Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Left behind

Have you ever had this feeling that everyone in your circle is moving forward - except for you? Of course you applaud your friends' successes, but then you come home and stare at the walls and ask yourself - but what about me?
I've been having that a lot recently. We have few couples friends that had their struggles with infertility - well, now they have the requisite two kids, they moved on. They have great jobs, they bought houses, they enrolled their kids in private schools... they are moving forward with their lives, they are shaping their lives the way they want them. And here we are, stuck in limbo - procreational, financial, emotional. The plan was to send the kid to preschool, have a second one, stay at home for 2-2.5 years, and then off to the workplace. Tell the Universe about your plans, make her laugh.
We've been discussing all this with my friend, who had a totally different dilemma in her life, but her limbo feeling was just the same as mine. Well, today she crossed over to the other side, so to speak - her problem had resolved to her and her family's great satisfaction. I am glad for her, I truly am. But there's a tiny voice in my head - but what about me? We were in the same boat, and now we are not, and there's no one left to commiserate with.
And since I am on the subject of friends, here's a story. There was a friend once, who, when I got successfully pregnant 6 years ago, was also really, really, really wanting a baby. I presented her with what was left from my supplies - ovulation strips, unopened PreSeed, etc. - and wished her good luck. She got pregnant soon afterwards, and told me that my gift gave her the luck indeed. Recently, she had her second baby (thus realizing my dream scenario, see above). She has her own stash of supplies left. Guess what - she never even offered them to me. She offers to sell them on some online board, spinning some yarn re: them being lucky... I don't care about $10 worth of strips, but could have used some luck, former friend.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Just say NO to Philip Galanes' advice

Normally, I enjoy reading New York Times "Social Qs" column, but today it left me furious. A lady who'd apparently been struggling with infertility and finally got pregnant is asking how to break her good news. (I wonder who on earth, after going through the ordeal of infertility, does not know how NOT to handle this, but whatever). The advice Philip Galanes gives her? Priceless. "Share your intimate news intimately. Tell pals one on one, especially those you suspect may be struggling with fertility issues." So basically, the poor unsuspecting victim of the good news has nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, and has to put on a brave face and offer heartfelt congratulations? I don't think so. Give another person a space to process the news, give her a chance to cry in private, and then to congratulate you. Via email, again. Please. Don't do it face to face, ever. And if Mr. Galanes took time to look up hundreds of infertility blogs, he wouldn't have given such a cruel advice.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Silence

We used to be friends. Then I moved far away, but we kept occasionally emailing and generally keeping in touch. She was the first one of my friends whom I told about my second miscarriage. And the first. All in the same email, in a bleak December 2013 - and it was also about the deaths of my grandparents the very same year. Sort of "end of the year" report. I've never heard back from her. Soon, through a social media, I learned she was expecting her third child. Okay, I thought. Pregnant and preoccupied and having no time for my dark pit, I get it, totally. I decided to let it go and not to show how much her lack of reaction bothered me. 
Recently, she reached out again, after one of my sad musings online. Just a general "hey, thinking of you" stuff. Life, apparently, failed to teach me anything, so I dutifully explained that hey, third and fourth miscarriages, and then a surgery, what a charmed life I live.
She replied. She never ever acknowledged my losses. Like I never even mentioned them. This silence, this total ignoring of my pain - it hurts so freaking much.
Two strikes, you are out.

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Bad, bad person

I didn't even ask my pregnant friend how she is feeling, and basically didn't talk to her much. Now I feel like a horrible human being and a lousy friend. Apparently (she mentioned this in her blog, never told us directly) she's having some issues with her pregnancy and is being monitored by doctors pretty closely. It has to be nerve-wrecking, and I feel bad for her. I also feel my so-called self-preservation is making me - well, not myself. This is not a real me, this is not how I normally behave. This is all wrong.