h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For me 1998 was the best of times, and the worst of times. Awful to go through, on August 25th my husband said he did not want to be married to me any more (9.45 that evening). But since then I have learned so much about who I am and how to live, I have grown, and found freedom and fun. So 1998 was the best of times... and definitely the worst of times...

You?

agcB

Hi Ben,

My best of times and worst of times would be 1997. I found out that my girlfriend was pregnant, I was planning on marrying her any why, and this just pushed the dates around. I got married to a woman I love and was going to be a daddy. Then she started have complications with the pregnancy, bleeding, liver pains, high blood pressure, it developed into pregnancy induce hyper-tension. She got very sick. I thought I was going to become a widower and lose a son at the same time. The doctors decided to deliver the baby 9 weeks premature to save my wife's life. So the doctors took my son early and he went to the Intensive Care Nursey, ICN. My wife recovered and Connor was doing great, growing big and strong. Then he got an "impressive case of NEC" and we got the phone call from the hospital that he "may not make it". Well, he did make it and everything was looking good, it seemed that the NEC did not damage his intestines and all was going to be well. Then Connor developed a stricture in his bowels. They had to operate, NOW! As they wheeled him off to the operating room, my wife started to cry, I started to cry, we must have look pitiful cause three nurses in the ICN started to cry and the doctor in the ICN went into his office to compose himself. Connor survived the operation, he was given a temporary colostomy and was on a ventilator to help him breath. At this time the company I worked for, EDS, decided to "right size" and I was "freed up to look for other opportunities". So I was now unemployed and with a baby in the hospital. A few days later my manager who gave me news felt so bad that she found me a job in another division of the company. Connor spent 75 days in the ICN and come home with a colostomy. After about a month he went back into the hospital to have another operation to reverse the colostomy, so he could have a bowel movement like everyone else. He spent another 5 days in the hospital and come home again. He healed from the operations and was growing and developing like a normal baby and in October of that year I said to my wife that it looks like we can finally coast through the rest of the year. Then one November morning, we were getting ready to go Christmas shopping and we got a phone call. My father-in-law (one of the finest men to ever grace the planet) had had a stroke and was in the hospital. We rush to the hospital and when we got the doctors told us that he had had a massive cerebral hemorrhage and was dead. We went through the funeral, then a week later the American holiday of Thanks Giving, without my father-in-law, my wife dad, my mother-in-law's husband,... and then Christmas also with my father-in-law, my wife dad, my mother-in-law's husband...

1997 give me a good wife and a great son, but what we went though almost destroyed me and I still haven't recovered fully.

Mostly Harmless

Bloody hell, Mostly, it makes what I went thru a complete piece of cake... How is Conor now, he must be 3 or 4?

Hi Ben,

Yes, Connor is 4 years old TODAY!!

Happy Birthday to Connor.


Mostly.

Happy Birthday Conor - and many happy returns!

and he is completely healthy, only a few scars to show for his ordeal. I'm glad he was a boy. I believe it would be harder of a girl when they hit the teenage years to have scars on thier bellies.

Mostly

Well it depends on the scars, a friend of mine has a great scar on his elbow, looks like the spine of a fish. And I saw a girl with a scar like the seam on a stocking with matching dots either side of it, running from her heel about 8 inches or so up her leg and it looked stunning,. But I like well executed graffiti and some body piercings too.

Ooops topic drift...

Best of times, worst of times anyone?

May 12th 1976, my 3 1/2 yr old elder son was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. The next 5 years were horrendous. What that kid didn't go through. He is now 28 1/2, engaged to be married and fighting fit. Three legacies, he's not very tall, chemo & radiotherapy stunted his growth, he can't swallow tablets!! the other one is rather personal but conquerable.

The best year, if I can be allowed to be sloppy, Nov 1987, when I met Grandad Weatherwax, currently second husband (just to keep him on his toes).

Happy Birthday Connor, there is something very special about a child who has been through so much and come out the other side. I have a friend whose premature baby went through similar problems and then 6 days after finally leaving hospital an idiot hit her car at high speed and her daughter now has cerebal palsy and epilepsy.

I thought last year was pretty bad (my 14 yr. old had a tumour cut out of his back was just one of the many truamas). But this year is well on course for being the worst yet - having wormed his way back into my house, my husband caused a terrible scene and walked out at midnight on New Year's Eve, leaving me and my four sons not only penniless but seriously in debt. He is violent, abusive and slanderous. In three weeks time I have to move out of my rented house and have nowhere no go to. In the meantime he is trying to take my chidren away from me (the children he never cared about) on the basis that I have no home. .....And it's only April!!

The sad thing is I can't remember having a good year, if I did it was a long, long time ago.

Rainbow - I had been wondering how you were... and thinking about you a lot. Is there anything we can do to help? My email is on my home page.

Many thanks for offering, but there doesn't seem to be an obvious solution to my problems. Everyone tells me it will eventually get better, but when and at what cost? At the moment I am stuck at home as the brakes failed on my car on Tuesday and I haven't got the money to get it back from the garage - However, the children hope it means they won't be able to go back to school next week!! (At least they're looking on the bright side).

What about un-obvious solutions...?

so far they are so un-obvious I haven't stumbled on them!!