Today I/we/the whole family got a reprieve. I haven’t yet grasped the gravity of it. I was so beyond sad about the news of going blind in an unpredictably semi- short time period. The perceived loss was devastating. The waiting for a second opinion felt torturous. My ability to make a quality life for myself was an unimaginable gauntlet.
My parents (the good ones) went to work immediately and found me a very skilled specialist who said with ease I’m not going blind – although there are issues; they look hopeful and carry some to-be-considered risks. The doctor asked me about several things related to stress. He came right out and asked about my anxiety level “what do you do for a living” “do you currently have stressors in your life” “did you have things in your passed”. He was searching for a probable/tangible source.
I’ve answered this question to doctors before (my endocrinologist – just recently) I fielded that questions with ‘gentle sarcasm’, “I definitely am anxious! It took generations of very crazy people to get me to the point of believing I swallowing too loud and need to knock it off.” He had a light chuckle for me then looked over at D transporting an important message I chose to ignore. I have felt boxed into this buzzing mind-body connection. I have learned to disguise it better, polish my interactions with people.
After we got the good news, we began calling and messaging our loved ones. I have a “chosen sister,” CS, with whom I share many things. She actually dropped everything, flying in, and comforting me last week when she heard the bad news. I’m beyond happy with never-dreamed-of support.
When we talked about how everything had changed for the better, we discussed seeing everything in the future – grandchildren, vistas, facial expressions and I knew I could tell her how happy I was about restarting my new business again. It was put on hold for an undetermined amount of time, maybe forever. Now I could jump right back to being “me,” right where I left off. Just as we were about to do a parallel symbolic jump up and down like girls at the playground holding hands and laughing with joy, D stopped his conversation with his mom to say, “Wait on this, we need to talk.” It was a time-stopping moment. I can still feel it now. I repeated it to CS. We were silently confused but quickly returned to jumping up and down about the good news. We’d talk tomorrow we said (which is today).
D has a talent of speaking softly and guiding us all to what appear to be our own conclusions. His careful approach gives way for those ‘ah ha’ moments of clarity and acceptance.
“Hey Honey, you mind looking up something for me? ….So what’s a type A personality?” I cringed a little because I was waiting for the wait-we-need-to-talk brakes on my new business conversation to uncomfortably emerge. Instead of rattling off my own accurate definition, I actually looked it up along with my diagnosis and found too many studies that put together more than I wanted to know. I laid my chair way back, D had thoughtfully brought a blanket for me and I was alone with my thoughts, for a few hours. Here were some of them later squashed by D:
Oh great, I’m wrapped too tight and can’t pick up where I left off.
I’m a loser – defined by someone who does next to nothing!
I’ve been swimming against the current since year one – and now you want me to tread water and figure our where I can swim to improve me health?
Over time I knew I was too mature to pity myself. Beating me up was an easy, old habit. Reality crept in very slowly. Here were some of those thoughts:
In utero I experienced destined hell. My DNA jackal: Mommy Dearest made Crawford look like a good parent in comparison. Her parents were truly the gnarled crushing oak trees I was pushed off on constantly.
Desperate to create my private, happy life, I initially struggled to unsuccessfully keep physically and emotionally away from away from Mommy Dearest and her henchmen
Over riding every moment (I could manage) to control my sad emotions, rage and terror my health has taken the hit and continues to do so
Now I have total responsibility to learn how to relax – to reduce my stress, anxiety. I have to learn to get myself calm at the very core. So that talking and thinking and reacting much more slowly will feel natural. My health depends on it. My condition is chronic. I could easily get worse. Based on the tests/films (previously unknown until yesterday) I have had this off and on many times, an old type of scarring can create blindness long term. So I’m back to where I was two weeks ago to the day, but with a choice, a chance. The above conversation we had in the garage once we arrived. The one below was the second gentle quite talk once we were in bed holding each other:
I told D how I need him now more than ever. How our lifestyle choices have brought us to the point where my need to hear him is imperative. I found it all too telling that I managed to ignore what the doctor was saying to me: YOU’VE GOT TO SLOW DOWN. Because I don’t have the worlds most stressful job, because I don’t have a job, I have to go back to my reality: chronic abuse – the flight or flight chemicals constantly battle ramming your system create a multitude of negative physical reactions over time. I’ve had two serious systems go south, my eyes are the retrievable but with my best lifestyle changes, it wont’ be the third.
So I’m no longer playing ‘See! I’m normal too! J So love me, like me… let me run at your pace, play all your reindeer games while I kill little parts of me keeping up.’
For the first time in my life, I have to consider how my life can be changed to become healthier calming my heart, my physical inner core. I need to be thoughtful while putting my world together – considering all the events that have made me and brought me to this place.