outsidevoice

It’s been a long while since I’ve dusted off this space. That picture above? Is just a HINT of what has been going on around here since January 1. I wish I was kidding about that. Someone in this house has either been sick or injured or sick AND injured since Thanksgiving Day. It’s February [...]

Over the past few years my ongoing back issues have become predictable and a little worse.  I’ve figured out what the triggers are for it and how to offset some of the inevitable pain that shows up when that damned degenerating disc slips another .0000001% away, but the simple fact is I can’t stop it [...]

It is an absolute given that whenever any of the kids gets some sort of germ I will have it next.  There is no need to fight it, no need to be all, “Oh, I’m sure you’ll be fine..”  No, I won’t.  Like now. Benjamin came home last week with a head cold.  Thus two [...]

There are these days.  There are these days where one word defines the entire day.   Some days it’s as simple as “simple” or “beach” or “win” or “end”. Hashimoto’s. There was no other word after that one today. It just sat there.  In my head.  Like a g-ddamned stone.  Unmovable. There were other words that [...]

Sunday we had the family over for lunch to celebrate Benjamin’s 4th birthday.  (4 Year Old post coming shortly, I promise.) Without going into too much detail, about halfway into the party my mother-in-law began to feel “odd” and she was escorted to our bedroom to go lay down.  After a barrage of questions, the [...]

Yeah, you read that right. We’re fighting. Sometimes I win, sometimes it wins, but it’s still a fight. After this last round of back injury deliciousness and the added fantastic side dish of food allergies I decided to really focus on getting back in shape. I’ve been working out in ways I’ve never experienced before [...]

Thanks to genetics and a recurring back injury due to a degenerating disc, I have to exercise or else I end up in excrutiating pain once a year. This past year I hadn’t been diligent about it and, once again, ended up in an ungodly amount of pain and distress and hoo boy wasn’t THAT [...]

In my life I have known many unnerving emotions.  Deep Sorrow.  Painful Regret.  Heartache that takes your breath away.  Earth-shattering Anxiety.  Until today I really never knew what it meant to be terrified. I get it now. Today was my first allergy shot.  Seems innocent enough.  Not like I’ve never had an injection before, right?  [...]

I am living with asthma.  I haven’t had to do this until this year because at the age of 39 I developed it.  No rhyme or reason given – just one day a whole slew of foods that want to kill me and some lungs that no longer want to cooperate. As I am learning, [...]

I have a back issue. At the ripe old age of 39 (for several more months thankyouverymuch) I have a degenerating disc between my L4 and L5 vertebrae. There is nothing surgically that can be done – it is a gift from the genetics fairy – but, as an added bonus, I have a fairly [...]