Thursday 12/22/22 A Horrible Day

 I've been doing quite poorly the past week. Feeling down and depressed, irritable and annoyed. There was an event that triggered this. A rather horrible event that happened last Friday.

I was at work, in transition nursery, attending deliveries like I always do, when the unthinkable happened. Room 16 went for a crash c-section because we lost baby's heart tones. I called NICU to let them know and the team was assembled - high risk trans nurse, myself, respiratory therapist, nurse practitioner, and the neonatologist. We were prepared. We had our equipment ready. Decision to incision was about 4 minutes. The baby was born grey and lifeless. CPR was started immediately. The baby was intubated, umbilical lines placed, epinephrine given. At first I thought the baby would turn around, start breathing, start crying.

That did not happen.

Five doses of epinephrine were given. Sodium bicarb, and 40ml bolus of saline. Compressions for 20 minutes before time of death was called. We worked so hard to save this little life but God had other plans. The neonatologist approached the dad outside of the OR to tell him the bad news. He was brought in to see his son, Cade. He lost it, as any parent would. We all cried with him, what else could we do? He and his son were taken to a private room with our social worker and a nurse while mom was taken to recovery to wake up (she had been put under general anesthesia). 

It was awful. The whole situation just terribly awful. In my nearly 14 years of doing nursery this is only the second life I've lost. Both instances were traumatic. The first one, 8 years ago, sent me into psychosis. I had delusions and hallucinations for months. This time I'm much more stable but my brain has decided depression is the way to go. I feel so horrible for this family. I've been praying for them daily. I don't know what else to do. I'm hoping as I get more remote from the delivery, as I talk about it with Mike in a couple of weeks, the depression will dissipate and I won't need a round of ketamine. But for now I grieve. There's no way to make sense of it. 

So I've been down, depressed, irritable, and annoyed. I'm trying not to dwell. I'm trying to be upbeat and positive. I'm trying to let go. I'm doing all the things to make myself okay. And yet, I'm not. Not really. But I'm hopeful I'll get there, one way or another. 

And then, to add insult to injury, I found out something horrifying yesterday. My son has his first girlfriend. He's 15. And my hubby and I found out yesterday that she gave him oral sex. He's FIFTEEN FUCKING YEARS OLD. That is NOT okay. I felt literally sick to my stomach when hubby texted me. I felt like curling up in a ball and crying. What the actual fuck is going on here?? My sweet little boy isn't so sweet and innocent anymore. I feel like I've lost something. I feel angry and confused and sick and concerned and horrified and sad. I didn't need this right now - I'm already emotionally fragile. Hubby had a long talk with him yesterday. I haven't seen him yet as he went to his grandma's house last night before I got home from work. So I'll see him today and have a chat with him. What do I even say?

I need a break from adulting.

Wednesday 12/14/22 December

 Well, we're almost half way through December already, which is pretty crazy. Time sure is flying by. Before we know it it will be 2023 (which will hopefully be a better year).

I went to the doctor this morning as I've been having lower back pain. Only on the right, though. About where my kidney is and a little below that. I pretty much knew what he was going to say, but I still went. Annoying though is that my appointment was at 9:20 - fairly early morning - but he was already running 40 minutes behind. Ugh. My doc is always behind. He likes to take his time with patients - which is great - but it puts him far behind. Sometimes over an hour. Which is frustrating. So. What he said. 1. I need to wear better shoes, not my beloved Pumas, which are flat. 2. Arch support insoles in my shoes. 3. Lose weight (dude, I'm trying). And 4. Physical therapy. I'm not looking forward to physical therapy. Mainly because my insurance doesn't cover that much and it ends up being around $75 a visit. It gets expensive real quick. I'm hoping for like 2-3 visits where they can teach me the exercises and stretches and I can just do them at home. 

I ordered the insoles he recommended, which weren't, thankfully, expensive. And as for the weight loss . . . I'm trying. I really am. But I need to kick my efforts up a notch. I can't seem to get under 210. It's frustrating. I want to at least be down to 170, preferably 160. But I can't seem to get my weight to budge. For months now. If it changes it's because it's going up. I know I need to be more consistent with exercising, I know I could be eating better. It's just so freaking hard when I have no motivation. You'd think going to Japan would be enough motivation but I'm struggling. And it doesn't help that I've had several "bad mood" days this past week which makes doing anything that much more difficult. I haven't accomplished anything this week so far. No painting, no real cleaning, no working out, not even opening a book to read. I spent most of Monday in bed. I was supposed to work, was called off, and just stayed in bed. Worked yesterday. Today I feel like doing nothing except taking a nap. I have no energy. I know I'd feel better if I accomplished something . . . I just don't know if I will. Damn my self-sabotaging self. 

