The Sweet Irony of It All

Today’s doctor visit brought new personal meaning to me of the familiar expression “labor of love". Oh, we’ve all heard that expression at some point throughout our lives referring to those acts we do, often for others, because of love. For the past 3 years, I have come to refer to Paige and Taylor affectionately as my little “labors of love” because in certain seasons of our lives together to this point, we’ve faced some difficulties to be sure, but even the most difficult of tasks over the past 3 years have seemed easier to me because they have been done as part of the “labor of love.”

Well, today, a new irony on this expression has come to bear fruition in my life. After having some recurring neck / shoulder pains in recent months and after self-treating these pains myself at home have proved futile, I finally decided to make a doctor appointment to have my neck / shoulder looked at…well, following an in-office exam, the doctor confirmed that I have developed an “injury” to my neck and shoulder that is, in his own words, “likely due to a culmination of the daily management of twins for the past 3 years, but more specifically the management, handling and care of a special needs child.”

And, I couldn’t disagree. I have found over the past 1-1/2 years, the sheer weight of a toddler, when combined with the repetitive therapy activities that I do regularly with Taylor, the continuous lifting and re-positioning movements required by me to help facilitate more appropriate, more normal movement patterns for Taylor, plus just the sheer handling of Taylor on a daily basis, from getting her dressed, to helping her achieve pottying, to getting her undressed, to bathing her, etc. has begun to take its physical toll on me. On more than one occasion as I have been helping her balance and shift her weight from one leg to the next while dressing or while getting in and out of the bathtub, I have felt a shot of pain in my neck and shoulder, but just continued to push through it. Well, it seems that it’s finally beginning to catch up to me. And, yet, I would not change anything about what I am doing for Taylor on a daily basis, or what I have done to this point in time. She and Paige are my “labors of love”. As a mother, when you have a special needs child who is not solely independent, by no fault of her own, and who is unable to rely on her own abilities, then you do what you have to do regardless of the toll that it may take upon you...

I left the doctor’s office today with a Rx for anti-inflammation of my neck and shoulders, plus get this, a regimen of physical therapy exercises for me to do at home to help re-build and repair my neck and shoulders. That's right - physical therapy exercises. Oh, the sweet irony of that…that the “labor of my love” in helping Taylor to ambulate and to achieve her own motor abilities through the many at-home physical therapy exercises I’ve done over the past year with her has resulted in me needing physical therapy now as well. How ironic. So, for now, I will continue to do all that I do and need to do for Taylor – she is my “labor of love” - but I will also begin to take some time to care for myself too and if that’s physical therapy for me too, then she and I will do our physical therapy together because after all, we are on this journey together and that’s what we do as we labor in love.