Saturday, March 30, 2013

Gettin' Late

Hi Ya'll

Well, it's getting late here and my eyes are crossing but I was/am determined to post something before I went to bed.

I just tried to change my cover photo to something recent like the one I posted in my last post, but I am not a techy person, so I spent too much time trying to figure that one out and used up too much energy. If anyone can guide me to how I can change my picture, that would be awesome! ;)

So, Pain is still bad but a slow slow increase of good is happening. Today is the first day in days that I can type without crying trying to do so due to pain.

I did the dishes and cleaned off the top of my stove that took around 15 minutes and practically ran back to my hospital bed to collapse and do some deep breathing to settle myself down and not scream my head off from pain. Plus the pain makes my breathing harder to manage.

So, that is actually an improvement from yesterday which I was up to around 5 mins.

Being bed bound is not fun. Especially being alone and having a demanding cat, ..".yes you Stewie, you are".....why can't cats seem to get it when you can't drop everything to serve them and forget about YOUR needs? LOL, its true. He looks at me like everything is fine and why can't I brush him for 10 mins like I usually do every day!? I try to reason with him but no.....

Yes, i've gone a bit nutty from this whole living alone and trying to stay sane.

I do have some lovely people come visit me and help me out.

Today I had an AMAZING reiki session from Star Cat, she is incredible!! I saw some visions that knocked me out. I wasn't on any trippy drugs other than the ones i've been on, i don't count them as giving the same effects. In any case, I saw some things that were so beautiful and hopeful. Some forms of people who were all connected and in some ways were telling me that we are ALL connected in lots of different ways. I can't get into all of the session, but I know that it was really great and I'm so grateful for her and for so many wonderful people in my life.

Today I was pretty sad for a lot of the day. People were out and about saying how gorgeous it was out there and how I should get out. Not knowing that thats what I'd LOVE to do but cannot. I'm trying to keep my spirits up.

I asked people on my private site that is organized to help me out with chores and visit organizations and so forth, to bring me over some leftover Easter candy and ....be careful what you ask for. I got some today already and I know I'm getting more. I think I may have to give a lot of it away. Its really sweet of them. I know I am loved.

My mourning doves are very active lately, cooing like crazy out my window. So pretty to hear. Spring is here.

I really wasn't sure I was going to make it till Spring. Here I am. The bulbs are bursting up thru the soil. I hope I can see some soon. Flowers coming up thru the ground.

So, I'm off to sleep. I have a new medicine regimen. I wake up at 4am for my first med intake. Fun times......but it could be a magical time too. We'll see.

Happy Easter Ya'll!


Sunday, March 24, 2013

Keeping it Real?

Hi Ya'll

A couple of people have said that they want more posts from me lately. I haven't been posting enough I guess?

Well, lots of physical issues have been coming up and I haven't been sure that these issues should be discussed on my blog or not. When does it cross the line to "keep it real'? or does it ever cross the line? I'm putting this question out there to you all and I welcome your feedback.

I ask my family and friends to keep it real but then I hold back on certain things. Especially what my body has been experiencing. Does that mean I'm not keeping it real enough for you all? Or is it ok to keep some things private?

So, I've decided to share some of whats been happening and see how it feels to me to share it and go from there. Maybe I'll share it all, who knows? Its real life right? The physical issues are real and some people will be going thru them so why not put them out there in case people who are just starting out on this journey will be prepared for the possibility of having these same issues come up for them?

So, I'm taking a deep breath and here we go.......warning to people who get grossed out or upset by hearing about bathroom issues, you may want to skip ahead or just be prepared.

I'm still avoiding aren't I ...... LOL

Ok.....so, I had a bowel obstruction about what....a month or so ago? Not exactly sure when, my time gauging is not very good lately. So the bowel obstruction meant that my bowels got so impacted that I had to have help getting the bowels out of my body. Enemas, colace tablets, miralax, more enemas, more enemas...did i say more enemas....yep, even more....didn't work!! Some people have had to go to the hospital due to the pain and compaction. I almost had to go. The Indignity of it all was almost as bad as the pain. My mom said she experienced a smaller dose of what I went thru at one point. It is worse, I've been told, than having a baby, the contractions and pain are beyond description. The indignity of it was due to having one or more people taking turns trying to get the bowels out of my bottom. Gloves on and digging in. Horrific!!!! After the nurse left she thought it was all out and I should have been fine, but i had two more horrible times on my own of getting more hard stools out of my body. My nurse has had many many times of experience doing this over the many years of her working as a nurse and she's never seen it be so bad. Oh wonderful! I get another award for being the "best" at something else I didn't want to be the best or worst at. LOL

So, it took about a week after that until my system was calmed down enough to work on its own without cramps or pain or burning.

