Thursday, October 17, 2013

Of Blood and Butterflies




So, lemme tell you 'bout yesterday morning and why I didn't go to class last night. 

As you may have gathered by now, my health has been questionable for the past two years, but it's mostly been my mental health, with a dash of "WHY CAN'T I SWALLOW ANYTHING???"

Yesterday, my physical health had an interesting turn. 

See, I was all sure of myself, and I had eaten breakfast and everything…

I was gonna be an adult.

So, I decide I'm going to make myself some pizza rolls (adults do that, right?) and I reach my hand into the bag, which is frozen… 

And holy shit it hurts.



Now, normally, cold does kind of suck on my hands… but this was different.  This was a shocking pain.  I attempted to run warm water over my hand, but it couldn't get warm enough. 

Then my head got unreasonably cold, and a slight nausea started. 

It was kind of like Spidey-senses were going off but there was nothing going on. 


At first, I thought I was having an allergic reaction, because that is always my assumption.  


Then, I looked into it and checked my symptoms, which is generally how I calm myself down. 

I noticed that I wasn't having a panic attack because my heart wasn't racing.  In fact, I had trouble finding my pulse at all. 

This thought did cross my mind: 


I went to the bathroom, because the nausea had pretty much stopped, but I figured maybe something was going on down there.  


When I sat down, my vision started to go. 

I'd like it stated here that I, among the panic and thinking I'm dying, took the time to consciously decide to flush the toilet.  


Like, I thought to myself, "Well, that would just be impolite." 

So, then I rush to the bedroom. 

I have experienced little bouts of vertigo before, but they are normally when I just get up way too fast, and then I sit down, or lay down for a second and I'm fine. 

This wasn't that. 

Here is a rough blueprint of how not-right I was in my mostly blacked out state:
 




If that doesn't make any sense, basically, all I had to do was go straight forward from the door to the bed. 

Instead, I took a hard left and found myself in a tiny area between stuff on the floor next to a giant computer desk and the guitar. 

EDIT:  I realize that we have a lot of guitars in this place, so this is what I woke up to: 





My Knight figures I subconsciously wanted to play on the computer while being blacked out. 

Our housemate found me.  I woke up to him very gently trying to remove the stuff that had fallen onto my feet, and looking concerned as to whether I had hit my head or broken my leg or anything like that.

Thankfully, I was fine. 

He handed me juice and I climbed into bed. 

At some point, I started texting people about what had happened, because I realized that it was not normal.  



Naturally, my Knight flipped out and wanted to come save me… from… something?

I got an appointment with my doctor and fled with my mother to see what could be wrong.  My Knight met us there. 

My doctor was understandably confused as to why I had a posse with me to talk about my period lasting two weeks, a possible inner ear problem, and hey, lets do blood work for good measure. 

She agreed with all of these points.

What didn't get said, for whatever reason, is that my mother used to faint a lot when she was my age.  My grandmother used to faint too.

THIS RUNS IN THE FAMILY but my mom just like… forgot.  I guess. 

So, hopefully that means it's fine.  My thought is that if no one else ever went to the doctor about it, maybe there is a way to fix it, and even if not, clearly they both lived their lives just fine.

I'm hoping it's not a thyroid issue.  Every lady in my family has one. 

Some hyper, some hypo, but everyone does.  


I've had mine tested a few times already, though it would explain a lot if there was actually something wrong with it now. 

It's also not the worst thing in the world, but since I'm still panicking over taking a new kind of Advil if I ever have a headache, I can't imagine the intense stress that would come from having to take a pill for my thyroid every day. 

Obviously, I would do whatever I need to do…

But come on.  I just want a break, you know?  For a little bit? 
 

It all comes down to the fact that I do freak out inside my head about every single thing ever, so when there is actually something dire going on, I tend to assume that there is no reason to panic. 

I don't trust myself anymore, and so I automatically become MORE chill if something is actually wrong. 

In any case, I was really nervous about getting blood work done.

I have gotten a lot of blood drawn in the past couple of years, but I'm always nervous. 

About everything, really.

The lady was really nice though. 

Plus, she didn't blink an eye when I asked for a sticker after getting my blood drawn. 

She asked the logical question, of course, which was, "Do you have any children?"

The answer is no…  I just wanted stickers.  I responded, "Nope, but I have a boyfriend."

Her perfect response?  "Ah.  Well, that's pretty much the same thing." 

She gave me the prettiest (and probably most adult she had) stickers ever:





 CLOSE UPS:

 Can you tell I'm really excited? 


My Knight and I stopped by my parent's house for some well needed protein, then went off to shop for food.  I got interestingly irritable at some points, like a panic attack wanted to show up but just wouldn't come. 

It was like the emotional equivalent of not wanting to burp, needing to burp, and just having it not happen either way. 

