I Will Not Suffer In Silence

And the cough came back last night, full on with lung gunk. Still coughing a lung this morning. Ugh.

Still super tired but now I’m guessing it’s because I’m still sick, not because I’m catching up on sleep.

This is not the first, second or third time I have had a relapse in an upper respiratory tract infection after spending days bedridden. The reason is that I’m hopped up on a lot of codeine when I’m experiencing excruciating pelvic pain, and the codeine also acts as a cough suppressant. Once I come off all the codeine, the upper respiratory tract infection resumes as it was before.

Despite the fatigue and cough, I am going to spend the day cleaning house and I may attempt a bike ride.

Homework is on hold today and possibly tomorrow. I can’t live in a dusty, mildewy house when I’m sick because I’ll get sicker. The house had no care that I can detect over the week that I was living in a motel for school. It didn’t get cared for at all during the commute days or intermittent motel stays, either. My husband insists he did a lot of housework, but I can only see dishes and laundry and catbox were done. That is not enough. We have severe dust and mold allergies. The bathroom is a nightmare again and hasn’t been cleaned since I last did it a month ago.

The dust and cat hair tumbleweeds threatens to eat us alive.

BAH!

MEN!!!

The spotting is very faint, now. There is no cramping today, though I did need a heating pad on my entire back and shoulders last night.

I slept for 11 hours overnight. This is the second time in a week that I’ve done this. I think I’m still catching up on my sleep deficit, acquired over the past six weeks when I was in summer school every weekday from 8am – 5pm. My last class was last Friday.
When commuting, I had to be up at 5am. When staying in a hotel, I did not sleep well and had to be up at 6am. So I think I’m just catching up on my sleep.

Tonight, my husband goes off to yet another game convention. He’s sharing a hotel room with several of his buddies, and says the total cost comes to $50 (minus, of course, food and sundries)…

I plan to stay locked in and working on homework all weekend, and eating whatever is left in the fridge, freezer and cupboards. Ugh. I am so spoiled and not looking forward to grazing or making do with what we have. I did not grow up so spoiled – in my childhood through my teen years, we had to make do, and we ate a lot of canned food and government rations. I am still haunted by the cheese bricks and the giant plastic containers of honey that hardened immediately.
Once I left home, I spent years doing what I wanted, food-wise and expense-wise, because I couldn’t in childhood.

Now I’m forced to look at mac ‘n cheese meals again.

Meh.

Today the pain and bleeding have subsided. I have only had minor pain with the occasional stabbing in both ovaries and the uterus. I’m still constipated. I have not had any pain meds yet today.

I’m still sick with a cough and chest congestion. I have not taken any cough syrup for it yet today, because it has codeine in it, which is constipating. I’m just coughing the junk up. Maybe tonight I’ll take more cough syrup.

Today I had an appointment with the pain management shrink, so I checked our financial status to see where I should pull money for the co-pay and parking fees. This is when I got a huge shock; apparently the school decided to deposit two checks at the same time after having held onto them for a couple of weeks. Apparently I had budgeted the money, assumed the checks were cashed, and continued spending money from the account without looking. This is something I always do. I have created lists and lists. I have printed my account balances out. I have tried spreadsheets and checkbook registers….and STILL I do not keep a tight enough mental handle on my money. STILL it flies out the door unchecked.
This time around, I even went so far as to print out the bank statements nearly every week and set it on my husband’s desk so he could provide the ‘checks and balances’ – the oversight – in case I had failed.

Well, he didn’t look at the balances too closely, or didn’t care. Worse, he didn’t keep the printouts with my side margin maths. He thinks he just glanced at the stuff and threw it away. There goes the oversight!

So we are in the hole – the joint account is completely drained, with bouncing checks and overdraft fees. My personal bank account has less than $300 in it (I need at least $300 in order to not be fined each month for falling below balance).

And there’s my credit cards – both are maxed out; one is at $2K and the other is at $6K. Most of that damage happened in May, 2009 for the honeymoon, and the cards were finished off in May, 2010 when we went to Michigan. Payments on those cards are due in the next week.

So now I owe my own husband over $1,000, and I still owe my employer at least $100 for a hotel stay during summer school, and I still owe the training school $325 for the last class I took.

Then there’s the medical bills – I owe hundreds of dollars in co-pays for the MRI, the ultrasound and the Emergency Room visit I had because of a co-worker wearing Chanel perfume to work – who knew I’d go nearly anaphylactic?

