The time has come. Here it is, October 23, 2016. My last day of a four and a half month long medical leave. 136 days, to be exact.

Most of those days were spent in bed. I would be sitting up for the most part, blogging or writing or reading my Bible, but I had to stay in bed because dizziness could come upon me so quickly, I had to be able to lie down immediately if a dizzy spell happened. That occurred more times than I care to think about. 

I had two surgeries during that time. In July, a pelvic surgery at the Center for Endometriosis Care in Atlanta with Dr. Sinervo. It took several weeks to heal from that. If not for my other problems, I would have been able to return to work on August 8th.

But no, there was that pesky brain tumor known as Mini who made my life a living hell, not just during the time I was off, but for this literal entire calendar year. Mini met her doom on September 8th and I have spent the past six weeks recovering from that surgery. It’s been a roller coaster of symptoms and emotions that I don’t care to ever live through again.

Despite some lingering issues that may take a lot more time to go away, I’m now considered healed enough to return to work. To say I’m nervous is an understatement. But I just have to do it and hope it doesn’t cause any setbacks, which I’m nervous it will given my work schedule, which is as follows:

• Week of 10/24: Work 5 days (at least my birthday is Friday)
• Week of 10/31: Work 6 days
• Week of 11/7: Work 5 days
• Week of 11/14: Work 7 days
• Week of 11/21: Off for my stent placement
• Week of 11/28: Work 6 days

If only some of that were overtime, but it’s not. Since I have no hours to take any time off, I have to make up the hours I will be off by working extra shifts. November may very well kill me, since I’m going from working nothing to working that. Sigh, I’m starting to get a killer headache just thinking about it…stress is one of my triggers, unfortunately.

But what’s the point here?

I’ve only been able to write so much because of the time I’ve had off. But now that I’m returning to work, my writing is going to drop off significantly. Especially since working second shift doesn’t actually allow for a lot of free time. I’m not a morning person, so I usually won’t get up until close to 11 am. Then I have to get ready and leave for work by 1:10 pm to be there by 2 pm. I work until 10:30 pm, and then by the time I get home, I need to unwind and eat dinner (since I usually don’t have time to during my shift.) Maybe that time will also involve blogging, but I don’t know. I may be too wiped out to do that, especially at first. Then I’m usually in bed by 1-1:30 am.

So, this may be farewell for awhile, at least until the weekends. But I just want to say thank you to all of you! When I started this blog on July 1st, I just wanted to raise awareness for my chronic conditions to show people what it’s like to be chronically ill, and to remind those who share my conditions that you are not alone. I never really expected anyone other than my family and friends to read it. I never imagined that in only four months, my blog would have had 21,000 views from around 11,300 people from 87 countries, with 99 dedicated followers (couldn’t quite make it to 100, haha.) I’ve met so many amazing bloggers who have encouraged me through this time of trial because they understand in a way that healthy people can’t.

Thank you. All of you. You’re all amazing. And, to quote my favorite movie, “Catch you on the flip side.”

“Three in the morning and I’m still awake
so I picked up a pen and a page.
And I started writing just what I’d say
if we were face to face.

I’d tell you just what you mean to me.
Tell you these simple truths:

Be strong in the Lord and
never give up hope.
You’re gonna do great things
I already know.
God’s got his hand on you so
don’t live life in fear.
Forgive and forget
but don’t forget why you’re here.
Take your time and pray.
These are the words I would say.”

Sidewalk Prophets, “The Words I Would Say”

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