I am scratchy and irritated these days. Is it the nature of healing? Is being constantly annoyed a sign that I’m getting better, and if so, why? You’d think I’d be all happy and excited, and I am, but I’m also fractious. I curse at all the drivers on the road, loudly and often. This isn’t new, anyone who has been in a car with me knows my predilection for cursing at other drivers. What’s new is the vehemence and frequency, the lack of control I have over my rage.
One of the symptoms of bartonella, the last co-infection to die, is irrational anger. I do have that, and I don’t like it. This fractiousness is more an angry restlessness at my life, what I’ve lost and how much farther I still have to go before I’m well. It’s also frustration at how hard it is to pick up your life again, especially when it dawns on you that you can’t go back to what isn’t anymore. So now I have to move forward, whether I want to or not. It’s scary, and I don’t like scary. The whole thing exhausts me!
It’s also getting harder to comply with the Lyme protocol. I don’t like answering questions about how I am. People look at you like your doctor is exploiting you, or he’s making up your treatment as you go along, because it’s always something. That’s Lyme disease. In a sense, he is making up my treatment as we go along. Every case is different, because every tick bite is made up of different bugs. We get misdiagnosed, under-treated (2 weeks of Doxycycline? Please, bitch!), and denied treatment by insurance companies who believe that anything over 30 days of treatment is uncalled for. No wonder I am fractious. It’s a miracle I’m not starkers. Wait…oh yeah, that symptom is mostly over.
In a way, I like the irrational anger. I am not prone to irrational anger. It’s almost fun to blow up, at least in private. I can now imagine what angry people feel all the time, the release of…what? I’m not sure I know what is being released, only that something loosens inside when venting, and the pressure backs off a little. To turn this rage on another person would be unthinkable to me, though. I contain myself to screaming at nothing. Once, however, I screamed at the dogs. I NEVER do that, even though I’d like to sometimes. That one scared me more than anything.
There is a lot of yelling going on in the world today. A lot of anger and distrust. I will not be a part of it. Listening to an angry person is a soul-sucking endeavor. A part of this fractiousness is an impatience with the world today. I don’t have the time or energy to put up with toxic people. At the same time, I have to participate in the world, such as it is today. I often wonder what we will call this new era. The Age of Hypocrisy? The Age of Rage? Whatever history dubs it, it won’t be flattering, that’s for sure. So my small part will be to keep my grumpiness to myself. It’ll be tough. Curse words will be used liberally while I talk to myself. Cleaning, music and hiking will be my anodynes. I hope. If any of you catch me bitching, slap me, please.
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