Self-Attack

It's been a few years, but this morning, my body tried to kill me.  I'm not laughing and I'm not exaggerating.  I almost died.

I woke up around 845 to a backache.  After gathering my wits and realising that blood was again exiting through my vagina, and shuffled tot eh bathroom (you would really think by now I would be expecting this monthly occurrence and have supplies by the bedside).  When I made it tot eh bathroom, I cleaned up and went back to bed.  About two minutes later I felt this strange sensation of my intestine moving plant materials toward by colon.  And that was when I cringed, because I knew this was going to be one wild ride.  I laid in bed for as long as I could, in denial, then shuffled again tot he restroom. This vis t lasted much longer.

I felt like my body was trying to squeeze every bit of matter out of my body.  I wouldn't have bee surprised if my spleen or gallbladder had dropped out, the cramping was so terrible.  It hadn't been that way in years.  And I dreaded, because the last time I felt like body organs were being squeezed from my body, it wasn't only through the toilet, it was also into a trashcan.

And I was right.  After emptying my entire intestinal tract, and as I was writhing on the cold bathroom tiles in pain, the bile rose.  I hurried tot eh toilet and retched.  Luckily, the Korean BBQ I'd eaten last night moved quickly enough that it went down instead of up.  I can only imagine if that food had come up....  :grimace:  Actually I'm not sure about that one.  Because having spicy Korean food come out as a searingly painful bowel movement was... like acid.  Esp when it was in it's raw form and not completely digested.

I continued to alternate between diarrhea and vomiting for the next.... I dunno. I lost track of time, but it had to have been at least 20 minutes.  I thought I was going to die.  I know I exaggerate--it's the Southerner in me (tall drinks and tall tales)--but the last time I'd been in this state I was 17.  I had cold sweats, I was hot and cold at the same time, body aches and shivering.  You'd have thought I had food poisoning.  But no, this is just my body punishing me for ignoring it.

How have I been ignoring my body?

Usually, when my uterus is going to take me for a wild ride, I get a horrible backache and I up my iron intake.  And I did that.  But I also made the mistake of forgetting the advice my friend's mom Christine gave me.  Iron is important during menses, but calcium is also crucial.  She determined this when I told her how I crave potatoes and spinach and how these foods are high in iron.  She also told me they are rich in calcium, which my body has been lacking since I quit drinking cow's milk.

I want to make an official public apology to my body.  I've been a bit out of tune with it because there have been so many mental issues demanding my attention.  :(  But no more!  As I work my way back up to full-size meals (it'll take a few days after the violent shrinking of my stomach), calcium will be a part of every meal.  Cow yogurt, soy yogurt, and I will finish that spinach and potatoes.  I also think I'll find a multivitamin with calcium, because surprisingly the one I take doesn't have it....  WTH!!  >__<