Showing posts with label journey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label journey. Show all posts

Saturday, August 9, 2014

The Meltdown


This is part two of this series. Click here to read Part 1

This is where some people may draw the line, where what I'm about to say is considered "too personal." But then this blog would be pointless.  

I'll admit I tend to be emotional but never dramatic. But for the past couple of weeks I have noticed things building up and for the first time in awhile, I have not a clue what to do, I'm upset, I just want this pain to end and I want it gone now. I want to be able to go to school and work, I want to drive, I feel like I've been stuck at 15 in certain ways and it sucks. I don't want to be treated like a child or an elder, I hate it, I'm sick of my life revolving around my illnesses and it makes me mad.
And it sucks because people try to help me, but besides prayers all they can do is tell me "everything is going to be alright" etc... but right now, I don't want to hear it. Those words get so old so quick. I know people have good intentions but just because they do doesn't require me to take it that way. Surprisingly, this includes my family both biological and spoonie. No words can help. I just roll my eyes at the positivity and have everyone's thoughts and opinions dwell in my head making the subject stuck there even more. Having my spoonies saying they wouldn't be able to do what I'm going through just brought me down even more. Having my family say that they'll support me no matter what made me feel pressured somehow, I'm not quiet sure how but it did.

This is my "darkest hours" this is me, someone who is constantly told how strong she is, crumbling. And you know what? IT'S OKAY. We all go through times of trouble, we're SUPPOSED to. Even the strongest person has to stumble, and in my opinion, it's well worth it. Why? Because when you reach the light at the end of the tunnel you appreciate everything so much more. This is my time to gain new appreciation for the good in my life.

 http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/money/sick.jpg

Whenever I have serious thoughts in my head I tend to zone out real bad. I've been doing it more and more lately. My parent's have noticed this and have been talking to me. It get's really confusing. I know and have always known that my parents will do anything for me. That they know I'm 20, almost 21 so I legally make my own healthcare decisions. They help me with the facts and if asked, give their opinion. But both sides get frustrated and that can lead to heat. We're all tired of me being in pain. No one wants to see their loved one in pain nor does anyone want to be in pain.

Throughout the years I've had times when I was so emotionally upset that my parents know to just let me be. No matter how much they want to help me stop it's best they didn't. It ends much prettier when they do. Thankfully, we all learned that less while going through my teenage years (wow that makes me sound old!)  I'm honestly at a point where I have no clue what to do, I really don't. I don't want to give up but I'm so tired of fighting. I'm not an angry person especially towards others. But with this life (illnesses) I have so much hate, anger, and frustration towards it. It occasionally brings a real ugly side to me that unfortunately only my folks see and are victims of. Which makes me even more upset because I in no way intend to treat them like that especially after all they have done for me.

 http://warriorfitness.org/2012/05/16/muscle-confusion-got-ya-confused/

Recently I lost it after one of my parent's and my discussions. I went into my bathroom, started breathing heavy and just threw everything off of my counter. I stood leaning over the counter just trying to stay calm and doing my best not to cry but then I bursted into tears. I cried so hard that I just kinda crumbled onto the ground and curled up into a ball lying on the floor. Still crying my eyes out, I wanted my dog so I somehow managed to hobble over to my room, grab her, and just laid on the floor for awhile. I either passed out or fell asleep for a bit idk which. When I woke up I went into my bathroom to pick everything up. Of course, my body being the way it is was thrown for a loop by this meltdown and started shutting down, my parents were there to help me up and through it.

 "Frustration" by turnnburnkota

All of this has made me question a lot of things that once were all I wanted from life. I've always wanted a family. I LOVE kids. I just do. Luckily, none of my illnesses or medication causes infertility. But it makes me second guess everything. Do I really want to put someone through living hell? Do I want to make someone I love and care for have to carry me around? Is it worth putting all the burden on someone just so I can have a husband and kids? What if this is genetic and it passes on to them? I wouldn't wish this to anyone. So why should I have kids if there's even the SLIGHTEST chance of them having any of this? Do I want to put more stress on my family to help me and my husband raise my kids because I don't have the strength? The more I think about it, the more I'm against achieving those dreams. I don't want to drag anymore people down.

