Thursday, March 31, 2011

And on top of it all, I don't have a roommate...Update 1

I'm going to write here because there isn't really anyone to talk to. And isn't that fucking pathetic.

I may call Reva later, but I unloaded on her last night and a good friend should only be asked to listen to so much darkness.

I hate it when people go into great detail about their health, so I'll try to make this short. I haven't felt well for a year but in the past two weeks, I've just felt awful. I decided to go to the doctor AGAIN, and she thought as she did last time, and as the doctor before her did that my symptoms were mostly caused by stress. However she is thorough and had me do blood work day before yesterday. She also said that she heard something in my lungs and wanted me to have a chest x-ray. I thought I'd put that off a couple of weeks so the bills would not come at the same time.

So I got a voicemail from the 'nurse' at work today and her message was that they had found something in my blood work and that I needed to call them TODAY..... that they were open until 8p.m. and really needed to hear from me TODAY. If you are as terrified by doctors, hospitals and health issues as I am- this was not a good way to get vague news. I went out to the car to call her back.

And let me say, when you get news like this (and you're someone like me) it is not conducive to sanity when calling back you are told they are experiencing high call volumes and then play lots of ads about cancer and diabetes and epilepsy.

So, I reached her and she said that tests showed that I have some sort of infection but they don't know where it is, and I needed to go for a list of tests.... like, NOW. I went back into work, found my manager who was with the HR person, to tell them I had to leave and promptly fell apart. I just feel so alone.

I drove to the hospital and this was no regular blood test. They weren't vials, they were bottles the shape of airplane cocktails, and bigger. And there were two. I got through that and the rest of the tests and came home an emotional wreck.

Aside from my usual fear, there is some extra basis for it. For years I've been telling doctors that there's something going on on my left side. I've been through an MRI and other big tests that financially killed me, and they found nothing. But it's still there and gotten worse and none of their remedies has really helped it. Obviously I may be wrong, but no one knows their body better than the person who lives in it.... I'd bet that's where the problem is.

.............
I've been going back over my past and trying to sort out where this extreme fear comes from. I've always known it's had something to do with surgery at 3 days old, but please. This is out there.

I notice that when I go for tests I feel like I'm being punished for something which leads to an amorphous feeling of shame. This doctor and hospital I go to is one of the best. You get your doctor visits online... all the tests, what they showed. The hospital is more like a hotel, and they are lightening fast and kind.

And lately I've been watching people with health issues and marvel at the way they view them. Two women at work just had major surgery, and to them it's "get it out and over and lets move on". Most people view doctors as just the people who know how to determine and fix a problem... not as judges and harbingers (if not outright instruments) of pain. ( And that part of my fear, I get.)
..........

So, as fast as they work I imagine I'll get a call tomorrow. I dread when the phone rings now... and I'm sitting here now, some moments okay and some moments in tears.

And on top of it all I thought I had a roommate and so felt some relief and hope... but found out last night that I don't.

I feel like I'm in a no-mans land. I stare out at the water and I can't own it. I look at Meander and wonder how I'm going to care for him. I can't afford to move and I can't afford to stay and tomorrow may blow everything out of the water several months early.

I'm trying not to throw a pity party but I can't take much more of this. I'm tired of feeling bad, being afraid, feeling like I can never catch up...

............
Posting this for family....

Told you they were fast. The chest x-ray shows not much of anything. It did notice the damage to the arm I broke. But that's not the test I'm worried about....

3 comments:

  1. Robin…I'm not sure how much, if at all, words can help—but know that you have a friend here who's worried about you and who understands, in some measure, exactly what you're going through. I've had my own series of health issues over the last several years—but as you know, it's not just the medical problems themselves that makes things so difficult, but rather the ancillary complications they bring to the table. Finances, living situation, self-identity, relationships, the list is almost endless, and worries, fears, and quandaries, real and imagined, begat themselves like rabbits in a lush field.

    In my case, the actual medical issue will eventually kill me…though barring complications, which could accelerate everything, not tomorrow, or next month, or even next year. Maybe not for a dozen years. But eventually—unless something else does me in beforehand. So be it. I understand. We are all mortal beings. However, you know what I've decided is the real enemy in all this? The peripheral issues—how they complicate and impact my life and how they constantly threaten to turn me into someone else, and take me away from being my best to face and deal with the core threat.

    I'm not saying the sidebar issues are unimportant. Of course they are. Job, housing, food on the table, friends, family—all certainly do matter. And precisely because they matter is why you have to strive to live your life, continue to be you. Don't become your issues; don't let illness or finances or current relationships (including lack thereof) become your doppelgänger and prevent you from moving forward. Those ladies at work who've had the major surgeries have the right attitude—deal with what you have to deal with and keep moving forward.

    And you know what? I really believe you'll be fine in all this. Honestly. The infection business will get sorted out. You'll get to feeling better. Spring will unfold, and the world around will become green and beautiful once more—and you'll be able to enjoy it because you'll be okay. You're just feeling overwhelmed right now. But you're smart, tough, witty, and have enough life experience to look tomorrow in the eye and push past this emotional low. You're a survivor. And you have friends who care…

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  2. Grizz, I'm going to send you an email.

    Hannah, I don't know anything yet.

    Thanks you guys....

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