POST-OP WEEK!

We are leaving Friday to head back to Children’s Hospital! It will be the first time her surgeons have seen her since her surgeries. She has been working so very hard and I know she is going to blow them away with her progress.

As her mom, I’m a little nervous about the trip. As you remember from my first post, we had NO idea how to get her to the restroom and her comfort for the five-six-hour drive. Granted, she is so much farther along and we have the belt that the Gunnison ER nurse gave us but still a little nervous.

It’s going to be a quick trip. We are driving down the morning of her appointment, staying the night and then heading back home the very next day. No playing around on this one, though I had hoped we could have visited the zoo or something. Maybe next time.

This post is going to be a little all over the place as the few things I’m going to bring up won’t take up a full post, so I’m going to combine them. The first thing I’m going to “suggest” is that if you do find out that your child has to go through this type of surgery, you might want to consider keeping that information close to your chest. I’ve always been the type of person to wear my heart on my sleeve. I will try and give you the shirt off of my back if I think it will help you more than it will help me and for some silly reason, I think everyone I come in contact with thinks the same way. Yes, a little naïve but there it is. So when we found out about Madison and what it all entailed, I reached out to everyone. I needed help and was hoping that I would get back what I had put out there. I needed help both emotionally and physically. We had a 37-acre horse boarding ranch we were having to shut down just as we were building it up. I loved each of my boarders, spent the past two years caring for their horses, getting our name out there and now we were closing our doors. Not only were we losing almost two-hundred thousand dollars we had invested and spent on the ranch but I was losing my dream. Something I had wanted my entire life. I was dealing with a lot of guilt. Letting my boarders down, moving my family again, losing that monthly income, feeling like a failure. It’s a lot to take on alone.

Thankfully I had a week’s worth of vacation saved up from my outside employer so I took the entire week off so that we could move our household. Our landlords at the ranch had asked us to get out as soon as possible so that they could list the ranch again (we had been in a lease/purchase agreement with them but obviously couldn’t purchase the ranch with everything going on) and I wanted to honor their wishes. It would also give me a chance to unpack before going back to work and getting into a new routine.

Unfortunately, the morning I came back to work, they pulled me in the office and let me go. One week before my 1-year anniversary. I was told I wasn’t being fired, that things weren’t working out at that particular time and that “down the road, I should feel free to re-apply”. Since I’m not an idiot, I put two and two together and knew it was because of the time I was going to miss for Madison’s surgeries.

So in a matter of four weeks, we closed our business, I lost my job which included our health insurance, and moved to a rental house south of town. To add injury to insult, our landlords only gave us half of our deposit back stating that we hadn’t left the ranch in the condition we received it, which is an absolute lie. I was thankful that I had video recorded the property and the house and had proof that it was actually in better condition than when we moved in and was prepared to take them to court. But a very dear friend of mine sat me down at lunch and made some excellent points. Yes, we would win in court if I pursued that route BUT there was no guarantee that I would ever get our money back. I would have to pay the court fees to take them to court and attorney fees. Just because we got a win doesn’t mean that they would pay, so then there would be collection fees to go after them that way. I would be throwing good money after bad. Then I am still dealing with preparing for Madison’s upcoming surgeries, getting the house organized and ready for her disabilities and running her back and forth to physical therapy. There was so much on our plate that we decided to let it go.

Looking back on all of it now, we are grateful that everything happened the way it did. There was no way I could have closed the ranch down, settled our horses in their new place, got the house unpacked and prepped and had Madison to all of her physical therapy appointments had I still been

working for my outside employer and had taken our ex-landlords to court. I don’t think I could have handled Madison’s surgeries emotionally if I had invested in those other things either. Keeping it together during the hours we waited anxiously in the hospital took everything I had and let’s face it; my daughter is SO much more important than those other things. Those other things made me stronger, humbler and more grateful for the true blessings I have in my life.

I’m hoping that you don’t have people who try and take advantage of you during this difficult time. I hope your friends and family rally behind you and lift you up instead of tearing you down. I had an amazing network of friends and family who supported me and my beautiful family. I’m forever grateful to them and believe me, I plan on showing them as things settle into our new routine. For now, I’m focusing on this incredible child and the milestones she is leaping over. Blessings to you and keep on staying strong!!