Sleepless Nights

Author: Veronica

  • When good things come in small packages

    This post sponsored by Nuffnang

    ***

    When Nuffnang rang me and asked me to participate in this campaign, I was happy to oblige. Of course, then I had to really think about times when something good came in a small package and that’s where I got a bit stuck.

    The cliched thing of course is to talk about the children. At 7lb6 and 7lbs respectively, they were rather small, delicious and lovable. Of course, then Amy started to scream and scream, so she was less a ‘good’ thing and more of a ‘god I love this kid, but why is she the only one screaming’ kind of package.

    And Isaac, well, it’s probably not fair to compare them, but he didn’t scream as a baby, so comparisons are hard not to make.

    But hey they were small, cute and when I swaddled them, they looked like little packages.

    Sort of.

    I kept thinking and really, all I could come up with was baby animals (have you see the ducklings?!) and stuff like that.

    Not exactly things in packages. I’m not married and not engaged, so I can’t tell a story of a ring in a  box – well I could, but I’d be lying – although it would make for the perfect good things/small packages story.

    I can’t do it though.

    I think that maybe, my best good thing in a small package is always going to be a book. Inside of a book, I get an entire world, someone else’s life and a great story, all in a small package. That counts, right?

    Anyway.

    The point of all this?

    Cottees Cordial is reducing their cordial sizes from 2ltr to 1ltr, but the smaller bottle is merely more concentrated. It all makes up to the same amount of cordial.

    Now, I’ve been tempted to blog about Cottees before and just never gotten around to it. Simply put, they are the only cordial I have found that has natural colours and doesn’t send Amy off the rails. I can’t vouch for the other flavours, but the orange coloured ones are all coloured with turmeric and carmine, lovely natural things that don’t send Amy batty.

    So Cottees are the only cordial I buy anyway. And now they’re getting smaller, which means they’ll fit in the cupboard better and I’ll be able to stock up when they come on special. Win win I think.

    ***

    Now comes the fun part.

    Nuffnang and Cottees are offering $1000 cash to the person who shares the best ‘When good things have come in small packages’ story. Obviously I’m not eligible, but YOU are my lovely readers.

    In the comments, share your best ‘Good things/Small Packages’ story and I’ll select the best 3 to go into the draw. The responses across all the participating blogs will be read and the best response will win $1000 for themselves. There is nothing random about this competition, with winners selected on how well their story is told.

    Terms and Conditions

    Nuffnangs blog post

  • A fucking snake

    We just found a snake. Inside my house.

    A white lipped ‘whiptail’ snake.

    Not the best photo, I was shaking too hard to get a good one.

    It was curled up underneath the fridge. Only that Nathan had decided to mop the kitchen and moved the fridge did we find it. It was about 12-14 inches long and asleep, under my fucking fridge.

    Anyway, with much swearing it was relocated and hopefully we’re snake free now. A timely reminder that we need to be wearing shoes outside ALL the time and that the kids MUST have boots on, all the time.

    I might still be a little panicked. Enough that I’m considering blundstones for inside the house and having a minor panic attack with every footstep. Yeah, I have anxiety issues. Small ones.No one said I was being reasonable.

    A snake! Inside my fucking house.

    Excuse me while I go and hyperventilate. And possibly complete the panic attack I put on hold because everyone is awake.

    And I might even change my animals category to ‘goddamned motherfucking animals’, just to make my displeasure clear.

    (At first glance I thought it was a baby copperhead, but the photos showed me differently. Still very freaked out.)

  • What’s down there?

    What's down there?

    Alternate title: Holy CRAP I have a FOOT!

  • And everything keeps going down the drain.

    There are things you don’t want to hear when you go to the doctor.

    Like – You have the back of a 60 year old. When Nathan is only 28.

    His back is bad. Really bad.

    There are arthritic changes, a bulging disc, some compressed discs, bone spurs, narrowing of the nerve canals and degenerative issues.

    Never gonna get better kind of bad.

    Sure, loads of physio should help in the short term, but as far as I remember, nothing can be done for bones that are arthritic, or bones that are breaking down.

    ***

    I’ve been seeing a Gyno for my insane periods and heavy bleeding/cramps like labour pains. That’s the backstory.

    I went to see them yesterday, to follow up on how the trial of a contraceptive pill went.

    [paraphrasing, as best I can, because somehow, telling you without the conversation added is too hard]

    ‘So, how did the pill go?’

    ‘HA! Badly. Really badly. I came off it early because it was bad.’

    ‘Bad how?’

    ‘Mood swings, depression, increased dislocations, etc etc. Bad.’

    ‘Well, in situations like yours, we really like to try the contraceptive pill.’

    ‘Yes, but the pill doesn’t agree with me.’

    ‘I can see. And you seem very against trying it again.’

    ‘Yes.’

