you have GOT to be kidding me...

Hmmmm.

So I stumbled upon this website a while back while researching ACE’s (Adverse Childhood Events). Because someone like me who has a host of Axis I diagnoses and a glaring Axis II diagnosis, is pretty much likely to have a pretty ugly ACE score. And as I read the website it described, well, me. I have somatization up the wazoo:

• IBS w/complications
• CFS w/myalgia
• Insomnia
• Migraines
• Telogen effluvium
• Eczema
• Scoliosis

Some even argue that my chronic UTI’s and even my Raynauds Disease could somehow be related (poor self-care and low-grade autoimmune symptoms respectively).

But as I mentioned in a recent post, I have to have a hysterectomy in about a month for a new problem: adenomyosis. Initially, I assumed that this had nothing to do with any of the above. Still, it was kind of annoying that it was another illness that would be pretty difficult to discuss in public: “oh yeah, I’m taking next week off to have my uterus removed since its lining is trying to grow into my musculature!” Not really water-cooler talk. But it wasn’t a psychiatric or even psych-related diagnosis so I was kind of happy about that. (You know what a bitch mental illness is when it’s a treat to have a regular-person illness.)

But then I was talking to the husband the other night about the cause of adenomyosis. Essentially, endometrial tissue is part of one’s immune system. And there are theories out there linking its occasional freakout to autoimmune disease. (Oh, did you catch that part about the flu-like symptoms? I DID.) And from an epidemiological standpoint, people with my cluster of somatizations are much, MUCH more likely to develop adenomyosis. 

So here’s my PSA for the week:

Hey parents! Don’t scare the shit out of your kids - especially the kinda sensitive ones. They’ll be traumatized and that trauma will cause a LIFETIME of health problems - oh and probably reduce that lifespan to boot. So, you know, maybe try to chill the fuck out when you’re together. 

FFS...