I really have nothing left to say this week. Hopefully I'll get my ass in gear.  

Friday 12/9/22 Stuff and things

 Well, it's Friday. Nothing special about it.

I've managed to get two good workouts in this week, plus walking yesterday volunteering. It's a start. I downloaded a workout app that I "committed" to using at least twice a week. It has hundreds (if not thousands) of different workouts to choose from - Tuesday and today I did total body workouts (today was more of a HIIT workout, Tuesday was more strength focused). I was sore after Tuesday, and my legs are jello today. I'm hoping I can continue to be consistent and work out regularly. I really need to get in shape in general, but especially in time for our Japan trip - we're going to be walking a LOT the two weeks we're there! I don't want to be struggling to get around or totally exhausted. I've got a little over 5 months to get in shape. I can do it!

I did my first craft fair last weekend (the 3rd and 4th). I sold more than I thought I was going to sell, so that's good. I had kind of a crappy location - tucked in a corner of Doherty's small gym (which lots of people don't even know exists). They didn't have good signage for the small gym either. But I made around $600 so that's cool. I presigned up for next year with a request of being in the main gym or cafeteria - so I can get more exposure. All in all it was a good experience, although tiring. Lots of peopling (which I'm not very good at, being an introvert). We're going to professionally scan some of my personal artwork and make prints of them for next time. And, I guess, for my Etsy shop too. I don't know how much that's going to cost or which paintings to do or if people will like them . . . ugh.

Mood wise I've been holding pretty steady. I have times where I'm meh, or irritable, or down, but it usually doesn't last long. So that's good. Stable is good. I keep waiting for the depression to come back but it hasn't yet. It's been over a month since my last ketamine treatment, fingers crossed I can go 3 months or longer. 

That's about it. I'm pretty boring right now. 

Thursday 12/1/22 Therapy

 It's already December and I'm not sure how I feel about that. 

I had therapy today. I thought it was going to be my last session with Mike and I was trying to prepare myself for such. Turns out he hasn't sold his house yet and is continuing to do therapy until he does so. So I see him again the beginning of January. To which I am grateful. I'm going to miss him so much when he retires and moves (to Pennsylvania). 

Anyway, it was a banger session. Talk centered around my mom and my childhood and my innate introvertedness. See, I'm shy. I'm an introvert. We were discussing if this is more "genetic" or environmental (most likely mostly environmental related to growing up in an alcoholic household). I don't necessarily want to be introverted. It would be nice to be able to talk with people freely, smoothly, without having to force it. I'm envious of people who can do that. So we talked at length about it and now I have homework (I don't like homework). Mike wants me to have a conversation with a coworker I don't know very well. So I can practice. Push me out of my comfort zone. I agreed to work on it. Working on it is the best I can do. 

I've been a mixed bag of emotions today. Mostly I've felt down and emotionally fragile. Volunteering was good and I felt better whilst doing it, even having a good conversation with one of the other volunteers (see, Mike? I can do it!). But I woke up feeling uneasy, anxious even. I know this is because I thought today was my last session with Mike. I even had a dream about it where Mike introduced me to my new therapist that would be replacing him. I didn't like it. Mike sensed my anxiety when I sat down. It got better throughout the session, and I'm not anxious now, but I still feel fragile - like I could cry at any moment, for any reason. Maybe I need to cry. I kind of feel as though I do. But I'm restraining myself. I don't know why. Maybe part of me is worried that if I do cry it'll lead to instability of mood. I have no idea really. I'm grasping at straws here. 

We were supposed to go out to dinner with my mom tonight. She called me around 11:30, drunk and sobbing because she had a headache and canceled dinner. I'm not going to lie - I was both relieved and angry about this. See, she has been hounding me via call, text, and email for several weeks wanting to go out for dinner. Finally settled on a day and time and restaurant and she cancels. Drunkinly cancels. I'll be honest - I didn't want to see her tonight. I don't want to see her ANY time, really. But bugging me constantly about going out and then canceling last minute just doesn't sit right with me. And, truth be told, if she had called me when she was sober to cancel, I wouldn't be angry. But she wasn't sober. She was drunk. She's always fucking drunk. It's another letdown in my life of being let down by her. It's frustrating. And there's nothing I can do about it. I'm trying not to let it mar my day. Talked about it in therapy, writing about it now, and then I'm going to forget it and move on. Look on the bright side - now I don't have to deal with her drunk self in person. 

I feel like I should leave you with a picture of a fox I painted. Why not?