Friday, August 20, 2010

The Crash...(you should know about it.)

Annie and I consider ourselves observers. We observe everything we can...smells, sights, people, accents, our children, personalities, and of course our favorite...idiosyncrasies (ours and others). We love to find patterns in things and anticipate things, maybe to a disagreeable fault. Over the past two years, amidst our various crazy times we have observed a pattern that is now unmistakable...it's called The Crash. Most of you who are more intelligent than us probably already know about the crash, but I am totally amazed to see how consistent it is. Every high adrenaline/intensely stressful experience seems to be followed by the dearly beloved adrenal nose dive.

Symptoms of the crash include: hyper-sensitivity, temporary irrationality, low-energy, moodiness, magnification, weepiness, and being ridiculous.

Now before you get carried away, we're not simply talking about what women commonly call the "baby blues". These are only my symptoms, not Annie's.

As of Wednesday night we had gotten over the huge surgery day, Annie's parents headed to the airport, Haley and Darcy we're on their way to Aunt Brookie's wedding weekend, and it was just Annie and I with Gracie. Ahh, deep breath amidst the chaos. Needless to say Thursday morning we woke up to the The Crash and stumbled our way through the day, happy to bid it farewell.

So why do I tell you all this personal baloney? It's not because we want to garner your sympathy and concern. Someday, when I look back at the blog I don't want to feel like we ignored the bumps and bruises of the territory. I don't want people who read and follow our journey to see our smiling pictures and think that we haven't had our sketchy moments. Furthermore, when we write about the joys and celebrations I want you to be able to take them seriously as well, knowing that we have been honest about the hard parts.

Sitting here today -- this side of the crash -- we celebrate how gracious God has been to sustain us through the past ten days. We have had more to celebrate than to fear. Gracie is breathing on her own, without a tube in her nose. She looks peaceful and on the way to recovery.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The "crash" is very familiar to me. And you are right to notice it. You are the first person that I have ever heard talk about it! God Bless you for talking about it. For that I am very happy.

I speak from personal expierence with what you call the CRASH. I think some people have that "Crash" for just one day...and for some people it can last months or even years....For instance, During really hard times I am VERY strong and get through things...but a month or so later - CRASH. I am glad you put it in those words - CRASH. I like that. I am going to start calling it the CRASH! I am glad you are journaling about something that so many people don't like to talk about or hear about or are embarrassed to acknowledge or talk about. Everyone goes through trauma - some severe and some mild in their lives. And this CRASH totally happens to most people in life. I think it should be talked about more. The crash happens harder and worse to people with major trauma in their lives. But it happens to every day people just the same.

When my sister Liz and her hubby Justin were going through this same surgery scenario at the Children's hospital in Milwaukee with Emma Joy....When they would be alone after days of all of this they would just weep and pray together. They may not like me to say that. But God put that in us. And we should not be ashamed to talk about it.

Very observant!! And thank you for talking about it.

I am praying for you and Annie and Gracie, Haley, and Darcy every day. Whenever you come to mind. Which is often.

Give Annie my love.

Carrie