One of the biggest challenges that divorced parents deal with during a crisis is uniting.? As many of you know, I’ve been very busy and overwhelmed with Dirt Bike Boy in the last week.? He’s been sick and in the hospital for the last week.? After a couple days of tests and complications, we found out that he had a ruptured appendix.? The doctors performed an emergency surgery in the middle of the night.
Since then I’ve spent more time with my ex-wife than I can remember.? This wasn’t on the top of my Christmas to do list, but we are both making the best of it.? As a divorced parent, you end up doing things that you don’t enjoy.? Like hanging out with your ex for hours at a time.? I mean seriously, you get divorced so that you didn’t have to spend any time together.
Most of the time, I sit on one side of his bed and she’s on the other.? That leaves Dirt Bike Boy in the middle to be spoiled.? Dirt Bike Boy has enjoyed being spoiled and pampered.? He’s had breakfast in bed.? He’s getting pushed around the hospital in a wheel chair.? He’s been watching cartoons practically every waking minute of the day.? The hospital has allowed him to play Wii and PlayStation too.? Outside of the surgery and pain, he’s having a great time.
I hurt.. but I'm walking!
The interesting thing about this whole event is that my relationship with my 2 ex’s are totally different.? I get along with ex #2, Dirt Bike Boy’s mother.? I don’t get along with ex #1, Alpha Boy’s mother.? Ex #1 and I have a long history of not agreeing on anything.? Everything from private school, medical care, cloths and everything in between.? As difficult as this situation sounds, I’ve always made the best of it.? It would take a Act of God/Court Order to keep me from being there for Alpha Boy.
Alpha Boy and I discussed this after he was visiting Dirt Bike Boy on Monday night.? He mentioned that he was thankful he’s never been in the hospital.? He knows how things would be much different if it was him having surgery.? I can’t predict how it would turn out, but I can imagine that it wouldn’t be simple.
I wish I could beat Dad on the Wii
I’m happy that Alpha Boy gets along with Dirt Bike Boy and his 2 other siblings.? The 5 of us sat in the room talking, laughing and playing video games.? No matter what, our goal is to get along.? I can only imagine how stressful it would be if there was arguing or bickering among everyone.
The other part of the equation is the medical staff.? Since their job is to get my son back to good health, it would be a major distraction if the 2 parents are not on the same page.? And even worse, you don’t want to hinder the doctors from doing a good job.
So for the official update on Dirt Bike Boy, he’s doing great.? He’s walking around with pain and soreness.? It appears that he will be out of school for 2 weeks because of the antibiotic treatment that he is on.? In typical Dirt Bike Boy fashion, he is doing wheelies in the wheel chair.? And he’s trying to figure a way to do other wheel chair tricks.? He has a losing record in Mario Kart on Wii currently.? (Dad is the hospital CHAMPION)
He is scheduled to go home on Saturday.? woo hoo!
Thanks for all your thoughts, prayers and twitter messages!
