Everything's Shiny, Captain.

Posted by Rain Kleindolph on

I was supposed to have an earring club this fall! What happened? 

Well at the risk of TMI, I'm a menopausal GenXer who has had several babies, and a lifetime of trauma, and my pelvic floor gave out. While pelvic organ prolapses are very common they range from mild with little impact on your day to day life to completely horrible and debilitating. I am hovering somewhere around "horrible and I can't do a lot of the things I was doing before this happened."

I haven't been able to spend much time at the bench as a result. I can work, but between the prolapse and the fibromyalgia I have had to pace myself, so I'm not getting any kind of quantity done. It's very day to day. I didn't do a fall/winter club because I didn't want to commit to it and then let people down. 

I'm really only talking about this because there's so much silence and shame around this condition, but for afab people it's super common!  After menopause, if you're autistic/adhd and/or you have a collagen disorder like Ehlers Danlos, it's even more common. But no one talks about it because, well they just don't. It's hard for me to talk about, actually. I've internalized a lot of that shame and silence. So you go along and then one day whoop there it is, surprise! 

I don't know what's going to happen going forward. There's probably going to be a major surgery in my next-year-ish future and for sure there is physical therapy (there's therapy for your pelvic floor who knew?) but a lot of that is dependent on being able to even access medical care. I have great insurance, but our system is so backed up here I can't even get in to see a doctor for the initial appointment about this until late March, so... who knows when things will happen? It's triggered a massive fibromyalgia flare-up that has not let up and y'all, I am struggling, hard. 

I feel like Serenity in that opening scene in the movie. I'm pretty sure I'm going to make it to ground, but in how many pieces? 

So the shop is shut down, I am taking a Wintering Break to rest and take care of my body and to try to get stronger. I plan to open back up at the end of January, at least for already made stuff, custom orders, and to contribute some OOAK items to the ÖrtFaerie at Southern Faire next spring.

Hopefully we'll be able to do another Spring or Summer Earring Club, that's my intention, but, it's all going to depend on the news I get in March and the plan going forward from there.

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