Surviving

Santa at the mall

I have been quite moody as of late.

I have been having panic attacks, and sleeping poorly.

I have been dreaming of bugs, and roller skates and babies and waterfalls and all of them have me searching.

I am exhausted when I awake.

I have found myself overwhelmed by the simply things in life, like deciding what to eat for dinner.

I need a break, but I am trying to find a time when that can happen.

I tried to see Santa at the mall with my father; it is a new tradition that we have started. Being a Jewish kid, we were really never part of the magic that is Santa, and my father and mother simply fed us what they were taught too. Now my dad and I try to have a picture taken with Santa, I have told him that it simply means we believe in magic, nothing more nothing less.

He called me and asked if I wanted to go I was delighted by the idea, blinded by what I might encounter.

My parents arrived and we headed to see the bearded man, there was a LONG line filled with babies, toddlers and mothers. I looked at my dad and said " I don't think my management skills are gonna cover me" he looked at me, my mother looked at me...I stood there for a moment longer, assessing the crowd again...and feeling the primal need to run, run away fast and hard....I swallowed hard and said again " I can not do this right now" totally heartbroken.

We left the line and I was shaken to the core.

We walked and really said nothing much more, I found myself apologizing.

Asking for forgiveness for my weakness.

I really wanted to feel the magic, I really wanted that photo with my father, his act of rebellion against all that he was taught. I couldn't have it this year.

As strong as I thought I was, I found myself just as weak.

I did manage to fight back tears, and not cry in front of them.

I am still not sure why I choose to not cry, I am always crying in public places...

but not this time.

Christmas came and went and the new year is around the corner.

We still need to make our holiday cards...

worm hole

I had dreams that I was turning into an earthworm, but couldn't finish the transition as I was stuck at some stage of the metamorphosis.

I called my doctors office yesterday as the waiting was too heavy to continue to carry.

My doctor was not in the office, so I asked to speak with the nurse that has been so so wonderful to talk to on the phone. She came thru again like a magic maker. She looked thru my doctors papers and called me back with results.

She told me that I had a cyst on my ovary, but more importantly, it was fluid filled, no solid mass and did not appear to be malignant or questionable.

Great news....it doesn't look cancerous.

My uterus is tilted and they could see my fibroids.

No new news, or new bad news.

I am back to looking at my prescription for the pill and seeing how I feel about filling it.

Modesty

After a night of childbirth dreams, which I am sure were spurred by my overnight cramping;

 I awoke to my period.

A week early and on the day of my pelvic MRI.

I know now The Barreness is pulling no punches.

I am not going to take any pain meds before the MRI so that all is shown it is glory, no abridged story here.

My sense of modesty has flown out the window, as I called to ask if I can wear a tampon for the MRI.

I feel like I did in Jr High when I got my period at school and had to run home to change clothes.

I am fighting the nausea that the pain brings....I am shaking from the nerves, I am visualizing my ovary surviving its hostile takeover. 

Mellow

© The Barreness
all rights reserved

I have my MRI on tomorrow morning. The location only offers a closed MRI machine so I am being prescribed a "mellow the hell out" pill to make me not think all those horrible things, or at least not care about them while a powerful magnetic field is used to align the magnetization of some atoms in my body, which will create a radio frequency field to systematically alter the alignment of this magnetization. This will cause my nuclei to produce a rotating magnetic field detectable by the scanner—and this information is recorded to construct an image of my uterus, ovaries and pelvis. 

really it is quite scientific, nothing to be emotional about, 

nothing to be freaking out about.

I had an MRI once before, of my brain though 

and I was in an open MRI 

while my hubby held my ankle 

so I wouldn't cry from fear of what they might find.

Hubby has made arrangements to be at this one too, hopefully he can hold whatever part of me is still sticking out of the thing so I don't feel so lost and scared. I don't think I am scared of small spaces, but when I think of it, under the conditions I am there I want a " I don't give a fuck" pill, followed by a long nap of forgetting all my concerns with magical make it all go away dreams.

