first place. The neurologists checking my brain didn’t care why I fell, and the cardiologists couldn’t understand why I fell, fearing complications from my heart disease.

The regular doctors said shit happens; live with it.

This morning, after reading my blog, Dr. Daraban, my cardiologist, called to ask me what happened; she also wanted to make sure the fall wasn’t related to my heart surgery or disease. She is the head of the Saratoga Hospital Cardiology Department and the medical person I trust and appreciate.

She’s probably saved my life a couple of times. She is a brilliant physician, honest and to the point.

She taught me that there are doctors who will talk to and understand me as a human being, most of whom are women.

For months. as many of you know, I’ve had sudden digestive troubles – vomiting., nausea, and fatigue that couldn’t be accounted for. Some of these are debilitating, leaving me sick and in bed for a day or so.

All the regular tests came out negative. Dr. Daraban figured it out a minute this morning once we explained what happened.

A new diabetes medication I’ve been taking (and several others) blocks carbohydrates from entering the body. It also promotes weight loss, which is not why I’m on it. Small amounts of high-carb food don’t always matter.

Still, the average amount people eat can cause nausea, vomiting, and exhaustion even if some pasta, for example, is approved for diabetes and claims to be healthy.

But they may not be healthy for me (especially if they have flour). We’ve been trying unsuccessfully to figure this out for months. I love bodily mysteries; they fascinate me, and I am reminded again that there is always something to learn. Most doctors live in increasingly narrow worlds by necessity; you have to get lucky sometimes.

I can eat high-protein pasta like lentils or chickpeas, but not those I’ve been eating, at least not in large amounts. Gourmet Italian pasta is something I have always loved; I will have to revisit the ones I can eat or drastically change the quantities. In a sense, most diabetic medications are about blocking carbs. It’s easy to be confused by packaging and advertising, which can suggest foods are healthy when they are not.

(Plant-based pasta are delicate – Lentil and Chickpea pasta are on the way.) I’m going to learn to love gourmet pasta in a new way.

That’s why I got sick last Wednesday, and that’s almost certainly why I fell.

The body violently rejected the goods I was eating, causing my blood pressure to drop and resulting in my brain injury. It’s surprising how long it took to figure this out, but life and medicine are complex and ever-changing, and fancy new technology can only do so much.

My daughter Emma has been researching head injury symptoms and side effects like concussions. She explained that the brain must rest for a few days afterward and that dizziness and lightheadedness could come and go suddenly and for weeks or months.

She has been calling or texting me daily and teaching me what I need to know and understand.

Sue Silverstein has been praying up a storm for me; she is tight with the Blessed Mother.  She is also wise and experienced and yells at me constantly for scaring her.

Maria has had several long talks with me about taking it slow and easy, cooling my impulsiveness, taking fewer photos for a few days or weeks, and resting when I get tired.  I am learning to listen; this time, she suggested I nap before blogging, and I did.

I have two religious friends, pastors both, who are praying for me.  The men can handle God; the women will handle recovery and health. My job is to learn to handle all of it without being told. In my life, advice has never been helpful or good for me, but that is changing. I hope I can return the favor. I don’t know as much as they do.

If I’ve learned nothing else in recent years, getting help is critical, and that help helps.

I think I have it covered. Dr. Daraban is reviewing all the rests and EKGs taken over the weekend and will talk to me later. I think I talked her out of putting me on a heart monitor this week. There is no sign of heart trouble here unless she finds some.

So, I’m listening and learning. My daughter, a sports editor in New York, has been working on concussion stories for years and advised me to rest after each blogging for the next few days. So I’m finishing this and taking a nap. I’ll be back with some of today’s flower photos shortly.

My photos are fresh every day. I chose not to be discouraged by life and its effect on my aging body. My mind will be fine.  I accept life, am grateful for it, and embrace it, whatever it offers me.