Pain issues solved!

I talked before about how I was constantly in pain and couldn't find any relief.  Well.  I found the answer for me and I think this is the answer for a lot of people.  I found a chiropractor that practices the Gonstead Method.  And it is a very minimal approach but it works so much better than anything else I have ever tried. 

I went in to see Dr Doan for my evaluation and in talking to him, I had told him how badly my neck hurt when the last chiropractor adjusted me and how he had blown me off when I asked him to adjust me in another way.  He found which parts of my back were what was causing the problems and he told me that the reason why it hurt so badly when the other chiropractor (who doesn't use the gonstead method) adjusted my neck was because my neck didn't need to be adjusted.  OK.  So why in the hell does my neck hurt???  Because one of my vertebrae between my shoulder blades was subluxed.  Normally you think that pain goes down, and I have based my treatment of many patients based on this theory but you know what?  He was absolutely right.  He adjusted just two spots on me that day--- between my shoulder blades and my left ileum (hip)--- and within an hour I felt like a new person.  My wide spread joint pain that I had...... GONE.  I haven't had anything for pain or indigestion nor have I complained or cried or begged for anyone to rub my neck or shoulder.  All GONE. 

I finally convinced one of my friends to go see him.  She was in worse shape than I was.  She was facing back surgery and was told that she shouldn't get pregnant because it would cause her too much pain and she would end up on bedrest the whole time and even then they didn't know if she would be able to carry the baby to term.  She was taking lortab and muscle relaxers around the clock and drinking wine on top of all of that and STILL crying from the pain.  She went and saw him 2 days ago and hasn't had any kind of pain.  She did have to take some of her medicines though..... not from pain but from withdrawals!  She is absolutely amazed.  I bugged her for weeks about going to see him and after her appointment and seeing how wonderful she felt, she said "now you can tell me you told me so."  I told her no, I wouldn't say that because it wasn't about that.... it was about her feeling better and avoiding surgery (she's only 30 yikes!) and that it wasn't about who was right or wrong.  She was finally convinced to go after I took Sammie to him.  She figured if I trusted him enough to take Sammie to him that he must be good.

I've been meaning to get on here and just brag.  I've been bragging on my boards to the point that I think people are going to put hot daggers in their eyes if I mention my chiropractor one last time.  It has been 2 week since my last appointment and I think it is getting time for another appointment.  Did I mention that I'm seriously considering going to school for this?  LOL

