What no one wants to hear...

I spent Sunday and Monday working on building up my larder again, which always makes me feel as if I accomplished something worthwhile.  It is rather amazing to me this way of cooking I have learned.  I mean, learning to cook is the only thing in my life that is moving forward.  The rest of me is falling back, losing ground, fading away.

With all the things that I have learned to cook, I have more than a dozen "staples" now that I like to keep on hand as my main meals.  When the mason jar drawer becomes full, I get out the pots and start cooking.  Usually, I just cook what I am hankering for, but this time I took an inventory of the basement freezer to see which of my staples were low.  That changed my cooking agenda and leaves me with a full freezer of my favorites with 14 different options from which to choose.

It was nice have forward progress for once.

Tuesday ... Tuesday I spent trying to say something first in therapy and second to a friend.  But the words I was speaking did not seem to translate from my brain to their ears.  I have been struggling mightily ever since the colonoscopy, the visit to the podiatrist, and the exchange with the neurologist's nurse.  All three instances of really crappy medical care.  But instances that drive home the need to be ... compliant and quiet as a patient.  Anyone who needs more, needs care beyond that which is not already scheduled and practiced and normal is someone to be crushed.  Crushed by callousness.  Crushed by cruelty.  Crushed by being crazy-labled.

Shut up.  Be still.  Wait until it is over.

More and more, I feel as if that is really what I need to do in the medical world and out.  That I should just ... live that way.  That crushes me.

So, of course, I thought about writing about what no one wants to hear as a means of turning aside my thoughts about the Sanctuary.  The torment and torture of my bowels.  Because I cannot escape them.  And I deal with them daily.  And the wretchedness and ... the shame.  Shame from the part of my body torturing and tormenting me.  Shame from where I am whilst being torment and torture.

I need to poop and I scream from the pain of my pudendal nerve flaring.
I need to poop and I struggle to not faint from the trigger of pain.
I need to poop and I battle nausea from pressure against my vagus nerve.
I need to poop and I vomit from pressure against my vagus nerve.
I need to poop and I battle pre-syncope from pressure against my vagus nerve.
I need to poop and I faint from pressure against my vagus nerve.
I need to poop and I grow weak from pressure against my vagus nerve.
I need to poop and I tremble and shake from pressure against my vagus nerve.
I poop and I scream from the pain of my flesh tearing.
I poop and I scream from the pain of my pudendal nerve flaring.
I poop and I struggle to not faint from the trigger of pain.
I poop and I battle nausea from pressure against my vagus nerve.
I poop and I vomit from pressure against my vagus nerve.
I poop and I battle pre-syncope from pressure against my vagus nerve.
I poop and I faint from pressure against my vagus nerve.
I poop and I grow weak from pressure against my vagus nerve.
I poop and I tremble and shake from pressure against my vagus nerve.

I take five different things just to try to poop every day, because my bowels are so very slow.  This leaves me feeling crazy, because ... well ... who would want to poop, when pooping causes such wretchedness in the body? 

Because my bowels are so very slow, the need to poop can start hours before the act can happen.  That means I am ill for hours.

When I do not manage to go, then I am stuck with the agony of constipation.  A while back, I went 19 days before I finally tried a medication that tipped me over into diarrhea for more than a day.  Violent diarrhea.

And then there is the gas from both a medication I take and from the slow bowels.  The pressure of the gas is enough to trigger pain, nausea, weakness, fainting, trembling, and shaking.  Sometimes, when it is particularly bad, I will mash on my abdomen to try to move the gas along.  But I can become so bloated I look as if I am expecting a baby and the pain of it leaves me writhing on the bathroom floor or flailing about in my bed as if I were a beached whale.

Daily, I deal with wretchedness in my body because of my bowels.
Wretchedness and shame and silence.

It's one battle amongst many when it comes to my body.
A lonely battle.
A shameful battle.
A silent battle.
A weary, dispiriting battle.