When my husband and I were dating I made it very clear I would never be okay with a spouse that travels. When we got married and had kids I reiterated the point with the exception of if we traveled with him. He has had many jobs over the years but when August was diagnosed he accepted a fully remote job with flexible hours to accommodate the doctors appointments and health precautions we now have to take. He made it clear he needed to be available for us and constant travel wasn’t going to work.
His first work trip was this past September 2021. We all went to Utah for a week. It was gorgeous. If we could recreate our homestead, I would happily move there. His company has since merged with a larger company. Everything has started changing. Some good, some great, some fine, and some bad. The new company has monthly personal days for their employees where everyone takes Friday off. They have monthly allotments the company gives out to spend on health and exercise related items. Last month they even had a snack budget. A box full of fancy snacks was shipped to us for free! It was great.
Along with the good changes there has also been some not so good ones. Everything is a mess. Connor is constantly working, even on the weekends. Before the merge he had finally – for the first time in our married life – started a nice schedule. Off work by 4, free weekends, not stressed to the point of malfunction. That has all changed now. If he isn’t sleeping he is working.The company planned a huge get together in Las Vegas not long after the new year. I had to cancel a very important follow up for August because of said trip. Two weeks before the end of February they announced not to make any plans the first week of March. Augusts important appointment I had already rescheduled was set for March 3. I again had to call and cancel. At this point I was fuming. Not only was the new company requiring my husband to travel putting my special needs son at risk but they were also impacting his specialist appointments that have to be scheduled months out.
The morning before Connor was scheduled to fly out Hayden(3) got to take his first ambulance ride. He was cyanotic and struggling to breathe. He needed 4 rounds of steroids before we were able to go home. Since Hayden wasn’t hospitalized, Connor still had to go on the trip. We stocked up on comfort foods, popsicles, and juice. He left at 2am Wednesday morning. At 2:30am the twins woke with fevers and body aches. They started having breathing difficulty around 5am and started getting saline nebs. At 9am I called the doctor about August. He needed to go in too. He also required steroids. August only ate popsicles for the next couple days. Hayden almost got another ambulance ride. Aria projectile vomited all over my bed. It was quite the time. We made it through though.
Connor flew home Saturday and got home at 11:30pm. Sunday we decided to run errands in the cities. We had a large amount of returns that had piled up and that always bothers him. We hit up BestBuy, Costco, and Target. On the way home Hayden projectile vomited to the point his carseat wasn’t salvageable. Back to Target we went. Daddy ran in for new clothes and a carseat while I helped Hayden get cleaned up. We got back on the road and made it 10 or so miles when Annabelle started vomiting. Luckily her carseat was salvageable and the 2 pack of jammies for Hayden fit her too. I made the mistake of jokingly saying, “I guess August is next”. Poor August was indeed next and ended up puking all night long.
By morning, every blanket and towel we own was covered in vomit. Since we don’t have a drier or enough time in the day to wash everyones bedding, the twins and I made a run to Target. Just a “quick” 60 minute drive. One way. New blankets, sheets, and towels for everyone. On the bright side towels were on sale! Everyone slept soundly last night, thankfully.
Connor has informed me that we can expect travel to be quarterly…so 4 times a year. Maybe the frequency will change, we will be able to be less cautious with August, or maybe I’ll get better at flying solo, but currently I am still bitter and recovering from last week. Pray for us. We can use it.