It's strange, mgran, I also often have trouble convincing my mother when I am actually sick. Less so now that I have diabetes. She's much more likely to take that seriously.

And not just my mother. Last Sunday I began having chest pains. That was taken care of it good time, but they started up again this Tuesday morning. I was getting ready to go to the doctor somehow, my husband wasn't awake yet, when my daughter arrived. She began telling me what a difficult time she's been having with her drug-addicted, violent tempered father, my ex-husband, who had been staying with her. She was telling me this, mind you, in the category of, "Well, here's one less thing to worry about, because I kicked him out on his ear." I know my daughter can handle herself. But then there's the fact that she and her sister are feuding, and I can only be mother to one of them at a time.... stress, stress, stress. As my chest pained, and my daughter told me to sit down, my ex had to shower thoroughly and shave before getting dressed to take me to the doctor. Then the cats had to be taken care of, and their litter replaced because with chest pains I'd better not lift the boxes, so why don't you sit there, Mom, while we take care of that real quick? Finally my husband wanted to cook himself a full breakfast, but then my daughter told him my lips were turning blue, so he grabbed a piece of fruit and got going.

All of that time, while I'm dealing with chest pains. If it had really been a heart attack, would they have moved just as slowly? I have nightmares of being the one dying on the floor of an emergency room because they don't think I'm sick.

This morning taught me again that my problems are back burner, no matter what.