As usual, I have not added to this blog like I had planned. I will try to rectify this.
Life has a funny way of throwing curve balls when you least expect it. Sometimes I believe there is a reason for everything. At other times I don't. So much has happened to my family, and extended SCA family.
In May I finally decided to take time off from teaching. Stress at school and lack of administrative support helped in this decision. Stress can be hard on a body. In 2012 I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. In April 2013 learned that I had a torn bicep tendon and needed surgery to repair it. I had surgery on May 30th. It turned out that I had also torn my rotatory cuff. Eight weeks in a brace and 6 more weeks of PT.
To add stress, my mother was diagnosed with a slow growing tumor in her lung. First thing I did when I was out of my brace was to head straight to Lubbock to support my Dad while Mom recovered from surgery. The pulmonary ICU at the hospital allowed family members to stay over night in the patients room. Dad and I took turns with Mom. Dad stayed nights and I had days. Mom did well and the surgeon removed most, if not all of the tumor. I was there almost 2 weeks without Chuck and the kids. The kids survived their father. My husband is a wonderful man.
In August I started attending Moore Norman Technology Center. Originally I planned to take Database Administration. After about 2 weeks I decided that this was not what I really wanted to do. I requested and was admitted into Computer Programming. Interesting thing was that one of Trae's former Computer Programming teachers from his high school was now teaching this program at MNTC. Problem with this was the fact he failed her class at the high school. The was also the same teacher who he blow up on during class, leading to a 3 day suspension from school. Trae does not deal well with sarcasm. He was able to meet and hash things out.
New problem, I was now the problem. Trae had told the teacher we had been upset with her for the way she ran her class and treated Trae. His words were "We had wanted to kill her". I was escorted off the property and asked not to return until this was investigated. By the following Monday I was sitting in Computer Programming learning JAVA.
I attended classes in the morning and spent the afternoon picking up children from school. Michael was accepted into the Pre-Engineering Program at MNTC. This meant that Trae and Michael would be at their high schools in the morning and at MNTC after lunch. This made it easy for the Programming teacher, since I would not be in the same class as Trae. For September and October this was the schedule we followed.
Michael had been complaining of pain in his left hand for several months. The pediatrician gave him medication for inflammation. This did not help. He started wearing an ace bandage on it to help relieve the pain. After the pediatrician told him to stop playing the violin I called my orthopedic surgeon. The Ortho and his intern suspected a ganglion cyst and the MRI confirmed it. He had surgery in October and had full mobility and reduced pain.
Wish that was all he had. In early November Michael called me from
MNTC and asked me to pick him up. We thought he had a stomach bug. He
complained of feeling sick to his stomach, dizziness, and neck pain. He was
unable to eat much and felt better sleeping in the recliner than his bed.
He wanted to attend school, but was unable to stand for long or hold his
head up. After almost a month we learned he had meningioma, the size of
a lemon, in the middle of his brain.
Michael spent about ten days, most of it in ICU, at OU Children's Hospital in OKC. Chuck and I took turns staying over night while the other took the girls to school. We were able to bring Michael home nine days before Christmas. He even attended school in the mornings for the last four days before Winter break. I hung out at the high school at visited with my former coworkers, as a way to keep an eye one Michael at school that week.
2013 ended on a quiet note. No open house Christmas due to the state of the house and Michael's continued recovery. New Years Eve was spent at a friends home. The whole family attended and Michael was able to visit with teens his own age.
I wish I could say life around us got better in 2014. Michael would still need MRI's at 3 months and 9 months to monitor possible tumor growth in his brain. As always I wrestle with depression. I would loose friends and friends would suffer personal losses. So, for now, we say goodbye to 2013.
Wish I could have skipped