The school costs and the credit cards are due ASAP. The medical bills can wait.

I have ongoing appointments with all kinds of medical professionals – acupuncture, the head of pain management, the pain management shrink, and massage. I can no longer afford any of this unless my husband hands me the cash on the spot.

I’m going to make yet another list for him tonight, because he said he will crunch numbers and see what he can offer me.
He’s already paying all of the rent, most of the groceries, and all of the bills. *sigh*

I am not scheduled to return to work til the end of August. I have so much homework that I NEED that time off, anyway.

The financial mess I’ve gotten us into has wrecked me emotionally. I thought I’d planned well enough to avoid this, and yet here we are. I cried at the pain management shrink today, but not about the finances. I cried about my illness necessitating all of these appointments. I skirted around the financial issue and focused on the quality of life issue. I said I just want to go back to ‘blissful ignorance’ and just stop trying to MANAGE this illness, when it just seems that there’s no managing it.
The truth is that I NEED to learn how to manage my stress and my pain, so I NEED these pain management clinics. I just think however that I can get what I NEED for FREE through the dispensaries, thanks to my Prop. 215 certification. So I’ll make out the list of services I need and see if I can get everything I need from the dispensaries, and sadly I will have to fire UCSF because it’s a huge financial drain.

In other news:
Today I am starting the kidney and liver detox diet. It lasts one month. I am not going to do the gallstone flush at the end of the month, because I do not believe it works. I do however still believe in the detox itself. Here are the details:

DETOX WEEK 1

Night before first day – Make kidney tea.
1 Tbs. Tea mix into 1 cup cold water in non-metal pot (enamel or glass)
Heat to boiling point (do not boil) and then turn down to simmer for 20 minutes. Leave out overnight. Can be made a few days at a time, extra to be refrigerated.
Warm (do not boil) before drinking.

Breakfast: (or at any time of day) Kidney Tea: Strain tea. Warm and drink one cup.

Supplements before meal: 2 clove capsules

Supplements with meal:
1 ginger
1 Uva Ursi

Lunch: Supplements before meal: 2 clove capsules

Supplements with meal: 1 ginger

Dinner: Supplements before meal: 2 clove capsules
7 wormwood capsules

Seven Vegetable Soup OR Parsley Tea 1 cup boiling water, steep a few tbs. chopped parsley for 3 minutes, strain & drink (or at any time of day)

Supplements with meal: 1 ginger
2 Uva Ursi

Before Bed: 3 tsp. Black walnut tincture in 1 cup of water

Make tea for following day if needed

Do not consume caffeine in any form (coffee, sodas, teas, chocolate) as it is counterproductive.

I forgot to make the tea so I’ll do that this afternoon. I forgot to take the 7 Vegetable Soup out of the freezer, so I just did that now and it should be ready for me by tomorrow night.

The pain and bleeding did not ramp up again until 2:27pm today.

I had gone to bed right after a shower last night, around 10:30pm.
It was the second night in a row that I’d gone into the bedroom for a moment and just fell asleep for the night.
I did not wake up until 11am today, and I was still very tired upon waking. I forced myself to eat some breakfast and stay awake. I decided to call my cousin back and chat for a bit, and also check in on the news feeds for endometriosis. I finally put a new article up on the main site.

I had spent the second day in a row at the kitchen table, because during this cycle, the pain has been mitigated best by sitting upright in a hard chair. Strange, but I’ve learned to go with it. I had just finished publishing my article, when I felt the familiar pain start to spread out in my pelvis. It feels hollow at first, then it’s like a melon-baller is being used on my uterus. At that point I stood up, and of course I knew what would come next… GUSH!
I went to the toilet, and I think I know what caused my latest round of pain and bleeding – I had to have a movement, and I’m constipated, so things were backing up and pushing all up on my uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries. That is what caused the pain, I’m suspecting.

While I was in the bathroom, the neighbors next door decided they’d like to use the gas leaf blower and weed whacker…and of course my windows are open. I darted from the bathroom and closed the windows. That’s when the phone decided to start ringing. I ignored it.
Why does everything need to happen when I’m trying to take care of myself?
I nearly vomited from the strain and pain. I’ve been taking my calcium citrate pills but it’s not enough to fight the constipation caused by all the Tylenol 3.

