This Time Last Decade
I was juggling teaching, crafts, homeschool co-op, library time, play dates for the kids, and coffee dates and phone calls with my own friends. The holidays were quickly approaching, plans and lists were being made: the calendar was starting to fill with fall and winter performances and events, as was my gift collection closet, with the clearance items I had been stashing away since day-after-Christmas sales the prior year.
Decorations were being made and set around the house. Pumpkin spice, cinnamon, and apple smells filled the air. Grocery store trips were built around meal plans I hoped my family would find delicious, but could also be prepared with my limited culinary skillset, budget, and time/energy. Oh, and occasionally I would even manage to scrub a toilet or two!
There were migraine headaches (mine), and temper tantrums (usually the toddler, but sometimes also mine), and dentist, and orthodontist, and doctors for three active kids (translation - lots of sprains and broken bones) and one chronically ill mama, to manage. There was my continual battle to find balance between spending time with the God I love by prayer and studying my Bible, and carving out "me time" with social media or Webkinz (I loved my kids' online gaming platform and set up my own account to access the arcade in that fantasy stuffed animal "world").
I had lots of ideas for "my next book" but was quite content with online blogging, a contract for a monthly short periodical article, and contest entries, at this season. I had won a couple of writing contests over the previous year, with one prize being a week-long RV trip for our family, and another being a free 12-week treatment session at a fibromyalgia treatment center for my mom.
While Mom was out of state for treatment, and I had my kids at a weekly robotics club, I received a phone call from a paramedic who was transporting my unresponsive dad to the hospital in an ambulance. It initially seemed Dad had suffered a stroke, but after a few days in the hospital it was decided that a combination of stress and over-hydration (too much water, without proper electrolyte balance) when he had been working long hours as chaplain in a mass-fatality incident over the prior few days, were to blame. Thankfully Dad was fully recovered in a matter of weeks.
The following week, Mom was home from Utah (remarkably improved from 2 decades of fibro) and also landed in the hospital with an infected animal bite and sepsis. Mom too was released within a matter of days.
Then it was my turn for a hospital bed with pancreatitis. Two nights without my own pillow led to a migraine. Since 2-3 day migraines were part of my world as often as every few weeks, with the occasional 10+ day migraine a few times per year (my record had been over 30 day when hormones were adjusting after my daughter's birth), I let the headache and accompanying symptoms keep me down in bed for about a week before getting proactive and heading to my doctor for pain shots, then on to the ER again (at my doctor's insistence) for something even stronger. After trying all they knew to do, ER sent me home without relief on the evening of October 24, 2011.
My decision the next morning impacts my life and the lives of all who love me, to this day. I'll be posting the story in stages, throughout the month...
I would love to meet you through social media:
My books:
Read more about infertility, miscarriage, adoption loss, and my first book, Hannah's Hope (written pre-stroke), at JenniferSaake.blogspot.com/2021/04/hannahs.html
Read about our current book project I am co-authoring with Carolyn Howell, author of Foodborne Dementia, about deception in the church, at JenniferSaake.blogspot.com/2021/04/DeceptionUnmasked.html
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