September 28, 2005 - Learning to cope with stress.

In my last post Ruben was gone for over a week in Vegas on business and I felt like a single mother and it sucked. Once he returned home, he rushed off the following day to Reno for 3 days on business, and once again we were left on our own. Things were finally back to normal (somewhat) over last weekend, but then after school on Monday Natalie came down with a cold and both of us have been holed up at the house the last two days sick. I'm hoping tomorrow she will be better and be able to go back to school. I'm really starting to panic that next week, I will be in Vegas having surgery. I broke out with that damn rash on my face twice back to back - so I'm beginiing to think it's not all sun or heat related and maybe more stess or anxiety related. This woman at Nat's school, another parent suggested that maybe it's Lupus. Wonderful, another thing for me to worry about. Lupus cannot be diagnosed, or cured - so how do I know if I have it and what do I do for it? All I know is that this is no longer acne, and I can't hide indoors all the time. I know that I have to learn how to cope with stress, but in the meantime I also need to find treatment for this rash. I am also having a lot of anxiety at this time, I'm worried about going back for the surgery. I'm worried about the pain, I'm worried about me being sick and them cancelling it on me, I'm worried that this will be the last time I see my parents for a long time as the finally sold their house and are moving to Mexico. It's a lot of things hitting me all at once, and I just realized it today. I freaked out on my husband the other day, and I don't even know what for, but it was because I was stressed out. I guess it's because I have all of this building up inside of me, and I feel like I can't breathe anymore. It sucks, because I am so stressed and I have 8 more pages to do in this album that is a gift for a friend, and I am so stressed I have scrapper's block, so now I don't even know if I will be able to complete the album by next Tuesday or not, but I'm hoping that maybe by posting this it will let off some steam and maybe I'll be back to scrappin this weekend.
In the meantime, does anyone know of any good ways to deal with stress that doesn't include taking any herbal supplements?