Wednesday, March 31, 2010The Fate's At Play
Have you ever noticed that the Fate's tend to give unimaginable joy on one sweep from their weaving loom and devastating anguish with the next?
On March 28th, my first manuscript was sent to the publisher by my published daughter's editor. The very next day, I received my contract. You cannot imagine the state of euphoria that engulfed me and is still encircling me...but it is now tempered by reality as well.
Let me explain.
Since just before Christmas, my daughter has been battling a series of sinus infections, one after another. Hers are bad enough to require the heavy duty antibiotics...nothing mild mannered like, oh penicillin...no they put her on things like Cipro, which we learned she is DEATHLY allergic to after I nearly lost her in January. They switched her to Augmentin. It cleared up the infection...for a few days, but then it was back again with a vengeance. Her sinus infections make her sinuses bleed, a lot, which brings on anemia...something she has yet to bounce back from.
She had not worked through the last sinus infection completely when she was rushed to the hospital and operated on this month on March 17th for a kidney stone...two weeks ago to the day at four o'clock this afternoon, to be exact. Oh and when her surgeon called to let me know her progress, because I'm disabled and cannot drive, so could not be with her when she had to face her ordeal, much to my eternal agony, he told me she had many more stones, but they were not critical at that moment so would not need to be operated on...yet.
She came home at nine o'clock the same night she was operated on. I know what you are all thinking and yes, I can see you shaking your heads in disbelief, because I did the same thing. I could not imagine them sending her home that quickly, but you know how things are today with our medical health system. What they used to keep you in for at least a day or two, you now get sent home for twenty minutes later.
She was recovering...somewhat. Her side is still tender from the surgery and the ripping the stone did while it was moving and cutting her urinary tract. (She passes a lot of blood out her sinuses and now is passing a lot of blood out her urinary tract as well.) I had to sit here and watch my daughter fade before my eyes while trying everything I could think of to bolster her. (I've had a LOT of practise doing this, which I will explain as I go on, doing this over the years.)
She loves vegetable soup. I went to the store and bought so much vegetable soup I broke the larder shelf under the weight of all those cans, but she won't starve and it doesn't take much energy to lift soup to her lips.
Last week her sinuses began infecting again. This time they swelled so badly I can actually see the cavities formed on both sides on her nose and feel the fullness beneath these swollen mounds. She is scheduled for ct scans, x-rays and an endoscopy of her sinuses tomorrow and is most likely going to need surgery. She has blood work and a whole battery of other tests scheduled for Friday. Due to her seizures, which come on without warning, she is required to go to all of her appointments in an ambulance with at least one paramedic in attendence.
You'd think the Fates would let her deal JUST with the sinuses, right, but last Thursday they decided she needed to have another stone flair into raging and gouging prominence. A prominence that has her praying she won't have to call for the ambulance again and be whisked to the emergency room and immediate surgery. And in case any of you have forgotten, let me repeat again ONLY two weeks as of four o'clock this afternoon, after her LAST stone-ectomy.
Yesterday she learned that three more of her own novels have been contracted, which means she will soon be involved in the editing process, and she is so weak she's afraid she will let her editor, her publisher and me, down. (Believe me, she will punch through because she will not let ANY of us down, no matter what!)
Let me tell you a little bit about my daughter and who she really is...on November 26, 2001 she had major surgery on her left ankle. At the time she was a high powered auditor working out of the corporate offices of The Burlington Coat Factory with 18 of their west coast stores in her control. She was responsible for their daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly tally reports.
Her ankle had literally snapped! The surgeon told us the ligament had indeed snapped, so he was going to go in and cut the damaged part away and suture back the good part...sounds simple right? Oh if only that were the case!
I was with her that day waiting in the waiting room and the surgeon came to me after he finished and this is what he told me. When he got inside he found a mess. The ligament was destroyed. All the flesh had been eaten away by scar tissue. He had to go up into her thigh and remove a tendon to fashion a pseudo ligament to graft and then staple it to the bones in her ankle in four places to give her any kind of control over the movement of her ankle and foot. It would not be perfect, but at least she would have some mobility. She would have an ugly eight inch scar running up her lower leg because he'd had to remove all that scar tissue. What was to have been simple surgery had become major surgery She would be in a wheel chair for six months and physical therapy would follow.