So often I just want to break down and cry. But crying just makes it all worse. It leaves you drained physically, emotionally and mentally causing your body to shut down. As much as we don't want to admit it, stress triggers many, if not all illnesses. Our bodies are still capable of having symptoms when we're not stressed or upset, but if we are, our symptoms can show up or make existing ones worse. Ever since March my passing out spells has come and gone more frequently and as you saw in my first post, frustration was building up. My approaching procedure didn't help me emotionally either. I went from being able to hang out with a couple friends to stuck in bed because of pain and exhaustion, my sleep "schedule" went out the door, and my appetite would vary mainly because of my several GI conditions. With my increased frustration there were times I wanted to give in. I wanted to cry, scream, and throw things. All I would think is how I wished I was healthy enough to go to the batting cages and release some of my anger. But my true self fought against my negativity. I can get through this, I don't need to waste my energy over something I can't control. That God gave me this battle because he KNOWS I can make it through. So now my body was at war against itself mentally and emotionally as well.

Emotional II Abstract Painting by K. Madison Moore

Thing kept tumbling down, I got new symptoms, "Great!" I thought, "more hoops to jump through. More possible test, specialists etc, I would have to deal with. " But I reassured myself that I got this. This is just my body being fussy. But within myself I was in denial. I was getting closer to breaking and like I tell my fellow spoonies, we all need time to be down in the dumps, we just gotta pick ourselves up before it's too late.  I wished I was in the movie "Click" where I could pause or fast forward anything. I was getting to a point where I just wanted it to end, I wasn't suicidal, but I wanted things to actually get better and have the pain go away.

And then it happened, the scariest moment of my life. I already had my emotional meltdown but this was my body having a meltdown from all the stress and pain. I was in the shower and like usual I had my mom close by to listen in case I fell or passed out. All I remember was stepping out the shower but what we think happened was as I was stepping out of the shower I passed out, my head hit the tub and my right hip hit the toilet. My mom tried to help me up but was unable to, she tried to get me dressed but I was in such agony it didn't workout. My dad felt uncomfortable coming in there since I was naked. I may be his child but I was his adult daughter who deserved privacy. Unfortunately, this was a time where health came before respect. They picked me up off the floor, got me dressed and laid me in bed. I was completely out of it, very lethargic and because my head hurt they were concern I had a concussion.

"I Don't Need Anything" by akirakirai

So off we went to the ER... Apparently I was in such bad shape when we arrived that they immediately put me in triage and then off into the trauma side of the ER. I was wearing a neck brace at one point and they did a work up on me which included a CT and X-ray of everywhere I was hurting. Everything came back alright.
But that wasn't the end, since  I was ok the doctor allowed me to have a shot of morphine. At this point I was out of a lethargic state but wasn't all there. I got confused, I thought I had an IV so I was wondering why they were going to give me a shot. Turns out they just drew blood and didn't put an IV in me. My response to all this was what my parent's call "the devil child" I started crying, screaming and yelling that I didn't want to. My nurse and parents tried to convince me other wise but I wasn't having it. They also tried to calm me down. It's no excuse but I think at that point I was so frustrated that I lost it again. I was tired of needles, narcotics, pain meds, nurses, and vitals. I was tired of, "Everything is normal! But we don't know what's wrong with her." I was tired of it all and at the time I wasn't me so I wasn't able to control my emotions.

During "the devil child" time I passed out several times in front of the nurse. They would wake me up but I kept going, my body had enough. I finally passed out one more time and they just let me be. I woke up later completely confused. I recalled grabbing my towel, remembered random spots of our way to the ER and that was it. I was asking a bunch of questions.
What happened?
How did we get here?
What was going on?
Why was I in a trauma room?
They explained it all, including "the devil child" moment. And for whatever reason, I was in denial, I thought that they were lying to me but I knew my parents would never do anything like that.
I was then presented another chance to have the morphine shot and I took it. Shortly after, the doctor was in to discharge us and off we went.

"Bye" by akirakirai

Since that incident I would break down crying randomly confused and scared about my procedure. Nothing my parent's said or showed helped. I was so scared. The thing that scared me was 1. I had to be awake and 2. a needle would be digging into where I hurted. All I wanted was it to get over and done with. There was much anxiety, stress, nervousness, and doubt. How was I supposed to be completely ok with this situation without the guarantee of success? My parents were concern about my emotional state but like previously discussed between each other, I was desperate for relief and willing to try anything that could potentially help even if it set my emotional or mental state for a loop. I was clinging onto hope that all this hell will be worth it in the end. That this indeed will help me become pain free

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Staying Honest

It's been awhile since I've posted on here so to remind everyone (or to tell those new here) I remain honest on my blog. I don't tame what I say, I keep it real. I talk about how I'm feeling physically and emotionally. I don't do this to make you feel bad for me. I don't do this because I want attention. I do this for the other people who look at my blog thinking they're alone on their journey.

