May 28th is my daughter’s birthday!
I admire Arin’s character and am incredibly proud of her roles and goals in every way! She’s a great friend, a home owner, a student currently interning, a multiple pet owner, a gardener, all in all one creatively driven person on top of being a dedicated worker at her paid employment too!
Arin is independent. She is physically and mentally strong, and she is One Tough Cookie. Here’s a few memories of her “toughness” over the years.
One Tough Cookie!
During delivery, before she was even named, as I was pushing down as one is to do during natural child birth, the doctor told me to STOP! What??? Stop???
I did without knowing what was going on. Dr. Ewers quickly cut the cord from around her neck. Blood shot all over, even up to the ceiling. Yuck! She arrived! OH YES!!! OH MY what a startling entrance into the world.
Our beautiful girl had a good APGAR and was absolutely fine, perfect at that! Quickly, a housekeeper came in with a mop and cleaned the blood off the ceiling right above my bed where I still was lying. Yuck again!
I thanked her appreciatively along with Dr. Ewers and the nurses. Randy was thanked for being with me in this type of situation for the third time!
Calm baby ArinJune!
The first day of her life, our new daughter calmed the nurses while they held her. She wasn’t into crying. She exuded peace and well being as the new baby in the room. Her huge eyes, alienly serene!
Later in her babyhood, I cut her toenail too short and it bled. I felt horrible, but she didn’t cry.
Around age 3, while eating lunch at our babysitter’s kitchen table, she fell from a chair. Upon facial impact her front tooth knocked out landing way down in the floor heater vent. Roberta whisked her to the ER. I was called.
We found out there isn’t much for this injury, other than keep her mouth clean while it heals and wait. And wait and wait…
Years later, her new toother finally arrived.
When she was a little older, around 8ish, we were working in the basement.
Somehow the iron got knocked off its board landing on her foot. Her big toe bled a lot. The toe wasn’t broken but became deeply bruised. That injury took quite the time to heal.
Luckily the iron wasn’t hot!
Here’s another story of my daughter’s toughness:
When remodeling our house (2009), Arin would’ve been age 13, was cleaning our new windows (with water and an ecloth!). The larger kitchen window suddenly fell down (our windows fold in), whacking her head.
Her head broke the glass, and the glass shattered to the floor. Arin immediately felt a headache. No blood was involved so we didn’t take her to the doctor. I cared for her closely watching her like a hawk for days for any concussive symptoms!
I informed the window salesperson of this mishap. He came over later showering her with gifts. He was probably pretty darn grateful that we didn’t, gasp: sue! But no we did not, and her tough head was fine.
Moving on into her middle school years, from what I was told by said daughter, on recess she went snow shoeing. Her tongue, somehow, landed on a metal pole, and stuck. She had to pull away. Yep, her tongue ripped and bled and hurt like double toothpicks. This one, Randy was called upon and took her to the ER and then for ice cream?!?
Arin said she was dared. Really, sticking your tongue out purposely onto a cold pole in the middle of winter? I want to believe she fell on to the pole because she wasn’t very good at snow shoeing. (I can’t say more as I have no experience in this area.) Again, an injury that will take time to heal!Later she got her tongue pierced anyway. She also pierced her septum and her eyebrow. Of course, belly button piercing! (I did that once, but let it grow back as I was bothered during a yoga pose or exercising on my stomach what a wimp, huh!).
And speaking of, both her ears have pretty good sized gauges! I’m not including the numerous tattoos Arin has received and continues to! I think getting a tat to be a bit too painfully drawn out (wimp me again?). They sure are expressive! She’s gonna have to list all her body art!
Colorful AJ
One last story at this time, one which I am NOT happy at all with how this injury occurred. In early March 2019, Arin was at a birthday party held at a hotel for her friend Taylor. Arin got picked up and thrown (grrrr) into the pool. Kassidy, who she landed on, hurt not only her head, but bit down and injured her tongue; and Arin ended up breaking two ribs.
However, Arin didn’t find out her ribs were broken until almost a week later when she was in so much pain and having problems at work. On a Sunday she had to be taken to the ER which included x-rays and a pain prescription. Again, this involved a long rehabilitation / healing period.
Two years ago, she had four wisdom teeth removed. She was tough with that surgery and the healing time involved. Her beautiful face was so swollen for a long time. This link takes you to a blog for a bit on costs of the procedure!
Okay, enough writing for now. Like mother, like daughter! Keep in mind I was able to live through hitting a train headfirst! I believe our gene pool “toughness” is heredity, stemming from my mom Ann.
In 2019, my mom was experiencing an acute medical condition while visiting us from her home in Florida. As we were waiting at the airport for her and her new husband’s flight home departure, she took a dive (right in front of the drinking fountains by the rest rooms on the main level) on to her face, breaking her glasses. Emergency was called and she ended up in the ER for numerous stitches rather than on the flight home. Mom didn’t cry or complain once while being treated. I could write about many of mom’s “toughness” stories but I am not going to in this post!
The bottom line of this post is to let you, my Attorney Reader, know that I am a strong “tough-minded” resilient person who has the capacity to face difficult facts and long odds with resolute optimism.
I define being tough-minded as having the resources, mental skills, and physical capabilities to confront difficulties of all kinds. And then afterwards, having the resiliency to slow down and relax.
When I succeed, I caused it. If I failed, yep, I caused that too. (Don’t worry, I won’t say yep during testimony.) I will be tough minded for you and I will be tough minded for your client.
I won’t be inflexible, and I will do my best to serve in my reports and in the courtroom. When I am convinced my work is my best work, there is no need to give up. My “tough-minded” trait was inherited and I passed it on to my daughter. Talk about being proud!
Thank you for reading my post. It may need continuous edits and my new thoughts!
Let me know where I might help you on a case involving disability. I believe rehabilitation is individualized care that helps an individual get back, keep, or improve abilities needed for daily life. I’m a rehabilitation counselor who cares.
Contact me, Amy Botkin at 515-778-0634 or vocresources@gmail.com of amyebotkin@lcpresourcesplus.com
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My professional consulting practice focuses on helping attorneys help their clients with civil litigation matters.