So, I started taking a lot of things to help prevent this from happening again. Why did it happen? Mostly due to the medications I have been on. They will do this to you for a long time unless measures are taken. So, my body had then wanted to go in the other direction. A bit of diarrhea so I went off of the colace and just stayed on the miralax.

Ok, so lately.....I haven't have too many problems with that. Whew.....thats over right? well, no, not exactly.

What happened recently, which I hope I won't start crying all over my keyboard, was that I was told to wear a pad or those pretend underwear, diapers for adults, until the issue is more balanced. I went to a drugstore and was so tired from all the meds and also felt like I was sleep walking to the aisle where the pads/incontinence underwear was kept. I stared at the underwear. Looking at all the choices. What size do I need? What color, what brand, what .....the hell am I doing in this F-ing aisle!!? I was literally dizzy. I couldn't believe that me, a 43 year old woman was looking at what brand of diapers to pick out for herself. WOW! I finally after minutes of staring, put a package of purple, my favorite color, had to laugh at that one, underwear into my basket. I actually tried to hide the big package with my other small items that could never come close to hiding them. I was starting to feel very emotional. The numbness was over and was moving to the emotion phase. I knew I needed to check out and get the hell out of the store and into my friends car. I saw my friend and told her that I had to get to her car. I had checked out with this young 20 something year old man waiting on me. I was hoping he assumed I was buying them for my grandmother. Who cares what he thinks right?

I had to tell my friend what was going on, and that was embarrassing. She of course understood. She had to wait for some pictures to print out, so I had to tell her I needed her keys to go to her car and cry if I needed to. She was wonderful and brought my stuff to her car and came back. I took the keys and sat in her car. I didn't cry, but felt safe just being out of sight of others. Who i"m sure had not idea of what was happening to me. Its just my fear and just MY anxiety.

I had gone one week wearing them and nothing happened so I thought, what a waste, I'm going to just wear my regular underwear now. And just like Murphys Law or some kind of law, can't remember which one, I woke up at 3am and went to the bathroom. I touched my bum area and I discovered that I had had a bowel movement. OMFG! I started crying and stared at the mirror. WHY?!!! I couldn't believe it. I had to hand wash my clothes and then take a shower with my shower cap on at 3:30 am, tired and in so much physical pain. Crying over and over. Alone.

Is this real enough for ya'll? I hope its not too disturbing and upsetting. I decided that I needed to tell the story. This is part of the indignity I was trying to tell the filmmakers I have worked with, about. There is so much more I know I'll be going thru. This is enough for one day.

I figured why not tell it. Maybe these words will be helpful for someone or someones' family member who may be going thru this experience in the future. It is so awful but its necessary. It's normal when ones' bowels are not working properly. Things happen.

So, today I'm going to spend some time with my wonderful brother who made another trip up to see me this weekend. We're going to see our dad and stepmom Sue and maybe have some local potato made donuts, yummmm.....

I will try not to think about the awful times i've had lately and just focus on the grateful times I've had recently. So many wonderful times. Every single day I am so grateful for what I am still capable to do.

Yesterday I cried in my brothers arms because I was happy he was there and I was taking pictures of some beautiful scenery and I knew that soon I would not be able to do that. I was still taking in all the beauty and still being able to be grateful for still being able to do that.

All around me and all around you is beauty, if only we just stop and look and listen. You'll see it.

Thank you for reading about my ups and downs kind of journey.

Love to you all today!

I can't wait to have a dark chocolate donut with sea salt, yummmm! The donut place is called The Holy Donut. Amazingly good donuts and on the edge of being healthy. Maine potato made and some have savory ingredients, like the bacon and cheddar donut, warmed up.....yuuuummmmy! :)

Did I also mention that two more baby goats have been born at Wolfes Neck Farm in Freeport, Maine? So exciting! I hope to go see them asap. I also got a picture via email of "my" dear dolphin Bellas' baby dolphin via ultrasound. I can't really see whats what but to know i'm looking at her baby makes me so incredibly happy. I wonder if she'll be names Maya.

Blessings every day. Oh, and one more thing I promise....LOL....I got a major change of my hair, new doo, maybe I can upload here, I'll try it and see what happens. I am so happy to change things up yet again. Why not? Live life and your hair will grow back right? Dark chocolate sea salt donut smooches to you all!