I’ve been hearing from quite a few people that 2016 was a rough year, well I’m hear to tell ya, that MY 2016 was a tough year for sure. There were illnesses, losses, trials & tribulations. It was tough as shit to say the least!
Near the end of 2015 Chris lost his job on the rig & had to come home. We were a one family income & it really took it’s toll on us as a couple & financially. Then to make things worse Chris got a terrible virus that took him out! Honestly, he was down for the count. Chris is one of the toughest, most stubborn people I know, & when an illness like this takes him out, he’s OUT! We’re talking about a guy that had shingles a few years ago & still went to work throughout the entire ordeal. This virus caused some serious sores in his mouth, so he couldn’t eat or swallow properly without excruciating pain, he suffered immensely & ended up losing 10lbs. He was down for just over a month. BUT true to his strong nature, he prevailed, fought through the sickness & scraped his way back to the healthy side & got himself a job early February 2016. There was a light at the end of the tunnel!
Next on the docket… Shayla. My teenage beauty. Near the end of February 2016 she came to me to tell me she had really bad stomach pains, we tried to ride it out at home, but the pain intensified to the point where I had to take her to emergency. Over the course of the year we were in & out of the Alberta Children’s hospital for these intense stomach pains with no diagnoses. She was poked, prodded & tested for numerous diseases, but all came back negative. She had 2 ultrasounds but nothing came back abnormal & finally 2 MRI’s. Her first MRI is what prompted our family doc to refer us to a GI Specialist. She had some mild swelling in her large intestine, very close to her appendix. Her last hospital visit we thought she had appendicitis, but it was because the swelling & pain in her large intestine was so close to the appendix, so this was not the case. Her white blood cell count was SUPER high, which indicated an infection, so she was pumped fulla morphine for her pain & kept overnight for observation. As you can imagine as a Mother, all we want is answers. We want to take the pain away from our babies, we would love nothing more than to swap places with them, we would do anything for them. It broke my heart seeing her like that. It also broke my heart that my 35th birthday was spent in the hospital, after I had planned a HUGE party to ring in my milestone age. I know I know, 35 isn’t really a HUGE milestone, but it’s that much closer to, dare I say it…40, so naturally I wanted to party like I was 30 again… I’m totally kidding, my baby comes first & this was totally out of my hands, which I accepted. Like I said I would do anything to trade places with her at that point. SOOO even after seeing a GI Specialist with her last MRI & final tests, we still don’t know why this is happening to her. I can say this though, Shayla is a very smart girl & she’s very aware of everything that’s happening with her body. Over the last couple months, she’s changed the way she eats, increasing her veggie intake as well as her H2O intake & takes better care of herself. She is your typical teenager & eats her cookies & chips, you know, the usual teenager junk food, but she’s just that more aware of what she’s putting into her body now.
In 2016 we also experienced a loss. We lost our beloved Shar-Pei Kobe. It was one of the saddest losses I’ve ever experienced with a pet. We were there for his very last breath. It was heartbreaking. It was just after the September long weekend we found out he was in kidney failure. And it hit him HARD. We noticed while we were away in Fairmont, BC for the long weekend, that he was acting differently. He was very lethargic, not eating or drinking at all. We had to inject water into his mouth via syringe to get some sort of fluid into him. And he was starting to smell bad. We had no idea what the heck was going on. He became so weak that we had to carry him outside to go to the bathroom & carry him back in again. Chris finally took him to the animal hospital which is how we found out he was in kidney failure. The outcome isn’t very good & the chances of living through it, even with treatment are super slim. We refused treatment & decided to bring Kobe home to make him as comfortable as possible during this ordeal. It was also the time to have that heartbreaking talk of putting him to sleep. Kobe was suffering immensely, he was in pain & watching him go through that was tough. In a matter of days he deteriorated, he had lost a huge amount of weight. It was tough to watch. These pets of ours, they become part of your family & it’s hard to watch them suffer without being able to tell you exactly what’s wrong. The next day after bringing him home from the hospital, we took him back to say our goodbyes. We stayed with him right to the last breath. Something I’ve never experienced as a pet owner. One of the saddest experiences of my life, let me me tell ya!
