Tag: anxiety

Remote Teacher…

Published on by beatingcowdens2 Comments

My heart aches for the kids.  Everything about my mom self is so painfully aware of what they have missed.  There is no age group, from Pre-K to College, that has not suffered great loss.  I have no answers.  I have only thoughts about children in their living rooms, staring at screens, and thoughts about children learning masked in gyms and auditoriums.  I hurt for their parents that had to decide which horrible option was better, and for the kids who fear things that are too heavy to be carried on young shoulders.

I cry real tears for my senior. My class of 2021 girl who has no real way to celebrate her full scholarship to a private university.  There have been 12 days of school, since March of 2020.  There will be no prom. I am not sure that there will be a graduation.  I find it unlikely there will be a yearbook.

Global pandemic.

I get it.  I truly do.  Nothing is as it should be.

But, I have to talk about something we don’t talk about enough.

We are angry. We are looking for a place to but blame.  So we throw it around anywhere we can.  And often.  Way too often. It lands on the teachers.

I know.  Before you stop to tell me. I know.  I know about the teacher who logs on for 30 minutes a day.  I know about the teacher who doesn’t know her student’s names.  I know about the one who is in Aruba.  Teaching on a beach.  I know.

But the ones we don’t talk about are the other ones.  The dirty little secret of the educational debacle that is this pandemic.

There are so many teachers that have gathered all their resolve and put themselves in front of a camera every day.  There are teachers who sit at that camera from 8-2 with minimal breaks, and then turn the camera off only for the real work to begin.

Sometimes we need to talk about the teachers who had a change of assignment so drastic they had to relearn curriculum for things they haven’t taught in over a decade.  Those are probably the senior teachers. The ones that don’t cause trouble. The ones everyone is sure can handle everything.

Those teachers probably began the year with student copies of books that their kids don’t have. So they can take pictures and post slides for the kids to follow along, while they lecture students on things that really will only sink in when they are demonstrated, touched, and played with.

Those are the teachers who didn’t know what Google Drive was.  Who taught themselves through YouTube videos.  Those are the teachers who then taught the kids to navigate a digital notebook. In a house where they aren’t allowed to print.  And no one is home.  And their grandparents want to help, but they don’t know what to do.  And the language barriers preclude even a conversation with an adult in many cases.

Those are the teachers setting up science experiments at their desks.  Under a subpar document camera they bought on Amazon while creating google forms, and slides of everything.

Those are the teachers who are trying to make things easier for the kids while checking on the mental health of those same kids, which their heart and their mind and their soul and their eyes tell them is failing.

Those are the teachers setting up virtual classrooms and trying to motivate kids in any which way they can.  Those are the teachers who feel like they are teaching in shackles.

Those teachers.  The ones trying to make it ok, they hear you.

They hear you when you talk.

They hear you when you say to stop paying the teachers.  They hear you when you malign and belittle an entire profession for the sins of a few.  They read the words because they are so cut off from people.  Until they sometimes have to just turn off the news and the social media and isolate themselves further.

They hear you.  They see you.

They don’t answer you.  Because they are sitting.  At their computer.

Ignoring their health.  Many are where they are because of very real health issues.

They are tired.

They are neglecting their families.  And doing what they can to save the children in their care from the loss of an instructional year.

They are there for HOURS.  Reading the words your children type. Providing the feedback your children need.  EVERYTHING takes FOREVER.

Those teachers are hurt.  And they are hurting.  They are in an impossible situation.  They are lonely.  They are alone.  And they will not give up.

They would not want that for their own children.

They got into this profession to do better for the children.  All of the children.

So I will leave you with a message from all these teachers.  It is the same lesson we are giving the children.  But, I think the grown-ups need it more.

Be kind. Always.

You know that teacher who you are really grateful to have in your world right now?  Reach out to them and tell them.

Trust me.  They need it.

They don’t need money.  They don’t need gifts.  They don’t need fame.

They need to know that their work matters.  They need THAT fuel.

And, please.  Stop.  Think before you speak.  Or type.  We are all that we have.

#beatingcowdens

Here. We. Go.

Published on by beatingcowdens5 Comments

It’s just after midnight on Sunday, January 17th. I should be sound asleep, but instead I’m propped up in my bed with my iPad in hand. There are suitcases in the living room and a cooler of food and other supplies set to go. In about 6 hours Meghan and I will embark on a 12 hour journey to Indianapolis.

The story of how we got here anxiously waiting to get there began years ago and is intricately interwoven within the journey that is #beatingcowdens.

I have written a great deal through the years about Meghan’s physical struggles. I have been more guarded about the emotional toll this disease has taken. There is too much to the journey to pretend I can create a linear summary of how we ended up here.

The contract for the service dog was signed in November of 2017. A good few months of soul searching came directly prior. Meghan, like always, seemed to know what she needed. I had begun to learn by that point that she was more often than not, correct.

She was a high school freshman, and in between panic attacks that left her calling me from stairwells and bathrooms in the middle of both of our school days, she researched service dogs. She was most impressed by Medical Mutts, a facility in Indiana that rescues dogs and trains them for service. This was a fit on so many levels. We are a dog rescuing family, believing strongly in the beautiful bonds of adoption. We hold nothing against breed to train facilities, but for Meghan, the one who always felt like she was just outside the circles of life, watching as others participated; the idea of not only working with a service dog, but working with one from a shelter, who was left there because they needed someone to love them, well that was pretty much perfection.

