Acceptance. How do you accept that you are who you are, faults and all, when everything seems to go wrong? How do you accept even the most horrible of situations, at the worst possible time of year, when all you want to scream about is how unfair it all can be?
Surgery #14 to put in the GTube (feeding tube into my stomach) was now 3 weeks ago. What the doctors initially thought was possibly the chicken pox/shingles virus is turning out to be something somewhat nastier - a bad allergic reaction to the feeding tube materials. Each bandage change is showing more and more "damage" around the feeding tube hole, so yesterday my mom decided enough was enough and e-mailed pictures of the situation to the GTube team, who now also thinks that I might be having a significant reaction, and fears what type of reaction might be happening on the inside where we can't see. A very scary thought considering I have a lower immune system thanks to the immuno-suppressing drugs that I'm on. She then sent the pictures and the message along to the pediatrician who became alarmed and decided that I needed to be seen by several specialities (GTube team, general pediatrics team, dermatology team, GI Team). I really wanted to spend my birthday with my sister though, so they've let me stay home until Tuesday.
But...
If they think that I might need to have a new tube inserted right away, or if an infection happens to develop (I'm at high-risk with an open-wound and this being nasty-infectious season), than it might mean spending Christmas in the hospital this year. I'm trying to stay hopeful but I also know that things can't keep going the way they are and I'm feeling worse and worse by the day.
I am who I am and my body is what it is. I'd be perfectly justified in throwing an earth-shattering temper tantrum right now and scream about the unfairness of the world. But what would that get me? Yes, I complain. I answer truthfully when someone asks me "how are you?" even though it might not be the acceptable answer of "Fine thanks". I'm not fine. But I'm working on it. I'm holding on the best I can, trying to ignore the worries, the pain, the unhappiness of potentially spending yet another holiday in the hospital. Acceptance of "what is" is the only way to go. It's the only ticket that we have to our "happy ever after" party.
And trust me, we will one day be having a huge "Happy Ever After" party. There might be no light at the end of the tunnel right now, but I think if we keep going we just might see the smallest glimmer at the end.
I leave you with my favourite part of the song:
"When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder? Why
Wonder, I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful!
And I think it's what I want to be"
No comments:
Post a Comment