Dollar Signs Aren't Happiness part 2

part 2
Life of a welder as fun as it was was not in the cards for to long. We ended up moving back home to the island and I went back to school for my next welding ticket. I did both B and A courses so I was tops on training I just needed the experience. I think I will not bore you with the details but my next job went wrong in a big way. I injured my back had to go through 6 months of physio CTs and MRIs and Doctor after Doctor. It came down to I was unempolyable with my pain and the consencise is that surgery in my case is not going to help.
So family life in pain was my next challenge. Now I have always been a tough guy and able to take pain so I had my ego to fight aswell. I started off taking no painkillers what I found was that yes I could take it but at what cost. I was in so much pain that nobody could touch me and with a toddler and another on the way I didn't want to be screaming in pain whenever my boy bumps my leg. I gave in and life became more tolerable it did come with baggage. I started becoming hard to live with grouchy and also my wife couldn't understand what I was going through. She would do things like ask me to take the garbage out which was way beyond my ability at that time. So life became tense and my marrage was on the rocks. 3 months of problems like that and I was at my limits. Stress was constant luckily I figured out it was the pain meds making an ass so Doc changed them to something esle and that problem was overted. The conflict with Cat my wife was a different story she just could not understand me. Soon something would make her know exactly how I felt. She started having pain in her face on the right side. The doctor thought it was a sinus infection and after chasing that one trip to the ER figured it out. Cat was diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia which was awfull for her as this is also known as the suicide disease as most people end up killing themselve. One good thing did happen our marriage was fixed she knew pain and I would never leave her when she needed me most. The vow is for sickness and health and between us we had the sickness part down pat.
I thought I had it rough but I realized now that life can always through more wrenches in the wheels of life. It was hard for me to see her in so much pain we both did a lot of growing. This was all going on while we were raising two small kids now that was a challenge thank God for family. Cat and I did still have issues just different ones. Now we both could not work and because I got injured on a job I just started my workers comp averaged my sallery with the time I was in school so I may have been making $21/hr it averaged out to$10/hr and my pension was nothing we could live on. I turned out our only option was to go on dissability. After we qualified it was a big relief.
We did have to go through the whole CT an MRI dance for Cat and more doctors than you can shake a stick at. Between us we have seen almost all the nerve surgeon/neuroligests in a 200mile radius. Now fast forward 10 years Cat gets her brain surgury she has been wating 6months for. And ofcourse they damaged her facial nerve and in the end the surgery was a failure and it also gave her another condition that was worse than her main problem. This is called anastasia delarosa try looking thatone up too it really sucks it gives her a burning sensation that doesn't stop once it starts up unless you have the big drugs and big doses. We have spent counless nights in the ER trying to deal with this. You start to think that life is rough then it shows you that it can get worse Cat was diagnosed with crohnes disease which is no fun either so the moral is don't whine about life or it will hear you.
So back in my corner I got put on some long acting pain meds and my pain gets more livable but it doesn't give me any better tolerances for stuff like sitting or standing in one spot. I have tried working doing even super easy jobs but I can never tell when I have to lay down and even driving is not a good time for me. So I started getting into tech stuff which really helped feed my brain. And I even started fixing peoples computers if they brought them to me I did it for free just to get the experience. I did think that maybe I could do it as a job but we would have to see if I could manage. I adapted things to be on wheels and dollies to make it possible but I still have very low physical ability but my brain works great. I love to solve problems and this has turned out to be very good for us. You really need to find something to do to find some meaning in life. Fatherhood is the best, one good thing is I have been there for my kids and I really see the wisedom in 2 parent families. Ofcourse my kids didn't have all the coolest toys but they had both parents even while dealing with pain they were the priority.
That is the end to this part of my story stay tuned for part 3 coming up....