Monday 25 December 2017

Everything begins and ends with one's body

The moment that one is born and becomes conscious, the world begins.
The moment that one's body falters and dies, the world ends.
Everything in between is coloured by the health of one's body.


I remember how there was a time when I could walk without pain. I remember how I wasn't concerned every few minutes with new, interesting pains or the general state of my body. That seems all so long ago now. Part of a past in which there was still sunshine, a home and happiness. Not this bleak dystopian present with a faltering health and more hospital and ER visits than I care to remember.

Next month another three doctor visits have been scheduled, with my GP, neurologist and gynaecologist. My endocrinologist also asked to remain informed, along with a second gynaecologist. Next month is also planned full with psychotherapist appointments, with my second psychotherapist (and neurologist) likely wanting updates or maybe getting me some updates. I don't want to harbour hope that this time something will change. Yet it must.

After giving up on the contraceptive pill, ibuprofen and mostly on diclofenac, I have now found a temporary pain reprieve in CBD - cannabidiol, a cannabinoid extracted from cannabis. I'm slowly beginning to understand why medical marijuana is a thing. CBD manages to knock down the daily pains and numbness a few notches to where I can somewhat function and focus again. Yet it's not a solution.


The pain, sensitivity and numbness that used to just plague my right side has been gradually spreading to my left side as well. It doesn't go away in between monthly cycles any more either. I still don't know what causes it and how much internal damage I'm possibly suffering each day that it is not being treated.

Today is Christmas. Yet I'm not feeling very cheerful. Not when one has to confront such comforting thoughts such as this possibly being my last Christmas. With the enthusiasm doctors have shown for my case so far, I am not hopeful that they'll get to the right conclusion in time if what is happening to me turns out to be fatal. And even if it's not, I might end up paralysed or incapable of functioning any more without extreme painkillers, judging by how my situation has progressed so far.

Being in this much pain and discomfort, along with frequent nausea, dizziness, headaches and a near-complete lack of appetite make that just maintaining my body to keep to the status quo as much as possible is taking nearly all of my attention and energy.


Sure, I'm also supposed to find a new job, and I might get kicked out of this apartment soon, but first things first. If my body isn't doing well, then that makes everything else seem rather minor. It's amazing how intense pain refocuses one's priorities, I guess. If survival takes becoming homeless, then that's a price worth paying. I think. Yet being dead because one didn't prioritise one's body over everything else is also such a bummer.


For the coming months I pray that things somehow work out. That the doctors do take my condition seriously and that the cause of these pains and numbness is found and treated. That the new job thing works out and that I may even find a real home again in the process. That my daily life will no longer be darkened by having a faltering body.

Hoping for the kindness and understanding of others, I guess.


May the gods have mercy on my soul.


Maya

Tuesday 19 December 2017

I should focus on my health first, if I can

Last night I woke up a few times again with terrible pains in my abdomen, yet I was able to fall asleep again after the pain subsided. This morning I noticed that my abdomen is horribly distended again, making it look as if I'm quite a few months pregnant. Pulling in my stomach makes it look more or less normal, but the pain remains throughout my abdomen and lower back.

The entire day I'm feeling somewhat feverish and out of it. My left leg is also beginning to feel numb, with the typical pain in my left knee which I used to feel only in my right knee before. My left side is beginning to hurt more and more, the same way that my right side started hurting, years ago. I'm still trying to get through the day without painkillers, beyond the occasional ibuprofen or bit of diclofenac gel on my abdomen for when things get really bad.

Even then I feel completely drained at the end of the day from having to suffer through the frequent surges of pain, and the sensation of being ripped apart below whenever I go to the toilet.

I am so tired. I don't want this any more. I'm so sick of everything.

That's what I found myself proclaiming earlier as I got back from work. It's hard for me to properly realise when I'm tired, as I have been suffering through so much physical and psychological pain for over a decade now. It's become 'normal'. Yet there's still only so much pain my body and mind can take. And I'm completely through. Drained. Exhausted. Unable to give or take any more.


Earlier I found a letter in the mailbox about an appointment at the local job office to talk about my efforts to get a new job. It's hard not to start laughing hysterically at such a phrasing. I could easily accept one of the potential couple of job offers from headhunters. Finding a job I also want is harder, but not impossible given a bit of time. Yet more pressing is my current health.