The interview took place in my car. we were outside of her high school during her freshman swim season. The interview went well and it was agreed that Meghan could be placed on their list for a dog. A deposit was made. And then we were left to wait.

But, even as we waited, her depression and anxiety did not. She met with a doctor at NYU who was willing to put a name on the PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, that Meghan was living with. There were specific triggers in her medical history that stayed right at the heart of her soul and her psyche, despite a years long relationship with counselors. And it was messy to try to understand how all that medical trauma, alongside some emotionally damaging classmates left her feeling as though she was free falling without a parachute.

When chaos is your norm, and “fight or flight” is not a passing stage, it can make it hard for people to be around you. It seemed there was always something new on the horizon – whether a new diagnosis or a test or a pending surgery, it was ALWAYS something. The amount of hours spent at medical appointments, testing, surgery, recovery were at times all consuming. These are simply facts.

I think the idea of the service dog solidified in the nights. Meghan is adept at pushing through the day. With Cowden’s on your mind, and Ehler’s Danlos playing cruel games with your body, there is scarcely any way for your mind to focus on more than surviving. But at night, it was a whole different world. Settling down in a dark room, falling asleep, reminiscent of countless trips to operating rooms where you wondered if you’d ever awaken, was not an easy task. I spent many nights on a couch in her room. Many nights settling one of our dogs onto her bed so their rhythmic breathing would soothe her to sleep. Many nights watching the nightmares and the hours of restlessness that circled itself into fatigue that rarely quit. And by the time she settled into a restful sleep, there was no waking her. To this day, alarms blaring do little to even cause her to stir.

The medication helped the depression some. But that energy has to go somewhere, and soon after, she began picking at her arms in such a way that they became scarred and red all the time. No area of her body was off limits, and still to this day I see the self harm that I’m grateful isn’t worse. The most severe anxiety attacks come at home now, although they are still unpredictable. She hides them too. So much so that most who meet her would see nothing other than confidence. She is a living, breathing example that things are not always what they seem.

I don’t know if people choose not to see these ramifications of living with two rare diseases because it makes them uncomfortable, or if she is just adept at hiding it so that they don’t get to see the full extent of how hard she fights to stay above water. Maybe it’s both. I come from a family, who, while they love us a great deal, tend to believe some things should just be kept private, and handled by bottling them up. Asking for help, seeking help, and getting help that would potentially indicate to the world that you struggle can sometimes times be perceived as a weakness. The thought of a service dog for a young lady who is “doing well” through the uninformed accounts of others is appalling to many. We’ve been cautioned that she “won’t fit in.” Or that others will “judge her.” Yep. She knows all about being judged, and belittled, and maligned for being herself. She decided a long time ago she was not going to bend to the will of the world. She was going to rise above. And she did. And she does.

In fact, she soars.

Her friends list is short and neat, as any adult would tell you, it should be. Her grades are exemplary. She has chosen to spend this pandemic becoming a better version of herself. She is attending classes to be confirmed at a church where my brother-in-law is the pastor in May. She is learning and embracing a God who loves her. She has reconnected with her father in ways that are heartwarming. College choices are plentiful, and there is a bright future in her chosen field of study, Physician Assistant.

There is no harm in asking for help. There is no shame in saying, this is a lot, and I need someone to talk it through. There is nothing at all wrong with someone who needs help becoming the best version of themselves. When you desire to change the world, or simply to enjoy mundane tasks, there is actually beauty in saying “I need help.”

I see people hide from themselves and others. Then I see Meghan. She lives what we all know to be the truth, the hard truth, that the only way out is through. She is doing the difficult work so that her childhood traumas are not a weight to hold her down, but rather a valuable part of the background medical professional she will become.

Tonight we will sleep in Indianapolis. Monday Meghan will meet her partner for the next leg of her life journey. Ella will join the family as Meghan’s service dog.

And I will remind my girl again, that those who say it can’t be done, should never interrupt those that are doing it. Meghan I am so proud of who you are. Stay true to that. The rest will all work out. Sleep tonight dreaming if your new companion.

We are forever

#beatingcowdens

Ella, Meghan has been waiting for you since before you were born!

Pandemic Got Your Tongue?

Published on by beatingcowdens2 Comments

NYC #COVID19

NYC #Covid19

There are things you could do without ever experiencing.  Clearly #COVID19 is one of them.

I live in NYC.  I have lived here every one of my 46 years.

I was born and raised here.  I graduated from public school, SUNY and then CUNY.  I work in the elementary school I graduated from.  I have lived in the same zip code pretty much my whole life.

I watched my local community rise up many years ago when my young cousin battled Leukemia.  I remember that, even over 30 years later, whenever a neighbor I don’t know is in need.

I watched my local community, many aspects of which were decimated by the horrors of 9/11, rise up in indescribable ways.

I watched my community draw together again after Hurricane Sandy wiped out neighborhoods.

We worked together.  We prayed together.  We loved on each other.  We gathered together.  We shared what we had.

I live amongst compassion, bravery, dedication, resilience, tragedy, and grief.

I also live amongst some selfishness, stupidity and inflated senses of self importance.

The greatest city in the world gives you all that and then some.

Despite having a small social circle, I am a mother, a wife, a daughter, a granddaughter, a sister, a niece, a cousin and a friend.

I am a patient with a PTEN mutation called Cowden’s Syndrome.

I am a cancer survivor.

I have a teenager with 2 rare diseases, and a brain that runs 24/7.

We are immune compromised.

I am a NYC Public School Teacher.

My husband is an essential worker.

