Whirlwind week

Why is it that it feels like I blink and a month goes by? It’s almost JUNE, this is crazy. Sigh. Things have been moving very quickly for us here.

Within a week of listing our house, we are under contract. It’s a blessing and a curse. We’re feeling the overwhelm of the amount work, planning, packing and decision-making that’s about to need to happen. Ugh, it’s so much. I know it will be better when we get to wherever we end up and have community, but getting there is going to be a challenge.

Luckily I’ve proved I can do hard things. And I guess I will keep proving that, cause this week is has been a doozy.

In the midst of all of the house stuff, my dad got pretty sick. My sister had to force him to go to the hospital and he was admitted overnight with severe dehydration and pneumonia. Luckily, with IV fluids, steroids and antibiotics, he is doing much better, gratefully, but for a couple days we were pretty worried.

It’s a whole different experience since I’m usually the sick one. I know how to get through things that i have to do,  but it’s alot harder when you’re trying to help someone else (especially someone that doesn’t want help!) Not to mention that I’m the black sheep of the family that moved, and being far away obviously makes helping more difficult.  Take care of yourself, dad! I’m glad you’re feeling better.

Then, I made a mistake at work on Monday, which I didn’t catch and it blew up in my face when it sent about 90k erroneous leads to sales, which I found out about first thing Tuesday morning. It made for a very difficult day (and night, frankly) with continuous waves of shame and humiliation. In the end, I know that no one died, but when you work in marketing, the last thing you want to do is mess with sales and have all of leadership aware of it. I really thought I was going to lose my job, which is always still a possibility, but I tried to fix it as quickly as I could and was honest about what happened when I filled out an ‘incident report.’ I tried so hard to have self compassion and remind myself that everyone makes mistakes, but those somatic waves of doom deep in my belly persisted for over 24 hours. Just awful.

Medically, I have a bunch of things upcoming. Mostly routine, like the dentist and pulmonologist. I have been having pelvic pain for a couple years that I’ve ignored, and so I finally had a pelvic ultrasound. Not the most fun of tests, but it didn’t really find anything conclusive that would cause the pain. It did show that I have fibroids. The aren’t worrisome, so I guess that’s yet another thing to watch.

The very beginning of June I have my follow up tests and appointment in Portland to see how Tina Tumor is doing. Fingers crossed that she remains out of sight. We have so much going on right now that I’m hoping to keep the scanxiety in check, and yet I’m trying to let myself just roll with all the emotions. On a positive note, we booked a trip to meet our friends from Washington and stay at an airbnb in Oregon Wine country the weekend prior to the appointment, and I think that will be nice and nourishing.

I’ve been getting more involved with the Vasculitis Foundation, which is the nonprofit that supports people with my category of autoimmune. I will be doing a podcast with them regarding the treatments available and my experience that will be published through a journal! I’m excited to share my journey and hopefully help others that also have gone through such a harrowing ordeal. I also had an interview to join the team of volunteers that will help them develop and app to unify the Vasculitis community. It’s not scoped yet, but they want to create an app to help power their research and surveys, along with help patients manage medications, test results, and as I suggested, doctor information and questions for upcoming appointments. I’m excited to see if I’m chosen, provide my perspective, and hopefully help people in a new way.

The same organization chose me as a 2025 Vasculitis Hero and literally got myself on a trading card! It’s kind of ridiculous and hilarious, but i was able to share my story and was interviewed for a short video! I also received several sets of these cards in the mail!