Karen Hoyt is a blogger who has a story about hepatitis C, cirrhosis, end-stage liver disease, liver cancer, and liver transplantation. This excerpt first appeared on Karen’s I Help C blog.
I’ve been walking around like Gomer Pyle for a long time. It’s gotten worse since the transplant. You know, because of the big tummy scar and all…. So, the one thing that I was determined to work on in Sedona was neck and shoulder pain. Lucky me, my cousin’s bestest long time friend is a chiropractor. He’s not a hard jerking bone cracking type of man. He’s gentle. More than that, he’s an emotional baggage unpacker. Really, it’s on his business card. After going in twice a week all month, we got a lot of kinks worked out in my body – and my whole dad gummed self. New insights mean new skills for dealing with pain. Neck pain and any other kind of pain because cirrhosis is a pain in the neck.
One of the first things that came out as we talked and worked together was that I have been carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders.
Here’s a list of the stuff I have felt personally responsible for:
- Caring for my family
- Staying alive
- Finishing Hep C treatment
- Getting through HCC cancer
- Living through a transplant
- Eating healthy
- Not being a burden on my family
- Staying on medical insurance
- Paying medical costs
- Picking out a nursing home (just in case – oh yes I did)
- Trying to look pretty when I felt like crap
- Acting alert when my brain was foggy
- Hiding the fact that I couldn’t figure out simple things
- Smiling through the pain
- Supporting my loved ones in their goals
- Sneaking naps and not telling anyone
- Worrying about all this and more, way way way too much
Click here to find out how Karen deals with her list.
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