Lastly… ME! After my maternity leave with Austin, I returned to work full time back to my job I had left for a year. When I went back in March of 2014 things had changed quite a bit. They had hired my temp full time & decided to switch me from salary to hourly. They gave my temp her own office, while keeping me as front desk reception. They had also become more tense & paranoid because of the downturn in the economy, which led to talking to their employees like shit. My temp would often come down to her office crying because of the way she was spoken to. And this was done in front of other staff, which only made her feel more inferior. In February 2016 they decided to let her go, so I was on my own for about 3 months, until they decided to hire the VP’s daughter. Apparently she wanted to learn the biz. She started in shipping/receiving, but because things were so slow, she would come up to the front & learn everything I was doing too. So she was back & forth. Eventually she had her own space up front with me & was doing half my duties, which didn’t leave much for anyone to do to keep them busy throughout the day. Of course when that happens, people, including myself are on social media or surfing the net. In September around the same time we put Kobe down, I had noticed at work that a few of the regular social media sites I visited had been blocked. I just shrugged it off & moved on. About 2 weeks later I was called into a meeting with the President & VP. This meeting occurred in the lunchroom, not behind closed doors. The concept of our office is very open, so if someone is getting yelled at EVERYONE can hear. I was basically torn a new one for using social media during work hours & told that my work ethic was shit. I was verbally sworn at & was reminded that at my wedding which they attended, my Dad had said something jokingly about my bosses, which of course on my wedding day, I’m not going to remember that. But this was brought up in this meeting. I held my shit together long enough, but when I finally broke I was told to stop crying & that I was a grown woman. He also told me I was also a fool. We had a women in the office that day that works there on contract, she was there dealing with our software issues. She told me that she had heard the entire thing while down in reception. She said that she was surprised I stayed & that she would have left. She also told me that I was bullied & that I should look for another job. I stayed because I had to, because I was paid hourly & couldn’t afford not to be there.
Anyway, after that incident, the verbal abuse didn’t stop. I was sworn at & yelled at for the most trivial things. My privacy was invaded & I found a printed email by accident (in a pile of credit card receipts that I was to match up) between myself & a girlfriend about my anxiety. Now they were monitoring my personal emails. I would go home crying everyday to Chris. I would have the worst anxiety & stomach aches, thinking about going to work the next day. I wasn’t sleeping or eating properly. I also developed a very bad eye twitch. Things got so bad that I was even having suicidal thoughts. Not to the point of wanting to physically hurt myself, but wishing for something bad to happen on the way to work, so I wouldn’t have to go. Suicidal thoughts are no joke you guys, so recognizing this, I took myself to the doctor to tell him what was going on. He immediately wanted to put me on stress leave, but my company didn’t have short term disability & with me being paid by the hour, I couldn’t afford the 2 weeks off. So feeling better that I had all this legally documented, I went to work the next day. Things were good that day, well, as good as they could be, until about an hour before my day ended. So in addition to everything being monitored on my desk, I was told I had to keep my phone off my desk & in my purse until my break, if my phone was found on my desk, I would be fired. Well an hour before my day ended, my phone was vibrating like crazy in my purse, in the cupboard. I could hear it going off. I thought this was unusual, so checking my phone quickly, I found out that, it was Shayla calling me, she thought she had broken her finger. I asked her if she could ride out the last 45 minutes of school & she said yes. But while I was texting this, the VP’s daughter that was still in training, (I might remind you) was walking past my desk. She basically asked me what the hell I was doing & told me to put my phone away right now. I honestly thought she was joking. So after questioning her, she continues to say to me, in the snarkiest voice, “I don’t give a shit if so & so isn’t here right now, put your phone away now!” And she turned on her heel & walked off. I was shocked. Who the hell did she think was?! She’d been there for 4 months, I had been there for 6 years, she was in training for crying out loud! So true to form, I left that day in tears, wondering what the hell was happening in my place of work. The next day was my day off, so I took myself back to the doctors, I could barely keep it together while I was there. My blood pressure was taken as a precaution & my doc had heard enough. He put me on stress leave right then & there, no arguments. After I left my doctor’s office, I called our HR lady, which is also the President’s wife. When I told her I was taking stress leave, she didn’t ask what was wrong, how I was doing, or what was going on. She proceeded to tell me that I was letting them down & putting them in a bad spot. Absolutely no compassion from this woman. The very next day, on Saturday morning, I opened my personal email to find a message from HR that I was laid off due to shortage of work. I was shocked, but also relieved that I didn’t have to go back to that hell hole. I could breath again. But this story isn’t over. I was dicked around trying to get my final pay & ROE, I had a package that was delivered there & I wasn’t told about. My emails to them were ignored. I feel like I don’t have closure. I wasn’t given the opportunity to say goodbye to the people that I did actually enjoy working with. It still bothers me to this day. I do have a claim in with Human Rights to fight the wrongful termination against them, so I’m still waiting on that. No news yet.
So how’s that for a year in review? Haha. Pretty intense to say the least. I can say this though my family is happy & healthy, we have a roof over our heads. I’m working my home business now full time which makes me so happy. I’m a full time stay at home mom & I love being here with my son. And other than that, there could be some other news coming down the pipe, but you’ll have to stay tuned for that.
Hope you’ve enjoyed the read! Please like or comment below so I know you’ve read my post! And thanks for the support!
The Vikings Wife 