Although this is a true story, I'd like your comments on how it, on how you'd feel it should turn out. There's at lot of things, that I've left unanswered, intentionally. They say that truth is stranger than fiction; maybe someday I'll write what really happened afterwards.
JWG
* * * * *
It was approaching our 10th Anniversary; I'd been stuck living down in Texas for the past five and a half weeks. It hadn't been a good year so far, I'd taken a new job that my wife had wanted in Texas, but it had been harder to sell the house than we expected and she was still there trying to sell it. It had been nearly six months, which we had been parted except for the long 4-day weekends my boss had given me. There had been a four-day weekend every other week, my boss had the same problem he hadn't been able to sell their home either. But that had stopped when I been notified that that I was selected a US representative delegate for a seven weeklong meeting in Australia. I had enough points so that she could have made the trip with me. But her parents were older and she did not want to leave the kids with them, and besides there still was the house to sell. Reluctantly, I agreed to go alone. It mean missing Thanksgiving, something I hadn't done since my days in the Marine Corps.
Before going to Australia, I had talked to her doctor and mine. Her doctor felt that she would be at risk with another pregnancy. Our blood types had proven incompatible, but luckily a single shot had helped the baby. Now after two pregnancies, her doctor had given me the bad news. She's had an embolism after each child; we've been lucky so far with the blood thinners and the embolisms. Her doctor continued, but the fact that she has had two caesareans so far meant that all future kids would be born that way. She said she had talked to her about having her tubes tied. She said you do have a girl and a boy, and that's really the family that two always wanted. The other option, she told me was having a vasectomy. She told me that although having her tubes tied was a relatively simple process, she would have to undergo surgery. That's potentially where all the problems can occur again. She had been on and off blood thinners since the birth of my son.
She told me that I could have a vasectomy, as an outpatient surgery, which would mean that Jan wouldn't have to undergo surgery. She told me that it was relative painless and nowadays they were even beginning to have success reversing the process. I cringed at the thought. I hated anything to do with the hospital. My doctor basically agreed with her doctor about the safety of this versus surgery. Since Jan still hadn't started her periods yet, because she been unable to breastfeed either of our children. The doctors, both told me there was still time to make my decision.
Then came my big promotion, I'd been promised Chicago. My wife didn't really like that, but her family would only be 6 hours away. She finally accepted Chicago and said she would go. I was excited, my son had been born several months earlier, and I felt on top of the world. The world came crashing down. I was at a meeting in Chicago, kind of a pre-house hunting trip. Larry my boss called me out of the meeting. I've got good news for you and some bad news, which do you want first. I braced myself, and said give it to me. Larry said the first part was good news; I'd been promoted again, with a hefty pay raise. Then he let the other shoe fall, the bad part is that you won't becoming to Chicago, you'll have to move to New Jersey.
That night I didn't say anything to my wife about it at all. I was going home tomorrow, and would tell her face-to-face. She threw a fit like I knew she would< she told me that if I went to New Jersey I'd be going alone. I told her that, "I really don't want to go either". She knew that, I wasn't crazy and didn't really like New Jersey either. But without a job, and the economic conditions the way they were, I was in a mess. My wife talked to her Uncle in Texas that night and said she would go there, but not New Jersey. I called an old friend at Texas Instruments; 2 days later I had a new job.
My wife drove down and stayed with me for a week. I would make this work, and then the housing market crashed. And we were separated for longer than she or I had planned. I'd been through a lot, when after a drinking with several of the guys, they told me that they'd all had vasectomies. We were at a dinner the group had hosted fro our outstanding year. They all agreed it was a harmless procedure. I was going home to my wife the next day, for a four-day weekend.
My wife was having her first period, so there wasn't much sex. She was always rather freaky around her period, and it was all I could due to even get a kiss, let alone anything more. The weekend gave me time to think. I could have the vasectomy, when I returned to Texas. Although I found out, that unless my wife would attend several sessions with the doctor, I couldn't have a vasectomy. Jerry, one of my closest friends, told me that I could still have the vasectomy. I'd just have to be single. Jerry told me that it was the easiest thing around. I didn't even need to prove I was divorced or separated; I just had to tell them that I was. I set up the appointment for a week from Saturday. I knew I was traveling that week but would be back at home Thursday.