Next month I also have an appointment scheduled with my GP, neurologist and gynaecologist, along with weekly appointments with my therapist. My hope is to get them to realise the seriousness of what is happening to my body at this point, along with the psychological pressure this creates.


When I can barely walk normally and increasingly find myself considering the possibility of needing a wheelchair at some point to get around, that's simply depressing. Makes one want to get up to one of those learned types and yell at them to finally help me. That kind of pressure.

Why should I even care about a job if my body isn't healthy? When I'm suffering every single day, both physically and mentally? Why could anyone demand such a thing of me?


I need to rest. To find stability in my life. Not to find myself chased from one more thing to muster the energy for to another one. To find myself risking embracing that dark part of myself which doesn't care about things like happiness, others or even life. That part which just wants to destroy and annihilate. Which rejoices in me hurting myself. Which enjoys watching me suffer, as it brings me closer every day to once again try to find that sense of incredible peace.

When I attempt to take my own life again after giving up on it. The intense, wonderful feeling of serenity.


...


I really want it so badly.


...


When I feel relaxed and at ease that dark voice subsides once more. I try to hold onto that feeling of hope and peace which involves me living a happy life and not taking my own life. Yet there's only so much which I can do. I need to avoid stress, but I can only do so much there.

Me getting laid off is horrible. Me having to face more of the eviction case is horrible. Me finding a new place to live is horrible. Me finding a new job is horrible. Me losing more and more things which I thought i wouldn't have to give up is horrible. So much stress. So much pain I have to shield myself from. To numb myself and pretend it really doesn't hurt so much.

Until it does and I find myself helpless again against the intense pain and suffering. To feel tempted to embrace that sensation of being powerless. To accept the inevitability of me failing to pull through this one.


I need help. Badly. Lots of help.


Else I will die.


I still don't want to die.

Yet I'm so tired... and everything hurts so much...


Maya

Sunday 17 December 2017

I must find that exceptionally challenging and rewarding job

I must. That's pretty much the summary of everything that is going on for me at this point.

For the chronic pains for which I must find medical help. For the worrying appearance of blood in my stool accompanied by the sensation of something rupturing inside my abdomen, for which I must also seek medical help. For the flaring up of my post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative identity disorder-like symptoms as a result of the increasing stress I also must find more help and support.

For having been laid off from my job I must find a new job. For being jobless I will have to deal with the job centre starting next month and have to apply to at least so many jobs each month, or lose the welfare money. For being jobless I must find a job within a year or face deportation back to the Netherlands.

For fixing the apartment and eviction situation I must at least find a new place, for which I must first find a job. To rent or buy a new place, I must have a job.


All of this leaves me jobless, with chronic pain and psychological disorders which prevent me from functioning 'normally'.


I must fix it somehow. By myself. Even if it's impossible. Again I feel angry at myself for having wasted so many years on my intersex condition and backwards doctors without a shred of sympathy. I should have ignored it. Made a much more successful career. Then died in my 30s from sepsis anyway. Bugger.

It often doesn't feel as if there's any point to me fighting for myself any longer. It's just the same pattern every time. Few steps forward, then get kicked back to a worse position than before.


I realise that I could just settle for working a menial job at a dull company, but in that case I would have made it at my current employer as well, writing JavaScript or Java code until my brain started dribbling out of my ears from sheer boredom. I know that this won't ever work.

Ideally I would get a job in a more R&D position involving low-level software and hardware development. Working on interesting new technologies which will make the lives of everyone better. Something that can actually hold my attention. I already had to thank for a potential job offer this week because it'd just involve writing casual games (albeit in C++) all the time. I could do it, but would get distracted over time. That's what I learned about how my mind works.


My curse always seems to have been that I could never be 'just like others'. Not with my biological sex (hermaphroditic intersex), not with being just left- or right-handed (ambidextrous), not with my perception of taste (super-taster), or the way that I learn (100% visual-spatial learner, gifted & auto-didactic). None of this is my fault, all of this I was simply born with. Yet to then fit in regular society? Forget it. Been there, tried it, failed miserably, tried again and again until I finally learned that lesson.

I don't think that I would be happy in any other job than one which would challenge me intellectually and which appreciates me for being different. I guess I must keep looking... but I also hope that such a company is also looking for someone like me, and may stumble over my profile somewhere.

Can't hurt to hope, just to have that hope crushed, I guess.


Here's to that never-ending source of hope.


Maya