Tuesday, June 15, 2010

My Kids Club Feet and 7 Other Useless Bits of Info About Me...and a lovely award.....

There are some people that you meet blogging and you just know they are the type of people you would have over for coffee if they lived nearby.  Authentic, honest and inspiring.  Li from Creamy Whites is one of those people.  I was thrilled to see that she had gotten this award and touched that she passed it on to me.  Thanks Li.

I have to tell you 7 things about me.  Having done this before, I struggle to find 7 new and somewhat interesting facts about mself.  But I endeavored to find some minutely interesting bits.......

1.  I have lived in 19 houses.  I am 49, so if you do the math, thats one every 2.5 years. 16 of them were in my first 23 years.  Thats a lot of moving.!

2.  I have lived in 3 countries.  Kenya, England and Canada

3.  My son was born with a dislocated hip and club feet.  For the hip, he just had a splint for a couple of weeks. For his feet he wore casts on his legs and feet for 2 months. People would stare at me as if I had broken his legs.........
 
This is not his photo- for some reason I seldom took pictures of his feet.......the ones I do have are in a huge box of hundreds of baby pics. But this is exactly what he looked like. Every 2 weeks, I had to sit him in a basin of water and soak the old ones off.  Then I could kiss his toes for a couple of hours before I went to the fracture clinic to get new ones on.  This was 25 years ago.  They used to allow smoking in the clinic....and those of you who have been to a hospital fracture clinic know how many hours you would wait......I would complain about the smoke and they would let me wait in an unused room.  They would take him from me (2 weeks old) and I would hear him cry and cry as they put new casts on him.  They didn't hurt him, he just didn't like to be held still or be without me.  They apply the wet cast, then gently bend the feet into shape........ The waiting room would look in horror when they brought this infant to me, legs heavy and dangling like a frog, both of us sobbing...........Now I look back and think if that was all that was wrong with my baby, why was I not grateful instead of bawling....maybe those post baby hormones...
 He was not a happy baby with these on.  Yes, people would sign them.  Baby poop would leak on them, they were hot and heavy.  I didn't know his real weight for months.  He came out of those and went right into ortho boots which looked like backwards boots.  Kindly women would stop me in the mall and tell me I had his shoes on the wrong feet.  He also had to wear shoes (with a big bar connecting them and forcing his legs apart) to bed each night as he had tibia torsion (crooked legs).  He didn't mind this, but would get a shoe stuck in the crib bars (different regulations back then for cribs).  I was promised by the surgeon, that I would never have to deal with feet like this again.....this was a fluke and one of....a chance in a million.

4.  Twenty One months later, my daughter was born.  The first thing I did was look at her feet.  The second thing I did was say...."oh oh....she has club feet".......the next morning I walked down the hall from maternity to the fracture clinic with Ky......

5.  I found my father's family 2 years ago by way of the internet.  They live in Nottingham and Australia and Chicago amongst other places.  There are loads and loads of them.  Meeting "your people" is really weird.....they look like you, or your kids.....

6. One of my worst jobs was working for a rectal surgeon.  I would sometimes have to leave my desk and go hold butt cheeks apart for a proceedure. 

7.  I have low B12.  My husband has to give me a needle each month.  I am a big chicken over this and scream for the entire minute it takes (B12 is quite thick and takes a little time).  I love the B12....like a little energy boost...don't know why I scream.

I have to nominate some other fine bloggers, so here are the ones I would like to pass this on to..




19 comments:

  1. I love learning new things about you with these posts. You've had a very interesting life!

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  2. Chania, thanks so much for sharing your amazing life with us. You made me laugh with your worst job (yuck!) and cry with the struggles with your babies. Congrats on your award!
    xoxo,
    Anne

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  3. Chania - honestly I knew you had hidden depths! That part about your son - I can't imagine how hard that must have been. I am sure some people have it worse than that but still - hardly your dream of newborn life. The other points really made me smile. Thank you so much for passing on to me. Lou x

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  4. i was so intrigued reading your interesting seven...and thinking, wow, i probably , most certainly, am not that interesting...and then i see my name at the end....oh...the pressure! just kiddin, i love a good assignment! the story of your sons first months in discomfort (his and yours) is so powerful and then little baby sister too.........oh my. oh my.

    thanks for the nomination!
    erin

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  5. Chania ~ Congrats on the award! Thanks for passing it on to me! And, I thought working for the County Public Defender was bad....next time, I'll think twice before I complain! Have a great day!

