Ring-a-ding-ding...

I love my engagement/wedding rings.  I LOVE them.  They are the most beautiful things I've ever had and they are shiny and sparkly too!  I am lucky enough to have my (fabulous) husband's family like me and trust me with an heirloom piece of jewelry that I get to wear every day.  At least I used to be able to wear every day, but I'll get to that in a minute...

I also know that a ring does not a marriage make.  It's a thing.  A symbol of something bigger, but a thing none the less.  This is what I told Keith a while ago when he thought he lost his wedding ring.  It was a good speech - one of my best.  I said that it was just a thing.  Accidents happen.  It's not like he took off the ring at a bar because it would hinder his ability to pick up hot chicks and lost it.  He went out to retrace his dog walking steps in the middle of the night with a flashlight anyway.  Oh well, it still sounded good.  And the ring was eventually found in the sofa cushions so everything ended up ok.

Now I have to give the speech to myself and I'm not buying it.  I haven't been able to wear my real wedding/engagement rings for almost a year.  As Cushings brought on the weight I grew out of them and so they sit in my jewelry box.  I don't want to go without the obvious symbol that I am married.  I like being married and am fortunate to be married to the greatest guy in the whole world.  I want everyone to know it. When I could no longer get my rings on, I took it pretty hard.  It was just one more thing that this disease took away from me and that pissed me off.  Keith turned my own words back on me to make me feel better, but it didn't work.  I know that a ring is just a ring.  It doesn't make or break anything.  But because of Cushings I didn't look like myself, feel like myself, act like myself and now I didn't even have my "hi I'm Carol and I'm married" bling. Curses and double curses...

I ended up solving part of the problem by purchasing a CZ wedding set from overstock.com for $30.  The rings are not at all my style, but they are pretty and I get tons of compliments on them.  At least I was again labeled on sight as married.  But my real rings lay in my jewelry box unworn waiting for the day my Cushings would be gone and my fingers went back to their normal size.  And we all know how that went...

Well, I have good news.  We are almost there.  My finger is almost small enough to wear my rings comfortably and, more importantly, get them off.   So close.  Maybe a couple more weeks and I'll be sporting my bling and feeling like my old, married self again.  It's a small thing in the big scheme of being sick, but just another step closer to feeling "normal" again.