Chapter 5:
Let’s Do it Ourselves!
As I welcomed July by putting a pin on my health to give myself time to think about uterine fibroid surgery, I encouraged my sister to smooth the textured walls of my brother’s house before she moved in. I fixed one bathroom wall in my house and I was all of a sudden an expert at mudding walls. That one wall took me a lot of trial and error and I learned a lot. The final result was great; you just needed to put in the time and be patient. My sister agreed, so we started the process together. It took a few layers, but the common areas were looking great. It took a few sisterly quarrels as expected, but things got done (still getting done may I say).
I spent some days on my own working on those walls and looking back this is when my body started to ask for help. The hip pain was back, and it grew progressively worse. The pain moved to the groin on my right side, then my leg. Towards the beginning of August, I was walking like an old lady. I was in pain. I don’t complain about pain or show it, it’s just not in my nature. So when I show that I’m in pain, it’s probably a level 7. I thought it was because of the flat shoes I was wearing and all the work I was doing at my sister’s place. I was also cutting the lawn at my place and taking care of the dogs so I thought I was overdoing it. But then I would remind myself that I spend a lot of time sitting for work so doing all the laboring stuff shouldn’t be an issue.
Around the middle of August, I had to go to a “huddle” for work. It’s an important meeting we plan for a year ahead. I asked my mom to drop me off because, while we now have a car, we have to share it and I didn’t want to leave her without it all day. But I’m glad I wasn’t driving because I spent the entire day in pain, just pushing through it, and even made a joke for the crowd as I presented for the team. I remember going to dinner with the team and eating some slices of pizza with a very well-deserved mojito and feeling nauseous. So I called my mom to pick me up and headed home.
Chapter 6: Drop what you’re doing and go to the ER!