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  6. Congrats on this award!!! Nice to know more about you xx

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  7. Chania! i cannot believe what you 've had to go through..just coping with the way that people would judge and stare at something like that...

    well that's difficult..but you've made it through..and that says a lot about your character! you are a strong beautiful woman ...
    and I'm happy to know you!

    thanks so much for stopping by to see me too...
    ciao bella!
    creative carmelina

    oh...and congrat's on your blog award!

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  8. Thank you for my award Raz! What am I supposed to do (sorry - that sounds a bit rude, but I don't know the protocol...)

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  9. Hey Chania,

    Thanks for the award! Job done...that was hard thinking up things, you know? I cannot even imagine the distress you endured with your children, I hope their feet have been corrected. I am going to go look it up on google...

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  10. What does low B12 involve? I'm sorry that the dose is so painful for you. (P.S. Re holding butt cheeks apart for a proceedure, some people pay good money for that. I have.)

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  11. Chania,

    Oh what fun for all the intimate details and # 6 is definitely ) ( intimate : 0

    I do have you beat in moves and houses though not countries, only 5 states. It does make us adapt quickly yes? Maybe that is why I am having "change" issues? I've had enough!

    Enjoy your week.

    Suzan

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  12. I've just sort of realised that your chosen font takes some of the impact away from the essence of your blogs, when you are talking about something other that interiors, or whatever. I sort of missed the message about your children's feet, and I don't know how that happened, besides me losing concentration, which is no excuse!

    I think - for me - this is why the import of this post has been a bit watered down to the extent that I slightly lost the message during the listing of the points. It is entirely my fault, as we should be able to over ride a choice of font and colour, but I thought I would mention it.

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  13. Chania,
    It's just me, wanting to tell my dear blog friend that she is AMAZING!! I know it is hard to open up and expose the beauty that makes us human, you my girl is more human then many. I was holding back tears with what you had to go through, and have seen for years the mothers that had children with club feet.
    I have a friend that went through it with her son about as many years ago as you did,they also did surgery on him.

    I really think all that you have been through made you this inspiring women that you are, and "Versatile Blogger" indeed you are!!

    Thank you for sharing your lifes journey with us, and the future is best to come.

    Congrats on your award, you deserve it, being that said, keep on inspiring us girl you are a women to love.
    xx
    Dore
    Ooooh! thank you dear for your comment on my weeds and salt & pepper post :)

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  14. Congratulations on your award Chania. It was lovely to get to know you a bit better through your list of 7 things! I can only imagine how hard it must have been to cope with the club feet, it is bad enough when you are in the supermarket and people stare and impart their wisdom on you when your child is having a tantrum! Have a lovely day Chania. xx

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  15. The best thing about blog awards is the great info that gets shared. Loved reading about you :)
    oxoxo
    Denalee

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  16. Chania, first of all: THANK YOU for your lovely words about me. I feels so LUCKY to have friends like you!
    Now...wow, what an amazing life and expeirences you had. Going through all you had specially with your kids must be so hard and I'm sure looking back now and seeing them healthy must be the best gift for you.
    It was so nice to know more about your life experience and how you handle all that.
    Wishing you a wonderful week!
    Li :-)

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  17. I agree with you about Li. She always leaves the nicest, dearest comments. Congratulations on your award.

    I cannot imagine the agony you must have gone through with your babies. I think that is when we are our most vulnerable, when we know they can do absolutely nothing to protect themselves.

    I so enjoyed getting to know you just a bit better. I had to laugh at the thought of you and the butt cheeks. Sometimes, I think you live such a dreamy life, but I guess we all have our not-so-sterling moments!

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  18. Oh Chania CONGRATULATIONS on your award & THANK YOU for passing it my way.... :o) !

    I'm pretty sure you know I'm a MAJOR fan of your blog & LOVE seeing your posts in my reader....I wished when I was reading THIS post I could have reached over & given you a hug....Your struggles with you children & their feet touched me so....I'm sorry you had to go though this once let alone twice....!!!

    The butt cheeks had me laughing again....I can ONLY imagine how HORRID that must have been....!!

    You are VERY special Chania & I'm THRILLED to have you in my world....!

    Cheers for now,
    Tamarah :o)

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  19. Congratulations Chania and THANK YOU for allowing us to find out a little more about you! Many of your posts leave me thinking about life and to look a little deeper...... Your blog is one of my absolute favorites!
    Health and happiness to you dear one!
    Angela

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I love to read each and every comment and are thrilled that you take the time to send one. Thank you so much. Chania