My New Life: Another Year Wiser??!!

Feeling sleepy and extremely tired when the alarm went off I wanted to just keep sleeping. Outside it was a cloudy, dreary, rainy morning...Ugh! The worst kind of day for me, but I had to go to work.

Did I mention that it was my birthday and now I am 48 years old? Of course it was a dreary day...always is on my birthday! See my blog post "IC Tired from my last birthday. http://bb65ichope.blogspot.com/2012/12/ic-tired.html.

When I went to work, one of the girls I work with gave me a birthday gift. It was so nice! It was one of those Bath & Body Works gift sets. We have only worked together for a couple of months, but she hit the nail on the head with that gift...love me some! When her birthday rolls around I hope that I can return the favor with a very suitable gift for her!

Then when my boss came in, she brought a birthday cake and starting singing "Happy Birthday." Again, another great gift from a girl for a girl...Yes, I said it...a girl! The last few years I worked with all men and I felt privileged, if they even remembered to say "Happy Birthday" even after I reminded them, more than once in the days proceeding my birthday, lol!

This year I wasn't even depressed! I was happy!! I was happy to have another year of wisdom "wink, wink" and I was happy to have a job! We all shared some of my birthday cake at work and I enjoyed it very much!

My boss asked me the next day, if I felt another year older. I said "No, not really" Since I have been diagnosed with Interstitial Cystitis (IC), I feel closer to about 30 years older I thought to myself. As I have said before, I have the endurance of my mother. She is now 81 years old.

Yes, I'm another year older and I can dwell on that if I want to. But it will not change the fact that I am older. I have IC, Fibromyalgia, IBS, Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, etc, etc. and I can dwell on that if I want to...and some days I do. But it will not change that living with these illnesses are my reality, at least for now.

We can use all of our energy to worry about getting older or we can accept it and be thankful that God has blessed us with another year. We can use all of our precious time trying to figure out what caused our IC, illness (insert your own problems) here or we can move on with our lives and spend our limited energy on trying to make ourselves better.

I believe when you first get sick with IC or other illnesses that there should be a time of mourning. A mourning for your old life, but when you can't move past that, then you have a problem.

Many of us are going through a storm in our life right now. We have to stay focused on the fact that this too will pass. There are some things that we can't change, but at least if we celebrate another birthday we can also take joy in the fact that we are "Another Year Wiser??!!"