skipped pill
the pill
Visanne Day 1
Side note: I wrote this post on July 3rd but it mysteriously got deleted. I started again. Now it finally makes it’s way back onto my blog. However I am back-dating it so it is clear which date I started taking Visanne.
3.7.15
So today is Day 1 on Visanne. I’ve had my box of Visanne sitting in my bathroom draw since it was released on March the 3rd this year. Since our wildly successful campaign on change.org to have it released here in Australia, so many people have asked me how I’m going on it – assuming that I’d be taking it as soon as was made available. However, the campaign to have Visanne released in Australia & NZ (unfortunately it was not released in NZ sorry Kiwis!) was not just about me, nor was it ever designed to only benefit me. It was based on the principle of equal opportunity and that if there was a treatment option for Endo available overseas, we all deserve the opportunity to try it if we want. All of us. And that is what we achieved.
Week 4 training
Sooo I’m up to Week 4 of @kayla_itsines training guide. Hard to tell if I look that different and no idea if I’ve lost weight because I don’t weigh myself. Chucked my scales out 2 years ago. Don’t really care about a number on a screen (anymore. I did when I was younger and it was dangerously addictive, damaging and incredibly consuming). But I feel so much stronger, healthier, energised and most amazingly – I seem to be in Endo pain remission.
Contractions
Ohhh the pain. Could this be the beginning of my first real period in years? Or is it just another false alarm. I’m thinking false alarm. Half way through driving from Bondi to Balmain this morning I was draped over the steering wheel doing my deep breathing, blasting the air con, looking like a tortured woman in labour mid-contraction. Not a safe way to drive.
A Gal Can Dream
Normally I dream vividly and in technicolor. Sometimes they’re so real that I remain in that dream state, full of adrenaline and totally detached from reality for hours, sometimes a couple of days. I haven’t dreamed like this in a few months I think because my sleep has been so light and my minds been too racy to allow me to draw on any subconscious thoughts – just too present in reality! Not always a bad thing I guess but it’s nice to escape.
Last night I started spotting lightly and was in considerable pain again – this has happened a few times since I’ve come off the pill but I have to have two ‘normal periods’ (whatever the hell that means – haven’t had one in years!) until I can go into my fertility clinic and have all my tests done to see if I’m ready for ovarian stimulation, followed by egg retrieval at the right time.
I woke up this morning having dreamt about my entire family getting ready to go to some other family member’s baby shower – not really sure who. I’m sure this has a lot to do with all these fertility and baby thoughts I’ve been having and also the new arrival of my perfect little baby cousin, Kobe, who I got to hold and nestle 2 weeks ago when he was so so tiny and new. What an incredible feeling – what is it about babies that just overwhelms you with love!! I can’t wait to watch him grow up and be his surrogate aunty. Anyway a side note in this dream was that all us Freedmans were huddled around a giant saucepan collectively creating the worlds biggest ham and cheese omelette. That may be some wild metaphor for something or just code for me waking up starving and craving a ham and cheese omelette! Eggs… Fertility… New life… There must be something Freudian to that I’m sure.
Part two of my dream was that I was chilling down at Sydney harbour when a friend of mine decided to go swimming even though I begged him not to and warned him about sharks (a creature I’m both terrified of and absolutely obsessed and fascinated by) and sure enough, right after he jumps in, up comes this monstrous fin and a 20 foot Great White grabs him by the torso! As I reach out to try and pull him out of the water, the giant shark suddnely chomps down on my arm and pulls me off the dock and under the water as well.
I cannot explain how real this felt, I could see underwater and was holding my breath trying to remember what the millions of Nat geo shark week docos had taught me to do in this situation. I tried to punch the shark in the nose but it let like my fists were gliding through thick honey and we continued to be clamped down together and pulled deeper to the ocean floor.
What happened next is still chilling my bones – I gripped the shark’s face with both hands and started gnawing and chewing on its head, through its skin and flesh (gruesome!!) I was literally ripping out chunks of the poor thing with my teeth like some kind of barbaric animal so that it propelled us up above the surface, opened its jaws and released us so we were able to clamber onto the dock to safety.
