The calm before the storm

November 16th, 2009, I had non life threatening surgery and was to spend 6-8 weeks at home recovering. I was not to lift anything at all the first month, lift no more than 20 pounds after 4 weeks. Surgery went well and I was recovering well. I was released from the hospital November 18th and spent the following 4 days recovering at my parents' home. My kids demonstrated they were unable or unwilling to keep the dogs away from jumping on me and hadn't done what I asked... so within minutes of arriving home, I left again to my parents home. The following week, Thanksgiving week, my sister was involved in a very bad car accident leaving her with a totaled car, broken ribs, a dislocated hip, a broken ankle requiring surgery and PT and lots of pain. Thankfully, the other party was OK.  The following week, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer requiring surgery, radiation and possibly chemotherapy treatments. My dad was back at work at US Airways and my sister, Felicity, was recovering at our parents' home.

While Felicity was hospitalized, I was diagnosed with walking pneumonia and stayed away from hospitals as best I could. Also during this time, my precious Great Dane, Colonel, under a year old, got pneumonia and was very, very, very ill. My Angel, Roxy Noodle, my one year old mutt, woke me up in the middle of the night crying and wanted me to get to Colonel. I got up, Roxy led  me to Colonel where he was laying in his bed and I saw how sick he was. I immediately got him in the car and took him to the 24 hour animal hospital. About $3,000 and a few days later, he was feeling better and although he was still sick, he was on the road to recovery. We had also recently put one of our kittens to sleep. I was also preparing to file for divorce from my second husband.

Yes, this was the calm before the storm... Really, it was.   What would happen next would change our lives forever. So many lessons learned. Main lesson learned: Life waits for nobody. Life doesn't stop for us to catch up.