We bought pumpkins!  I still want a slightly larger one, but these are decent sized pumpkins… and the big one I wanted was full of bug holes. 



Worms and bugs have become a thing in my life.  …  I'll get to that in the next post.

In any case, by the time we got back home, I had an hour left of class, but about half an hour to get there.  It just wasn't worth it. 

I sent a few emails back and forth to my teacher.  She asked if I should talk to my advisor about having some time off. 

The fact is that even if this was partly from stress, I'm not willing to take any other years off from school.  I've already been in it too long, and already have started questioning over and over what I'm doing with my life. 

I have to finish.  I'm doing well enough in two out of three of them that I'm not concerned (yet) and I'm half way though. 
 


The trick will be doing well on my presentations, which is what screwed me up a bit in my Wednesday class. 

I still assume I'm not going to fail that class, but that doesn't mean my grade will be particularly stellar either. 

We'll see. 

For now, I'm going to just… Keep going. 

And if it turns out there is something wrong that needs fixing, so be it.  









Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Halloween Season!



I'm one of those people who gets over excited about Autumn.  

 After living in the desert, I missed the trees changing to be sure…

But Halloween is what really gets me.  

I love the corny and cute strange things.


The moment it becomes fall, I buy a thousand pairs of socks.


I start huffing various pumpkin-related candles.




I start going to decoration isles to pick out stuff for my future haunted mansion.


I have imaginary children.


I have imaginary pets.


I decorate my boyfriend.


I think up a million costume ideas, knowing I'll wind up doing one of the few I always do all the time, because I'll run out of time to do anything else.


Every so often, I am reminded of the classic horror characters of my youth.  
I decided to try quick sketches of whatever came to mind...
 I had a crush on Lon Chaney Jr. as a kid, and I loved the tragedy of the Wolfman. 

 The Egyptian imagery that comes along with the Mummy can be really beautiful when done right. 

 "Bleh bleh"  

 Boo! 
There are a few seconds of behind the scenes of The Creature From the Black Lagoon on a family home video somewhere...  

 "FIRE BAD"
 My father says Bride of Frankenstein is the superior film to the first.  In some ways, I can see that.  


 "Help me..."

I actually don't know what this bird lady is about. 

 
In any case, what makes this year special is that it's a good opportunity for me to take another step toward healing. 

Out of my own stubbornness, I'll want to try cider again, and certain Halloween candy, even if it says "may contain" whatever. 


I'll live dangerously, while actually being totally safe.

A couple years ago, my friend and I sat down and finished off a family sized box of Count Chocula in less than a weekend.  I want to be the person who will do that again. 

In fact, it's some kind of sign from above that Fruit Brute and Yummy Mummy are back after so many years of being discontinued. 

…Also, I should probably give Frankenberry another chance, since he is apparently supposed to actually be strawberry.  

Well, "strawberry flavored" anyway.  


 







Sunday, September 29, 2013

My Family and Their Pets


To recap here:


My sister's dog answer's to it's name, "little bunny," and a combination of the two. 

The cat (who has become my father's cat, apparently) was raised by a dog and never quite figured out that she is a cat, which makes her this wonderful cat/dog mix that is perfect. 

The guinea pig has been hanging out with the hermit crabs too long and is learning things.  



Seriously.  She wanders around her cage wearing her house.  




She's obviously not stuck, since she does this with any of the houses (Mom likes to switch them up sometimes) and gets out of them all the time.  

Guinea crab.  

Hermit pig. 

Just thought you all should know. 

 

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

The Acceptance Snowman

I figured out why my relationship is working.  

It’s not that he ignores my mental health issues, and it’s not that he is in some kind of denial in another way…  

It’s not even that he figures I’ll get better and different and he’s just waiting around.  

It’s that he looks at me, knows I’m working to change what I think needs changing, and he’s proud of me for that…
And at the same time, the only thing he sees as wrong is the fact that I’m sometimes unhappy with how I am.  

He doesn’t see how I am as wrong, just the unhappy factor, which he is pleased as punch to help me fix. 


This picture is a perfect example:


I was kind of obsessively balling up Dove wrappers as I ate the chocolates.  
I find their little messages weirdly comforting sometimes, and I started attaching two of the wadded up balls of foil together. 

My Knight in Pinstripes looked at this.  

Instead of saying, “That’s garbage” or “What the Hell are you doing?” he just automatically processes a meaning behind it and goes, “Oh!  We’re building a snowman!” and makes a head for it.  

He accepts that I'm not quite what I would like to be, and he realizes that I sometimes have trouble functioning as well as I would like to, but he accepts me as I am.  

He accepts me as I am
he accepted me when I was at my lowest point, 
and he continues to accept me as I grow and change for the better.  

Yep.  

I’m keeping this man (Rob, not the tin snowman) forever.