During my recent panic attacks I have been mad at myself for wanting to try and live off the pill, as this is the reaction. I continued to wait and tempt the Barreness with more opportunities to build new fibroids and cysts and she took that chance and moved in. Now I have something growing in me that is causing concern. I just hope I can get the wheel to start spinning in the other direction and save my ovary from her.

I will know more as the week passes.

I really don't like the feeling of doctors making passing glances at my films and making life altering suggestions for me. The long history of being in this place has left me feeling skeptical of them, I really wanted a healer, a compassionate healer. 

Last Night

Last nights dream was filled with symbols it was like a crazy decorated room:

I was wandering around in a room when my cat came racing in with something in it's mouth...I stopped it and found that he was carrying a kitten, a newly born kitten. I took it from his mouth and handed it to my husband and said "hold this I am going to see where he got it from". Then said that maybe this is why our cat has been so freaked out lately.

On turning around to see where he had run from I saw a pocket in the carpet that had a mama cat and a pool of kittens. She had crazy eyes and pulled the carpet back over herself while asking me to bring back her kitten. I wandered into the next room, that was filled with bathroom stalls, and the largest had the door swing open, and inside was another mama cat with a pool of kittens; as well there was a woman I know (I have just reconnected with) that was in a 50's style dressing gown (sheer puffy sleeved top that separates in front for breast feeding, something I have seen mothers wear in 50's movies while sitting in a hospital bed after having a baby) anyways, this woman was pacing and rubbing her hands, clearing concerned. I asked what was wrong and she described how she had been measuring her belly button so it was big enough for an amnio,something with the number 9 and started to cry. She had had her baby (this woman in awakened life tried IVF several times and never conceived) I hugged her and she whispered to me that she would have to give him up for adoption.

I remember rubbing her back and then leaving her and heading out a door, only to walk over more kittens.

I started to run....up a steep hill and then the hill turned into a series of staircases....and I started running up the stairs and running I said to myself, "I have run a marathon before I can do this"

and then was trying to remember when I had run this marathon....

at this I awoke.

Ode to The Barreness

Is there anybody going to listen to my story
All about the girl who came to stay?
She's the kind of girl you want so much it makes you sorry
Still you don't regret a single day
Ah girl, girl
 

When I think of all the times I tried so hard to leave her
She will turn to me and start to cry
And she promises the earth to me and I believe her
After all this time, I don't know why
Ah girl, girl

She's the kind of girl who puts you down
When friends are there, you feel a fool
When you say she's looking good
She acts as if it's understood
She's cool, oh
Ah girl, girl

Was she told when she was young the pain would lead to pleasure?
Did she understand it when they said
That a man must break his back to earn his day of leisure
Will she still believe it when he's dead?
Ah girl, girl

I finished.. .

I blogged all month long, I finished NaBloPoMo

I never thought I would have so many reflections on being infertile or how it has touched me daily.

I got a call from the doctor's office...I need an MRI to determine what kind of monster we are dealing with.

In many ways I am glad to know I will finally get a picture of my questionable uterus, in other ways I am afraid of what kind of fear-speech I will get next. 

All I know is that things have grown and they have grown fast.

Soooo I am back to waiting for more information and being my own best advocate.

Initiate brave face....and smile

I might be mad at my reproductive system, but I have no desire to have it removed, or strangled or harmed.

It is mine and I am dead set on keeping it.

Only time will tell

I made it thru the exam. I drank as much water as I could, but it was not enough....

My poor uterus was slumped over my bladder for the abdominal portion of the ultrasound...so she had to push down quite hard to see all around it.

I ignored the discomfort and tried to not beat myself up about not drinking more water.

The tech was once again incredible and sympathetic and kind...I thanked her for that and it made her blush.

She is also kind enough to say out loud what she is seeing, or doing...another reason I travel out of my way to have her do the ultrasounds.

All seems to still be there, some are harder to see than others but their presence is known, the details lost.

She said very kindly...." I think I will be seeing you again soon" which is code for all is not gone.
She said under her voice that it appeared that one is quite camped out, and the cyst on my ovary is so much a part of its host that she can not tell where one ends and the other begins.