This is the longest time in awhile I haven't felt good in awhile. Normally I would go through a flare for a couple of weeks maybe a month. I am going on 5 months now. If you know me personally you know I am generally a real positive person. You can tell me we're all dying tomorrow and I would think well at least we have one more day. But these last couple of weeks have been tough. This week I was actually starting to feel good. It made me so excited and happy. But you know how life is.... I guess it truly started when I woke up at 5pm today. I slept almost 12 hours... didn't think much of it at the time. I was a little frustrated but not much.

I went to our churches fish fry and shortly after finishing eating I started to have an upset stomach I thought no biggie I just need to relax and it will go away. So my dad went to get the car and took us home. I rested and started to feel better.

Around midnight I got drank some water and shortly after had to run to the bathroom to throw up. I ended up throwing up alot. I was walking back to our living and I passed out. When my dad woke me up I felt super weak, my dad had to help me A LOT to get me up. I also felt very weird, I sill cant describe it exactly I just felt... weird...

My dad took me to bed and I laid there for awhile and everything slowly went away except the weirdness. I still feel it but  not as intense as earlier. What's also weird is I feel very out of it and exhausted but my body is and looks wide awake (even though I look like death) 

Emotionally, I'm drained...I'm numb...I'm frustrated... I'm stressed... I'm overwhelmed... I sometimes feel like scream, crying and throwing things on the ground. I'm tired.... Sometimes when I can't sleep because of the pain my mind wanders... it goes off and thinks how my life would be if I didn't have to deal with all of this... The education I would have received, the achievements in sports and music I would have accomplished, the friendships I would have made, and then to where I would be right this moment. 

I think about how 50 jumping jacks feels like running 1 1/2 miles.... how playing half of a song feels like I've played for 4 hours... or going to the store to grab a couple things feels like I've been doing errands all day...

I know the people who know me is thinking this isn't the Aly we know. And you maybe right, but we all go through "dark times" I feel this is my time. I know yall think I'm open and honest but truth is sometimes I hide things. I hide how much I hurt because I see how people act if I barely limp in pain or have to hold on to someone or seeing me in a wheelchair. I distract myself and focus on others to avoid revealing how emotionally torn down I am dealing with everything. I had the physical and emotional pain because I see the pain in those I care and love the most and yes in my more naive years I hid it so I won't loose them either. 

Strong people fall, happy people aren't always happy because we're human. If you've ever come to me when you're not feeling a positive mood you know I always say this; We're human we are meant to be imperfect. We're meant to feel both positive and negative feelings. We go through dark times so we can appreciate the good ones even better. That going through rough times make you stronger. so these last couple of weeks I have let myself feel these negative feelings to a degree. Because of all the weight of dealing with everything when I first fell I'll I got really depressed. I would have suicidal thoughts and stuff but never acted on it. So now if I ever get down I make sure I don't get to that point. 

The lesson life has been teaching me recently is to take care of myself. That what I consider being selfish isn't selfish it's my humanness and I need to take care of myself. SO this is me taking care of myself. This is me letting myself go through my emotions. This is me realizing I'm weak and that the only person I should be helping right now is myself. No this won't be an everyday pity party for me... I'm just catching my breath before I pick myself up, dust off, and move on

Monday, January 28, 2013

A typical young adult thought...



That sums up how i'm feeling right now... Tempted to go into things that is easy money to get me by but not really wanting to unless I'm really desperate... And then I think about college and how I need to save up for that but I also need a car.... 
     
From that I think what do I want to do/major in. Yes my dream is to do Art therapy but i'm trying to be realistic too... And the problem I always have is i love everything I try to do that I have so many options instead of narrowing it down... which gets frustrating... There's also the problem of trying to be realistic but not settling for less... I still have the dream of being a marine bilogist so I can live and breathe nothing but dolphins at work. 

I know people go through what i'm going through all the time with so much uncertaincy but man can it bug the crap out of someone!!

Sorry I needed to vent. Aly out!