She mentions it casually as I pour the milk into her morning bowl of Corn Flakes..."Mom, my tummy hurts." My heart immediately leaps in my chest, then begins its ascent into a tremor-inducing race. My hand shakes and some milk spills onto the counter. No. Not now....please, please, not now. My thoughts begin to race in time with my heartbeat...here they go...This is it, oh god, this is it, Nolan and Ainsley will catch it, I know they will, we'll all catch it, one drop of vomit from a child with Norovirus is enough to infect 100,000 people, if I send her to school they might call me and tell me she puked and to please come pick her up and I won't want to pick her up because I know she'll be contagious and we'll all get it and the next few weeks will be hell but they'll MAKE me pick her up because I'm her mom and puke isn't supposed to terrify me and I HAVE to take care of her because I love her and I'm her mom but I'm AFRAID of her right now, I'm afraid of my own daughter and that's horrible, that's awful, a good mom isn't afraid to care for her sick kids, what kind of mother am I oh god how am I going to cope the next few days how will I do it?? Maybe Darin...no he can't help me because he'll be at work he's ALWAYS at work when one of them is puking how dare he leave me alone with my greatest fear I won't get any sleep the next few weeks because all of my kids will catch it and they'll be puking all night and the sound and the smell are so terrifying please god please don't let her have the stomach flu please just let it be gas or constipation or anything but the stomach flu anything but that it's so contagious everything will have to be wiped down and sanitized and the kids will puke on their blankets and pillows and I'll have to wash them and I'll probably be doing it all ALONE because Darin will be at work and I'll accidently inhale the vomit particles on the blankets or I'll touch my face without realizing it and then I'll get it I'll get it and I'll be nauseated and terrified and ALONE when it happens because he might be at work and I don't want to be alone when it happens I'm terrified to be alone when it happens doesn't he understand that but he has to work and I have to be a real mom and deal with this but I can't I can't I can't I can't I'm such a horrible mom for feeling this way oh god I'm so scared please please let it be anything except stomach flu....
This was me this morning. That rambling mess of strung-together sentences is EXACTLY what was going through my head this morning...my mind was spinning with these out-of-control thoughts. My heart was racing and pounding so hard I thought it might thump right through my chest. I was shaky and absolutely petrified. And all it took for me to go from semi-awake and calm to full-blown fight-or-flight mode were those four terrifying words from my sweet six year old: "Mom, my tummy hurts."
For those of you without a phobia, it might be difficult to understand how a simple bodily function can produce such terror in a person. Yet it can. I have Emetophobia, an intense, illogical, and irrational fear of vomiting, and this is what goes through my mind when I'm confronted with even the slightest possibility of vomit. I've lived with this enemy inside me for as long as I can remember, and I arrange my life to accomodate it. It's mentally and, yes, physically exhausting...sometimes I wonder just how long a heart can jump and race before giving up the fight. A heart attack is rare but not unheard of at 35 years old. I do sometimes wonder if this phobia, my forever enemy, will eventually kill me. Emetophobia is the 5th most common phobia, but the least studied. This makes it seem even more ominous...as if vomiting is so horrifying that the phobia is even too taboo to study and research. To add to the awful mix, the guilt associated with Emetophobia is overwhelming. As mothers we are programmed to nurture our children when they're ill. A child deserves to be comforted and nurtured when vomiting or feeling sick. But Emetophobia forces us to wall ourselves off from our kids when they're sick with vomiting. Some of us simply cannot care for our children at all when they're ill. Some of us are able, but the initial panic and ensuing anxiety crushes us for weeks, months, and even years afterward, as many of us can recall every single instance of our children vomiting. We remember "vomiting anniversaries"...the dates that we or our children have vomited that roll around each year. The dread and anxiety preceding the date, and the all-too temporary relief afterwards if we've made it through vomit-free. There's more to this beast, much more, but I have to check on my daughter now...she didn't end up puking today, and she did attend school and reassured me that she no longer felt "pukey". But....she does have a slight fever and will have to stay home from school tomorrow, and the night is young, too young...I thank the universe that my husband is home from work now and will be here through the night...because there's always that chance...it's always lurking, always stalking us. I'm so nervous. Sleep will elude me tonight.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Monday, February 18, 2013
A Bit 'O Background
The title of this post is pretty self-explanatory, so here we go:
My name is Stacey, I'm 35 years old, divorced, re-married, three kids, two from husband #1 and one from husband #2, raised and still live in St. Clair Shores, MI, a tidy suburb of Detroit. SCS will always be home to me, although I alternate between feeling a comfortable affection for this city and a sensation of claustrophobic discomfort, similiar to Jim Carey's character in "The Truman Show". SCS has a pretty facade yet plenty of behind-the-scenes drama, most of which is humorous when viewed as a passive spectator. Currently the major issue in SCS is its rat problem. Residents of this city have been howling about the rats for months now, filling city message boards with complaints, sightings, and possible solutions, the most recent being a "rat bounty" program in which residents would be paid 5.00 for trapping and killing a rat. This proposal was shot down quickly amidst concerns of residents turning their backyards into rat havens (picture it!) to claim the cash and