Posts Tagged ‘life’

And post-sepsis syndrome is still a whole mood.

I’m continuing to get better, but I’m plagued by the occasional intense tiredness (which results in me dragging during mornings, although I tend to do better during afternoons and evenings, though that varies wildly). Sometimes I’m also plagued by the inability to sleep, or to get restful sleep. It actually seems like restful sleep is harder to come by these days. I do want to begin streaming during the days in addition to during my usual evening and night hours once summer “officially” starts here, which should be next week when secondary schoolers don’t have to report to school. I’m close to figuring out when some of the best hours for me to do that might be, although I’m mindful of my own health as well and definitely don’t want to push things as I heal from sepsis. I’m told that healing can last anywhere from six to eighteen months, although sometimes it can last longer. It depends on how the dice is rolled, I guess. I’m hoping for good odds.

I also measured some of my son’s father (and late husband’s) cremation ashes to send overseas to have a cremation ring made in his honor. It was one of the hardest things that I’ve had to do, even though I’ll get “him” back in the strictest sense of the word. It’s just that these ashes are all I have of the man who gave me my oldest son. He should still be here. He shouldn’t have had to die at the age of thirty-seven. He shouldn’t have had to die on the side of the road because someone who was high and intoxicated insisted on driving that evening. When I found out about his death, I had initially thought that my oldest son and I were finally free of the potential for more abuse to be inflicted on us… and then I became filled with sorrow at the idea that I would potentially live thirty-seven more years without him drawing breath, being part of this world. There would be no chance for him to heal or get help. There would be no chance for him to repair his relationship with me or his son. But for the most part, I’m at peace with it. What else can you possibly do?

I should have bet money on this. I should have.

So many people that I’ve known and spoken with about this had convinced themselves that my oldest son’s father died as the result of a fractured skull, head trauma, broken neck… the whole nine that had to do with everything above his collarbones. And although I didn’t rule out those as possibilities of things contributing to his death, I’ve taken to this with as open of a mind as you can have about a situation that you don’t even want to think about… and for my own peace of mind, I wanted to know how he died so that I had the peace of mind knowing that he didn’t suffer. I also wanted to be able to answer any questions that our son might ever at any point ask and be as honest and truthful as possible, because he behaves and thinks like me. He wants to know, know, know. Talking to one of his aunts on the phone gave me the insight I needed into that.

His head and neck looked fine when she had to identify his body. She was told by the coroner that there was significant damage to his chest and torso as a result of the accident, and that in particular there was severe damage to his chest. The way it was told to me, I’m now speculating that what killed him had to do with his heart, especially if it happened in the matter of seconds that his death certificate states would have taken until he’d actually passed away. Even one second in the agonizing pain that an injury like that could have caused would be one second too long for me, but I’m even more reassured knowing that he didn’t linger…

I can only continue to hold out hope that his descent into unconsciousness was swift so he didn’t suffer.

That ended a bit better than I thought it would.

For anyone that’s been following the… mailman saga, I did get the necklace containing my son’s father’s ashes that I was supposed to get, although I got it one day after it had been guaranteed and the postal service has told me that they are investigating the mailman who runs this route. This isn’t the first time that a parcel with a guaranteed delivery date hasn’t been delivered on the guaranteed delivery date. This isn’t even the second time that this has occurred. The only things that these items have in common, other than guaranteed delivery dates, have been the same mailman over the years… and although the postal service has told me that they’ll fully investigate the matter this time, I’m not that optimistic if you know what I mean.

But I have the necklace containing some of his ashes, which has become more mine than my oldest son’s (who doesn’t seem to favor it either way, and I can’t fault him for that), and I have enough ashes to get a ring made, which I’m doing. In the coming months, I’d like to get a commemorative Forget-me-Not tattoo going down my left arm since that seems like the best place to put one, and it’s vague enough not to give itself away if I don’t want it to be given away… and I’d like a little bit of his ashes to be used in that. It might have surprised some people, and it might surprise some people, but I don’t hate him. I never hated him. I was hurt by some of the actions that he took, and he became a deeply hurt, troubled man whose hurt and trouble only intensified as the years drew on, but he died at the age of thirty-seven in a manner that I wouldn’t wish on a single person. I wouldn’t wish his age of death on anyone, and I wouldn’t wish his manner of death on anyone. Most of the family members of his who I’ve been in contact with feel the same.

All I can say without going into extravagant detail, although I do intend on covering… something about it in here at some point, is that I do not feel the same way about my oldest son’s father as I do my youngest son’s father, and that if any of this had happened to my youngest son’s father, I’d remain indifferent for reason.

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