I was home most of this week. On Monday I worked from home; one of the benefits of the current client contract. At some point, I went out for a quick walk around the neighbourhood. It was raining and I remembered the challenge topic for this week was reflection.
I woke up Tuesday morning feeling less than my full self. My thyroid was still swollen; enough so that it put some pressure on my throat. I felt like throwing up. So I did. I called in sick and spent most of the day in bed or watching re-runs of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) on BBC America. I had other options but I grew up watching the original ‘60’s series and was hooked when the TNG aired in the ’80s. For me, Star Trek is television chicken soup.
My condition did not improve the next day (Wednesday). My thyroid was just as swollen. I called out sick again and continued to watch TNG re-runs.
On Thursday, I worked out of the Metropark office but on Friday I chose to work remotely.
A former co-worker sent me an SMS to invite me to hangout out with a former team for drinks, the following week. It sounded like fun but I knew I would be in recovery from my thyroidectomy. He was surprised that my disease had progressed to that point. I explained to him that stress was a trigger and that Bhavna thought that the head of the department was to blame for putting the whole team under stress. She thinks that the development of my hyperthyroidism is a consequence of that person unprofessional behaviour.
He wished me well but I found myself in serious consideration of the past year. The diagnosis that added two more auto-immune diseases to my life in March. The end of the New Jersey State contract and the start of a new contract with a banking client in Manhattan. The struggle to handle the stress of major changes in work, a daily 4-hour commute, and balancing my medication led to a near physical collapse that landed me in the emergency room.
I was chatting with my Mom and she tried to give me a pep taught. She told me that I would survive this just like I survived all my other challenges. She told me that I almost didn’t survive birth; I was a breach birth. I learned that I had an emergency appendectomy when I just six years old. That at ten, I had an emergency gall bladder operation. Yikes!
Reflecting on my life, I realized that it indeed one full of challenges and I have survived each one.
On Monday, I am scheduled for a thyroidectomy. I know I will be fine.
The images below were taken two years ago at Whitesbog Village.
jansenphotoIs it live, or mirrored?