Speaking of which, I have not had ANY pain medication since about 3am. The last thing I took was some codeine cough syrup.

Now that the pain has set back in, I just (2:53pm) popped a full Tylenol 3 while I wait for my unhealthy lunch of rice noodle Macaroni & Cheese to cook. I ate half a sesame seed/peanut butter/honey crepe from Trader Joe’s before consuming the medication.

Soon I will have to be bedridden again.

I spent half the day doing stuff for me, at the expense of getting homework done. Now I am in pain, so getting any homework done today will be a challenge. Enter GUILT.

Hm.

Since this is Day 4 of menstruation, and I had several hours’ break in my bleeding, perhaps this is the Last Gasp. Perhaps by tomorrow I’ll just be spotting and on to renewed health for a couple of weeks again.
I can hope.

Today is heavy and painful. After 7am, I woke with severe low back pain that left me hunched over further than I normally am when I get out of bed or a chair in pain. I could have scraped my fingertips on the ground, it seemed I was bent over so far.

I ate some cereal and almond milk, and consumed a whole Tylenol 3 pill first thing this morning. I went back to bed with a heating pad on my lower back, and alternated between the cat/dog and the cat/cow yoga poses on the floor and on the bed. I whimpered a lot.

Then I went back to the kitchen and reheated my corn and rice heating pads. I sat down in the kitchen chair while waiting, and my pain dissipated. So I’ve been in this same chair ever since, reheating the pads as necessary. That’s about 4 hours now I’ve been in this chair, but the pain is manageable. The moment I get up and walk to the bathroom, the pain starts again. So here’s where I’ll stay, like I should have done yesterday.

I’d also like to point out that my pain was managed well by the Tylenol 3 for the past four hours, and I have been coherent and rational, albeit moderately sleepy.

It just sucks that a synthetic pain relief pill which eats my kidneys and liver works better for pain management than a plant growing in nature, which will not kill my kidneys and liver but will put me in a vegetative state for 8 or more hours.

I’ve tried Sativa. I’ve tried Kush. I’ve tried Indica. Now I’ve tried CBD. All make me incredibly high, even on low dose, with minimal pain relief.
Actually, the Indica, Sativa and Kush INCREASED my pain.

Bleh.

I am currently on round two of medication for the day: 400mg Ibuprofen and half a Tylenol 3.

Gonna try to get some homework done.

6:48pm edit:
Around 4pm I took my third round of medication – a full Tylenol 3. So it was about 8am, 12pm, 4pm.
At 6:48pm it became suddenly hard to breathe. Maybe didn’t drink enough water today. Chugging water now and going to lay down. I am happy to have gotten about six hours of homework done!

8:07pm edit:
I do not understand why, for two days in a row, I’ve become full on high as a kite on medication taken hours earlier. Today it was nearly three hours after I had taken my last dose of Tylenol 3, and suddenly I was high as a kite and it was hard to breathe. I had the codeine suffocation like I’d taken too much of it. When I went to lay down, I began getting piercing pain in the abdominal wall, just to the left of my belly button.
And then the coughing fit started. I spent 20-25 minutes coughing violently while in bed. I coughed til my throat bled. Every breath in itched. This could have been a dust allergy interacting with the upper respiratory tract infection, I dunno. The news says there’s a Pertussis outbreak. I am supposedly vaccinated against it, but my immune system is non-existent so who knows.

My coughing fit did not calm down until I applied eucalyptus chest rub to my chest and inhaled it off of a cotton ball. I am so glad I spent the cash on that stuff at the hippie store.

Two last things: #1 the weather has been mild and sunny for the past two days and I have not seen any of it due to the pain and medication haze.
#2 I forgot to mention that I had called my GYN about the greyish clot I found two days ago, and I heard back from the doctor’s office yesterday, just as I was fighting the last bits of coherency as the cannabidiol took me down.
The person I spoke with said it’s entirely possible that my endometrioma ruptured and that could be what I am seeing what with all the grey and dark brown blood and debris. I expressed worry over what my innards must be covered in, if this is diseased material that ruptured inside of me. She told me there’s no way of knowing what, if any damage has been done. She wrote off my worry. Stupid human.

This is where it gets interesting – I Wait For It and find out just how bad the pain gets as new growths and adhesions start to take root…if in fact the endometrioma did rupture.

Go me.