Daily the news reports are often silenced in my house.  I know what’s going on around me.  A few numbers across a screen give me what I already know.  Hope of blossoming spring has been muted by tales that nightmares are made of.

I spend the days trying to remotely engage young minds in math games.  It is, if nothing else, a welcome distraction.

Suddenly, this community that does so much better when we can gather together is isolated.

Our friends are sick and dying quickly.  To much of the country and the world they are numbers.  To us they are humans with names and families.  We can not visit.  We can not comfort.  We can not gather.  We are leaving our loved ones at the emergency room door, praying we will see them again.

We, alongside the whole world, are fighting a virus that seems to have a strangle hold on my home town.

People like to make themselves feel better, but the truth is this virus does not discriminate.  We can barely even find it, let alone attack it.

We are chasing it.  It clearly has the upper hand.

We have been told to #flattenthecurve but, I fear the sheer numbers of us make this so much harder.

My husband comes from work removes all layers, scrubs, showers, washes all outer garments.  He gave up public transportation to reduce his “touch points.”

We are grateful for the home we have.  We are grateful for each other, for the internet, for Zoom and FaceTime, and virtual church.  We are grateful for washing machines and space, and luxuries never to be taken for granted again.

We are grateful for computers that allow for everything from Advanced Biology to voice lessons and test prep.

We leave for 2 walks a day at off peak hours.

The stores I used to walk in and out of because I could, are saved for when lists accumulate and there is need.

We order food a few times a week, a calculated risk carefully played out because the restaurants that have openly supported our fundraisers through the years, deserve our support now as well.

The schedule has slowed from its chaotic pace.  Swim season just isn’t.  There is no college search right now.  Doctors are cancelling, and rescheduling.  Routine check ups are on hold.  And honestly I don’t mind.  Even this chronically painful foot is waiting its turn while really important things happen at the local hospitals.

We take this call to social isolation really seriously here.

Selfishly, I might even enjoy a little of this forced family time.  A year from now my girl will likely have her college chosen and be starting her transition out of our nest.

Having Cowden’s Syndrome has done a lot of work on my perspective through the years.  I’ve learned that you can’t keep waiting for it to be over.  That’s true of everything in life.

A dear friend has told me often, “You can have it all, just not all at the same time.”

You have to live each day, from beautiful to unspeakable.  It is the only way to preserve feelings of compassion, empathy and focus on the greater good.  You must laugh and cry, and scream and yell, and feel all the feelings.

I have scanned 3 and a half years of letters Pop wrote to Grandma in the years he was deployed during WWII.  Those years preceded a marriage that lasted over 70 years.  I think of them all the time, but even extra these days.  I think about how hard it would have been to socially distance from them, but also about the lessons they could have taught all of us in patience, resilience and sacrifice for the greater good.

I’ll use some of the next days to read every one of those letters before uploading them to create a hard copy to be shared in my family for generations.

There is a lot to be learned from the “Greatest Generation.”

Sometimes I get angry at flippant or arrogant folks I see, in person or on the news.  The people who think they are too good, or exempt from this global pandemic.  The people who don’t think they have to do their part.

Then, I decide to focus on the overwhelming number of people who are doing whatever they can to make this better.  All those essential workers we learned about in the first grade unit on “Community Helpers” are the ones I focus on with gratitude.

I am not better than this virus.  I am just as susceptible as the good people across the globe who are struggling with these infections.

I isolate not out of fear, but out of respect.

I isolate out of respect for those who can’t.

I isolate out of respect for our first responders and essential workers.

I isolate out of respect for those who are living with this virus.

I isolate because maybe one less person will get infected because I did.

I miss the way our city has come together in all other times of tragedy.

I miss hugs, and offering comfort and being comforted.

I will message the people I miss so much, and check in on them.

And, instead of complaining the time away I will spend more of it in prayer for those who need very much not to feel alone, reaching out through the technology I’m blessed to have, with gratitude that if I am forced to isolate I have a comfortable home and a few of my best friends to be with.

Jax is a welcome distraction.

Sweet April

#Family

#Flattenthecurve

#COVID19

Still #Beatingcowdens

 

 

 

“…What is essential is invisible to the eye.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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“You don’t LOOK sick.”

Like all things your perception changes over time.  When I was much younger if someone asked me for the most hurtful thing someone could say to me – it would have been something you’d be much more likely to guess.

But, years have passed and so much has changed.

Now, hands down, this is close to the top of the list.

I am reminded today of my senior year in high school. Madame Eicoff taught accelerated French.  At the time it seemed like a great idea, and the irony that I took seven years of French and grew up to marry a Spanish man was never lost on me.  One of the many ironies of life.  But in Mme. Eicoff’s class we read “Le Petit Prince” by Antione de Saint-Exupery, and reading and understanding, and feeling that book in French… well, close to 30 years later the emotions are still fresh in my mind.  But, I digress…

I don’t want to LOOK sick.  I guess in some ways it could be a compliment.

Except it’s not.

Everyone who says it, or thinks it, or shouts it, or whispers it, does it with judgment.

And I guess my question is – What does SICK look like?

In this day and age where tolerance is expected, I feel like we are lagging behind in acceptance of rare disease and chronic illness.

What qualifies as sick?

Is it constant trips to the doctor? Tests? Scans? Referrals to more specialists? Surgery after surgery?  Recovery?

Is it having doctors “Google” your disease in front of you, only to have them authoritatively verbally plagiarize the first page of the search when you have analyzed every relevant article on the first ten?

