Highlights of My Offsprings' Journeys
Jun. 29th, 2021 01:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pameladlloydMy daughter, who was assigned male at birth, let me know that she was female several years ago. She selected as her name to use the first and middle names I would have given her, had her gender been correctly identified when she was born. I am very honored by that choice.
A few years before that, my daughter was diagnosed with Grave's disease, which is a thyroid condition in which the body produces too much thyroid. This was a surprise to us, because Hashimoto's disease, in which the thyroid doesn't produce enough thyroid, runs in our family. Then, about three years ago, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had her thyroid removed, and a year later it was necessary to go in and remove some of the lymph nodes in her neck.
She has also, for a number of years, been experiencing pain in her limbs, but also in her back, which turns out to be caused by neuropathy. At this time, the underlying cause of the pain is unknown, but as she also sometimes sports a mild rash across her cheeks in a sort of butterfly pattern, one possibility is lupus. So far, she has tested negative for this, but she has been told she should be tested on a regular basis, as sometimes the symptoms appear before the tests are able to detect the disease.
Last winter, she was exposed to covid-19 and became ill. She wound up in the hospital ICU for several days. Fortunately, she has recovered and seems not to have any new physical ailments as a result.
More recently, she has moved out of state. A number of her friends have moved, and several had settled in the same location, so she and two other friends who were ready for a change of scenery have relocated to the same city. So far, this seems like a pretty good move for her, as she seems happy and busy. Tired, but in general her mood seems improved. She tells me about having game nights with her friends, and that they have set up a shared crafting area. I miss her, but I'm glad she's doing well.
Over the same time frame my son has also had a number of changes in his life. He has been working as a cook for many years, but at one point decided he needed to try something different and a bit more lucrative. He attended commercial driving school and became a long-haul trucker. He got to see just about the entire country, but his view was almost entirely from the truck window. He spent a year doing this, and while it was good money, it was also not a healthy lifestyle. After a year, he decided that he was having too many negative health issues related to that lifestyle, so he left trucking and returned to living full-time in Tucson, and doing kitchen work. He became the kitchen manager at a local bar. Prior to taking this on, the kitchen had served as a loss-leader for the bar. Under his management, and in less than half a year, the kitchen was turning a profit. Additionally, having revamped the menu, the bar won a local award for having the best bar menu. He also worked with the owners to produce a line of hot sauces that could be sold.
The restrictions caused by covid meant that the bar shut down and he went onto unemployment, as did so many others. At one point, when the restrictions were lifted, the bar owners attempted to reopen, so he went back to work in a much changed environment, but after only a short while a new wave of illness meant the bar had to shut back down again. More time passed, the bar reopened, and he returned to work, again. Unfortunately, the strains of the past year, and the changes that were impacting bars and restaurants, resulted in the bar owners making some changes that negatively impacted the employees. When discussions over some of those changes fell through, my son made the decision to leave.
My son is currently working in a small Italian restaurant with fabulous food. I've taken friends and family members there several times and been really delighted with the quality of the food, as well as with getting a chance to see my son, who always comes out of the kitchen to urge tasty food on me and my guests, often on his nickel.
I've also got three stepsons. At the start of covid, they were all living with us. My eldest stepson still is, and he does so much around the house it's hard to imagine what we'd do without him. He does most of the driving, shopping, and errand running, as well as working in our home kitchen with his dad to prepare amazing meals for our family, helping in the garden (really, doing all of the heavy lifting, since his dad is post heart attack and has restrictions to what he can do), and just generally being ready to help when we need help. My middle stepson had Down Syndrome. Since, due to covid restrictions, his mom often works from home, he's been spending a lot more time with her. In fact, his parents worked out a schedule so his time is a lot more evenly split between them. He spends two weeks with her, then two weeks with us. If she needs to go into the office during her weeks, she drops him off with us, or his big brother picks him up, and he spends some extra time with us. Overall, this seems to be working out pretty well.
The biggest change with my stepsons is that my youngest stepson, after more than eight years getting to know his online girlfriend both online and in person, has gotten married and is now living with her in her home town in another state. They had plans to get married last spring, and although they let covid push those plans out a few months, eventually decided they just didn't want to wait any longer. They had an outdoor wedding. The oldest drove out with his mom and the rest of us attended virtually, via a Zoom or Skype meeting, I don't remember which. It was beautiful and green!
