Stress

I have always kind of downplayed stress. Not to say I am immune to it –do I get what I would call stress headaches sometimes -yes. Do I have shoulder tension when I am stressed – yes. Do I get cranky (I can hear my husband laughing at this one) – yes. But anything more than that, usually not. I have even handled what most people consider a lot of stress with relative ease. Building a house, planning a wedding, changing jobs –over a few months time. No big deal. But now, I feel that my body is failing me and I am afraid the cause is….wait for it…..stress. There is just no other reason that I can think of for all the issues I have had in the past month. And if I am going to blame stress for these issues, I can’t imagine that anyone will argue that we don't have stress in our lives right now. Moving by itself is stressful. Selling a house by itself is stressful. Finding a new school/child care provider is stressful. Moving to a new country is stressful. Finding a new house, figuring out a different money system, a different time system (they use military time), a different measuring system, a different DRIVING method. All of these things are stressful in and of themselves….now combine them. No wonder my body and my mind are giving up on me. I am forgetting everything, I have been suffering from headaches, angioedema, new allergies and now….as of today….ocular migraines. Never heard of it? Me neither. I didn't even have a headache. But today, when I saw a crescent shape of light flashing in one of my eyes and lost my vision for 20 minutes, I made an emergency appointment with an optometrist and that is the diagnosis. Main trigger for this – yes, stress. I am not saying all of these things are caused by stress but I can’t say that they aren’t either. I am a pretty healthy 37 year old, who only ever really gets an occasional cold or sinus infection. Either it is stress, or it is the health insurance plan I picked making a mockery of me. Yes people, after years of having a relatively small copay for every single appointment we had, I am the newest member in my companies HRA plan as of January 1. With a $5000 deductible and small healthfund which is now, I am sure, depleted. Not to mention three of the three family members living in my house are sick right now, hopefully with just colds. I am sure the stress will subside as soon as we are over there, settled and ready to travel around Europe and have some fun. Daddy is hopefully on the way home from Manchester –he was supposed to fly into Philly, but apparently, the weather decided to add more STRESS, and he is being diverted to Boston, and may either end up home, in Boston or in Philly for the night. Time (and this weather system), will only tell. Please hurry home daddy. We miss you!!