What does it mean!!!
Blood reference – that’s obvious. The unexpected. Fearing and appreciating something in equal parts. That we overcome things we never thought we could to save ourselves or the people we love? Even though the shark was trying to end us both, I love those creatures and would never want to hurt them. It was such a bloodbath of torn flesh that even though it was just a dream I feel murderous and upset by what I did. I’m hoping I’ll figure that one out with some analysis and conclude that it meant something else entirely, which dreams almost always do.
As graphic as that was, it felt nice to dream like that again – really wakes you up!
(I also dreamed I bought a bangin’ pair of $350 Karen Walker sunnies I was pining over the other day so that lightened the mood, but was a rude awakening to wake up and find that I still don’t own them and most likely never will.)
Hurricane Suze 2.0
Today Hurricane Suze 2.0 hit me like a brick in the face after an orgasm. Violent and brutally unforgiving. It was a nasty concoction of things that built up very quickly and again it just came on so strong and sudden I felt very close to panic attack. I went from extreme highs to extreme lows in a 12 hour time span – something my psyche doesn’t seem to cope with too well at the moment. There was ‘complicated relationship’ drama and pointless arguing while supposed to be on a romantic 48 getaway. Romance lasted maybe 12 hours. That subject is just making my brain and heart hurt so much that’s about all I can say.
I was over tired. Even though Kayla Itsine’s workouts have been making me feel incredibly energised and amazing and happy, I’ve mysteriously gone the other way and my body has inexplicably been waking me up at 4am on the dot every day for a week. Bright eyed, bushy tailed, ready to rock n roll. On the one hand it’s fantastic – I’m achieving more by 11am each day than I normally would in an entire week! But – my body needs rest and recovery so 5 hours of sleep or less every night… Why!!!
Also being off the pill – don’t wanna blame shift entirely cause I’ve got a lot of learning to do regarding dealing with my emotions. However, it’s so clear to me that I’ve become oversensitised and vulnerable to any and all feelings and emotions I have – whether they’re positive or negative feelings, they’ve all had the volume cranked up to ear-bleeding decibels and there is just no safety from that kind of volume.
My feelings, emotions and hormones just went so catastrophically all over the place today I felt dangerous. Like I could just suddenly do something crazy and snap at any second. I hate that way outta control feeling it’s so scary.
Unfortunately, as hard as I tried, no mindfulness or willpower or meditation or deep breathing could yank me outta this one so I surrendered to a cigarette, a Valium and a 48 hour snooze/sleep/bawling session. I’m only human.
Workin’ On Ma Fitness
Today I’m feeling amazing! It IS only 10am and I AM writing this in the bath tub drinking tea and listening to Eminem so how could I not feel good but still…
Re-training My Body & Brain
This week I’ve begun rigorous training of strengthening myself physically, mentally & emotionally. If I have to learn to live with a chronic disease, I cannot let Endo rule my life, otherwise I’ll spend the rest of my days in bed or on the couch. I want to toughen up (by no means be a martyr) and break the cycle I’ve fallen into where I do nothing even when my pain is at a 3 or 4 out of 10. I’m trying this new thing where I add more structure to my life and force myself to do things even when I’m in pain, rather than surrendering to it and crashing on the couch all the time.
Pill Withdrawals
Day 3 off the Pill
At 4pm after a long day of technical difficulties, ‘Hurricane Suze’ (or hormotional Syl) began to brew. I know myself well enough to know that despite said technical difficulties, they were not stressful enough to warrant the torrent of physical and emotional symptoms that began to take over me.
Laters, Pill
Today is the day I come off the pill. BIT SCARY! I’ve been on various kinds of OC pills since I was 15 and in the last two years I’ve been taking it continuously every day as per advice from my surgeon to prevent me having periods and try to slow down the growth of the Endo. I’ve never quite understood how the pill can slow down the growth of Endo when it contains oestrogen, which feeds Endo…