I could have burned my house down today because of this thing they call the ‘Lupus fog.’

I innocently began to boil eggs during the afternoon, and then absent mindedly left to pick up my son from school. Eggs on the stove, boiling away.

And they had been there awhile. It’s not as if I turned them on, forgot for a bit, and then remember. No…I turned them on and forgot forever.

Somewhere between home and school, I realized what i had done and grabbed my son as fast as possible, mentally went through all the people I could call to break into my house and turn off the stove, and sped home quickly.

A few blocks from home I approached the usual corner stop sign, looked cautiously and rolled through, and immediately saw lights behind me. I deserved the ticket, no doubt, but I also explained to the officer I had left boiling eggs on my stove and had been gone over half an hour. If he could just follow me home, write me the ticket at home, that would be swell.

The LA County Sheriff’s Deputy said ‘this will only take two seconds’ and proceeded to make me sit in my van and ponder if my house was on fire.

Once the ticket came to the window (which was well over two seconds) I asked the officer to accompany me home, fearing I would find smoke billowing out of my house and having a cop there might be a nice help. He skeptically agreed and tailed me back home.

I pulled up. I ran in. I found the eggs with half an inch of water left in the pot, boiling away just fine. I dismissed the cop (who probably thought I was lying now). And gave a sigh of relief.

But as I sit here, going over events in my head, I’m feeling helpless. I’m feeling like a senior citizen who needs supervision. I’m feeling like my ‘Lupus fog’ could mean next time the house does burn down. I forget to pick up a kid. Or worse.

I feel defeated by this inflammation that they are keeping from my brain, but maybe not well enough.

Thursday I undergo another series of shots to knock out this pressure. It has to work. It’s the third and last in the series to help relieve my pain and relieve the inflammation that was creeping too close to my noggin. But I have horrible fears it’s not working and that I will need a babysitter like a toddler needs constant supervision.

I don’t want to forget. I don’t want to forget a single thing. Ever. And I fear I’m not only losing that battle, but I’m endangering people and property in the process.

Maybe this was just a fluke. Maybe I just forgot like a regular person just forgets. But I can’t be sure. At least not yet. In the meantime, feel free to check on me and make sure I’ve turned off the stove, picked up my kids, and otherwise done what ‘regular’ people do. And I’ll be writing a check for that ticket, because thankfully money and my once clean record were the only things lost in today’s fog.