Thanks, all
I've added you...
No one has written bad things about my in response to my blog - the blog is new, in response to the bad reception telling people about my illness has received.
It really is something I do not understand either, how people can be so nasty. One of my "friends" seems to be convinced that I am just fat and lazy, and that if I will exercise religiously like she does (she works for Curves and lives and breathes them) she thinks all my problems will magically disappear. It was terrible, actually...
I turned 22 on the 10th of this month, and my husband and three of our friends and I went to Applebee's to celebrate (the above mentioned young woman was one of the three). While there the subject of the gym Curves for Women came up (a play on that gym was on the Simpsons, playing on one of the tvs in the building). My DH jokingly said that one day he'll start one for men and call it "Chunks, the gym for men." The two guys with us thought it was hysterical, as did I... my friend's response was a disapproving tsking sound, followed by the comment, "The gym's name is supposed to represent what you want to GAIN, not what you want to get RID of!"
I try very hard to avoid conflict, but I just couldn't help myself! I said, "Well, I guess I don't need to go to Curves since I already have plenty!" She said, "Well, there are the 'right' kind of curves, and the -" (she stopped herself). Then she followed with, "Anyway, chunks are gross. You shouldn't have chunks." I said, "Well, I happen to love my chunky husband, and think he's super sexy!"
I thought for sure she'd drop it then, but NOOOOOO...
"Whatever you say - chunks and chub are unattractive and gross."
I was so furious, I lost my appetite and just kind of tolerated the rest of the evening with her. In retrospect, I shouldn't have let her get away with it, even though it would have meant making a scene in front of the men. No one has the right to say such disparaging things about another person, and especially not about another person to their spouse!
So, it's people like her that I am protecting my privacy from, mostly. It's also people like the man in my church who made the "funny" comment that "there is no better birth control than that!" when told that I may have trouble having babies because this illness makes me anovulatory (I didn't mean to say so much, he wouldn't drop it).
I have just decided that I need to be more discriminatory when sharing about this issue. I was very open at first, because my dx marked the end of ten years of people thinking - and telling me - that I was crazy, as well as ten years of strange, upsetting and painful symptoms without an explanation, and I wanted everyone to rejoice with me! I was naive.