I’ve wanted to talk about how life can spin you around and leave you in wonder. I had both of my kids young, was a parent of 2 by the time I was 20. At the time back then I was young, frazzled and didn’t know my arse from my elbow. I was a stay at home Mom, my husband worked a lot. I can remember those days of raccoon eyes, getting up early making 3 meals a day, most days anyway. My son developed bad asthma @ 4 yrs old and required quite a few trips to the ER in the middle of the night when the nebulizer & inhaler didn’t cut the mustard. In those days while doing dishes, cooking or cleaning I would ask God, I know there’s a reason I’m going through this so young and I hope one day you’ll share with me why. It was a tough time, never enough money, 2 bickering siblings (trust me they love each other) and the work never ended. If I needed groceries I had to walk and take 2 little children with me, the toy wagon earned its keep for pulling tired kids home whilst I was carried groceries. I walked everywhere, taking the kids to the park and then school etc. I had energy to burn and thought it would be that way for me until old age, I still didn’t have my answer. Time keeps going on no matter how much you’d like to slow it down, after an affair and yrs of trying to get past it, it was divorce time. It was what I needed to do to have a chance at a happy life, I tried my damnedest but 6 yrs post affair I was still miserable. I thought of suicide nightly, when the person laying next to you in bed is colder than a stranger to you, things need to change. I was terrified, scared shitless you name it but I made a choice and that was to live even if that meant poverty. I was fully motivated to go back to school and get a decent job that would have made me happy, being a health care aide of all things. My ex husband helped out with finances in the beginning but eventually cut back what he contributed, on advice of the ‘other woman’ I’m sure. Yup, that’s right 6 yrs after the dumb move that tanked my marriage he went and found that gutter trash again, just to hurt me and ended up in a relationship with her. I feel no sympathy for either, she ruined her marriage and mine, sucks to be you doesn’t it? My kids FATHER and I use that term loosely, has not contacted either of them in 2 yrs, birthdays, Xmas, nothing. It makes me sick to even think of it and I feel guilty for ever letting him reproduce with me, just goes to show after 17 yrs together I didn’t know him at all. It’s a part of my life I don’t miss at all but I do feel for my kids who do not deserve to be treated that way. I have enough love for them both. There are no excuses, both have their own phones and their ph #’s have not changed, but he can’t dial I guess. Anyways enough with that it was 5 yrs ago when I asked for the separation and got on with my life. I entered a gov’t program to learn career and life skills for abused women, for me it was emotional abuse others in the class had experienced different kinds of abuse from men. I was excited and determined to enjoy the rest of my life. For those who are not familiar, our provincial gov’t will provide financial support as long as you are going to your courses. Well with any high concentration of people there’s going to be germ parties and I noticed some of the girls would come in sick, no biggie I thought, just be neurotic about washing my hands etc. Unfortunately strep doesn’t listen to clean hands and I ended up with a nasty infection and was only able to get 1 day off of class, any more days and I would be cut off financially. So back to school I went because well lets face it, I have 2 kids at home and being cut off financially is just not Ok in that situation. I took a 2 week course of antibiotics and thought the worst was over. Wrongo! I ended up getting sick again as the other ladies in the course kept coming in sick too for the same reason, we all had kids and being cut off was NOT an option. This time the infection was on the right side of my face, that’s right the whole side of my face was a microbe party, the infection eventually ruptured through my ear canal from the pressure the infection caused. There was no where for it to escape. I tell you what though, if you go into a medical clinic and tell them blood is coming out of your ear, you will get seen very fast by a Dr. Another round of antibiotics for me, strong ones too, and yet I still had to go to school under the same threat, come or you’ll be cut off. I kept going to school with my head pounding from the pressure of the infection and ended up making quite the scene with my ‘worker’. In a nutshell I called them a bunch of assholes for making me come in this ill and for making anyone who was sick come in. I was then labelled unpredictable and aggressive for telling them the truth and not putting up with their bullshit. I kept up as long as I could but was never the same after the 2nd infection. I didn’t understand why I didn’t ‘feel better’ like I did before. My energetic self had become extremely lethargic & fatigued. My boyfriend at the time made this comment during my 2nd infection while I lay in bed with my head screaming if I moved it, ‘are you just going to lay in bed all day?’ my response was… why yes I am, the relationship ended shortly thereafter, I have never met anyone as unsympathetic as him. I was burned out after it all and silly me thought if I rested I would eventually get well. Nope, and there in 2009 when my kids were 17 & 16 I began my quest to find out what was wrong with me and in 2011 I got my answer, to both questions, the one where I asked God why I was a young parent and also why I never felt the same again…. When I got sick both kids were old enough to do for themselves and basically only required occasional guidance. Now I know why I had them young, because parenthood would have probably been denied to me as I got too sick to do much of anything anymore after the disease process began, and I’m very grateful for them, they are my rocks, my sunshine and my joy.
Next week I’m participating in a round table about Rheumatoid Arthritis, where I can bare my soul. Hope to be back blogging here the week after. 
In other words I had a good cry on Sunday, I needed it. I’ve also been dealing with depression because of my ‘bad genes’, I had my first child at 18 and my 2nd at 19. I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at 37 and of course I had no idea of this condition as a teenager. Lately my daughter has been complaining about her bad skin which I also had as a teenager but never thought my kids with experience such a bad case of it although it wasn’t as bad as I had experienced. Trust me that is something I would not have wanted passed down to my kids. The thought of them getting rheumatoid arthritis scares me to death, it is much much worse than acne. Even though right now a few zits feels like the end of the world, its nothing compared to RA and I pray to God that they never have to experience any autoimmune disease ever.
