I’m a schedule guy. I love to think about my schedule, control my schedule, make adjustments to my schedule, and know well in advance what I’m going to try to accomplish on any given day. On the first Saturday after we were married (a very long time ago…) – I hovered over my wife with my face near her sleeping head and said, “What’s your schedule today?….hmmm?…what are you gonna to do? When are you getting up?” She was not happy…. She fumbled for words and mumbled something about, “Isn’t it Saturday?…I don’t have a schedule on Saturday…”…and then as she gained more consciousness, “Why would anybody have a schedule on Saturday?” Needless to say, I’ve had to make some changes in how I approached living with her. Thankfully, I had that adjustment period to prepare me for what was coming.
For the past four years our son Daniel has suffered unbelievably with chronic migraine headaches. These headaches can be triggered by a variety of causes including a flare-up in his allergies (he’s highly allergic to many things – especially dust), fluorescent lights, sharp changes in barometric pressure, and colds or other viruses. When these migraines hit, they often serve to bring on violent episodes of vomiting. These episodes tend to move in a cycle which can be very difficult to break. He takes medicine to lessen the chances of the migraines occurring; however, we try to minimize the amount he takes in order to lessen the side-effects.
Bottom-line, Daniel misses a lot of school. And when he’s in school, he often needs to leave early when a migraine hits. Thankfully, we’ve been able to structure our lives so that we have the flexibility to care for him, drive him to and from school at odd times, and adjust what we’re doing on the fly to deal with whatever his body delivers to him on any given day. We’re not sure how long it will take for Daniel to learn to manage this condition. Or, if he will continue to grow out of it (this year is much better than last year). But until that time, I’ll need to continue to live with a larger amount of flexibility in my schedule than I want. In a way – I need to treat every day like my wife’s idea of Saturday :)… I love the amount of time I get to spend with our son (hopefully he likes it too)….But the continual changes are something that’s required patience on my part…and some days I handle it better than others…
Todd Rivetti 