Just rambling

I think it all is starting to get to me.  I am fighting this urge to totally retreat into myself.  I don't know if I'm just stressed, tired, or what, but honestly right now it is taking everything I have to talk to anyone.  I guess it is because no one knows how I feel nor goes through the same stuff I'm going through.  Everyone else says "ok suck it up" or "put on your big girl panties" or something as equally annoying and less than understanding and big newsflash.... saying those things don't help.  They only make it worse and push me just that much further away.  My life hasn't been the easiest.  It hasn't been the hardest either I know but amongst my family and IRL friends, I feel like my situation has been the hardest.  I have had to raise my two younger sisters while my mother partied and went through her 2nd & 3rd childhoods.  If things weren't perfect, I was guaranteed to get hit with whatever was closest.  I cooked, cleaned, mowed the yard, cleaned the pool (mom loved to live way above our means), did the laundry, bathed my youngest sister and made sure the next one had a shower, made sure they had their homework done, and so on and so forth.  I never knew what utility would be shut off when I got home from school or if I would be able to get a hold of my mother.  There would be times when she wouldn't come home or I couldn't get a hold of her for days.  I've had to fight for anything and everything I have and have lost.  I joined the military because even though my parents could have helped me with a car or college, they didn't and wouldn't.  I had to elope to get married because my parents wouldn't get along long enough to even attempt to be happy for me..... shoot, I had to pay for my Baccalaureate dress for high school graduation then listen to them go back and forth for almost 4 months about "has your dad paid you yet?" or "has your mom sent you her half yet?" before I was finally able to get them to get me the money they had promised me (and we are only talking $35 each!!!  Imagine trying to do a whole wedding like that!).  My sisters, in contrast to how I was treated, have been royally spoiled and everyone in the family bends over backwards to do for them.  I don't know if it's because I've always had to be so independent (since I was 14) that no one in my family ever considers that I have needs or if I'm really just that unlikeable, but it gets so old hearing and seeing how even though we are all adults now that they are still favored.  I move 50 miles away from them and it took them a year to get out to see my new house and I think in 3 years, they might have been out there 6 or 7 times....yet my sister has a baby and moves to FL and they are crapping all over themselves to get out there to see them.  Meanwhile I now live 20 miles from them and we rarely see them and I'm a single mom of 6.  My two sisters can say anything about me or to me and I am not allowed to get upset and my dad won't get in the middle of it but you let me say one word about the other 2 and my dad is all over me and defending them against whatever I've said.  My mother.... she hasn't spoken to me much in the last 4 or 5 years.  She thinks I'm the one that convinced my youngest sister to move back from CA with her to OK, where we are all from..... only thing is is that I had nothing to do with it at all.  But you can't tell her that.  So I've gone through 2 divorces, 3 pregnancies, and a miscarriage without my mother.... yet she knows everything that is going on because she would pump my youngest sister for info but she would never call me nor return my calls.
I look at all of my friends and family on facebook and just cry.  I look at all of the happy family photos and statuses and see other parents being supportive of their adult children.  Then I see that God forbid I say anything at all that they don't agree with and I'm ripped to shreds.  Everyone tells me to just deal with the fact that I have to be away from my baby girl every other weekend and that divorce sucks for everyone.  I get no sympathy and I'm not allowed to have feelings.  I cry to myself and try to hide it from my kids.  My self-esteem right now is about as low as it has ever been.  I'm the fattest and heaviest I've ever been in my life (even pregnant I wasn't this heavy).... my house is a disaster.... my kids show no respect for me..... my 1st ex-husband told my daughter that I wasn't the best role model for life..... I filed for bankruptcy the week of Christmas.... I've gone from owning a home for the last 15 years of my life to renting because I've lost everything....  I'm a single mom of 6 that has just realized that she's going to die alone because no man in his right mind will ever want to be with a single mom of 6 and you would have to seriously question the sanity or the ulterior motives of one who would want to be with one.  I feel like I'm neglecting my children and their needs by being online at all but if I don't get online, then I typically do NOTHING for myself at all.  My family is highly critical of any time I spend online or basically doing anything but cleaning or hanging out with my kids because that is "just my role in life and that is just being a single mom."
I want to be a part of one of those cute little old couples that never leave each other's side and knows they can count on each other when they are sick.  I don't want to die alone.  I want to be loved and to love someone.  But I'm truly afraid that my reality is that I will do just that..... die alone. 

Once an Ass, Always an Ass, I suppose.....

Chad is just a real piece of work.  If it weren't for my two beautiful children, I would honestly wish to God that I had NEVER met him.  I DO wish to God that he would go out of my life for good right now and leave me and my precious babies alone.  We would be just fine without him.  Actually.  We would be BETTER than fine!

What kind of an ass insists upon taking a 3 year old away from his mother for 8 days for the first time ever?  At Christmas for the first Christmas away?  AND on his baby sister's FIRST Christmas???  And to top it all off, soon he will be taking Sammie for every other weekend, despite the fact that she still nurses all night long every night and sleeps with me.

Then he tells me that he isn't going to pay for any of Sammie's chiropractor bill, because I didn't talk to him first and she has insurance.  Well, she has state insurance, which 1) doesn't pay for anything other than basic care, 2) doesn't pay for chiropractors even with a referral, and 3) he doesn't take insurance anyway.  Getting a referral through state insurance is about as fast as getting one through Indian Health.  LOL  And I DID talk to him about the chiopractor appt.  She got out of the hospital Wednesday night and on our visit Friday evening, I talked to him about her going to my chiropractor on Monday.  He made some snide comment about how he is surprised that I would take Sammie to a chiropractor because she is so young.  Yet he professes to be all into everything natural.

Grrr.  Ok, I'm trying to simmer down now.  No sense in being all in a tizzy on New Year's, right?

God, please forgive me for being so evil.  I might have given certain information to certain people that might have been interested in finding a certain someone.  I'm sorry that I did it ---ok, strike that.... that is a lie.  I'm sorry that I sunk that low but he is basically walking away scott-free from this entire situation so far.  I'm, as with our entire relationship, the only one paying the piper and it just isn't fair.  Let him have a taste of his own medicine for a change.  Sorry, God, but I guess that some people will remain asses their entire lives.

Blah..... for a lack of a better title!

Well the cold front has come in and the weather is cooler.  This makes me sooooo happy as I love jacket and blanket weather!  However, I am feeling a little under the weather today.  Thankfully I have a doctor appointment scheduled for tomorrow already and my work load is light this week.  I can definitely use a break.