The Coat Factory's insurance is such that despite being in horrific pain, to keep it, she had to go back to work three days after the surgery and she was going to need it for all the after care and physical therapy to come. Kat would never let her store's receive less than the clearest of her mind's abilities, so she refused to take her pain meds while she worked. She punched through because letting those that count on her down is not in her makeup.
Kat was my rock through two bouts of cancer. She puts everyone else first and has since the day she was born. Sometimes you cannot take on anymore when your resitance levels, your energy levels are so low and your pain levels are so high. She is losing blood, she is too close to breaking and it takes a great deal to break this incredible young woman.
So I want to beseech the Fate...Give Her a BREAK!!!
Posted by Lin at 5:57 AM 3 comments:
MuseItUp Publishing said...
How is she doing? As a mom I was literally in tears feeling your pain. I'll keep her in my thoughts and prayers. Chin up, mom, it's such a hardship on parents to see their children, regardless what age, go through hard times.
April 9, 2010 6:59 AM
Lin said...
Sorry it has taken me so long to respond. It has been a difficult week. She passed one stone only to have two more immediately decide to follow. Her blood work came back and it seems her para-thyroid is acting up and we find out tomorrow if that is the root cause that will have to be removed. I am trying to locate software that is not too expensive that will respond to voice recognition so she can continue her writing without having to sit here at the computer where she is uncomfortable with the stones. If anyone out there has any ideas please let me know...and thanks all for you help. I promise to try to do a better date of updating my blog entries in the future.
April 12, 2010 8:48 PM
Kaye Manro said...
Hello Lin! Thanks for stopping by my blog for the big Forbidden Love cover!
I love you daughter Kat too. I think she is wonderful!
April 13, 2010 11:58 AM
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Have you ever noticed that the Fate's tend to give unimaginable joy on one sweep from their weaving loom and devastating anguish with the next?
On March 28th, my first manuscript was sent to the publisher by my published daughter's editor. The very next day, I received my contract. You cannot imagine the state of euphoria that engulfed me and is still encircling me...but it is now tempered by reality as well.
Let me explain.
Since just before Christmas, my daughter has been battling a series of sinus infections, one after another. Hers are bad enough to require the heavy duty antibiotics...nothing mild mannered like, oh penicillin...no they put her on things like Cipro, which we learned she is DEATHLY allergic to after I nearly lost her in January. They switched her to Augmentin. It cleared up the infection...for a few days, but then it was back again with a vengeance. Her sinus infections make her sinuses bleed, a lot, which brings on anemia...something she has yet to bounce back from.
She had not worked through the last sinus infection completely when she was rushed to the hospital and operated on this month on March 17th for a kidney stone...two weeks ago to the day at four o'clock this afternoon, to be exact. Oh and when her surgeon called to let me know her progress, because I'm disabled and cannot drive, so could not be with her when she had to face her ordeal, much to my eternal agony, he told me she had many more stones, but they were not critical at that moment so would not need to be operated on...yet.
She came home at nine o'clock the same night she was operated on. I know what you are all thinking and yes, I can see you shaking your heads in disbelief, because I did the same thing. I could not imagine them sending her home that quickly, but you know how things are today with our medical health system. What they used to keep you in for at least a day or two, you now get sent home for twenty minutes later.
She was recovering...somewhat. Her side is still tender from the surgery and the ripping the stone did while it was moving and cutting her urinary tract. (She passes a lot of blood out her sinuses and now is passing a lot of blood out her urinary tract as well.) I had to sit here and watch my daughter fade before my eyes while trying everything I could think of to bolster her. (I've had a LOT of practise doing this, which I will explain as I go on, doing this over the years.)
