My Fight

I am reminding myself of the strength I know I have. I lost track of it for a while, not from being sick but because of my divorce, but it's still there when I need it most. Having doctors ignore me for the last 6 months while I try to tell them something is wrong has been quite frustrating. Being in an MRI tube for 6 hours two days ago put my mental strength to the test. The only reason the tears came after 5 hours is that I felt like I was ruining my daughter's day off with her boyfriend. Luckily, the staff let them know it would be a while, and they were able to go do things while they waited. Most of the time, I was comfortable except when I had to be on my side with my arm above my head. The pain began to be more than I could bear. Other times they had so many pillows propping me in positions I almost couldn't fit on the tube. The Valium wore off way too soon, but I was able to just blank my mind when it got too much.

I pray I am wrong about the feeling my cancer is back. With the series of events that have led up to this MRI, I really have lost faith in the medical field. Yes, in years past they are what saved my life, but only in my persistence to get 2nd and 3rd opinions when I didn't like what I heard or didn't feel it was the right course of action. My story has many, many medical blunders. I just hope the torture I went through on Thursday gives me some answers. If it's not cancer, then tell me WHAT it is, and not pass these lumps off as ... "I don't know, but I don't think it's cancer related."

SIRENIA - The Path To Decay

sigh ...

So many ideas ... so little money.

It would also really help if I wasn't ADD...

Sugar Daddy

.... I'm beginning to think I need one. Every time I think I'm going to make some progress in my life I hit a wall. At this rate I'm going to go from concussion to brain damage.

Thinking about a Bucket List

I am so grateful for having life and never believed the doctors that I was going to die. I have a good life, but have allowed depression and stress and most of all pain and fear control me. I live for my children, yet one is on his own and the other is not far behind. Both full of life and ready for life's adventures. It's time for my own. This divorce, not the disease, has left me broken, broke and not living life. I am going to do everything in my power to fulfill things I have dreamed of doing in my life. Don't know where I will get the money to do this, but I will find a way. Here is a start to my Bucket List. There will be so much more added with time.

I want to stay in a castle turned hotel.



        

 ... or two.

Wander the English countryside.

Spend a few months in Tuscany.

Absorb every inch of Notre Dame and gaze upon the spiritual Rose window.

One day owning a few acres with horses. 

Maybe alpacas ...

 

... and one of these! <3

I'm jealous my kids are at Universals Halloween Horror Nights without me! I sat at home and played with Photoshop instead of working tonight. Going on vacation in a few days, but it seems my brain is already there!

Tears

Been crying off and on all week. My heart is breaking for a friend in hospice, regretting things I should have done. I feel so bad for Chris and Liz who have been best friends with her since childhood, and for her family who is suffering watching her suffer.

Selfishly this has been a wake up call for me. I have been so wrapped up in focusing on my problems and with this  marathon divorce I have lost the happy go lucky positive person I used to be.  I'm sick of being sick. I've been blaming the meds I am on, but I know it's mostly all me. I have to get back on a good mental and physical track. The depression I fight has some to do with it, but I have always been able to overcome. I just simply gave up the last several years.

I just wrote on Ellen's show page for survivors and broke down in tears again. I had to answer questions about my illness and give advice for someone about to start treatment. It hit me hard about how low my life has sunk and how I have allowed my life to move so off course! I used to be told I was amazing. I used to be there for women newly diagnosed. I used to talk to the other cancer patients while getting my treatments.
Now, I've pushed so many out of my life. I avoid people. I am a homebody. I sit and stay to myself in the IV room. Again, part of it is depression and losing my positive focus, but lately it's gotten to be I am ashamed of myself. My teeth are a mess from chemo and radiation and I'm ashamed to smile and laugh. I still can't find a dentist to help me. I have become so heavy and don't feel comfortable in clothes. I won't buy new clothes because I tell myself I will when I lose weight. I am ashamed to go out because I have no clothes to wear! Vicious circle I tell ya. I don't feel well and am tired all the time. If I exercised and ate right I would feel better. I over eat and don't eat the right foods because I have come to realize food comforts me. If I don't break these horrendous cycles I will never heal! I know what I need to do to get better, it's finding the motivation ... no, the mental strength to get there.

I have LIFE. Something I was told I was going to lose years ago. I want more than this. I want to start LIVING life. So many years in that chemo room I began to block out the pain and suffering that goes on there. Chris C's battle is more personal and has unblocked a reality to just how fragile life is.

Reading back over this, I even ramble in circles. No wonder I'm always dizzy.

Home Office

My home office is coming together! It's bittersweet considering it's Zacks old room and I couldn't even come in here for almost 2 months! It was too heartbreaking walking in and seeing all his things gone. He has been in this room since he was in a crib! Now that I am setting up my own workspace I'm a happy girl :-) I'm going to go through old pictures and make a collage of pictures through the years and hang it on the wall.

I spent all day going through all the things he left behind sorting what I keep for memories and what goes in the garage sale. Yes, I am crazy for having another one. Every time I do I say I will never have another. But there is just too much to bring to Goodwill so I might as well try and make a few bucks then send what's left to charity.

Right now I am using a 5ft. folding table that I will eventually use for home parties as my desk/work table. My creative juices are flowing. I just hope I can keep on task. When I have so many things I want to do I tend to start a project then move to the next, then the next and never get one fully done. I have to learn to stay on task! I think the art will be first, then the crafts, then the aromatherapy and skin care items. I won't have everything done in time for the village craft fair in October, but there will be others. I also have the website and hopes of home parties once I get things going.

