Brave Enough To Be Bliss

unrealistic expectations about my workload, not anyone else. I realized the pressure all those years to get as much done as humanly possible was not humane to myself.

Not too long after I moved into the townhouse, Kylee was spending the night with her dad and when I got out of the car in the garage, I thought I could hear water running, which seemed odd. When I opened the door into the house, right in front of me I saw water shooting straight out from the wall behind the pedestal sink. I got soaked turning the water valve off, but the damage had been done. Kylee had left at most an hour earlier, but sometime in between the hose came out of the wall and a steady stream of water had been spewing out. After I turned the water off, I could still hear it rushing through the floor into the fortunately unfinished basement. I had to slosh through water as I tried to assess the damage, wondering what to do. I think I was in shock because I just couldn’t even think what you would do in a situation like that. So, I didn’t know what else to do except call my former husband and ask him. After explaining it was an overwhelming situation, he and Kylee came right over. He told me to get my insurance policy and call the number listed for a claim and they’d tell me what to do. He and Kylee stayed with me until they had the disaster recovery crew on the way. It was extremely kind of him to come over and I was very appreciative. And while neither of us was perfect or handled every situation perfectly, overall, we continued to support each other as parents knowing that was what Kylee needed in order to limit the impact of the divorce on her as much as possible. The entire main level flooring, hardwood and carpet, had to be taken out, drywall replaced, lower portion of cabinets replaced, everything repainted, there was damage to a cedar chest and antique family heirloom desk, and a lot of smaller things had to be thrown away. It happened shortly before Thanksgiving, so only the disaster recovery work could be done immediately. The repair work couldn’t start until after the first of the year. We had to stay a few weeks in an extended stay hotel and then came home to exposed subflooring that we lived with for a couple months with just some carpet runners I placed to provide a path for us to walk on. It was a mess, but we made the best of it. It just didn’t seem to be our best yea r!

The following is Kylee’s concussion story that she wrote back at that time. I have loved sports my entire life…playing them, talking about them, and watching them. The first thing I did in elementary and middle school when I got up in the morning was turn on ESPN to see what I’d missed overnight. I participated in basketball, soccer, golf, tennis, swimming, and softball. Entering high school, I decided to focus on basketball, my favorite sport, and play year-round. On November 14, 2011, I suffered a concussion on the first night of basketball tryouts my sophomore year. My symptoms weren’t going away after a month, but I felt I was letting my team down, so I told my athletic trainer, doctor, coaches, and parents that I was back to normal. I didn’t have any baseline testing, so it was impossible for them to know I still had symptoms. The timing worked out really well because we were out of school for winter break, so my symptoms were decreased due to the lack of mental

exertion. When I went back to school, it was so early in the semester that not many grades were posted so it wasn’t obvious that I wasn’t able to function in class. I am the type of person who doesn’t like to complain when I don’t feel well, so it was relatively easy for me to cover up my symptoms at home too. When my parents would ask me if I felt OK, I would say yes and then make extra effort to do something to make it seem like I felt good. I started basketball practice and within a week suited up for my first game of the season. Unfortunately, I sustained a second concussion in my third game back which turned out to be a career-ending one. After that, I had to drop five of my seven classes at school because of the extreme symptoms I was experiencing including headache, dizziness, neck pain, sensitivity to light and noise, nausea, inability to focus, read, write, and remember. I was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome (PCS) that spring. It was extremely difficult to go from being an honors student who never needed help to being enrolled in special education with an IEP. It was all I could do just to try to keep up with my schoolwork and I had to take summer classes so that I would even have a chance of graduating with my class.

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