Right before our virtual 1-hour consultation a few weeks ago with the third potential practitioner (see my This Feels Right post), my husband and I decided to do an audio recording of the Zoom consultation. Since these types of appointments tend to move very quickly, there are times when my husband and I both forget some of what is said during the appointments even though we feverishly take notes throughout the entire experience. As a result, some of the people in our life have suggested recording the appointments to review as needed. Since we don’t normally record our appointments, my husband and I forgot that we were recording, and we accidentally recorded our conversation with each other immediately following the appointment as well.
A few days later, I went back and listened to the recording of the appointment to make sure that I understood the instructions from the practitioner and his team. When I got to the end of the recording, I realized that my husband and I had also recorded our immediate reactions to the appointment. When I listened to the two of us interact, I was even more grateful than usual. I know that we are a good team, and that we have done a lot of individual and relationship work around how we live alongside these life circumstances and how to best support each other through them, but to hear us put the work we have done into practice in an actual real-life scenario was priceless. We didn’t know that we were recording, so we were as natural as we normally are in these scenarios. What I heard back was two people who were both loving, supportive, honest, compassionate, empathetic, and grounded. I was immensely proud of us and how we have navigated this entire journey. It has been excruciatingly difficult on so many levels, but we have kept our individual and relationship needs as our top priorities, and it showed during this recorded interaction.
At our therapy appointment at the end of that same week, we were discussing our recorded interaction with our amazing therapist. We started explaining it to her, but then we decided to just play her the 5-minute audio recording so that she could get an actual real-life example of how we interact in these scenarios. We have told her about many scenarios over the years, but listening to a recording of the actual scenario seems like it would be a therapist’s dream. After listening, she told us how impressed she was, and that we were the textbook example of how these types of interactions should go. To get that kind of feedback from a trained professional who knows *everything* we have been through is such a wonderful feeling. The work to keep our relationship thriving during the most difficult time of our lives to date is paying off. I couldn’t be more grateful for my husband and our relationship!
My husband and I have since been navigating new stressful home building topics and other health related topics, all while working our wage-producing jobs and doing the other tasks that come with adulting and chronic illness. I was emotional last week thinking about how much has happened over the years while having our therapist right by our side through it all, so I sent her a “thank you” email. We are blessed to have her in our life, and her reply is a clear example of why:
She is smart, highly capable, and she cares about her clients. She is also always learning and growing with us. There is nothing I respect more than people who are always learning and growing, so having a therapist who prioritizes these things as much as we do is the best. What a gem of a human!
After my last appointment, I also received quite a bit of support from my support system. Here are the text messages I received from my mother-in-law and some of my friends after publishing my previous blog post:
And, when I was describing the appointment to one of my closest friends via a video call, her eyes got real big, and she said, “Oh my gosh! I am so hopeful!”
I am beyond grateful to have all of these people in my life. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them! Regardless of what happens on this health journey, I know that I have the love and support of these extraordinary people! ❤️
[Side Note: As a reminder, if you signed up to receive email notifications when new blog posts are published for this blog, and then suddenly you are no longer receiving these email notifications, please know that this is a blog hosting site technical issue. It sometimes unsubscribes people for no known reason. I don’t personally keep track of subscribers, and I don’t unsubscribe people. Feel free to sign up again anytime! ❤️]
Brutal. Living alongside an invisible complex chronic illness.
Beautiful. Living alongside an invisible complex chronic illness with the love and support of some extraordinary people.
Just another day of . . . This Brutiful Life: The Brutal & Beautiful Moments of My Life.