The CBD strain that I tried in pill form yesterday was roughly 172mg worth of cannabinoid flower trim and organic sesame oil, purchased from the local dispensary. I had split the pill – originally it was 343mg in a ’00’ capsule. I used two ‘0’ size veggie capsules I have at home to divide up the contents of the ’00’ capsule. I then consumed one of the ‘0’ sized capsules.

Originally, it did not provide a high, and did provide moderate and acceptable dissociation from the pain. Only after I moved around did the pain come through. I waited a total of two hours before taking half a Tylenol 3 and 600mg Ibuprofen gel-caps. When those drugs kicked in, I took a two hour nap.

When I woke, I was in pain again. This was now four hours after ingesting the ‘0’ size cannabidiol capsule, and two hours after ingesting the half Tylenol 3 pill and ibuprofen.

It is only after I took the second half of a Tylenol 3 pill that the cannabis high set in and kicked my ass.

From around 4:30pm until well after 10pm, I was high on cannabis, fascilitated by the Tylenol 3. I can tell you right now that if I were not in pain, and consumed this stuff with my husband, there’d likely be a 5-hour sex marathon or a tactile fundome of sorts. This can be some really nice stuff.

Unfortunately, I no longer do drugs recreationally, my husband has never done drugs, and most importantly, the one thing I was promised from this strain was spasm and pain relief, and I did not get that. Again.

Then there’s the other thing that always happens to me with cannabis; my muscles went rigid throughout my body. I had to continually tell myself that I was already laying down, and there was no need for my legs to be trying to elevate above the blankets. I had to keep trying to relax each muscle group, but they’d tense right back up again, as though I was in a constant state of trying to get up off the bed. I hope I’m explaining it well enough. The muscles were inflated.

Then there was the breathing issue; I was so high that I was breathing very shallow. I had to keep telling myself to breathe evenly and deeply.

I got out of bed long enough to eat dinner with my husband and watch some Invader Zim. I was so high that I could catch the verbal sounds in the background noises and music, and pointed it out to my amused husband, who of course said he’d never heard it before. Of course not, we’re usually sober, heh.

I went to bed for the night around 10pm, but I woke periodically through the night and for sure I was still high. So in all, my unwanted drug trip lasted as long as the other cannabis experiments have – well over 6 hours.

The next step is to try the experiment again without Tylenol 3 – but not this month – I’m not ready for it.

Next time, I will consume an entire ’00’ capsule, since the ‘0’ did not lock out the pain sufficiently enough for me.

If the pain still leaks through, it will be a miserable day indeed, which is why I am not looking forward to the next experiment. But this falls into the ‘you won’t know til you try it’ category, so I once again have something to PROVE to myself and others, as opposed to letting fear and loathing make the decision for me.

If the second experiment with the CBD strain in edible form does not help, I will either call it quits or try smoking it (I have some dry leaf CBD). I’ll have to make that decision later.

I just want to be able to say I’ve tried every route available.

In the meantime, my next appointment with the pain management psychologist is this Thursday.

Yesterday was Day 1. George was a day late. I suspect he was a day late because I went swimming on Saturday and also drank two Sangrias. The swimming was fun, I treaded water and moved my arms back and forth a lot to get in an upper body workout. We were at our friend’s apartment that day.

Sunday morning, I began spotting, and it was dark brown with clots already present.

At Noon Sunday, I attended a free Alexander Technique pain management class through my local dispensary. I intend to go every Sunday. The instructor helps train us to make better choices with the way we move our bodies relative to our pain issues. Yesterday there were three of us in the class.

After that class, which lasts an hour, my husband took me and our friend G to the movie theatre to see Inception. The movie was a nice little mindtwister, I liked it. After the movie, I used the toilet, and discovered a greyish mass in the dark brown and maroon blood clots when I wiped myself.
GREY! Like I’d see on my surgery photos of what colour the endometriosis is INSIDE of me! I was not okay with this!

Twelve minutes ago, I ingested a zero sized veggie cap filled with medical grade cannabidiol. The dispensary had them in 00 capsules, but I thought that since I’m already so sensitive to everything on the planet, I should try a 0, instead. So here we are, Waiting For It.

…

Twenty-three minutes have passed and I am now feeling a bit mentally cloudy, and I am burping up the taste of cannabis. I’ve always hated the taste and smell of this stuff.
The pain is still with me and has been hovering at about a 7 on the pain scale, with sharp twinges on the left ovary shooting me up to 8.5 on the pain scale every so often.

