Hello Strangers!

Sorry for my long absence. We've had a LOT going on around here lately, and I've rarely had a chance to sit down at a computer. Most importantly, Jaisal is doing well. He's as amazing as amazing can be. I will post separately about him.

You may ask, what's been going on lately that would keep me from my computer? Well thankfully I'm all about full disclosure (kind of the point of the blog) so here it goes.

First, the last few weeks have been consumed with hospital trips to visit Kirk's mom who is recovering from a stem cell transplant to treat a form of leukemia. Thus far everything is going to plan, and she was discharged about a week ago. We've still got lots of monitoring to do and a long path ahead of us, but fingers are crossed that the transplant will help kick cancer's butt. It's definitely been a bit amusing to Kirk and I to learn about her post-transplant medicine regimen. She's on several of the same, or very similar, medications as Jaisal.  At discharge, we may have played a little bit of know it all when it came to administration rules related to those meds. :) Who knew that having dealt with a liver transplant could be so handy?

In the midst of Kirk's mom's treatment, Kirk managed to get himself a case of viral meningitis. After the initial freaking out about whether he could infect the two immune suppressed people in our lives (he really couldn't) we had to ride out 10 days of debilitating headaches and back pain. The timing really couldn't have been worse (my parents were also out of town, so we couldn't just pass Jaisal off to them), so there was quite a bit of juggling going on to make sure everyone was cared for.

And me - well I started a new job about 5 weeks ago. It is going really well, but as can be expected it's been busy. One big change is that I went from having one day at home with Jaisal (well technically having one day off a week although I can't say I got to have that day each week) to working full-time. I, think, however, that even with my new full-time schedule, I am getting to spend more quality time with Jaisal.

To be clear, I loved my last job. I got to do great and challenging work, had a fabulous boss, really enjoyed most of my co-workers, and most importantly, received flexibility, compassion and support when we were dealing with everything related to Jaisal's transplant. Despite all of those amazing qualities my job was virtually non-stop which was extremely stressful. There was always a fear of falling behind, and it felt like someone was emailing you all the time. I think park of the reason I started falling out of touch with people was because I stayed away from my phone.  If my phone was nearby, odds are it was blinking with a work email. I think I self-created breaks from these emails by not being near my phone. This situation wasn't anyone's fault, and it definitely was not unique to me. But, on top of the emotions I was dealing with after Jaisal's transplant and my general stress over his medical condition, it was not something I could manage, so a change was needed.

To be fair, my new job is also stressful and a lot of work. Thus far, however, there seems to be less bleed of work into my evenings and weekends (there of course is some spillover, and any job I have will always have some spillover into evening and weekend hours). When I am home, I mostly get to focus on home. That little bit of balance has been extremely cathartic. I am starting to feel like myself again, like I am emerging from some sort of hibernation. As part of this new me, I've actually been making plans, talking to friends and family, and going out. (I know crazy stuff, right?) And I think I am being a better, less distracted mom to Jaisal.

So....there's lots of reasons I haven't been able to blog lately, but I am back with loads of fun stuff to share about Jaisal.