Last night I was lucky enough to be able to attend a casino themed holiday party for my husband's work. Lucky because a friend came over and sat with the kids so Josh and I could go out and have fun. To prep for it, I made sure I took a nap before getting ready to go.
Entering the Hilton party area is where things got interesting. To a normal person when being introduced to people, you would shake their hand without any pause. To me, meeting people and having to shake their hand is uncomfortable to say the least. I'm not a germ phobe per se but thanks to my immune system not working properly I do have to be very careful. More than anything though, I dislike shaking hands because it physically hurts. My hands, particularly my knuckles, are usually inflamed so squeezing in a common shake hurts. Sometimes when meeting people I smile and wave and other times I shake their hand anyway not letting on how much it hurts. Last night I chose to keep my hands in my pocket, smiled and said hi. Occasionally I waved hoping I didn't appear rude as it was not my intent.
Entering the casino area posed another set of challenges with around 300 people in attendance. Thankfully Josh understood that with IVIG on Monday, something I will explain tomorrow, my immune system was at it absolute lowest point so being surrounded by people could be very dangerous if I picked up anything. I consider myself an introvert anyway so being in the middle of a crowd wasn't appealing to begin with but last night it was something I physically couldn't do. We were able to find a roulette table on the edge of the area so we could both enjoy ourselves betting with play money in order to earn tickets for drawings. Last night I couldn't help but think normal people look at a crowd and don't have to be aware of who looks or acts sick. I don't have a choice.
Saturday night out meant paying for it on Sunday. Thankfully Josh didn't wake me up when he helped the kids with breakfast. I woke up extremely stiff and in a lot of pain, all this from standing for a few hours the night before. Very frustrating to say the least. For some unknown reason, my left hip decided to act up where it hurt every time I moved it making it hard to put full weight on my left side. I did make it to the older 2 kids indoor training but it wasn't exactly comfortable. In fact, it hurt the whole time but the pain was worth seeing the smile on my kids faces when they asked if I watched them.
Unfortunately, the pain in my hip made me short tempered at times with everyone which is something I need to be more aware of and curb. Normally when my pain levels are spiking and my joints are stiff, I use the art of distraction jumping from one thing. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Today I hurt so bad from my hip, not much worked until the kids were in bed and I was able to get pain meds in my system with a heating pad on my hip. Even once the meds started working, the pain has only been brought down to a 7 out of 10. The only thing I can do is lose myself in a book and hope sleep comes soon. Tomorrow is a new day with ever changing symptoms and issues to handle while trying to be the best mom and wife to my family.
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