…

Thirty minutes in, and I’m feeling a bit nauseous. My stomach is gurgling a lot and I’m still burping up the icky taste.
I am drinking Hobee’s Cinnamon Orange tea, which contains black tea, orange peel, cloves, rose hips, and oddly, no cinnamon.

…

Forty-six minutes in, and I’m getting sharp uterine pains which radiate to my lower back. I don’t feel blitzed on the stuff like I would had I smoked it, but I am still waiting for pain relief. I am bleeding heavily today, and have already bled through a thick fabric pad to my underwear.

I am still sick and coughing up thick green mucous in the morning. My husband entered the bedroom after his morning shower and I began gagging on the scent of his shampoo again. He got all offended as he always does when I told him his shampoo is killing me. I told him it’s worse for me right now because not only am I on my period, I also have an upper respiratory tract infection going on, so my sense of smell is heightened, and along with that my chemical sensitivities. He promised tomorrow morning to use the unscented shampoo I bought weeks ago. I think he’s enjoyed not having my chemically sensitive self around while I’ve been at school. I spent all of last week in a motel, and I’ve been staying in a motel on and off for six weeks, so he’s not had to worry about chemicals and fragrances. I shocked him back to reality this morning.
We think we traced the source of the illness – the friend I suspected (M) says she suspects our other friend (P). The timing makes sense – we were both hanging out with P on Thursday, July 15th. M and her husband had given me and P a ride. That night, P had a cough. Then on Friday, M & P hung out again. M said P looked really bad by then. By Saturday, M was sick, and P had lost her voice, but still came out to another event – a friend’s birthday – which I also attended.
P showed up again for the AIDS Walk on Sunday, July 18th; we gave her a ride and hung out all day with her. M also showed up for the AIDS Walk. While P was not coughing so much, M was full on sick by now, coughing a lot.
By 7pm that night, I developed a cough. Four days later, I sounded like a barking sea lion in the evenings and mornings, and that’s where it is even today, another four days after that. My ears have been plugging up and my eyes have wanted to stick shut, they’ve been so gooey. My friend M says I have perhaps another week before I start to feel better, and her husband also caught the illness and has a full blown ear infection, now. UGH.
Despite all this, my husband keeps insisting on kissing on me, because he’s missed me so much. I warned him, and he doesn’t care. Boys.

…

We are at the hour mark now since I ingested the cannabis. As long as I don’t move around, the pain is about at a 4.5 at the moment. I am sitting with one leg crossed under the other on a hard wooden chair. I am uncomfortable and the foot tucked under my leg is falling asleep. So I will have to move. Let’s see if I can relocate to the bedroom and what that does to the pain level.

…

Okay, that was about 20 minutes of moving supplies and myself to the new location, from the kitchen table to the bed. I had to make the bed, set up the wooden bed desk, unplug and move the laptop to the beddesk, plug it back in, and move my homework 3-ring binders and supplies to the bed so that I can attempt some homework today.
At first, while doing all this, I noticed that there was a spike in pain, but I was happily dissociated from it. I could tell there was tightening in the pelvic region, down through my hips. I could feel a burning sensation, but it didn’t hurt. However, after nearly 20 minutes of movement, the pain screamed through the medication, and now here I am, sitting on the bed with a heating pad on my pelvis and a heating pad on my lower back, doing my breathing exercises.
All the movement required to transport things to the bedroom also kicked up the effects of the medication, and now I am even more fuzzy-headed than I was before. I think I may need to sleep, soon. Not moving is in my best interest.

My review of the edible cannabis so far is that although it takes an hour to kick in, I think it might be a viable alternative to the Tylenol 3, if I remember that I still should stay home from work and force bed rest. I accept the fact that there is nothing on the market that will both alleviate my pain and keep me alert and sober.

…

It’s been nearly an hour now since I moved location from kitchen to bedroom, and the sharp pains are still with me, dammit. I should not have poked the hornet’s nest. I am considering taking half a Tylenol 3 and some Ibuprofen at this point. The pain is at 7.5 on the pain scale, and burning.