She loves vegetable soup. I went to the store and bought so much vegetable soup I broke the larder shelf under the weight of all those cans, but she won't starve and it doesn't take much energy to lift soup to her lips.
Last week her sinuses began infecting again. This time they swelled so badly I can actually see the cavities formed on both sides on her nose and feel the fullness beneath these swollen mounds. She is scheduled for ct scans, x-rays and an endoscopy of her sinuses tomorrow and is most likely going to need surgery. She has blood work and a whole battery of other tests scheduled for Friday. Due to her seizures, which come on without warning, she is required to go to all of her appointments in an ambulance with at least one paramedic in attendence.
You'd think the Fates would let her deal JUST with the sinuses, right, but last Thursday they decided she needed to have another stone flair into raging and gouging prominence. A prominence that has her praying she won't have to call for the ambulance again and be whisked to the emergency room and immediate surgery. And in case any of you have forgotten, let me repeat again ONLY two weeks as of four o'clock this afternoon, after her LAST stone-ectomy.
Yesterday she learned that three more of her own novels have been contracted, which means she will soon be involved in the editing process, and she is so weak she's afraid she will let her editor, her publisher and me, down. (Believe me, she will punch through because she will not let ANY of us down, no matter what!)
Let me tell you a little bit about my daughter and who she really is...on November 26, 2001 she had major surgery on her left ankle. At the time she was a high powered auditor working out of the corporate offices of The Burlington Coat Factory with 18 of their west coast stores in her control. She was responsible for their daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly tally reports.
Her ankle had literally snapped! The surgeon told us the ligament had indeed snapped, so he was going to go in and cut the damaged part away and suture back the good part...sounds simple right? Oh if only that were the case!
I was with her that day waiting in the waiting room and the surgeon came to me after he finished and this is what he told me. When he got inside he found a mess. The ligament was destroyed. All the flesh had been eaten away by scar tissue. He had to go up into her thigh and remove a tendon to fashion a pseudo ligament to graft and then staple it to the bones in her ankle in four places to give her any kind of control over the movement of her ankle and foot. It would not be perfect, but at least she would have some mobility. She would have an ugly eight inch scar running up her lower leg because he'd had to remove all that scar tissue. What was to have been simple surgery had become major surgery She would be in a wheel chair for six months and physical therapy would follow.
The Coat Factory's insurance is such that despite being in horrific pain, to keep it, she had to go back to work three days after the surgery and she was going to need it for all the after care and physical therapy to come. Kat would never let her store's receive less than the clearest of her mind's abilities, so she refused to take her pain meds while she worked. She punched through because letting those that count on her down is not in her makeup.
Kat was my rock through two bouts of cancer. She puts everyone else first and has since the day she was born. Sometimes you cannot take on anymore when your resitance levels, your energy levels are so low and your pain levels are so high. She is losing blood, she is too close to breaking and it takes a great deal to break this incredible young woman.
So I want to beseech the Fate...Give Her a BREAK!!!
Posted by Lin at 5:57 AM 3 comments:
MuseItUp Publishing said...
How is she doing? As a mom I was literally in tears feeling your pain. I'll keep her in my thoughts and prayers. Chin up, mom, it's such a hardship on parents to see their children, regardless what age, go through hard times.
April 9, 2010 6:59 AM
Lin said...
Sorry it has taken me so long to respond. It has been a difficult week. She passed one stone only to have two more immediately decide to follow. Her blood work came back and it seems her para-thyroid is acting up and we find out tomorrow if that is the root cause that will have to be removed. I am trying to locate software that is not too expensive that will respond to voice recognition so she can continue her writing without having to sit here at the computer where she is uncomfortable with the stones. If anyone out there has any ideas please let me know...and thanks all for you help. I promise to try to do a better date of updating my blog entries in the future.
April 12, 2010 8:48 PM
Kaye Manro said...
Hello Lin! Thanks for stopping by my blog for the big Forbidden Love cover!
I love you daughter Kat too. I think she is wonderful!
April 13, 2010 11:58 AM
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