Goodbye Old, Hello New

As 2013 winds down, I find myself remembering the year with many emotions.

We started the year off in a new apartment.  We all loved it.  There was only one challenge at the time.  We had to switch school districts for my girls mid year.  And that turned out to be a good thing.  Both girls did so much better in the new school, despite being in bigger classes.

The rest of the spring went very well, despite my health issues.  I was still able to work enough that I wasn't really worried about my job.  Not yet.  I kept hoping that things would change and my migraines would get better.  I know they will never go away completely.

Then summer hit.  That's when things went downhill.  My migraines started coming more and more frequently.  I progressed to a headache every day.  Then in July, Ted's mom passed away.  While it wasn't completely unexpected, it was still hard.  

In August, Shannon had her tonsils out.  It wasn't an easy thing, on any of us.  She can be a bit anxious at the best of times, so she was very nervous about all of it.  Her pre op lab work had to be drawn twice.  That was not fun.  The recovery just sucked.  For almost 2 weeks she was a whining, crying mess.  Everything hurt.  At first, it was her throat.  So we kept pushing water and medicine.  The water went fine, but she hated her medicine.  Then the pain moved to her ears.  That was worse than her throat.  Nothing helped.  The doctor told me to give her gum, but she wouldn't chew it.  I was never happier than when she started laughing and playing again.

In September, we decided that my migraines were causing too much stress for everyone.  I was stressed out by the pain, the missing work, the low paychecks, and especially by the missing time with my family.  Ted was stressed out from all of it as well.  That was causing tension between us.    I quit my job and we moved in with Ted's dad.

This has been mostly a good thing.  It's hard being further away from both Ted's girls and my girls' dad.  However, the school here is fantastic.  It's so small that 2nd and 3rd grade are combined (as are K & 1st and 4th & 5th) and there are still only 12 kids in the class.  It's also been good for Ted's dad.  He's had some health issues come up and Ted has been here to help him with them.

I've been able to see a headache specialist and I think I might be improving.  I still have headaches every day, but they aren't constant.  I still have a migraine every day, but I don't always have to hide when it hits.  I have found a few things that I'm enjoying to occupy the time I have now.  I'm hoping when the weather warms up, I'll be able to get out more.  I know that will help my mental state if not the migraines themselves.

I guess, while things haven't been all rainbows, things have worked out.  I'm looking forward to the continued improvement, for all of us, in 2014.