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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Aleisha and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.

I have this book, its been one of my favorites since childhood. Alexander and the terrible horrible no good, very bad day.  I had every line of the book memorized so much that I recited it and acted it out for my high school Forensics and Debate team back when I actually didn't mind public speaking. I won a lot of awards with this book.

I mention this book, because this pretty much sums up my year, although in all honesty I guess the name could be changed to Aleisha and the terrible, horrible no good, very bad year.  Because lets face it when it comes to sucky years, mine pretty much ranks right up there.

Perhaps my first clue should have been that 11 hour car ride home back at the end of January, when a sudden snowfall hit the DC area so suddenly that it caused mad hysteria. Every agency, school system and uncle Joe closed up everything. I am pretty sure my husband and I never thought we would get home that evening. At least not without getting stuck somewhere, running out of gas or having to spend the night at a local Motel 8. OK so maybe not a Motel 8 but still....

Somehow we thought this would be the worst of the ordeals for the year. Except, two days later I found myself in the ER, the first of four times this year, with cramps so bad they were worse than the contractions I had during labor. I swear I started doing the whole Lamaze breathing technique in order to at least get by. Little did I know this would be my ultimate tackle for the year. My colon, which had never failed me before seemed to all of a sudden be tying itself into a knot. An Emergency surgery and a week and a half later I emerged from the hospital without 17 inches of my colon, 15 Ibs lighter and no appendix. 


Maybe I should move to Australia. 

By March I was back to myself, and Andy and I were able to enjoy some time in Disney, a much needed break from the horrible few weeks of pain I had just dealt with. Until the day we got back. and the pain that I felt in January suddenly returned. Except this time, I was getting sick along with the pain, and losing most of everything I had in my system.

Round two of surgeries, to repair a twist that the first surgery didn't catch.  Another week in the hospital found me not losing anything more except some extra pounds, making both my parents and my husband not to pleased. After all I was now several pounds under 100...I promised I would gain some of it back and that this would be done and over with. As for if this would ever happen again, there would be no guarantee, though the likelihood of it was slim to none.

Australia is sounding nice.

By May things looked up, I turned 31, I celebrated my fifth year wedding anniversary and I attended one of my best friends wedding where I was a bridesmaid. The surgeries seemed to be fading in the background. Andy and I began talking about things, taking a trip to Europe to see Andys brother and sister in law, we began to talk about another baby. Which we weren't planning on any time soon but at least talking about. Yes things were beginning to look a lot brighter.

We went on vacation,  as a family. And it was blissful.

Until August, when my stomach began to explode, and expand. Most of the times at night, but it soon became during the day as well.  It started off small but soon it looked like I was six months pregnant and while the thought was thrilling, it got old. Especially being asked every so often if I was. How much we would have liked it but no. And with my expanding stomach it was another round to the doctors, where it was discovered I had a hernia, which needed to be repaired. Meaning yet another surgery, though thankfully this time not an emergency and it could wait.

I think I will move to Australia.

I returned to school after taking the past semester off with the surgeries. I continued to work, to attend hockey games and life went on uninterrupted. Friends were annoucing babies and pregnancies, and I admit I was getting the baby itch once again. As much as I was thrilled for them, a part of me didn't want to have to wait til after the hernia surgery. Sad as this sounded. I always said I would be happy with distance between the two, but I am so in love with my son, maybe starting to think about another one wasn't so horrible after all.

By the end of November I had set up my surgery for the hernia as outpatient at the end of December, after finals and after the holidays. I enjoyed Thanksgiving with the family and started getting into the holiday spirits while dealing with the hardest semester at Mason yet. Dealing with annoying classmates and thousands of papers.  And I was just about to be done with everything. With the semester, with the hernia. With the year...

When the pain returned. And once again I found myself being dragged to the ER, not only was I dealing with the hernia, but my colon was twisting. AGAIN.

I think I'll move to Australia.

They performed a  temporary procedure to last til the end of December where I had all but a quarter of my colon taken out, as well as my hernia repaired. The promise neither will ever bother me again.

And so I end 2011 much as I started, just leaving the hospital.

I suppose there are years like this. 

Even in Australia.

1 comment:

CapsCrazy said...

I'm ready for 2012 too, let's just leave this one as a chapter to look back on. I'm hoping for that too.