I suppose it all started with a joyous occasion. Back in August, at 4 in the morning, my wife, Diane, went into labor and after 17 hours, she gave birth to our beautiful son, Tyler. This joyous occasion was short lived you see, for Tyler was a few weeks premature. He had trouble breathing at first, jaundice, and trouble digesting his food. Now my wife and I count our blessings because he recovered fairly quickly, only needing to be in the neonatal intensive care unit for 10 days. There were babies that were in there for months and our hearts still go out to their families, because Tyler is still plagued by things here and there because of his prematurity… but I will get to that later.
Tyler came home towards the end of August; just in time for me to return back to school (I’m a teacher). A glorious month passed only facing the hardships that any new parents would face. That is until the first Monday in October. I started that day as any other, when on my way to school my car was rear ended by a school bus! How’s that irony for you? A car in front of me stopped short because he was cut off, I in turn stopped short, and everything was fine. That is of course until the school bus slammed into my car at nearly 40 miles per hour. Needless to say, since then I have been plagued by numerous neck, back, and leg challenges all on the left side of my body. This did not only keep me out of work, but from holding my newborn son… which is a problem that I still face to this day.
I only recently returned to work right before Thanksgiving, navigating the school (whose elevators just happen to be going under major renovations) of 3,000 students with a cane the mimics the cane from the popular television series “House”.
With all of this, it is probably pretty clear why Diane and I need some help relaxing…especially my wife, who has been the glue of this family. She has been through all of this while still trying to recover from labor. She probably needs new furniture more at this point than I do, but because of her character, she’ll never admit it.
I wish I could say, “That’s it,” or, “This is all a joke,” but the title of my little story is “What hasn’t happened to us yet?” and I did mention that I would get back to Tyler’s problems. October was not a good month for us. While I was in the midst of pain and beginning to recover form the accident, we found out that even though Tyler was previously no longer experiencing any lung issues, that he was still more susceptible to ailments like the common cold or pneumonia. Sadly, our little boy missed his first Halloween because he came down with R.S.V. This is a level of sickness that happens in babies between the common cold and pneumonia. Tyler unfortunately had to spend his first major holiday the same way he spent his first few days of life, in the intensive care unit for a week. My wife stayed at his side. I had to move in with my mom, because I could not take complete care of myself.
They say that, Time heals all wounds.” So where does that leave us now? Well, Tyler finally got rid of the cough that landed him in the hospital, Thank God. Diane, the strongest person I have ever met in my life, is starting to show signs of wear and tear. Who wouldn’t? As for me, I am still in great deal of pain, I still can’t take of my son unless there is someone else around.
In order for me to become better, my wife and I have been running (well she’s running, I’m hobbling behind her) all over town. Our weekly schedules consist of going to work (where Diane has to drive me to and fro because I cannot drive yet due to limited mobility). Then after work, my wife picks up our son at daycare, picks me up from work, and drives me to either physical therapy or the chiropractor. All the while feeding and changing Tyler in the car if it is physical therapy or at her mother’s house if it is the chiropractor.
I think we need new furniture because life has been knocking us around like Ping-Pong balls and it would be nice to land on something comfortable, instead of another obstacle. In spite of all of life’s recent tribulations, I still feel God has blessed me because in spite of all this my family has gotten stronger. Thank you for reading my story, I may not win, but it has been very therapeutic writing it all down.