Day 2 - A Stressful Experience!

In April of 2008 I left my home in Columbus, OH to begin my training as a truck driver. My husband swung by the house, scooped me up in his big green tractor and off to Springfield, MO we go. I go through the training totally stressed out. After all, I am 50+ years old and the old brain cells don't retain information like they used to. I finally passed the written exams on all the things you need to do when you drive a truck. I learned more about the mechanics of the tractor and trailer than I cared to. I tried to be interested in it, but to be frank I just didn't care about push-rods and slack adjusters all that much. Next was the physical....OH BOY.....my blood pressure was soooooo high they told me to come back the next day to see if it came down. The next day my BP was within "range" so I passed the physical. The next step was to get my permit and start driving. In June 2009 I passed my road test and obtained my Class A CDL.

My husband was my trainer and boy oh boy did we have some communication problems. He's very methodical...I say "show me" or explain a different way. We finally got through it but man that was a challenge...........for the BOTH of us!

I realized something about myself during this whole process...I have severe phobias!!! I'm scared of bridges (high & low), highway fly-overs, mountains and driving through big cities. It took me quite a while to get used to driving the beast but I finally got it down. Downshifting was my biggest hurdle. After a while I really enjoyed driving!

In November of 2009 I became quite ill. My C1 disk in my neck kept going out causing all sorts of problems....dizziness, blurred vision, nausea. You see, when my husband was driving, I was sleeping. It isn't a very smooth ride so the bouncing and jarring around threw my neck out. Plus insomnia set in real bad. My husband took me home and that was that.

So, now what??? What do I do going forward? I've been out of the office environment for over a year so I knew it would be difficult getting back in. I don't want to drive a big truck by myself although I see many women out there doing it. More power to them. I know how hard it is.

Until next time.