Is it time after time being made to feel you are not credible, or “less than” because no one can make it better?

Is it begging and pleading for pain relief only to be accused of being an addict, when you don’t want a pill at all?

Is it constantly plotting and planning any outing so as to utilize the fewest amount of steps to minimize the often bone crushing pain and fatigue that follows tasks as simple as grocery shopping?

I will agree there is a fine line between simple reality, and self-pity.  I dance across it sometimes.

And then I play the music louder and dance right back.

This is my reality.  Self-pity has no real purpose.  People typically don’t want to hear about it.

But, just because it makes you uncomfortable doesn’t make it any less true.

I am not perfect.  I judge.  I judge for the wrong reasons sometimes.  I judge people who I know nothing about sometimes.  I am a work in progress. (As a dear friend often said, “I live in an all glass house.”  Nothing about this is intended to throw stones.)

I am learning every day that saying “everyone has something” and really BELIEVING it are different.

I am learning that mine is no more, and theirs is no less and that is perfectly ok.

I am learning that human suffering is a universal, and “sick” carries a stigma that should be eliminated.

Because, if you are “sick” and you “look” it, you are likely “seeking pity.”  If you don’t “look” it, but you have an “acceptable” (read well known) illness, you are “brave.”

Mental illness is not visible, yet depression and anxiety plague so many in astronomical numbers.  Still we are embarrassed to speak of it, and it is surrounded by shame.

Chronic pain is not visible, not even behind the gritted teeth of the (insert so many people you know here) that you see every day.  Living your life with pain that never leaves in and of itself can drive you mad.  Think about the last headache you had.  The one where you had to close the doors and shut the lights.  Now think about it forever…

Real illness is often REALLY invisible.

This is neither a contest or a competition.

This is real life.

We are all real people.

And maybe it’s that simple. Maybe we need to go back to the simplistic view of a young child.Rare Disease Day is February 29th.

I am certain if you yourself are not suffering, you know someone who is.

They may look just like everyone else in the room.

I’ve set goals for self-correcting my unintended judgment of others.

I’ve found an excellent starting point at contemplating that every one of us is deeper than what can ever be seen with the eyes.

#beatingcowdens

WHAT IS A RARE DISEASE?

There are over 300 million people living with one or more of over 6,000 identified rare diseases around the world1, each supported by family, friends and a team of carers that make up the rare disease community.

Each rare disease may only affect a handful of people, scattered around the world, but taken together the number of people directly affected is equivalent to the population of the world’s third largest country.

Rare diseases currently affect 3.5% – 5.9% of the worldwide population.

72% of rare diseases are genetic whilst others are the result of infections (bacterial or viral), allergies and environmental causes, or are degenerative and proliferative.

70% of those genetic rare diseases start in childhood.

A disease defined as rare in Europe when it affects fewer than 1 in 2,000 people. (www.rarediseaseday.org)

 

 

 

 

PTSD is real…

Published on by beatingcowdens4 Comments

I catch the judgments when I mention PTSD to even those closest to us.

I have the utmost respect for our military, and our servicemen and women.  They are the front lines, defending us and keeping us safe.  They experience horrors I could not imagine, and I am daily grateful for them.  The PTSD many suffer is real and no one would ever question it.

But, just as l know that their’s is real, I am that sure it is real in my house too.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder does not stipulate the trauma.

Some days I try to ignore it.  I try to hide it. I try to work around it.  I try to pretend it’s not there.  I try to lean into the pressures of well-meaning friends and acquaintances alike that we should act “normal” so as not to marginalize ourselves.  I hear the logical statements about fitting in.  I hear them.

We talk about “everyone has something.”  We are acutely aware that we are not the only ones that suffer.  We are aware of our blessings.  We share those blessings with others when we can.  We listen compassionately.  We are believers in the notion that, “If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours  back.”

We are aware that we can be perceived as aloof, or detached, or disinterested.  We are also aware that largely by circumstances and partly by our own design, we are alone.  We haven’t really ever spoken to you about why… We try to listen compassionately.  We try to be the people you need.  We try to be lighthearted and positive when we feel like we are being crushed.

When the diagnosis of PTSD was first given to me as part of an analysis of my beautiful daughter’s response to the constant traumas that had shaped her life, I was physically ill.  And then I was really sad.

And through the years I have tried to wish it away.  I have tried to convince and cajole and distract.  I have tried to rationalize. I have tried to blame myself.  I have tried to be angry.  I have tried to pray.  I have tried to walk it off.  I have tried to medicate it.

I have brought her to quality therapy.  I have introduced medication.  We have tried strategies.  We have tried simple grit.  We have never quit.  And there is progress.  But it is not easy.

I’ve been home a few weeks now with a foot that won’t heal.  I am trying to put into play some things that have been on the back burner for too long.  I am rediscovering my faith, and leaning back into the peace that has anchored my soul for so long.  I am learning new things, like the operating system on a new computer.  I am trying to find value in the waiting to heal.

I have also had some time to watch some old home videos, transferred from the portable video camera that was state of the art when our only child was born in 2003.

I look at some of those old videos and I laugh and smile.  And I hear the purity and innocence of a life untouched by physical and emotional pain, and the cruelty of the loneliness that often surrounds both.  And I laugh in spite of myself while the tears stream down my face.

We are strong.  We are determined.  We are compassionate.  We are intense.  We expect a lot from those around us, because we expect a lot from ourselves.  We are often isolated, marginalized, and left to live on the edge of all things social.

PTSD, the elephant in every room.

