the good, the bad, & the ugly

This weekend Matt and I went with the Gurleys down to south Georgia to visit our besties the Moores. The Moores used to live up here in Athens...but then 3.5 years ago they moved away and left us, and it is so sad. So we always look forward to our twice-or-thrice-a-year visits with them. Here's a quick (ha!) breakdown of the weekend-- and be sure to stick around til the end of the post, cause there's big news regarding my giveaway!

The Good:
Well, time with friends is always good. And when the six of us (plus 2 kids) gather, there is always an abundance of good food to accompany our hanging out. We went to a restaurant Friday night that apparently serves the largest Philly cheesesteaks known to mankind:

Yeah, seriously. And it was only $10!! And it came with a side!! Ridiculous. Yes, it lasted 2+ meals. Other "good" included everything Amanda cooked. Homegirl's a great cook.

The Bad:
OK SERIOUSLY???! The fact that the vast bulk of my talking about our weekend visit with our friends will be summed up in the "bad" section is just wrong, okay? Don't think I'm okay with this. (NOTE: Endometriosis/"women's health"-related TMI to follow)

I spent 95% of Saturday in excruciatingly unbearable pain. I'm not exaggerating. I felt good for about one hour in the mid-morning, and other than that I was laid out on the couch with a heating pad, crying and hating life. IT SUCKED. What was the problem, exactly? It wasn't a cyst rupturing, although some of the pain was similar. It wasn't any kind of "normal" cramps associated with being on my period (although I'm starting to figure out the my "normal" isn't necessarily a non-endo-girl's "normal"). Basically it felt like everything between my rib cage and my thighs was twisting and pulsing and radiating pain. Without stopping. It wasn't like...10 minutes of bad cramps, a few hours of semi-tolerableness, 20 minutes of pain, few hours of I can deal with this...OH NO. It was hour after hour after hour of relentless pain. Tylenol didn't even touch it. I spent the whole day fantasizing about the stash of narcotic painkillers from surgery that I still have...at my house, four hours away. Honest to God, the pain yesterday was worse than anything I experienced after surgery. Now of course, I stayed on the aforementioned painkillers on a religious schedule after surgery for that very reason-- so I wouldn't experience excruciating pain. So that's why this was worse. It was almost the worst pain I've ever felt, but I'm afraid that that coveted award still has to go to my hemorrhagic cyst. But I only had to feel that pain for a few hours before the hospital put me on a morphine drip, whereas this experience dragged on for about 14 (until I fell into a sleeping-pill induced slumber).

So what was it?? Your guess is as good as mine. Pretty much, I'm thinking this is just the pain associated with endo. A lot of endo girls describe being in pain like this regularly, which is why endo can be such a debilitating disease. I've had brief episodes of pain like this, but they've never lasted longer than an hour or so at a time, and have been more intermittent (with periods of more tolerable pain breaking up the acute pain). And while the pain was very much like that of rupturing cysts, it was just different enough that I'm pretty sure it wasn't that. So if all it is was "endo pain," then AWESOME...THIS is what I get to look forward to for the rest of my life? I'm not even two months out of surgery!! I thought it was supposed to get BETTER! So I was equal parts in pain and TOTALLY PISSED about this whole situation yesterday.

Let's not forget-- we were out of town, VISITING OUR FRIENDS while this was going on. Except for instead of visiting, I was hogging an entire couch, moaning and crying and lamenting that NOTHING EVER GOES RIGHT IN MY LIFE. I can't even enjoy a stupid WEEKEND. Ugh. That, my friends, was "the bad."

The Ugly:
Well, on FRIDAY night (before all that "bad" nonsense took place), while we were driving to the restaurant that serves giant sandwiches, Amanda and I found ourselves riding in the trunk of the minivan, sitting on the floor. Yeah, we ran out of seats, so we did what had to be done and had fun lounging on the floor. And had a little photo shoot.

And then we decided to try to take some beautiful "duck face" shots. Which I happen to be awesome at (amateur luck, I promise). And Amanda happens to be NOT awesome at.

 Sorry for the blur, but it's just how it goes. You can still see my impressive cheekbones and duckface-lips. And you can see how Amanda deals with things that might end up looking ugly...like her attempt at duckface. 

So that was my exciting and unfortunately pain-filled weekend (PS- I feel much better today. Still have some residual aching/cramping, but much more normal and tolerable. Nothin my BFF the heating pad can't take care of.)

Exciting Giveaway Update!!!
OK-- LOVE all of yalls hilarious comments. And so does Colleen-- which is why she amended the giveaway offer and now wants to giveaway SIX COPIES OF THE BOOK!!! Isn't that fun??! So if you were thinking about entering but haven't...go ahead and do it, cause the odds of winning are pretty dang good! To enter, leave a comment on the original giveaway post!!