Women vs Men

Doctor's visit was short and encouraging. Blood counts where they should be, albeit white count down, but that is normal especially with his kidney stone escapades and confirmed intestinal infection.  She told us Dale is doing well, will see him in two weeks, and then shortly after that the BMT team will begin their  overall health status tests. Moving forward.

I returned to work with a greeting from my boss: "What are you doing here?" I told him I was just checking if I still had an office. He said yes, so I busied myself with the stuff on my desk. I began to think of the several days away I had and the impact it had on my emotional well-being. When the trip began, I told myself I would focus on the girl's experiences, get to know parents & coaches, and enjoy the trip with each of them. They were a great group of people. The moms kept asking me questions; how did you get selected this year to come with us? Do you have any kids? How come your husband did not come with you? And then, how could you leave him alone? Is there someone taking care of him while you are gone?

It went down hill from there. The women kept asking questions and as hard as I tried to answer generally without mention of bone marrow transplant, cancer, or compromised immune system, I shared all sorts of information. The compassion surrounded me, the care given, and the understanding shown. But there were also looks of "how could you not be with him?" and some "you should feel guilty for not being there" insinuations. That made my trip with the girls difficult because of constant discussion and questions brought to the forefront thrown in with emotions I am not experienced with. I am experiencing many new emotions and feelings that are all jam packed into eight months that most women learn over years of motherhood.

Then I thought if I had accompanied the boy's teams someplace, first, the dads would wonder what the heck I was doing there, and second, they would ask no more.

Back to my boss's statement to me for being at work already. At the end of the day, we had a few uninterrupted moments of discussion,  he asked caring questions, he listened to the answers, and I was reminded once again, why I really like working for him.