I have taken Zoloft in the past and it did nothing for me.  My doctor put me back on Zoloft and gave me Klonopin (anti-anxiety) and I have to say that my pain has actually decreased by about half.  And I'm not sure if it is the medicine or if it is just time, but I can now talk about the injustice coming in January for Sammie without tears.  I wouldn't say I can talk about it without bitterness or anxiety though! 

My kids and I now dread Mondays and Wednesdays because you-know-who comes over to visit the little ones.  I am almost eager for January to get here just so I don't have to continue to subject my older kids to the seemingly constant intrusion that the situation creates.  He still continues to put his oldest 3 ahead of the little ones, but that is nothing new.  I am really REALLY tired of hearing how he is broke or doesn't have money for this or that.... thinking about asking my attorney to have him stop that, along with his accusations of me trying to cause Sammie to get autism because I get her vaccinated. 

I have to get my bankruptcy stuff going because I have a new court date for an asset hearing and I need to have it filed by then.  Don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but evidently there was a bench warrant out for my arrest.  The sheriff actually came to my house (at bedtime no less) and arrested me...... all because I didn't pay my credit card and they sued me (I missed a court date that I didn't realize I had to be at).  I can't believe how crazy my life has become.  I have never been so humiliated in my life.

Well, that is the latest update on my life.  Now I'm back to laundry and cleaning and getting stuff ready for bankruptcy court........  Hope everyone is well.

Letting go of some control....

It makes me so very sad that things couldn't have worked out with Michael, my first husband  He is such a good guy.  Most of the time, when I feel like I can't count on anyone else, I can generally count on him.  Yes he is still anal and still controlling, but he is stable and dependable.  I will have to talk more about him later..... he is coming over to teach our oldest son how to mow the yard so I don't have to mow it. 

Yes.  You read that correctly.  I'm letting go of a little bit of control in my life.  I'm absolutely terrified that something bad will happen to one of my children so I tend to not let them do anything I consider even remotely dangerous.  Like mowing the yard.  They might cut off a toe or get a rock kicked up in their eye or any one of a number of scenarios my mind can imagine.  I'm not really sure how I'm going to handle it.  I'm such a worry-wort. 

I wonder what other household tasks I can give away.......

Overboard

I went overboard.  Way overboard.  I bought Sammie so many cute dresses a few weeks ago on ebay.  Little girlie dresses are my achilles heel I do believe!  So I think today we will play dress up and take pictures of her in each dress.  I want to be able to show her all the cute dresses that she has as a baby and at least this way I know she will at least get to wear each one once, even if only for a few minutes!  LOL  Yes, I did go overboard..... I realize this.  So we will do a fashion shoot and maybe if I can figure it out, I will put a few of them up on here.

As for me emotionally, I'm not happy about Noah being gone for the holiday weekend but what can I do about it?  Nothing.  It's not like I can sit around and mope about it---- I still have my other 5 here.  It just feels like something is missing.... but it is always like that for me when one of my kids is gone, even if only to stay the night with a friend.  Anyhow.... I still have 5 children I get to enjoy and entertain this weekend.  :)

The doctor did start me on zoloft for stress and another medicine for anxiety..... maybe I'm just way more sleep deprived than when I took it years ago because within about 20 minutes of taking it, I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes open. It doesn't make me sleep heavily but I do get way sleepy.  Now I have that sleepy hangover where I'm awake but I'm still half asleep.  Maybe doing some laundry will cure that for me!

Hope everyone has a blessed and safe Labor Day weekend!

Pain, Pain, Go Away........

Ok, so it isn't a definite diagnosis, but at least it is a direction to head in.  The doctor today said that she thinks due to my symptoms and past bloodwork, she thinks I may have Mixed Connective Tissue Disease.  (You can google it..... )  Right now, we aren't doing anything to directly treat the pain, but we are treating my stress and anxiety, as it is well known that those two things can greatly increase any pain you may be experiencing.  She is putting in a referral to a rheumatologist.  I feel like we are getting closer and closer to finding out what is going on with my body.... hopefully before it totally falls apart!  I love this doctor to pieces though.... she doesn't try to force feed me pain pills and is willing to run tests and do referrals to try to get to the bottom of the problem.  She understands that I'm not one to take pain pills because they are just bandaids.... they solve nothing.  I told her that I'm still breastfeeding Sammie, and she said that will limit what medicines she would give me but she fully supports breastfeeding and she fully understood when I told her that Sammie comes first and other kinds of medicines would wait.  Hell, I've been in pain this long, so what is a bit longer to continue to give my baby everything I can?  LOL  One day my body will be solely mine again.  Until then, I will submit myself to her needs!  :)  In the meantime, I will continue chanting "pain, pain, go away......"