…

Just over an hour since moving location, and two hours since I ingested the cannabidiol. I sat up instead of reclining back, and that helped the pain go down momentarily, but now it’s back again. The pain is still burning throughout the uterus and radiating to the lower back. Still 7.5 on the pain scale. The heating pads are not hot enough. I am going to rewarm them and also ingest 600mg ibuprofen and half a Tylenol 3.

This concludes today’s medicinal experiment.

Results: recommended alternative to Tylenol 3, as long as I do not move around. Experiment needs to be repeated when I have the emotional strength to try it again. Right now however, I have reached my emotional and physical breaking point with the pain, and I feel that I need the codeine, acetaminophen and ibuprofen cocktail.

4:52pm Update:
About four hours ago, I took a half a Tylenol 3 and 600mg of Ibuprofen, and I did that just over two hours after taking a dose of cannabidiol.

I slept for two hours.

Roughly 45 minutes ago, I took a second dose of the Tylenol 3 – only half a pill, because the pain started ramping up again.
Just over the half-hour mark, I was suddenly supremely stoned. Holy shit. I’m never this freaking high on one half of a Tylenol 3. I know this is the remnants of the cannabidiol, because of the way the high feels. I feel like I just keep ramping up and up, I feel like I’m being launched into outer space.

I uh… I’m gonna go lay down again.

I was fine around the school kids – I had acclimated to their germs.

It’s the adults coughing and breathing their sickie germs near me that killed me last weekend, and this is NOT the first time.

I’m full on with the gunk and the sea lion cough – the cough started within a day of exposure and keeps getting worse.

Excuse me if I leave a party or event with sick adults next time. Better yet, they should stay home! There were five sickie adults at a dinner party! Ugh.

So once again, I get to go through bedridden menstrual pain hell – with a bad cold.

And people wonder why sometimes I want to torch humanity.

The pain hit while I was watching and photographing other people’s presentations. I am the class photographer, so I felt I could not rest. I did stretches when I could. I did wide hip circles when I could. I ingested 600mg Advil gel-caps.

During the first presentation right after lunch, I was standing and photographing when I got dizzy. I regrouped. Then a few minutes later, my knees buckled. I steadied myself and lowered myself to the ground. My classmate, who also has endometriosis, was sitting on the floor nearby and rushed over to me, asking if I was alright. I told her I’d almost fallen and she said, “I know, I was ready to spot you.”
That’s when I finally acknowledged to myself, “yes, I really am in bad shape, and now other people can tell.” My face went red with embarrassment, even though no one was looking at me because I was in the back of the group watching the presentation. My classmate took my camera and told me she’d continue photographing for me.

The presentation finished, and that’s when one of the people in my presentation group came up to me and said she was leaving. She suffers from chronic migraines, and she also got her period this week, which has been the worst pain she’s been in, in a long time. She was on day three of killer cramps. I looked up at her all wrapped up in blankies and heating pads, with her sunglasses on because indoor lighting was too bright for her. I said, “I’m right behind you, I might go, too.”

Next thing I know, our team is being called to present the next lesson. I thought I had at least one more presentation before our group, so I called out to a member of my group, saying I was not ready, I need more time. Team member 1 went home already. Team member 2 came to me and asked if I was in pain, I told her yes. She told me that she and Team member 3 would go on without me and Team member 1, and that it is okay, they understand, and they will be fine up there together. I pleaded with her to ask for more time. She told me really, it’s OKAY, and gave me a genuine look that said, “just stay there, rest, it’s okay.”

I burst into tears.

The guilt! The failure! All that preparation! Would I get an incomplete? We abandoned our team mates!

Now other classmates were looking at me. Ugh. I slowly got up, knees still buckling, and staggered into the kitchen to cry alone.
And cry alone I did. I sobbed silently and sniffled a lot. I needed my medication but it was in the other room. I was not comfortable sitting or standing, and I did not want to lay down on the floor. I settled into a cafeteria chair.
I felt trapped. My legs were not working right. Everyone was watching the presentation. My endo buddy was photographing for me. I was alone. I was embarrassed for losing my cool and crying like this. I cried and cried.

When at last I felt I could compose myself, I slowly rose from the chair, and walked slowly out of the kitchen, through the presentation room, where another presentation was going on, and made my way to the public restroom.

After all that pain and suffering, I had nothing to show for it. No bleeding has started, yet.

This has happened to me often enough, but it never fails to make me that much more pissed off at my body. If I’m going to have that much pain, why can’t I already be on my period? Why do I have to have all that pain before my period, then go through the period on such continued pain?