a mention of the bounty program on national news, which many believed put an unsightly stain on the city and (horrors!) we wouldn't want that! I don't disbelieve that this city has a rat problem...the sheer number of people protesting and posting about them is proof that they're around doing what they do best. However, we have lived in our house in SCS for well over a year now, and during this time my husband and I have seen only one lowly rat. One. The sighting occurred last summer around midnight as we enjoyed a balmy night on our porch. We saw the little critter scurry out of a neighbors lawn into the street and disappear into the night. We spent many more hours late at night on the porch, making the most of the too-short Michigan summer, and never saw another rat. So the problem indeed exists, but I have to question its severity. :) All things considered though, SCS remains a fairly safe, clean, decent city to live in, and I hope it remains as such. We plan to stick around for a while, and though the innocent familiarity of my childhood SCS days has faded somewhat, I still want my kids to view their hometown as a safe, comfortable, and fun place to grow up. And now this busy mommy has to leave to go pick up my two older kids from their dads place...hours of blogging time is not to be for me, but that's ok...it's all worth it. :) This blog might somewhat resemble a carnival ride...plenty of loops, twists, turns, and random changes of pace, but that's life with three kids. I believe I'm navigating it pretty well, most of the time. :)
My name is Stacey, I'm 35 years old, divorced, re-married, three kids, two from husband #1 and one from husband #2, raised and still live in St. Clair Shores, MI, a tidy suburb of Detroit. SCS will always be home to me, although I alternate between feeling a comfortable affection for this city and a sensation of claustrophobic discomfort, similiar to Jim Carey's character in "The Truman Show". SCS has a pretty facade yet plenty of behind-the-scenes drama, most of which is humorous when viewed as a passive spectator. Currently the major issue in SCS is its rat problem. Residents of this city have been howling about the rats for months now, filling city message boards with complaints, sightings, and possible solutions, the most recent being a "rat bounty" program in which residents would be paid 5.00 for trapping and killing a rat. This proposal was shot down quickly amidst concerns of residents turning their backyards into rat havens (picture it!) to claim the cash and a mention of the bounty program on national news, which many believed put an unsightly stain on the city and (horrors!) we wouldn't want that! I don't disbelieve that this city has a rat problem...the sheer number of people protesting and posting about them is proof that they're around doing what they do best. However, we have lived in our house in SCS for well over a year now, and during this time my husband and I have seen only one lowly rat. One. The sighting occurred last summer around midnight as we enjoyed a balmy night on our porch. We saw the little critter scurry out of a neighbors lawn into the street and disappear into the night. We spent many more hours late at night on the porch, making the most of the too-short Michigan summer, and never saw another rat. So the problem indeed exists, but I have to question its severity. :) All things considered though, SCS remains a fairly safe, clean, decent city to live in, and I hope it remains as such. We plan to stick around for a while, and though the innocent familiarity of my childhood SCS days has faded somewhat, I still want my kids to view their hometown as a safe, comfortable, and fun place to grow up. And now this busy mommy has to leave to go pick up my two older kids from their dads place...hours of blogging time is not to be for me, but that's ok...it's all worth it. :) This blog might somewhat resemble a carnival ride...plenty of loops, twists, turns, and random changes of pace, but that's life with three kids. I believe I'm navigating it pretty well, most of the time. :)
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Reclaiming Myself In Baby Steps
Whoa....can this be real??? Here I am, creating a blog. I have few precious minutes to write this post, as I have three children and a (yet again!) messy house waiting for me upstairs. My husband is preparing to leave for work, and the weight of the day begins to creep up on me...hours and hours of...what?? What can I do today that will make the kids and myself happy?? Yesterday I took them to the Bounce House, a chaotic hot mess of probable germ-ridden children and giant, bouncy blow-up slides and mazes. Nolan and Marina, my two older kids, had a blast, as they usually do, navigating the hordes of kids among the bouncy blow-up thingees. My ten-month old, Ainsley, enjoyed the people-watching experience, hamming it up and playing peek-a-boo with a fellow parent, a father whose child I never actually saw, but who I'm sure was in there...somewhere. And I actually got to have some much-needed adult conversation with the mom of my daughter's BFF at school. A new friend in the making, and the Universe knows I could use more of those. I smile now as I realize this is not the most interesting of blog posts, but for this mom whose personal identity seems to be fading more and more every day, it's a welcome relief. I love my children, I do. I don't regret becoming a mommy. I've gained a massive amount of joy, wisdom, and insight through my motherhood experience. But I feel sometimes that I've lost myself somewhere along the way. This blog is a small yet relevent first step towards re-discovering my own personal unique-ness. I'm sure there are a few "MommyNazis" out there who might deem me selfish for daring to reclaim a small portion of my pre-mommy identity. Fire away...this mommy, wife, aspiring writer, Emetophobic (more on that later), highly sensitive person, freethinker, lover of all things literary, and all-around decent woman knows that this endeavor can only serve to make me a better mom and person. And now, my precious few minutes are up...what will today bring?? Bring it on...I've got my own personal blog now, bitches! :)
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