So, lots going on, as always, but much of it very positive.
A few years before that, my daughter was diagnosed with Grave's disease, which is a thyroid condition in which the body produces too much thyroid. This was a surprise to us, because Hashimoto's disease, in which the thyroid doesn't produce enough thyroid, runs in our family. Then, about three years ago, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had her thyroid removed, and a year later it was necessary to go in and remove some of the lymph nodes in her neck.
She has also, for a number of years, been experiencing pain in her limbs, but also in her back, which turns out to be caused by neuropathy. At this time, the underlying cause of the pain is unknown, but as she also sometimes sports a mild rash across her cheeks in a sort of butterfly pattern, one possibility is lupus. So far, she has tested negative for this, but she has been told she should be tested on a regular basis, as sometimes the symptoms appear before the tests are able to detect the disease.
Last winter, she was exposed to covid-19 and became ill. She wound up in the hospital ICU for several days. Fortunately, she has recovered and seems not to have any new physical ailments as a result.
More recently, she has moved out of state. A number of her friends have moved, and several had settled in the same location, so she and two other friends who were ready for a change of scenery have relocated to the same city. So far, this seems like a pretty good move for her, as she seems happy and busy. Tired, but in general her mood seems improved. She tells me about having game nights with her friends, and that they have set up a shared crafting area. I miss her, but I'm glad she's doing well.
Over the same time frame my son has also had a number of changes in his life. He has been working as a cook for many years, but at one point decided he needed to try something different and a bit more lucrative. He attended commercial driving school and became a long-haul trucker. He got to see just about the entire country, but his view was almost entirely from the truck window. He spent a year doing this, and while it was good money, it was also not a healthy lifestyle. After a year, he decided that he was having too many negative health issues related to that lifestyle, so he left trucking and returned to living full-time in Tucson, and doing kitchen work. He became the kitchen manager at a local bar. Prior to taking this on, the kitchen had served as a loss-leader for the bar. Under his management, and in less than half a year, the kitchen was turning a profit. Additionally, having revamped the menu, the bar won a local award for having the best bar menu. He also worked with the owners to produce a line of hot sauces that could be sold.
The restrictions caused by covid meant that the bar shut down and he went onto unemployment, as did so many others. At one point, when the restrictions were lifted, the bar owners attempted to reopen, so he went back to work in a much changed environment, but after only a short while a new wave of illness meant the bar had to shut back down again. More time passed, the bar reopened, and he returned to work, again. Unfortunately, the strains of the past year, and the changes that were impacting bars and restaurants, resulted in the bar owners making some changes that negatively impacted the employees. When discussions over some of those changes fell through, my son made the decision to leave.
My son is currently working in a small Italian restaurant with fabulous food. I've taken friends and family members there several times and been really delighted with the quality of the food, as well as with getting a chance to see my son, who always comes out of the kitchen to urge tasty food on me and my guests, often on his nickel.
I've also got three stepsons. At the start of covid, they were all living with us. My eldest stepson still is, and he does so much around the house it's hard to imagine what we'd do without him. He does most of the driving, shopping, and errand running, as well as working in our home kitchen with his dad to prepare amazing meals for our family, helping in the garden (really, doing all of the heavy lifting, since his dad is post heart attack and has restrictions to what he can do), and just generally being ready to help when we need help. My middle stepson had Down Syndrome. Since, due to covid restrictions, his mom often works from home, he's been spending a lot more time with her. In fact, his parents worked out a schedule so his time is a lot more evenly split between them. He spends two weeks with her, then two weeks with us. If she needs to go into the office during her weeks, she drops him off with us, or his big brother picks him up, and he spends some extra time with us. Overall, this seems to be working out pretty well.
The biggest change with my stepsons is that my youngest stepson, after more than eight years getting to know his online girlfriend both online and in person, has gotten married and is now living with her in her home town in another state. They had plans to get married last spring, and although they let covid push those plans out a few months, eventually decided they just didn't want to wait any longer. They had an outdoor wedding. The oldest drove out with his mom and the rest of us attended virtually, via a Zoom or Skype meeting, I don't remember which. It was beautiful and green!
So, lots going on, as always, but much of it very positive.