    ‘So, we’d like to try the Mirena.’

    ‘No.’

    ‘Huh? No?’

    ‘I have anecdotal evidence to tell me that the mirena would be really bad for me’ [he tries to cut in] ‘and YES, I KNOW that the progesterone supposedly doesn’t leave your uterus, but really, my body is so sensitive to progesterone that I don’t want to trial the mirena.’

    [he looks very spluttery]

    ‘We would like to try the mirena. If you don’t want the mirena, then we’re looking at things like gonadatropins and they’ll make you gain lots of facial hair and will deepen your voice and -‘

    ‘Well I don’t want to trial those either.’

    ‘If you’d try the Mirena, we wouldn’t have to look at gonadatropins.’

    ‘I don’t want the Mirena.’

    ‘Gonadatropins will make you gain a lot of weight… wait, I’m going to consult with my boss.‘

    [A few minutes later, his boss- the doctor I saw last time enters.]

    ‘Hi Veronica, so you trialled the pill?’

    ‘Yes. And it was awful. I stopped it after 3 weeks because I couldn’t cope anymore.’

    ‘What happened?’

    ‘My joints fell apart, it felt like I was walking on a wobble board instead of a pelvis, I was angry and sad and it was horrible. So I stopped.’

    ‘Good, that’s what we discussed. So really, our next option is the Mirena.’

    ‘I don’t want the Mirena.’

    ‘It’s really the best option.’

    ‘I don’t believe it’s the best option for ME. I think it will make my joints worse and YES I KNOW the progesterone won’t leave my uterus, yada yada, I’m not willing to put a coil into my uterus to just see.’

    ‘We’re really running out of options here, the Mirena…’

    ‘No. I am opposed to IUD’s on ethical grounds too and really, I don’t think poking my internal organs with metal and making them angry is going to make me feel better on the whole.’

    ‘Ethical grounds?’

    ‘Yes. I don’t like how they work.’

    ‘Do you KNOW how they work?’

    ‘I know a plain IUD doesn’t prevent ovulation or conception, it just prevents implantation. I know the Mirena with it’s progesterone generally prevents ovulation, and also that it prevents implantation in the event that conception occurs. I don’t want the Mirena, I don’t want something I can’t stop using myself if I get bad. I can’t afford to wait weeks until I can get in here to be seen and fixed and HONESTLY, I’ve been on the wrong side of side effects and statistics for so long, I’m not prepared to mess around with things.’

    ‘Right. Well then.’

    ‘Can we try something to help with the cramps and pain instead of trying the mirena? ‘

    At this point, I feel like I’ve been fighting the doctors to get ANY sort of health care that doesn’t involve inserting a foreign body into my uterus and leaving it there. Not to mention the absolute shock on their faces that I wouldn’t accept the Mirena as ‘the best possible thing’ [all hail the fucking copper coil] and wouldn’t be badgered into it. Not even with the ‘you’re gonna grow facial hair and get really fat’ scare tactics that the original doctor was using. I mean, fuck.

    Eventually, the doctors agree on a course of action, medication wise and send me away with a script.

    45 minutes later, I get to read all about the reasons I should not take a drug to help my blood clot.

    Like, don’t take the drug if anyone in your immediate family has had a blood clot. Both Mum and Nan have had blood clots.

    Don’t take the drug if you have bruising, especially bruising without trauma. Hello fucking EHLERS DANLOS.

    Don’t take the drug if you have irregular periods. Um yeah, that’s part of why I’m seeing a Gyno. I’m 21, I’ve had periods since I was 12 and I’ve had 2 kids, my periods should be fucking regular. They aren’t.

    I’m just so tired of having to fight the doctors for things that might help. Tired of them not asking questions they should before they prescribe something. Tired of being treated like a disobedient child, for not falling into line and letting them do whatever ‘they think best’.

    Tired of feeling like these bandaid fixes don’t do anything towards working out why my body isn’t doing regular periods, why I bleed for 10-12 days each period, why the periods feel like labour pains, and why I’m having hot flushes.

    Tired.

    I’m booking an appointment with my regular GP to discuss the new tablets before I even think about taking them. Somehow, knowing how my body works and which side of the stats I fall on, I’m a little concerned about taking something to promote blood clotting.

    On the upside, there was a Med Student there during the whole appointment and I got ages to talk to her about Ehlers Danlos while the doctors were consulting in the other room. She was lovely and interested to know how EDS presents in normal cases.

    So good deed done. Even if I still want to bang my head against the wall.

  • Cottees

    The cottees post has had to be taken down, due to legal reasons – the competition terms and conditions haven’t been approved yet, so we need to wait for that. Anyone who has commented already, your comments will remain, everyone else, I’ll give you a yell when you can comment and enter the competition again.

    Sorry.

    Ugh.