I have a big futon in here so at times I can sit back, relax and think. Right now I have 3 cats checking it out thinking it's their new hangout. I don't think so! Koondah is a bit confused because he smells himself on  it and it looks eerily familiar. I got it from my ex. I also got the cat from my ex. Poor baby is looking at me like... wtf? lol

I'm pretty exhausted from working all day. My back is absolutely killing me. The heating pad and my bed are calling my name.

Words from the heart

I shouldn't still be obsessing over this, but it hurts to be blamed by people that have no clue. I saw something today that bothered me greatly and started typing these words. I'm not a writer so don't judge. The pain is real.

Fight

Breaking Free

I  had come so far only to get caught in his web of lies once again. I am breaking free.
Life is a gift, a gift worth fighting for. I'm not quite sure when I gave up my control to him, but I have been a fighter most all my life. I will be in control again and fly free like I dreamed I would once I was free of him. I am free.

Threats

Sunset Vines

I'm in a bit of a better mood today. No tears. I decided to make a different version of the trapped entagled bleeding butterflies. I have to remind myself there is always hope and I can change, grow and maybe even fly.

My mood ....

Entangled

Don't know what to do ...

I lose my health insurance in 3 weeks. Just reading over my disability and medicaid details. I can't make any income, so my new business is useless. I can't even figure out if I am allowed to receive alimony on it. I'm either going to be forced to live in poverty and have severely crappy health care that doesn't cover what I need, or try and actually live life... but die with no health care to cover all my cancer care costs. Does he care? Not at all. Of course his life (to him) is much worse off. I guess he is backing out on us staying married for me to have health coverage.

Honestly... I just fucking give up.

Gonna get back to blogging

I felt better when I blogged so I am going to come back to it. Holding things in and not expressing myself is what has caused me to start having anxiety.

2009 was not a good year for me all around. Rich was out of work for almost the whole year and our relationship became strained. On the other hand Julian and I got along much better. Little did I know he was just using me because he knew I would be there for him when he needed help. I was.... every damn time he needed it. He told me how much it meant to him and at times lead me to believe there was more to it. Come to find out he had a hidden girlfriend across the country. One our kids STILL don't know about. A girl across the country is perfect for him. He can hide his flaws and have someone to talk to nightly to spew his crap to. He is definitely a talker. Then they have little weekend getaways to keep the bliss illusion. I don't believe he will ever move out there. He has everything he needs without the responsibility of being in a relationship. He can do anything he pleases. How would she know what he is up to? I actually hope he does move out there so I don't have to deal with the pain so often. Yes, we have been separated for almost 4 years now and will always be married so I can keep insurance, but it still hurts how much he has changed.

If he does move out there he will be daddy to her kids and I don't think that will be easy for my kids. Especially since they don't know she or they exist. There is a lot of flirtation on his Facebook, even talk of being tied up for sex when he goes out there this weekend. But the kids think of that as nothing knowing how many women have been in and out of his life and what a flirt he is. They don't realize it's real... or his fantasy version of real.

In good news Rich has found a job and is happy with it. He is back to being "Rich" again and I am thrilled. I need to focus on our relationship and our future. I've spent most of our time together focusing on the past and trying to fix what went wrong with my husband. I'm done with that and have a very strong good feeling about 2010. I think it's going to be our year. Things are really going to turn around and be good. :) My kids are doing great, they want to make family portraits with the 4 of us. That is a good sign. They love Rich. It's about time I gave him the respect and love he deserves.

confused

Kinda in limbo right now. Not sure what decision to make, not sure if I am strong enough to go through with what I decide. Feeling a bit lost.

I wish I could blog about what is going on and how I'm feeling. But I feel it would cause more trouble than I can handle. Blogging is therapeutic for me. I can't even keep a secret journal because I fear the repercussions. How do I screw up my life so much? Where is the strong woman I used to be?

Failure

I have pretty much failed in life. The one thing that kept me going, kept me wanting to live, is my kids. They are the light of my life. I feel as if I am a failure as a mother too. Everyone said surviving cancer when I was told I would die was a miracle. It's not. It's nothing but a nightmare. I want to get off this ride. I wish I hadn't gone for the damn IV today. I'm never going again.

oh good gawd ...

Just found out Meg has a casting tomorrow morning in South Beach. Another 6 hour round trip plus wait time. My body aches and I am so tired. I'm going to bed extra early tonight, though I haven't slept good in I don't know how long. I pray I sleep tonight. Her castings are so hard not only on my body but financially too. She can't make it if I don't do this, and I would do anything for her and Zack.

Sometimes I wonder why I survived such a horrific disease just to fuck up my life. I have no one to blame but myself. When I was told I was going to die, I vowed no one would raise my kids but me. I think that is the only thing I have done semi right. There are many things I would change in what I have done for my kids or opportunities I should have made for them. But at least they have turned out to be good loving mature kids with good values and loving hearts. We have a close and open relationship and can talk to each other about anything. I do believe if I didn't have that in my life right now I would just give up. Every other aspect of my life it seems I have turned into a total fuck up. I have nothing else going for me. No, this isn't a pity party. It's a realization that I have done this all to myself and only I can change it. It's just a matter of do I care enough anymore.