The doctor's report will state more details and measurements...I simply must wait and see.

Wait and see if this two year run is over, and for the sake of my messed up repo system I go back on the pill or I continue the wait and see. Sometimes I think, just go back onto the pill...but then I remember all the things that bum me out about it: handfuls of hair falling out, loosing the curl in what hair remains, the loss of my newly reclaimed sex drive, the mood swings...the fact that I am back on the pill.

I have been to this crossroads before and as sure at times as I am, I am just as unsure.

I know I only get this time around in this life...and I have waited a long time for this spin and have spent a lot of time waiting...simply waiting for a period, a pain to leave, a vision to come....for things to make sense.

I am still having to be patient.

I can see The Barreness, she is smirking at me...wondering which choice I will make now. She treats it like a chess match and has already calculated her moves based on my know responses.

My desire is to fool her this time.

Follow-up

I have an ultrasound at 7:45am tomorrow.

It is a follow-up to one done in July, where a complex cyst was found. The NP seemed concerned and wanted to get me in ASAP, but after she saw the date realized that we needed to wait 4 months before doing the next one.

Tomorrow is that next one. I go to a hospital, and check in to have it done, as it a tiny town and that is the way things are done. Plus the tech there was the first to be kind, compassionate and did not give me the "keep tryin" speech.

Tonight I am just working on not being nervous, I am also trying to drink more water so the AM chug of 40 ounces will not seem as extreme.

Every ultrasound has revealed a new finding, and I just hope this one reveals that the "questionable cyst" is gone or normal.

I have been experiencing new ligament discomfort, in fact most of last week was either the rocks in my bladder or the tight plucking sensation over my right ovary.

On another note, I have been off the pill for almost two years and in that time I have not had one ER visit.

One victory.

Aside

I spent the day working and avoiding work..it is a delicate balance.

The neighbor ordered a bouncy...It is parked outside my workroom. It started as white noise...a dull buzz.

Then as my distractions dropped, it came into focus of sorts.

I became more and more aware of it.

I worked as I heard squeals and jarring voices from jumping.

Then came the parent that was pretending to be a monster, chasing the children...roaring and more squealing.

Then came me mentioning a movie, a way to get out of the house.

The rain arrived shortly afterwards and the jumper fell silent,

I was thankful to Mother Nature for providing us a break from our own daydreams.

It is that time of the year

So now that Thanksgiving is a thing of the past, it is time to focus on Christmas.

At least that is what I am being fed everywhere I go

I usually watch a lot less television this time of year, as the commercials get so so hard to ignore.

There are families and traditions and colors and emotions.

It becomes harder to go the store to shop for simple things like toilet paper and salsa. There is Christmas music everywhere and children in tow. School is out and the patience level of parents drops as they mow thru stores and life trying to get things done and presents wrapped and food made.

All the while I float and bare witness to mothers yelling at their children in SUV's and fathers screaming at their kids to listen.

I caught sight of myself in the reflection of the car window today and I look tired.

 I wonder how I can get my zip back...

what can I do to pull it all together again?

I want to have a holiday, feel like everything is happy and festive.

Special and memorable, like I am creating a memory for just ourselves and that that is ok,

not just something we have settled for.

Present

Don't let yesterday use up too much of today.

 ~Cherokee Indian Proverb

I tried to keep this in mind today, I wanted to have an old fashion thanksgiving.

One where I wasn't reminded of the long road that we have walked.

I awoke early to make my great Aunt's sweet potato recipe.

Alone in the kitchen I washed and cut the tubers and put them on the stove to boil.

As I mashed them up I thought of my Aunt making the dish so many times in her life, I thought of my grandmother making the dish many times in her life and I thought of how I am now making it.

For a moment, I felt like I was connected to my past.

At the table I was asked about the sweet potato dish and as I am the only one who still makes it, I said:

I need to make sure someone can make it besides me, and in that same moment I said...

I will teach my nephew...

it was quick and I felt no pain about it.

It was like I was normal for a moment.

I am thankful for that.

