It’s been forever and a half since I updated. As all of three
of you may have noticed. It’s just been insanely hectic. The Husband and I have
gotten up to some serious High Level Grown Up Shenanigans, that involve moving
house, buying things like toolboxes and dining seating and navigating suburbia. And
in the midst of all of that kind of malarkey, we became the central meeting
point for two halves of my family, and are hosting nearly four times the normal
amount of people that would reside in my house. For a post-brain-op, rare
connective tissue disordered, degenerative spine diseased introvert, this is
all rather challenging. Yet while I did hit a wall this morning – in the
literal, not metaphoric sense – on my way to work, so far so
good.
Which is, actually, pretty surprising. Y’know, that I’m
physically holding up as well as I am. I’ve been unpacking, installing, cleaning,
sleeping little and poorly, and running around like a headless chicken for
about a month now, and other than some bug I've had for a week, I’m
actually doing ok. Subhnanallah. I had
thought my days of being The Tireless Workhorse (AKA House Donkey), were over. Fo
sho, no longer can I single-handedly pack and unpack a house in mere days, or
stay on my feet morning till night running errands, or tire out my nieces and
nephews playing in the park. But I can, it seems, still do a hellova lot. And
for that, I am very very grateful.
This gives me hope that a lot of the weakness I’d been
feeling over the past two years -- when I first slowed down because of spine
problems, then thyroidectomy, then brain aneurysm -- is from deconditioning
that is reversible. Honestly, a year ago, I felt like a 50 year old. Everything
hurt. I was slow to get up and move. Bending or stretching was painful and
often resulted in pulls. I had no stamina and even walking a short while could
cause me pain that would last for days. For my sis Zeba, that progressive
deconditioning has been going on for years and she’s not been recouping, so when
I was also diagnosed with the same Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome she has, I assumed
that would be my trajectory as well.
Of course, EDS, like pretty much every illness, effects
people differently. It seems I won the lucky draw and got the rare brain aneurysm from
mine, which no one else in the family has and may it Inshallah stay that way. And
though I seem to be able to recover my lost strength and stamina right now,
that may change, and I may hit a new phase later where I can’t any more. But I’m
glad for what I have right now. I can run up and down the stairs in my new
place, and clean house and unpack and run errands, though I hurt for it later. I’ll
take what I can get and thank Allah for it. J
On a semi-related note, here’s an interesting article from
the BBC on why people with disabilities seem to be happier than those without:
