A Decade in the Making...

Anyone who knows me personally knows that anniversaries and milestone events mean a great deal to me.  I remember dates, times, events...what have you...like a boss (are people still saying that?).  I feel the intrinsic need to acknowledge those milestone dates in some way...sometimes it will just be by mentioning it in casual conversation and sometimes, like today and going forward, it will be by writing *repeatedly* about it.  I will give you my story (complete with actual pictures!) a little bit at a time, but let me start off this series by saying that this week marks the very beginning of a journey that began ten years ago. 

So, a bit of background: ten years ago, I had a brand new baby girl and I had returned to work under duress from my wonderfully feministic husband.  (I love you, babe; he remembers how hard we used to fight about the idea of me staying at home with our daughter.)  I was breastfeeding and minimally pumping; by this time, ten years ago, I had completely depleted my milk supply, so our daughter was primarily on formula.  I was not happy.  I was also having some, in my opinion at the time, relatively minor health problems.  I got dizzy while putting our baby in her crib, I stumbled with increasing frequency and I had problems standing up straight without losing my balance.  Weird stuff.  (I'm sure it was strange for my co-workers, too, who on more than one occasion witnessed me lurching in the halls or elevators....stone cold sober.) 

Anyway...some months prior (just kidding: I do know the exact date - January 18, 2004), my husband, baby and I were at my mom's house to celebrate my upcoming 25th birthday.  I was still pumping then and when we left for the evening, I realized that I left my breast pump in my mom's house.  We turned the car around and I sprinted inside to retrieve it.  I ran back to the car and, in the dark, tripped over a sprinkler head in my mom's front yard.  I fell headfirst into the front of my car, bounced off and landed on the cement, flat on my back.  I blacked out for maybe a second before I came to, painfully, with bruises on my knees, chin.... not to mention my ego. 

Fast forward to April 2004.  I was still in pain, ostensibly from that fall in January.  My knees were still badly bruised and I was doing all of this weird stumbling stuff.  First, I talked to my OB/GYN, who referred me to an orthopedist for my knee and to an internist for....well, the rest.  I went to the internist first - a younger doctor who took the time to really listen to what I had to say.  She recommended a CT scan - just to rule out the possibility that my issues were related to the head-on collision with my car a few months prior.  I don't think she really believed that the scan would show anything at all; it was really just part of the process of checking possible causes off of her list.  I had that scan on April 19, 2004 and, not to be cliche or anything, found my life changed in the course of three hours. 

To be continued....