You see the diagnosis of Cowden’s Syndrome was not the start of it.  The first medical intervention was before the age of 6 months…

The years of hospitalizations, immune deficiency, chronic illness, food allergies, constant GI upset, speech, OT and PT services, led right into one surgery after another, with scans, doctors visits, and a few emergency room trips sprinkled in.  There were arrogant doctors and medical staff, ignoring that we were literally walking through fire trying to survive.  There were teams that would not communicate, and problems we had to try to solve on our own.  There were well meaning people in our lives asking if she was “better” because they could handle nothing other than a positive in the midst of this crazy, wild storm we were living in.

The diagnosis at the age of eight formalized the fact that we were definitely different.  It gave an answer while raising more questions and increasing the isolation, as parents scheduled play dates with children who became friends while we rode the FDR drive for hours after a day of work and school.  They went to the mall, or to the movies while we headed to PT to bring that knee back from surgery 4,5,6,7,8….  It was inevitable that the divide would grow.

I told her she could do anything.  And I meant it. I still mean it.

She is academically rock solid.  She is an athlete.  She is a good friend to those who let her be.  She is thirsty for knowledge.  She is insatiable in her desire to make the world better.

She’s also angry.  And its hard to see it.  It’s hard to feel it, and to watch it.  But, it’s real.  And it’s valid.  As much as we were able to do for her, the basic joys of childhood were taken from her.  From colic, to hospitals, to bullying so severe it almost broke her, to being just outside the edge of every circle or group…  A week in Disney every year helps, but even the Mouse doesn’t have a bandaid big enough.

We stay busy.  It is the best way.  But sometimes it breaks down.  This has been an extra tough week.  There isn’t one reason why.  It just is sometimes.

As I sat with her the other night and the memories of the most traumatic surgery turned my strong young lady back into a terrified 10 year old, I was reminded.  PTSD is very real.

It is real when the medical world is overwhelming you.

It is real when the pain is chronic.

It is real when the thought of getting out of bed is just too much.

It is real when you need the dog close by to even close your eyes.

It is real.

It is also real when you’re the youngest NYS Woman of Achievement in 2016 at the age of 12, or being honored with a Humanitarian Award at 15.

It is real when you’re holding a 3.9 GPA.

 

It’s real when you are achieving best times at Junior Olympics.

It’s real when you’re laughing with your high school swim team.

It is real when you’re in costume on the stage.

It’s just flat out real. And most of the time you have no idea what it looks like.  The costume is better than Broadway.  The mask is strong, crafted through years of survival instinct.

It never goes away, and yet it takes over without notice at the most inconvenient times.

PTSD is not an indicator of weakness, but rather of strength.  For living with it means you could have given up, but you are pressing on instead.

I’ve passed this advice to parents through the years who are new to our diagnosis.

“It is a lot to handle.”

Don’t underestimate.

It is hard to be kind to those who are different.  It is hard to be with people who are sometimes just “a lot.”  It is hard to care.

But the reality really is you just don’t know.  You don’t know the struggles facing anyone you pass by on the street.  You have no idea.

It’s neither a contest, nor a competition.

We are not perfect.  It is harder when the hurt is in its most raw periods.

But, we have goals.  And perhaps they go back to the “Golden Rule” of my youth.  “Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.”  

That means you keep paying it forward, without expecting it to be repaid to you.

If we all, ourselves included, can remember that everyone has real struggles, and we can all focus on kindness, I’m pretty sure we can start real change.

One smile, one inclusive invitation, one held door, one kind gesture at a time.

“Be kind always, because everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.”

#beatingcowdens

 

 

 

Desperate times…

Published on by beatingcowdens4 Comments

I took the knee scooter to the mall.

I brought my husband.  Well, technically he brought me.  And he lugged the giant contraption down the stairs and into the back seat of our “big enough for most things, but not this thing” Sonata.

The screen on his iPhone had cracked and he needed to go to Apple.  I needed an outing worse than a puppy who has been crated too long.

He dropped me off at the door.  He rode the scooter through the parking lot to meet me.  Apparently, like so many other things, its a LOT more fun when you don’t need it.

I laughed in spite of myself at the sight of it.  I was also glad our teenager had decided to stay home.  The sight of it all would have likely been just too much.

People stare right at you, while simultaneously judging you as you drive this thing.  The local mall lacks the tolerance of Disney World.  In fairness, from face on, it looks like you’re using wheels for fun.  It’s not until I have passed, if they bother to look, that they would see the giant walking boot resting on the knee pad.

Today is 8 weeks and 1 day since I’ve been “booted” again. 57 days.

I have had more surgeries in my life than I can count.  Not a single one of them kept me down for 8 weeks. This foot has been messing with my life for over 8 months.

Double Mastectomy – back at work in 5 weeks.

Hysterectomy – back in 2 weeks.

I once had arthroscopic knee surgery over a long weekend, and was back on the 4th floor in my classroom the following Monday.

Vascular, over the February break…

Biopsies, a day tops…

We always say recovery pain is the best kind, because you know it’s going away.

And yet the answer to “Does your foot feel better?” still remains “Not really.”

My kind and compassionate local podiatrist, in a combination of frustration at the injury that won’t heal and my insurance company making it harder for him to treat me, has advised a visit to Hospital for Special Surgery.  I’m sitting.  Foot up, phone in hand, waiting to try to schedule.

I rode that knee scooter all over the mall.  I rode it into the grocery store too.  Quite simply, I’m tired of being locked in my house.  It is truly a ridiculous and ingenious contraption.

