Since November of 1997, when i brought home a poor bald, skinny, old fert
with dagger teeth that had been kept in a cage at the shelter for two
years, and who knows where for 4 years before that, I developed yellow and
green bruises, and swollen puncture marks all over my right hand, wrist,
and upper arm.  I usually had a fresh band-aide, and another barely hanging
on.  It was not unusual to have dried blood still on my arm from where it
dribbled through the band-aide.
 
When I would wear short sleeve shirts, people would look at my arm, then
politely away.A dozen puncture marks scabbing, and various shades up and
down the arm is hard to miss.  You've all seen the pictures.  Those drug
addicts with punctures and bruises all over.
 
Today, for the first time in such a long time- I had no marks on my arm!!
I wore a sleeveless shirt, and I had arms that were the same color.!!  I
must have stopped being a heroine addict!!  !!!
 
Maybe this means that now I will be normal.  Maybe now I will think it
disgusting when Socks kisses my lips after doing some deep butt sniffing.
Maybe I won't share my glasses of water with Baby.  Maybe I'll stop singing
and rocking a little one to sleep, or stop kissing his little head a dozen
times.  Maybe my home will stop looking like i hold preschool here even
though I have no children.  Maybe I'll stop looking in toy stores and baby
stores for gifts for my ferrets while I have one hiding under my sweat
shirt and people think I am pregnant until they see my stomach moving up to
my neck and a little head pokes through.  Maybe I will stop hoping I have
another ferret dream when i go to sleep at night.  Maybe...............
 
Naaawwww.  Guess I'm still addicted after all.
 
Lisette
 
But today, I put on a sleeveless shirt, glanced at my arms, and realized
they looked normal!!
[Posted in FML issue 2664]