Warmth

This morning before the sun was even up, we got back into our car and drove out of the ice and snow back home. Our 36 hour trip had come to an end.

Before leaving we knocked on my sister-in-laws door and were directed into the warm dark room, where we found little quiet lumps in the bed. 

I could see their little bodies, curled into soft curves, hair all disheveled.

I dreamt of this moment for myself, many time over...

walking into a dark room, smelling the soft scent of their breath in the air.

Hearing them quietly breathe and knowing that they were safe and mine.

This is the closest I can get; a welcomed visitor into a family members room.

It was heartbreaking.

I wanted to whisper into their ear during their early morning dreams; but all I could do was rest my hand onto their head feel their silken hair in my fingers and quickly kiss their cheek.

Hopefully I was able to let them know I loved them, even if I still wasn't strong enough to sit and watch them sleep.

A Quiet Moment

After a loud morning, filled with conversations about coloring,exploding trucks and mini fridges being flung open and their contents spilled across the floor of the room...we are enjoying a quiet afternoon with adults only. All afternoon we have enjoyed the simple company of family and adult conversations.

My nephews are running around in snow with cousins.

tonight they will simply sleep.

Introductions

Currently in the beginning stages of introductions; I am trying to carefully and honestly introduce myself to my nephews. 

At dinner I was trying to memorize their movements and the sound of their voices. Watching the nuances of their hands coloring or eyebrows furrowing as they ate.

I am trying to make up for memories I have yet to create

My bags

I am running around the house crazed as I am not sure what to do first.

I will be visiting with family and as wonderful as it is...and infrequent, I am anxious.

Some of our family is not as connected to us than other parts of our family, so when we are together for something more then a meal it gets strange and awkward.

My sister-in-laws get pregnant easily, I sometimes wonder if they simply mention they they want another baby and it is done. When we told this sister-in-law about our efforts not being as easy, she simply cried and said "I feel so sorry for you"

That created a wedge for me, and since then I have been gun-shy to share much else,
heck almost anything else.

When her first son was born and she visited the first time, I was handed my nephew "here take him for awhile" I was terrified, and frankly wanted to put him down and run far far far away. My mother-in-law insisted on constantly handing him off to me; when the second nephew came along, my husband was my barricade, he took the small one and I stood next to him trembling inside and wanting to vaporize.
Fearing that my sister-in-law would need to run errands and disappear for several hours leaving me and my nephews sitting on the floor and crying.

Now we are visiting again, and although they are several years old, I am still afraid.
They don't really know me outside of the knowledge that I send a card for their birthday and Christmas.
I try and ask about them a lot but often get information via my mother in law.

My first interactions with them were when they were little and I was in the most painful process of my infertility. I hope they don't remember that part...I hope they don't remember the Aunt that wanted to hold them and snuggle but was so so raw inside she held back and cried all night long afterwards.

Dinner out

Had dinner out at an old friends home, and actively spent the night trying to not mention children the whole time.

It was much easier then I thought it would be.

Currently enjoying the after effects of fondue and wine and bread

In this months mail...

I was cleaning up around the place and found a pile of letters that I had put aside to shred as junk mail.

On a fluke I opened up a letter from my senator for my district...it was close to election time so I assumed it was a political letter urging me to vote or something.

Turns out it was a personal letter written from the senator,

telling me how he read the article published in my local paper about my show:

 "thank you for sharing your art and your tragic story with the community. Your strength in difficult times serves as an inspiration to us all. My heart goes out to you and your husband for your trials"

I am surprised and a bit floored that he or someone in his office took the time to write me a letter.

as La Belette said today:

#8. I want to be totally okay with what is and surprised by how marvelous the future will be.

Family photos

I was looking thru some pictures from our four day summer vaca this year and started to wonder...who will look at our vacation pictures when we are old?

What is the purpose of putting the images into albums and labeling where we are and what we did?

I know that a lot of it is for myself and hubby to reflect on but what happens after us? Do they simply get thrown into the trash or given to a thrift store?

Does that mean all memory of us disappears too?

Wordless Wednesday