If you asked me 2 years ago if I would ever… the answer would have been “NO WAY!”

Except if I keep learning anything through these years of life with a rare disease, and also just life, it seems to be” never say never…”

I had a boatload of things I wasn’t going to do as a parent.  I’m pretty sure the first one was undone about three hours in… right after the anesthesia from that c section wore off…

Wasn’t going to… feed certain things, watch certain things, give certain things, etc. etc.  And then you find yourself learning that all the plans in the world are suddenly invalid as you just try not to damage the tiny human.

A great deal of my pride was left behind in the OR where she was delivered.

I lost a bunch more of it through a slew of breast biopsies prior to the double mastectomy in 2012.

The uterine biopsies, the hysterectomy, the “cancer screening” human exams took a bunch more.

And there are few things quite as humbling as a breast MRI of your silicone implants.

I was never “in fashion” but I used to take great care in what I wore.  Things were dry cleaned.  Stockings and heels were worn daily.

Then there was back pain that seemed only better in sneakers.  Coupled with a significant weight loss my wardrobe evolved into jeans, t shirts and sneakers.  May be a dig at my early judgment of “too casual” teachers…

Life, at it again…

If we are open, and able to be introspective, we are changing and growing all the time.

I am in a painstakingly slow process of relinquishing control.  

Control is really largely an illusion anyway.

Faith, trust, hope, and the ability to embrace what the future has in store, these are my current goals.

I’m a work in progress.

So if you see me and my knee scooter, be kind.  You may even see me up and down the block.  These are, after all, desperate times…

We’re done being caged up.  I need some fall air.  I am ready to get well.  Since my foot isn’t cooperating, I’ll start with my mind.

#beatingcowdens

 

 

Check in…

Published on by beatingcowdens2 Comments

grass is greener“The grass is always greener…”  Blah, blah, blah.

One of those phrases hard to hear, yet typically true.

I woke for work so many days wanting an extra day off, to do nothing.  A break from it all.  A weekend escape.  Me time.  On my terms.

And here I am.  Not on my terms at all. Finishing my seventh week in the “boot” with no end in sight, and daily trying to be diligent about restricting my movement.  All in the hopes the foot will finally heal enough for rehabilitation, and a return to the daily grind.  Isn’t it ironic?

ironic

Seems to be how life goes  a whole lot.  A dear friend once told me, “You can have it all, just not all at the same time.”  Sage advice that I have frequently pondered through the years, but especially these last few weeks.  She stopped by and spent an amazing few hours helping to make some of the time melt away.

Someone sent beautiful flowers to my house last week.  They sat on my table and every time I rolled past them on my scooter I smiled.  Unexpected random act of kindness that lifted my heart.

E89E6AD3-E8C2-4A71-AE76-6B43B6EAA43A

Someone sent me a text out of nowhere, just checking in.  The smile it gave me lasted for hours.

There is one who checks in to keep me involved in the day to day outside of what is currently a very small world.

Another sends me Instagram messages.  Simple Smiles.

check in

A dear friend stopped by with a bottle of Coke and left it in a bright pink bag on my porch.  She had taken the time to pick one up with my last name on it.  I try to generally be healthy, but a sugary real coke is often a weak spot.  She knows.  I will save it for a time when I’m really starving for company.  Maybe tomorrow?

I’ve been focusing as a chronically ill person would, checking boxes, and completing a variety of appointments that are necessary for the management of Cowden’s, yet sometimes interfere with my work day.

I’ve cleared a cardiology intake, and can now hope I need nothing more than an annual drive by.  I have “stacked” several appointments for Meghan on a Monday in January.  It will cost me the day (in my optimism that I’ll be there…) but it will save us a world of trouble going in once instead of three times.  I have filed claims, copied, faxed, sorted….

Meghan got 2 wisdom teeth pulled Friday, right in front of a 4 day weekend from school.  I’ve set her up with a new eye doctor for her annual screen on Election Day.  The eyeglass forms from the Union are on my table.  Felix and I need exams as well.  I’ve spoken to pharmacies, stayed on top of prescriptions and supplements.

6 month dermatology screen for both of us next Wednesday.

I have a few projects, a few things I hope to get focused on.  But, I am easily distracted.  And I am focused on my apple watch, and my step count, which I have been instructed to keep painfully low.

There are some nights, after using up my steps at any of the above appointments, that I’m stuck in my bed pretty early.

I have an app on my phone that has me reading the Bible more than I have done in far too long.  I love the way the books are illustrated in drawings first.

I also have an app that I can waste hours on bouncing bubbles.

I’m up to date on the DVR.  I watched “Diagnosis” on Netflix.

I’ve been researching some alternative pain management.

There is always a way to stay busy.  There is always something to research, to sort, to shred.  There is ALWAYS a way to better yourself, regardless of the restrictions.

What I don’t do is pick up the phone.  I don’t really reach out.  I’ve been battling for quite some time, and I work hard staying afloat. I get the job done, and I always will.  Failure is not an option.  Becoming a completely isolated introvert however, is.

It’s hard to reach out when you’re struggling.  I do my very best to broaden my senses and put small gestures in the direction of those I know might be having a hard time.  Just because you haven’t heard from them, doesn’t mean they wouldn’t love a check in.  In this technology world where its so easy to say “I’m thinking of you…”  We should all try it more.

It’s not about grand gestures.  It’s about knowing you’re missed.  I’m not always as good about it as I could be for others. But, I’m working on it.

