Tuesday 15 April 2014

Back to reality

[NOTE: as I write this, I think I'm still recovering from going on a completely relaxing holiday to spending 2 nights going to bed at 2am, so my mind is a little addled. Therefore, the structure of the sentences below may not be as clear as they should be, but if I wait for my mind to clear enough, I might not get this out for another few days, and I don't want that to be the case]

Huh. So I spent several hours writing a blog post yesterday, realised I was too tired to know what I was saying so decided to re-read today.
Came back, decided to change one thing, clicked two buttons and bye bye post.

Balls. 
Never mind. Clearly wasn't meant to be. Take 2....It's a lot to read. If you take anything away from this, please let it be the link below. That's the most valuable part.

The last two weeks were designed to relax and have fun: first on holiday with mum then larp. Conclusion: success! And some reflection time.

Holiday

This was a very impromptu trip which involved staying at my aunt's flat in a beautiful little coast based town. The crap weather in the first two days was more than made up for the rest of the time! 
Our only entertainment was chatting to each other, walking, reading 2 books we'd brought with us or playing an addictive number game on mum's iPad. It was a constant state of meditation as there was little to nothing to do. It was awesome. Seriously relaxing! Made coming home really weird and slightly trippy! 


Our favourite walking route was a really lovely path along the coast which you only knew existed if you could spot the odd red and white marks on rocks, directing you the right way. 
Not the ideal path for someone with mobility difficulties, as even I had trouble, but the view by the coast was totally worth it.
However, being me...at the last 2 days, restlessness began to kick in.
Don't get me wrong, it was a really lovely holiday, the view was amazing and it was fun learning lines for my upcoming theatre show (watch this space) and chatting with mum about stuff we'd never really discussed before. 
But I find it really hard to keep unoccupied for too long. Whether it's just sitting and reading, or being physically active. I constantly need to do something. I started looking forward to the weekend.
Still I had a lovely holiday and actually felt a little emotional going back as I've always felt that touch more at home abroad than I do in England. But again, England is where my life is so I'll always come back.

We got back to London about 12am, so I stayed over at my parents and the next day saw me at a well planned counselling session.
Walking into the hospital was enough to make me go 'oh yeah....this'. 
Chatting with my counsellor, I realised that mentally, I'm a mini-hulk (shush...just keep reading): 
I'm constantly in a state of anger and frustration that I've been handed a dud health card, I just hide it from everyone, including myself. Yes, I'm extremely fortunate on so many levels in other aspects of my life and I'm grateful for this on an almost daily basis (appreciating what you have rather than resenting what you don't have kind of thing), but I'm still deep down angry as I feel I can't get on with life until this is rectified. Still things I want to do....but just can't.
Coming back to the hospital poked that emotion and, chatting, I found myself displacing it all over the place, until she asked to me 'why do you really think you're angry?'

This being the case, I'm glad I had that chat before seeing a tired Tom and potentially laying it out on him as soon as he says the wrong thing. 
Since this whole health thing arose, Tom and I try and be as bluntly honest with each other as possible. I don't see the point in decorating the truth when it's just easier to be honest. Therefore, I try and communicate with him as much as possible so he doesn't misread me. Or I don't misread him. 
Any misunderstood looks or comments are immediately highlighted then explained. We learnt this early on so we didn't kill each other when times became particularly tough. Oh don't get me wrong. We still argue, but if it's a potential misunderstanding, we resolve it as soon as possible: 'why'd you give me that look?' 'what look?' 'you just looked weirdly annoyed when I told you this and turned away' 'that? oh no I was thinking about this other thing I needed to do whilst you were talking, carry on.'
That kind of thing.
That and my sighing. People sigh at each other...a lot. A way of demonstrating weariness at others. I sigh...a lot. A way of trying to catch breathe if I've talked a lot or undergone something which required a touch more breathe than I realised. I think Tom's learning how to interpret a sigh for health to a sigh for him! 
'What was that sigh for?'
'I was breathing'
'Ah ok'

ANYway. Got home and Tom being...y'know, awesome, had left me a display of flowers, my favourite chocolates and a note. I thanked him by picking him up from the blood clinic where he had donated and making him dinner.

Larp

For the first time in 9 years, we booked a hotel room. So glad we did. At the end of March, I started feeling chilly in our house and we knew if we camped and it was that cold, these days there was further risk to my health. Having bad circulation and Raynauld's (worse circulation in hands and feet) plus taking medication which can emphasise this problem has always given me a bit of an issue when camping in the cold but it's been worse recently. 

Larp events have now taken a different turn for me. For smaller, campaign events, I now work behind the scenes, doing make-up on the monsters etc. I can't fight like I used to (the will is there, but the flesh hyperventilates).
I've no problem with this as I'm good friends with the crew and people who monster are a laugh, so I enjoy it. It also gives me flexibility to pop in and out of the player group when wearing the crew jacket. 
I like that flexibility.

However, doesn't stop me missing Sadira and getting into the fray. Her life...I don't miss quite so much. That...that was a little painful. But what she represented I miss: my physical vitality, endurance etc etc.
I seemed to play her when I was at my strongest, and when I lost her, god that was a difficult time. 
She represented my armour and when the mental representative was stripped away, I faced redundancy, health issues came to light and more. 
Sadira encountered a lot of difficulty in her life and when she went, it's like life went 'ok...that was a test. Now your turn'.
I actually remember people commiserating that they couldn't believe I was going through such a difficult time and thinking the same way I did when Sadira lost most her family in one jolt: 'I can go about this 2 ways: I can either lose my mind....or pull myself together and become stronger'.

I chose the latter. Fuck me, it was difficult. Very difficult. But things that are worth getting/doing aren't easy. Makes it more interesting.

But I still miss her.

DID YOU KNOW

For those of you interested (which I hope is the majority), here are the different stages of renal failure. I'm between 3 and 4: http://www.missingmillion.co.uk/stages/

This is an extremely useful link and I strongly advise looking at it: http://www.missingmillion.co.uk/kidney-disease/
Kidney failure is very real and very serious. If you're in the early stages, it can be caught and prevented. My main anger lies in the fact that my first specialist saw I was at 70% and did a bit of 'wait and see'. We did that and functionality continued to drop. I'm now on medication to reduce my blood pressure which I believe was the main factor in decreasing functionality and I often wonder what difference it would have made if I'd had it sooner. 
So if you're worried, go....get....checked. 

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