2016, A Recap

The move to Nevada lined up quite nicely with the FRC Build Season. Teams of high school students from all over the world are given six weeks to build a robot to accomplish a specific task for competition. Given the fact that I was an unemployed engineer, I had no problem volunteering five to six days a week. When another adult mentor learned that I used to work in the semi-conductor industry, he passed my resume on to a few key people. A couple interviews later, I landed a job, while my husband at the time remained unemployed and unable to find work.

 

March

March was quite the busy month, mostly filled with FRC. But I was able to make a quick pit stop to meet up with another Addy friend. Shortly after that meetup, I began my new job. Our FRC competition was at the end of the month, which also spilled over into April.

 

April

April started out with a trip to the Las Vegas Convention Center for the FRC robotics competition. It was a little bit challenging to guess how much cortisol multiple days of full activity would require. The second day of competition, I had to hide in the hotel room all morning until my low cortisol migraine subsided. I was nervous that the high school students would view me as diseased and unreliable. When I finally was well enough to show up to the convention center, none of my fears were realized. They were happy to see me feeling better. I also had the ability to meet up with some friends from college for a weekend in Tahoe.

 

May

For Mother’s day, my parents visited us. While I greatly enjoyed the time spent with them, I did end up getting sick, requiring a 100 mg emergency injection.

 

June

During the month of June, I had a friend from Texas fly out to complete a Tough Mudder with my (now ex) husband. I enjoyed watching them, but the altitude mixed with dehydration equated to another emergency injection later that night. I begged to be taken to the emergency room after vomiting several times, but my husband refused to drive me because his “steak was getting cold.”

 

July

I took a spontaneous solo trip back to Texas for Independence day. I was also forced into purchasing a house that I did not want, but I did not have the ability to say no.

 

August

August started with a trip to Austin, TX for an engineering conference. There was other things, of course. But this is all I will choose to remember.

 

September

My parents and my aunt and uncle visited over Labor Day weekend. On September 8th, my (now ex) husband caused a car accident in my truck. A few days after the accident, we joined my family in California to celebrate my parents’ 30th wedding anniversary. I had the pleasure of attending my former college roommate‘s wedding in northern New Mexico.

 

October

Friends from Texas visited me in October and I had the pleasure of showing them the beautiful blue lake of Tahoe.

 

November

At the beginning of November, my grandparents visited from Florida. I also participated in a project by a local photographer called “Beauty in the Desert” to celebrate my blog’s fourth birthday. I ventured to California for an Engineering certification exam, an Ikea adventure, meet up with college friends, and the ability to greet a fellow Addie sister, Debby. We finished up November with a Thanksgiving / Christmas celebration with my family in Arizona. I had a disease flare triggered by my abusive ex husband on Thanksgiving afternoon and ended up requiring twelve hours of sleep, several zofran, and almost a triple dose of my solu-cortef the next day to stabilize.

 

December

My now ex husband was sent to Wales again at the beginning of December. He returned to America just in time for us to attend his holiday work party. My parents also drove up to visit us for Christmas. I was horribly embarrassed as I had them visit my apartment, where I had been living alone since the purchase of the house. The kitchen was growing things, the cat litter desperately needed to be scooped; I could not attempt to hide the chaos.

A loss of a job, an out of state move, the leaving of in person support networks, the start of a new job, the purchase of a house, the escalating abuse of a narcissistic husband – these are a lot of changes for people with working adrenal glands! They left me to where I was just barely treading water, just barely staying afloat. Many times this year, it felt like I was absolutely drowning.

I broke down crying as my dad cleaned my kitchen and took care of the cats. I felt like an utterly incompetent adult, unable to handle just basic life. 2016 was a hard year, not necessarily because of hospitalizations or disease flares. It was just hard.

But you know what?

I’m still Alive, even if just barely.

May 2017 bring stability!