The Year From Hell....

Okay...  I've grumped and complained about the weather down here in the valley....  and to be honest, I hate it.  I'ts just not my thing...  anything below 80 degrees F. is too damned cold for me.  But...  let me tell you a little story...  my year from hell.

It was 1996.  I was about 1 year away from "retirement".  I knew I wasn't going to be be eligible for social security or my (very much paid into) pension for several years.  But...  if I could last 20 years at that job (which I loved, but hated the administration), I could leave with good benefits and have my vacation and sick hours paid off.

So... partly because I knew I'd be leaving, but most important, because I really needed some repair work, I was going to have my knee scoped and cleaned up while I still had benefits.  Come May, I went in for my pre-op to have that work done.  Much to my surprise, (okay...  I'd had pneumonia a couple of times so a normal chest x-ray wouldn't be adequate) the Ct-scan for the routine TB test was done a bit high...  darned if it didn't show good lungs, but it showed I had a growth on my thyroid.  

....

My orthopedic surgeon said...  no knee surgery until we find out about that thyroid problem.  So... off to a ENT doctor (wish I'd gone to a different one, but that's history...  no going back)....  and after some tests... including a needle biopsy, (which was inclusive)...  he determined I needed a parathyroid procedure.  After which, (again inclusive) he thought I should go to Columbus to the James Cancer Center.  (Should have been my first choice....  again... retrospective)....The doctors there weren't happy that the test results weren't available and gave me a choice....  come back every 6 months for check-ups or have a complete thyroid removal and get it over with.  Which I chose.  Second surgery of the year.

So...  back to surgery....  got that taken care of.  Got back home and recovered....  hoping to have my knee taken care of soon.

Okay... back to the orthopedic doctor...  on schedule.  Darned if I didn't have gawd-awful stomach pains in November...  thought I was going to die!  Ended up with an emergency appendectomy the week before Thanksgiving.  

I love to cook....  in fact, had a huge family get-together planned for a big Thanksgiving dinner.  Yeah...  it did happen...  but I spent most of my time on the couch, directing everyone where to put stuff, how to use the kitchen range (I used a wood-burning cookstove at that time) and we made it through.

A few weeks later, before the end of the year, I finally had my knee scoped and "somewhat" repaired.  I say this because all these years later, I am still on thyroid meds, my appendectomy scar is barely there, but in truth, my knee still gives me fits....  I think it needs more help.

I did quit my job...  January 17, 1997...  exactly 20 years after my starting date (a person had to work 20 years in order to be eligible to paid off benefits)....  but since I wasn't even close to being 62 at that time, I could never have quit without being able to use Bill's retirement benefit plan.

So...  today...  Bill and my 33rd anniversary (I still love him more than ever), and a couple of days short of being retired 17 years, I can remember the year from hell....  not so much fondly, but...  with memories that I still shake my head in wonder.

I will just add.....   life sure got good after that!

That's All For Today!

C