Shower curtains, jobs,houses, and death November 9, 2005
Posted by spacemom in : Nance , trackbackToday I had a Physical Therapy appointment for my left foot. I’ve had pain for about a year now. I had to stop running in April and hoped that it would get better. A friend who is a PT told me it was plantar fascitis.
I finally went to my doctor and she assigned me to PT. Fast forward to today.
Wen-Chi, the PT, remembered me from a previous injury. After a 5 minute exam, we were able to sort out the whole thing. In April, 2003, I tore my calf muscle, a second degree tear. Apparently, this has scarred badly and I haven’t stretched as I should have and, well, the flexibility in my calf is down to nothing. My Achilles doesn’t flex. Lovely. So I got some ultrasound and steroid therapy on my foot and strict orders to start stretching, 3-5 times a day.
2003 was a crazy year. Soleil was born in the summer of 2002. We quickly realized when Dr. Jay’s parents came to visit, that our house was too small. We decided to start to look. At the same time, I was unhappy miserable at work. My boss had decided to quit during my maternity leave and the new boss was completely unsupportive of my part time schedule. In fact she demoted my evaluation because I was no longer going "above and beyond" the call of duty. I had just been diagnosed with post partum depression and had start antidepressants. And lastly, my friend Crazy H was pregnant. I was thrilled for her!
We found a house in November. I got scared and we backed out of sending the offer. The next week, I had regained my senses and we offered. We structured the deal in such a way that we would have extra time to sell our house and we told our buyer’s agent that this was our only offer. If they said no, we would walk away. Much to our surprise, they took it!
We were able to sell our house in February. It took 6 weeks and I was very stressed. My job sucked. My boss sucked. I was at the AAS (American Astronomical Society) meeting in January when I discovered that the Science Ops team was looking for a new person. I talked to Paul, the guy who was hiring. He and I talked a bit and then in early Feb, he offered a full day interview. I took a personal day and we held the interview at the Operations Control Center, where my boss at the time would never go.
Things were looking up! February was going well! We had an offer on our house, we had set the dates for the closing to allow for 4 days in between. Paul and Dan(Paul’s boss) had decided that they wanted to hire me and it was all an HR nightmare to deal with and to deal with the transition with my current bitch boss. We got an invitation for Crazy H’s shower. I sent an email to ask what was up with the registry. She replied the shower was off. Uh oh, that is not good. Her son had been measuring behind. A level II ultrasound showed the signs of Trisomy 18, three copies of the 18th Chromosome. An amnio had been performed to confirm.
The results came back, Matthew had Trisomy 18. He would most likely not live long after birth. At this point, it was illegal to terminate the pregnancy in our state and I am not sure that they wanted to make such a decision. I gave Soleil extra hugs that night.
In early March*, Crazy H, Soleil and I went for a walk. H pointed out that Matthew had not moved for a while. I stressed that she had better go call her doctor. She and I knew that he had died, but she wasn’t ready to deal with that. She called a day later and set up the induction of labor for March 12. I took the day off of work to be the baby photographer. It was one of the hardest things I’ve done. Dr. Jay tipped me off to a filter called a "warming filter". I was able to get one and this brought Matthew’s skin tones a bit more to the red side. I didn’t go in until they were ready and Matthew had been born. I shot two rolls and some digitals for them.
H and her husband set the memorial on our moving day. I don’t think they thought about that (why would they) so we scrambled to find someone to cover the move so we could go to the service. MIL was in town to help Soleil with the move. The last weekend of March was packing, unpacking, moving, a memorial service and stress.
The first week of April was also crazy. It was a Sunday night, my birthday. I decided that we might actually be ready to use the master shower. I had purchased a shower curtain earlier that day (big birthday present, eh?) and was in the process of hanging it when I heard this hideous ripping sound. That was my calf muscle ripping. I fell in pain and tried to make it to the hallway. I called Dr. Jay and said "Call H, see if she can come and watch Soleil. I just did something REALLY bad to my leg"
I ended up at the ER for about 4 hours. Once they confirmed it was NOT the Achilles, and just the calf, I was given crutches, some great pain killers and sent home. What a way to end your birthday!
I believe all of that stress contributed to my rip. Which has lead to my current foot issues.
Interesting how it all ties together. Life goes around and around. You never know when something as simple as a shower curtain is going to throw you off.
*We also had a meeting in a ski resort near Montreal in March. Just to toss in some more fun. Soleil and I went for a long weekend up there and drove back home…
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