Check-on-your-friends

That starts now.  Because if I feel this way, other people do too.  And if we can all check in and share a smile in whatever way we know how, it will make a difference.

And right now, I’ve got plenty of time, anxiously trying to heal this foot while…

#beatingcowdens

 

 

 

Forced Pause…

Published on by beatingcowdens1 Comment

My sister had a series of hamsters when we grew up.  I don’t remember how many.  I actually don’t remember much besides the smell of the cage, and the wheel they used to run in.  They never seemed to tire of it, and each spent long periods of their day there.  Maybe it’s because they were caged with few other options.  Maybe they didn’t know any better.

Regardless, I’ve thought about those hamsters a lot lately.

I feel very much like we live on the wheel.  Every day is centered around executing a well-oiled machine where an insane amount of activities, assignments, and appointments fit into a tiny window.  So at an early hour we hop into the wheel in a sense, and we run all day.

When you’re in the wheel you may think about nothing except for the next task.  Or you may wonder if there is a better way to get through the day.  You may long for a break from the routine and the schedule.  You may wonder what you’d do if…

We are chronically busy.  Sometimes out of necessity and sometimes by design.  Sometimes, in the case of those of us with chronic illness it is a little of both.

In my house we are busily maintaining health, through frequent appointments and therapies.  We are also busy trying to fit a regular life around it.  There is constant motion.

Until there isn’t.

I spent so many moments wishing I could take things a little slower.  I wished I could have some time, for a full nights sleep, to clean my house the way I want it, to visit with friends, to take long walks, and…

And now I’m here.

A January foot injury at work has morphed into a monster that refuses to heal.  Stress and strain and alternate gait patterns protecting the original injury continue to set the healing process in the wrong direction.  A stress fracture of  the cuboid bone continued to worsen.  It’s now my first official “fracture.”

It is time for me to pause.

This time there is no rushing out of the boot.  There is no making believe its all ok.  There is waiting.  Resting. Minimal weight bearing.  There will be additional imaging to clear the healing before I head to physical therapy.  There are only very short car trips to doctor’s appointments and to transport my girl.

I am here.  In my house.  Alone.

And it sounded to heavenly when I was dreaming about it in the middle of the chaos of the day to day.

Now it sounds a lot like the tick-tock of the clock hanging over my head.

It feels a lot different when I have to let someone else teach my students.

It is not as productive as I’d hoped, since all the cleaning and sorting and organizing I promised myself if I ever had time is currently off limits with the whole restricted movement thing.

It is a battle not to let my head overthrow me with its worry about “real” Cowden’s issues that may at any point smack us in the face.  It is tough not to think about the backlog of surgeries that will come, but have now been placed in triage.

And yet I have to make a choice.

There was a very inspirational GoalCast in my Facebook feed this morning.

Claire Wineland Dies at 21 and Leaves Beautiful Message

And I’d encourage you to watch it if you have a moment.

Her life was way more challenging than mine.  Yet she made a choice that I still struggle with sometimes.

These last few months without the proper use of my feet have often left me battling depression.  I do not have it all together, or have an inspirational message as this young woman left behind in her short time on earth.

What I do know is if I choose to wallow in this I will miss the “pause” that has been placed in front of me.

Instead I will make the conscious choice to make what I can do, more fulfilling.

I am going to try to write a lot more.  I am going to have some people visit.  I am going to handle a few “sitting down projects” that are in my path. I am going to open the windows and appreciate the fall weather even if I can’t walk in it this year.

I’m going to look at my orchids, and their beauty and crazy, stubborn irregularities that make them magical for me.

I am giving small pieces of my life back to reflectiveness and prayer and simple mindfulness.

Someone took the wheel out of my cage.

For however long it’s gone, it’s on me to decide how to view it.

If you take the time to watch the link above you’ll understand when I say today I am looking to add some lights and a few throw pillows.

This is not easy.  If you’re reading this you likely go through hard things too.

I am a work in progress.  Thankfully God’s not finished with me yet.

I’ll be here with my feet up.

This too will pass eventually.

#beatingcowdens

Difficult To Work With

Published on by beatingcowdens4 Comments

I am so tired of fighting.

All the time.

My Grandfather told me  many years ago that I was “difficult to work with.”  He said it with love.  I don’t remember the exact context.  I do remember it was said with a smile.

And he was undoubtedly right about that, like so many other things.

I had a boss a few years back that told me, “If you continue to hold everyone to the same standards you hold yourself to, you will always be disappointed.”  Strong words, but also not  inaccurate.

I am a lot to take.

I am intense almost all the time.  I have a mouth full of words that last long  past the attention span of anyone I strike up a conversation with.

I am passionate about things I believe in.

I make lots and lots of mistakes.  But, I truly do my best all the time.

So I just sometimes struggle to understand why it seems everything I touch or encounter is a battle.

I spend hours upon hours sorting through medical claims.  I look up who paid what, and when.  I call on bills that need to be refiled.  I take names on post-it notes with dates and times, in case things don’t get rectified.

I file out of network claims, and then I watch them processed in error.  I make three phone calls to try to sort out the change in policy, which was simply just a mistake no one will own.  I take names again.  I am told to wait 6 more weeks for hundreds of dollars owed to me to be reprocessed.  It’s only a little about the money.  It’s mostly about the notebook, and the folder with the copies of the claims, and the alarm in my phone to remind me when I need to follow up on the call again.

