Week 2

In week two, my husband went back to work half days. We both decided that I didn't need constant attention anymore (never really did). On Sunday, I did 5 loads of laundry because the kids were getting on a plane the following day to go to Florida for a week and spend time with my husband's mom. The dirty clothes pile had become an almost insurmountable mountain and I do not trust anyone to do the laundry my way. Did I mention I was a control freak? Anyway, that took a lot out of me. It was the most physical I had been since the surgery. Good thing I had the endoscopic type! Who has time to be bedridden for 3-4 weeks. Life goes on with or without you.

Monday, I spent the entire morning while my husband was at work getting the kids packed and prepared. This would be the first time they have ever traveled alone and only their third time on a plane! Scary for mom, thrilling for kids! My eldest needed to do some last minute shopping and we discovered that both their suitcases were broken. I was stressed and took it out on hubby a bit. By the time we reached the city with the airport, my neck hurt and I was cranky. It hurt to hold my head up for any length of time. Of course I had been doing it all for 6 hours with no rest. No wonder I was sore being only a week out of surgery. (There is no way this would have been possible if I had had the out dated version of decompression that Doctors are still selling because they are too lazy or too unskilled to come into the new millennium and follow their supposed creed of "do no harm".) Hubby wanted to help me so he took me to a department store and we found a small round soft pillow that fit perfectly under my neck and relieved the pressure. He made my lie on one of their display beds and test out about 15 pillows so that I could find the perfect one! He is such a sweetheart. We then took the kids out to eat and made our way to the airport. We watched our babies fly off into the clouds and I started to cry. I was so scared for them. What if they needed me and I couldn't be there? What if they were crying for their mommy? My husband guided me back to the van and reassured me that kids travel alone all the time and are given special treatment by the airline staff. (FYI, I talked to the kids that night and they squeezed each other's hands on take off. Other than that, they had a blast and I was the only one that cried! Silly mom!)

On Thursday, I found out that their grandma had to go into the hospital. The kids had to stay with whomever was available and that was the beginning of the end for me. Remember that whole control freak thing? Things got very stressful as I was a couple thousand miles away and helpless. I am not good at helpless. I was worried about my kids, my mother-in-law, my husband's grandfather (he was dying and they are very close) and my husband who was carrying a lot of his concern and stress silently. Saturday finally rolled around, the day the kids were scheduled to come home. The airport they were flying into was 2.5 hours away. We left early and went shopping at this really awesome mall. That was fun. Afterwards we went to Olive Garden to eat and it wasn't up to Olive Garden standards but was OK. On our way to the airport, we found out the flight was delayed by about 2 hours. Three phone calls and two more delays later, their return flight that was supposed to be arriving at 9:30 pm was going to be arriving at 2:00 am. Did I mention that this particular airport is extremely busy in a very rough city and one the the filthiest places I have ever been? So we screwed around in anyplace that was open to blow time. After everything closed, we went to the airport and relaxed in the van for a bit before going in. Once inside, we discovered that the area where they would be coming off the plane was gated off and closed. A "security guard", and I use that term very loosely, informed us that the gov't closes at 9:00 pm and we could go no further. I freaked out on her because my babies were told to stay in place until they saw us. How would they know what to do? It did all work out but it was a nightmare and probably aged me about 20 years. There is also more to the story, but I will keep that to myself. Some things are better left unsaid.