713th Friday Blog Roundup

I rarely get sick but I had something this week.  The doctor agrees that it was either food poisoning or a GI bug.  Either way, I was in intense pain all day Tuesday to the point where I couldn’t talk.  I considered going to the emergency room, but Josh was at a work event an hour away, and it felt dramatic to call for an ambulance if I could call for an ambulance.  I know, that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it was totally reasonable in my altered state.  If I could moan “help” into a phone, it meant I was okay enough to stay home.

We spoke to an urgent care nurse later in the evening, and I panted that the pain ranged from a 7 to a 9.  9 is that point where you fear you will go into cardiac arrest because the pain is crashing over you in waves and you can’t catch your breath.  But I stopped at 9 because there is only one thing I have ever experienced that warranted a 10: my HSG.  That sucker will forever be the pain I measure all other pain by.

The next day, I spoke to the doctor’s assistant who also wanted me to describe the pain.  I once again explained it was between a 7 and a 9, but I felt shy explaining that my HSG was my 10.  But you guys get that pain scale, even if you were lucky enough to have your ink pass through the tube.  There’s something about pain that comes with being raw and emotional on the table that makes it stick in your brain forever.

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Stop procrastinating.  Go make your backups.  Don’t have regrets.

Seriously.  Stop what you’re doing for a moment.  It will take you fifteen minutes, tops.  But you will have peace of mind for days and days.  It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

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And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Female Fatigue” (Family Building with a Twist)

Okay, now my choices this week.

I also had Family Building with a Twist’s post for this week.  She writes about listening to Dr. Ford’s testimony and sums up what so many of us are thinking: “I’m tired of being thought of as nothing more than a uterus with legs whose only worthwhile job is having babies.  I’m tired of being dismissed as inconsequential.  I’m tired of the burden of proof being extraordinary and always on the female victim.”  Yes, yes, and yes.

Life Without Baby applies the concept of Ring Theory to living child-free after infertility.  Though I’d argue that if there’s a partner, they’re also in the center of the ring, she explains the idea: “The rule is that that if people have something mean or insensitive or opinionated to say, they say it to someone on a bigger ring. When speaking to someone on a smaller ring, they can only listen or—if they must say something—offer help, support, or comfort.”  It’s good life advice in general, and it works particularly well here.

Lastly, My Path to Mommyhood laughs at the idea that getting a mortgage is invasive after going through the adoption process.  She outlines all the additional things she needed to produce in order to be eligible to be considered for adoption, and it’s a long list.  Perspective is everything.

The roundup to the Roundup: Still not feeling great.  Your weekly backup nudge.  And lots of great posts to read.  So what did you find this week?  Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between September 28th and October 5th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week?  Read the original open thread post here.