I send medication to the mail order pharmacy because we have no choice.  And then I wait for them to screw it up.  That sounds negative, but it’s simply accurate.  They have an entire notebook in my world to help manage the 9 mail away prescriptions between us.  There is a perpetual box on my ‘to do’ list which tells me to check on the progress of any refill.

I make appointments.  The list has 20 specialists between us.  They vary from twice a week to once a year.  A psychologist once told me not to let the appointments interfere with “preferred activities.”  So there is a matrix with the impossible task as the ultimate goal.  Except none of the 20 doctors know about the other 19.  Or the full time job.  Or the high school honor student’s schedule.  Or swim practice.  Or theater.  Or voice lessons.  Nor do they care.  And I get it.  They can not hear everyone’s story. So when I call to try to carefully place that appointment in a very tiny window of time, they are always unhappy with me.  They think I’m being unreasonable.  And maybe I am.  But, I can’t imagine why I wouldn’t TRY to get everything to keep her physically healthy and still let her be a teen.

I deal with unexpected schedule changes.  Like when I carefully stack 2 appointments in one day, and then one has to move to right smack in the middle of a week long summer internship that was planned forever ago, because now instead of two doctors with Friday hours at the same facility, one has Monday and one has Friday.  No overlap.  So I erase,  and juggle.  Except I’m not great at juggling in a literal sense, so one got cancelled and hasn’t been rescheduled.  Actually two… because summer can not be ALL about doctors.  Nor can every day off.  But, neither can every day at work or school…

“What do you mean you’re not going to reschedule today?”

So much of our condition relies on screening.  Early detection is a blessing.  It is the key.  It is also tedious and time consuming.  It is possible to be grateful and overwhelmed simultaneously.

So much of this is case management.  And, when last I checked my master’s degree is in education, not medicine.  But, with no one to coordinate care I have to guess a whole lot.  I have to decide if 9 months will be ok instead of 6.  I have to decide when to push the doctor for more lab tests when the fatigue won’t quit and the thyroid is ok but the spleen…eh, no one is quite sure about the spleen…

And there are doctor’s whose pride won’t let them return a call because I haven’t seen them recently enough.

There is the genetics appointment lingering again.  Because maybe Cowden’s wasn’t the WHOLE answer…

And the “normal people stuff”  like the seemingly never-ending root canals because my stress is played out in the jaw clenching that overtakes the episodes of sleep. That is on the occasions everything is calm enough for me to make it to my bed.

Or the foot injury.  The “rare” lisfranc ligament partial tear.  Close to 6 months later.  Not a soul wants to hear me tell the story again.  No one wants to believe that it still hurts badly enough that I haven’t take a real walk since last fall.  I’m not lazy.  I’m horrified by the state of my body in the absence of real physical activity.  I am trying to be patient.  My patience is running out alongside my sanity.

And the IEP.  Oh, the Individualized Education Plan… and the meetings.  Over and over and over again…  Meghan is on the waiting list for a service dog.  She has PTSD and generalized anxiety disorder.  The dog is coming.  The process is wearing me out.

I am a lot to take.

I am often “difficult to work with.”

I hold myself and others to a high standard.

I am intense most of the time.

I am tired.

I am so very tired of fighting all the time.

There is no choice though.  No choice at all.

So, in the mean time I will be here.  Strengthening my resolve.  I may bend, but I will not break.  I will continue to strive to show my girl that she can have a rare and currently incurable disease, while excelling at school, at sports, being active in the community, and being a generally decent human.

Last month we walked out of a screening appointment.  It was not critical.  It was an hour behind.  We rescheduled.  Also a valuable lesson.

I am tired of fighting, but I am far from done.

As my Grandfather said, I am “difficult to work with.”

I am also loved.  I am flawed.  I am also forgiven. 

 

When I have no more, I put my hands together and ask… and I am never disappointed.

Through God’s Grace alone we remain…

#beatingcowdens

A Drop in the Bucket…

Published on by beatingcowdens1 Comment

As of today, my records show 78 appointments between the two of us since January 1st.  That’s 148 days.  More than one every other day.

78 scheduled appointments.  Some appointments are close and some are far.  Some are routine, some are emergent, some are therapy and some are follow up.

Every single one of them interrupts or controls a day, depending on its location and wait time.

So what do you do?

This is reality.  This is chronic illness x2.  This is what it is.  These appointments are non-negotiable.  They also can easily become all-consuming.

What do you do?  How do you keep it in check?  How do you keep it from swallowing you up?  How do you keep it from winning?

I thought I knew.  I though I had it all mapped out for a while.  But, the oppressive weight of chronic illness can be crushing.

It happened slowly to me.

 

I was carrying a bucket.  Every appointment was a drop.  Every hour wasted in traffic was another.  Every time I picked up the phone to fight a medical bill, every time I juggled a full time job, and the full-time extra curricular calendar of my teen, the bucket just got more and more full.  Now, I carry the bucket.  All the time.  Everywhere I go.

And it’s full.  Really full.

So I try not to spill.

But there isn’t much room for anything else at all.

I’ve said no to one too many events.

I have turned away from one too many dinners.

I have declined get-togethers because I just don’t feel like I can breathe.

I spend the whole day with this bucket.  My mission is to keep it from spilling.  It holds too many things too valuable to spill even a drop.

I say out loud that I am fitting chronic illness into our lives.  But, many days I feel like I am fitting life into our chronic illness.

I am not complaining.  There is so much I am grateful for, and so many things I would never ever change.

I am however simply trying to keep from drowning in my bucket.

Working on my balance…

#beatingcowdens