It’s not fair!!!

I emerged from the restroom and went to the classroom, where I was finally able to take a half of a tylenol 3. I sat at my desk and cried some more. Eventually I slowly walked back out and watched the last presentation, then slowly helped my teammates clean up our presentation area, and rejoined the class for the closing presentations/goodbyes. One presentation entailed lighted candles to represent the constellations, while some smoopy song played which talked about how bright we are. I cried AGAIN.

OMG CAN THE PREMENSTRUAL HORMONES PLEASE STOP ALREADY!

I think my problem is that I have been stuck with these women for six weeks. Their pheremones have invaded and disrupted my hormonal system. Even worse, this week I had the migraine/cramp lady sitting on one side of me, and a heavily pregnant woman sitting on the other side of me!

Don’t TELL me that didn’t have anything to do with my pain and emotional state! Women’s bodies are creepy.

After class, a lot of classmates were concerned about me or morbidly curious, and i had to answer the same question probably 10 times. I’d even visually disturbed a male classmate, who said he would pray for my pain to ease up. I got teary eyed AGAIN and thanked him.

SOMEONE OR SOMETHING PLEASE KILL ME. Make it quick.

My endo buddy lugged all my coursework and backpack and shoulder bag down the flight of stairs after school, went and fetched my car, and loaded everything into the car for me.

I stopped off for take-away dinner on the way back to the motel, and now here i am, typing out my saga to you, with puffy, stinging eyes. I’m ready for a bath and bed, and it’s only 8pm.

This is the second bad pain day this week – Tuesday was also bad. Today was much worse than Tuesday. The shooting pains made me yelp out, and when the pain finally got so bad, it was an 8 on the pain scale.

Oh and the cold I’m fighting is also settling into my lungs. I’ll keep you posted on that, too.

Please, honestly, something – just quickly put me out of my misery. I’m so done with this. It’s not fair. I’m mad. I’m upset. I’m tired of this. It’s just not fair.

Just a quick update to say I’ve not had time to check comments for this blog – I’ll get to it this weekend, I promise. :)

I am in my last week of the summer intensive teacher training, but the homework will still follow me for another couple of weeks.

George is due this weekend, so downtime is definitely coming, and I’m not going to be able to focus on my homework too much as a result. In fact, I fear that george will be early, because I’ve been trapped in a room full of women all summer. Last week, my new friend from school, who also has endometriosis, had her painful cycle and I drove her home a couple of times. This week, another classmate who is sitting next to me has gotten her period, and it is unusually painful for her. She’s been sitting in class doubled over her heating pad, trying to get through the lessons. She says she’d normally take time off for her body when the pain is this bad, but she did not want to have to make up the classwork.

I fear the pheremones or hormones or whatnot might be acting on me, along with the horrid diet I have kept, and the high stress I have had – all from being in summer school and living in motels on and off. This week, I have spent the entire week so far in a motel because it got to be too stressful to commute the hour and a half back and forth to school each day. I had no time to get homework done.
In any case, I have been experiencing pelvic pain since Monday morning. I have been on lots of ibuprofen all week. The worst pain day was Tuesday, when I began checking for blood, because I was sure george would arrive any second. I’d say the pain reached 5.5 on the pain scale. It was intermittent shooting death all day, too.

The pelvic pain was on top of the leg, thigh, calf and foot pain I was already experiencing, as I had walked over 8 miles on Sunday for the AIDS Walk. The walk itself is 6 miles, but we walked much further all told, getting to and from our table on the meadow, and all the running around I had to do after the walk to prepare for school the next day.
So it’s been a pretty painful week with these two factors combined. I *still* hurt from the walk.

On top of all of this, I have caught a cold, because several friends are sick and decided to show up to two social events I was at last weekend. I really wish people wouldn’t be so selfish. Yes, I know our friend is turning 40. Yes, I know you signed up for the AIDS Walk. But you are sick. STAY THE HELL HOME. I’m miffed at these people. I don’t know which one of the five it was who got me sick by breathing on me, or if it was all combined, but I’m miffed.

I’m excited to have been able to go on a date with my husband last night – he drove down to see me and intimate fun was had, and no pain afterwards, thank the gods. I’m excited that I might make it through my last day of class today, but fearful that george may show up during my practicum orientation meeting tomorrow.

We’ll see how it goes.