Zoralei started her period yesterday. The hysterics began. She was not feeling well because of it when she awoke and then she got these terrible spikes of pain in her abdomen and was literally on the floor, crying and screaming. We plied her with ibuprofen and midol, rubbed her back, and got her a priesthood blessing, all which seemed to help after a few hours. Still, it was intense. The spikes of pain were equivalent to what she experienced with the endometriosis and I am worried that may be coming back. However, both my husband and I were unsure about whether we could say that for certain or if we should be assuming this is just a menstrual cycle exasperated by RND.
One thing I am somewhat ashamed to admit is that our family has been undergoing such a trial of pain for so long that my first reaction to her falling to the floor, screaming is not to rush to her side to see if it is okay. As soon as I saw her arm wrap around her stomach, my first though was, "Oh no, now what?" Between the RND and the endometrioses/appendicitis of before, I have almost become callous in my thoughts. It was not how I acted. I went over to her rubbed her back and asked if I could do something, but it was not an instantaneous reaction. I simply share this because dealing with someone in such intense pain and crisis mode for a long period of time shapes us as the caregiver too and not always in ways that we want. I want to express the compassion that I know I feel for her, but I also do not want to create any additional drama and I have become somewhat numb to it, because it has been happening for so long and is always so intense. This truly saddens me, even though I am not physically acting on that thought.
Immediately after the Priesthood blessing, Zoralei experienced lessened pain and was able to at least get some homework done while lying in bed.. When we left the hospital, the doctor said I would be able to tell when something was RND and when something was needing some personal attention. Honestly, it is not so clear cut as that. I think the RND magnifies everything and hence there is an element in it even when it is something new, making it very difficult to evaluate the seriousness of the situation and the need to take her to see a doctor. I am afraid to assume it is all RND and miss something important. Since we had a previous problem, we will seek a gynecologist to get any insights that we can and to verify the endometriosis is not coming back. Still, it was really hard to know if I wasn't being overly sensitive and jumping the gun a bit by going into see a doctor.
She did fine today, only midly grumpy, very understandable with her menstrual cycle. But we plied her with medicine first thing in the morning to head off some of the crampiness, hoping to keep it to dull threshold.
An update for last week: Zoralei came home on Thursday so excited because she had officially finished all her school makeup work and could register for Driver's Education. Things have been much better since that day. She was a lot happier without the load of the makeup work. She even got some physical exercise in, including playing nerf guns and swords with her siblings and their friends (which she counted as part of her desensitization since it hurt to do). It is amazing the difference when she is not overly stress. The stress really does exasperate the RND.
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