Major Life Events
Jun. 24th, 2004 10:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
astra_nomerLet's just review the major life changes I'm going through this year:
August: projected move date
September:
Just to clarify, I don't actually live in Washington, DC yet. We're moving there in August because that's where my post-doc will be.
Anyway, all this is making my life extra-stressful right now. People ask me how I managed to prepare for my defense and finish my thesis while taking care of a newborn, and really, I'm not quite sure. I pushed real hard in the months before my baby was born to get as much done as I could, but I still had a bunch of finishing up to do even after the birth.
I guess the thing is, out of all the major events I listed above, I was only completely unprepared for one of them, and that was the cancer diagnosis. I had nine months to prepare for my child's birth, and I knew about a year ago that I was going to finish my PhD and would probably have to move when I started my postdoc. Cancer is just the last straw.
My mom just called me. She's been insisting that I need a hysterectomy. In fact, the first thing she said when I initially told her was, "you need a hysterectomy." Literally. So she started in again about getting a hysterectomy -- "oh, my friend, you know, so-and-so's mom, she had something similiar, blah blah blah" -- so I got angry and told her off. She seems to think that if I get a hysterectomy I can avoid chemotherapy, which I'm pretty sure is just wrong. And I'd like to preserve my fertility if I can, thank you very much. Maybe if I remind her that at my age, she only had one child, that might put things in perspective for her... I think it's a lot easier for a 60-year old woman to talk about ending one's fertility than a 29-year old.
Anyway, I'll see the oncologist tomorrow. I assume she'll have real answers for me. And information I can give to my mom to get her off my case.
- February: birth of second child
- May: PhD thesis defense
- June:
- sell house
- graduation
- long-distance house-hunting
- find out I have cancer
- sell house
- start new job
- older child starts pre-school
Just to clarify, I don't actually live in Washington, DC yet. We're moving there in August because that's where my post-doc will be.
Anyway, all this is making my life extra-stressful right now. People ask me how I managed to prepare for my defense and finish my thesis while taking care of a newborn, and really, I'm not quite sure. I pushed real hard in the months before my baby was born to get as much done as I could, but I still had a bunch of finishing up to do even after the birth.
I guess the thing is, out of all the major events I listed above, I was only completely unprepared for one of them, and that was the cancer diagnosis. I had nine months to prepare for my child's birth, and I knew about a year ago that I was going to finish my PhD and would probably have to move when I started my postdoc. Cancer is just the last straw.
My mom just called me. She's been insisting that I need a hysterectomy. In fact, the first thing she said when I initially told her was, "you need a hysterectomy." Literally. So she started in again about getting a hysterectomy -- "oh, my friend, you know, so-and-so's mom, she had something similiar, blah blah blah" -- so I got angry and told her off. She seems to think that if I get a hysterectomy I can avoid chemotherapy, which I'm pretty sure is just wrong. And I'd like to preserve my fertility if I can, thank you very much. Maybe if I remind her that at my age, she only had one child, that might put things in perspective for her... I think it's a lot easier for a 60-year old woman to talk about ending one's fertility than a 29-year old.
Anyway, I'll see the oncologist tomorrow. I assume she'll have real answers for me. And information I can give to my mom to get her off my case.
