Carpal Tunnel - Dana's Surgery

You know, the whole idea of ‘repetitive-motion injury’ is funny. Most often exhibited as carpal tunnel syndrome, RMI is a product of the technology age. I can’t imagine Zeb on the farm back in 1835, swinging a hoe over and over again complaining to his doctor that “my shoulders are sore.” But, put someone in front of a PC keyboard 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, and voila! RMI. Of course, that is better than the permanent sunburn some of us that were computer geeks in the 80’s got from all the EM radiation coming off those 12”, amber-colored monitors we used… Not that I am saying RMI is not real, or painful, because I have seen that it is, and Dana's carpal tunnel issues have even caused ME physical pain. She has worn these huge metal braces on her hands and wrists to bed every night for several years, and she is not, to say the least, a stationary sleeper... The bruises should now begin to fade, I hope, and no one will ever again hand me contact cards for the Abused Spouses Association of Charlotte.

Well, Dana had her second carpal tunnel surgery yesterday, and she is recovering at home nicely today. In fact, she is asleep, filled full of Vicodin, and snoring loudly. I am upstairs in my office, and she is downstairs in the guest room, and I can hear her up here. My wife can really snore. But that is fine. It is just one of the things that make me love her more each day.

Dana has been a real trooper with the surgeries. The first was two weeks ago, and she did great with it, even though she was in pain for several days and is still a bit uncomfortable. The second one will precipitate the same recovery timeframe, I imagine, but I cannot wait until she feels better. Now instead of two little girls to bathe, dress, feed, etc. every day, I have three. I am happy to do it – god knows she has taken more care of me over the years than one person merits, and done so generally cheerfully. It was rough on her when I first got hurt (though I don’t really remember it), and things did not get much better for more than a year. So, I owe her. Not that I think she sees it that way, but I do. And, it isn’t in the spousal sense of I owe her, but the Karmic. After all, we shouldn’t “owe” our spouses returns on care, right? Maybe if you work two jobs so your spouse can go to grad school, they then owe you the same consideration, but in the care department, well, we did say “for better or for worse.” Thankfully, that vow meant something to both of us.

Of course, “for worse” never would have entered out minds in the way that we now find ourselves in trouble. See, we are facing some extremely difficult decisions brought about by a personal financial crisis. Unfortunately, the Fed has yet to offer us a bailout package. It is up to US to resolve our own problems. I wish the banks and the auto makers could own up to the same responsibility. If we have to declare BK, why can’t they? Sometimes, a hard reset is the best route to take. Of course, I don’t employ 2.5 million people in my factories and supply chains, either.

Anyway, all I need is a job, and maybe things will begin to improve for us. We shouldn’t even be in this position, except I poured everything we had financially (effort, energy and time, too), and then some, into my company, Visionary Financial Services Group, LLC. Having just read ‘financial’ and ‘services’ in the same sentence probably immediately clued you, my clever reader, into what happened to us this year, and where we now sit…

So, another tiny piece of the puzzle is revealed. Please do me the favor of thinking about Dana as she recovers from surgery, and thinking about both of us as we try to fend off foreclosure and possibly bankruptcy. If you know of anyone hiring who could use an intelligent, hard- (and smart-) working professional with an MBA from the University of Florida, let me know!

‘Til next time…