We've all seen babies sleeping in a car seat or swing with their necks looking amazingly uncomfortable. It seems impossible that they can get their ear that close to their belly button! I had never noticed before, but Blake always assumes this position with his chin turned to the left (like he is above). I did notice, however, that he had a rather sizable knot in his neck on the right side that I was convinced was too large to be a lymph node. At his one month check up I did mention this to his doctor and she said it was probably a lymph node I was feeling. I took Blake back to the doctor today and she told me today she actually didn't feel it last time when she looked. Apparently parents freak out over slightly swollen nodes all the time. Good thing I poke and prod at the poor guy all the time! It turns out Blake has something called torticollis.
According to the one hundred websites I've read, torticollis is also called congenital muscular torticollis. It is a condition that causes a baby's head and neck to tilt to one side. It affects about 2 percent of newborns. The cause is unknown, but doctors suspect that when a baby is positioned in the uterus so that her head is tilted to the side and her neck is down, the blood supply to the neck is cut off. This results in some tightness in one of the two strap (or sternocleidomastoid) muscles that connect the breastbone, head, and neck, and allow a baby to turn their neck. The pediatrician thought that maybe it was caused by my carrying Blake so low in my belly for such a long time. Though the baby may look uncomfortable, this condition causes no pain. Blake can look to both sides really well and his neck is already very strong. Some kids with torticollis can't look to one side at all. Because his case seems so mild, the doctor is having us do some stretching and massage of the muscle at home rather than sending us to physical therapy right away. Honestly I am relieved that Blake's knot is muscular, the other explanations for such a knot are much more scary. If this is the only medical issue we have to deal with we are still very blessed. This was the SWEET part of our day.
The SOUR part of our day was an email that I received today from my boss...umm ex-boss. I had emailed her on Monday telling her I would like to try to return on Friday the 13th so Blake's first day in daycare would be a half day. Today she replied by telling me:
"Unfortunately, we have re-allocated job responsibilities here and your position no longer exists at the present time."
So...my first thought was, "Is that even legal?!?" Unfortunately for a small business with under 50 employees you do not have to adhere to FMLA (and I had not been there for one year until this month) so it is just a lousy thing to do and not illegal. No matter how much I hated my job I would have liked to have known this weeks or even months ago. She had previously sent me emails just before I had Blake underhandedly pushing me to quit, but I didn't know this was coming. One would have thought even a heartless person wouldn't have waited until the week before I was supposed to return. So, yeah, that's my SOUR afternoon.
I'm off to search careerbuilder and file for unemployment. Wish me a SWEET job search!
At least I get to stay home a little longer with my precious boy!
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