MOAB

I’m finally feeling a bit better. Good god that cold is horrendous. One day and night I would sleep for 10-15 minutes and wake up with a jolt. It went on all damned day. Longest damned day of my life. (Sorry Richard it even eclipsed that horrible ER visit.) I barely remember anything from that day. Must have been Tuesday I think. Damn it sucked.

I think I know why it’s still hanging on with Richard. He started having the headache that goes along with it and started dosing himself with Tylenol. He kept doing it and then when he fell he took tylenol for the pain in his arm. He’s still taking tylenol. I ran a bit of temperature.. the kid who seems to be getting it has a low low grade fever. I didn’t take tylenol until last night. My ribs were killing me from coughing.

He is not going to like what I’m going to tell him when he gets home. No more tylenol. Period.

She wasn’t what the world would call beautiful. She was stuck in a time loop as far as her hair was concerned. Sixties updo. She was shy about smiling because her teeth weren’t perfect but when she smiled or laughed she gave it her all. Shy or not. She never had much money but the one thing she had more of than anything else was love. She gave it freely and she loved unconditionally. When she hugged you you knew you’d been hugged.

Some talk of trailer park trash and I despise that phrase because it’s hateful and nasty and because someone I loved very much lived in trailer parks. Not because she wanted to but because it was the hand life had dealt her. I have a memory of sitting in her trailer eating chicken livers and gizzards for the first time, she talked me into trying them, and watching television while she and my Mother talked and chatted. My Mother loved Ruby too. They were a lot alike in so many ways. I always had the impression that my Father’s other sister was a bit cold and standoffish. Ruby was probably more like their Father.. who died while I was a baby. My Mother always told me he was one of the sweetest and gentlest men she’d ever met.

I remember finding out that Ruby and her husband had bought a house while visiting Virginia one year. I was thrilled. If anyone deserved a home it was she, sweet dear Ruby. When we went to visit she showed off her house with pride and happiness. The whole family came over and we had a cookout on the grill with hamburgers and more food than we could eat. The memory of that cookout is one of the last happy memories I have of my Father’s family. After that visit our lives went to hell due to his selfishness.

Last night I got another taste of how selfish my Father is. I was goofing around at Rootsweb looking up information on my families names and histories and stumbled over an entry that made my heart cringe.

Ruby is dead. She died four years ago.

My Father, her Brother, didn’t tell me.

The creeping crud Richard has had has decided to wait until the end to reach out and touch my ass. Now I’ve got that god awful cough. I’m hoping it’s a reaction to one of our wonderful neighbors deciding to perfume/cologne up like a two dollar whore yesterday. An allergic reaction so to speak. I’ve medicated up with Coricidan my only drug of choice according to my Doc. Hopefully this won’t last long.

Yeah, right.

I’ve had my head up my ass for a week with injuries, illness, holidays, and other crap.

Santa did get her shopping done online. Someone is going to be chained to the mailbox and the front door for a month waiting for crap to arrive. Oh joy.

Now to take the computer apart and move it so we can put up the tree.

Scratch that… first I must get my blood drawn and buy tags for the car.

Then I’ll deal with the tree.

Richard’s still fighting off that fucking cold/sinus thing. Last night I had him hold his head over a bowl of steaming water. It made him feel a little odd, enervated I’d think that’s how it’s makes me feel when I’ve done it, but when he went in to lie down again he barely coughed and went right to sleep. He slept all night and barely coughed.

Our apartment is weird. When the heat is on the living room will be warm, our room will be a bit cool, and the kid’s room is like an icebox it’s so cold. Doesn’t matter what we do with the vents… it still sucks. I think the builders of this apartment were either very drunk or on drugs when they built it. If Richard hadn’t hurt his arm the kid and I would have been in our room and he’d be in the living room when it’s really cold. I like to sleep in a cooler room and Richard wants to fry. lol

Last night Richard, because of his arm and the cold, had our room. I dragged the kids twin mattress into the living room and we slept in here. I was going to sleep on the couch… which is very much like a twin sized bed. Very comfortable. But I was hot so I decided to switch with the kid and sleep on his mattress on the floor. Cooler. Slept for awhile, woke up, went to the bathroom, came back in and tripped somehow and fell on my hip on the mattress. (Not the best mattress in the world… I hit the floor through the mattress). After the stars went back into hiding I noticed the child looking at me concerned. I patted the mattress and had him snuggle up against me right where I fell.. pulled a comforter over us and tried to sleep.

Woke up this morning hurting like hell. Not broken probably bruised. Dragged the mattress back into his room and fell into a chair. I don’t have the option of giving in to it.. I have to keep moving. SOMEONE has to stay mobile and take care of everyone else here.

This is getting very, very old fast. I hope the rest of this winter turns out better than the first portion of it has.

He went back to work last night and things went fine.

That’s good because the joints in my hands, elbows, and shoulders are killing me from overdoing it. For a week I’ve been lifting him, pulling him, dragging groceries around, carrying boxes from the post office along with cooking and the other usual things I do. I’d put the christmas tree up but that involves taking the kids desk and computer apart (he’s using mine for now) and moving a chair. I don’t think I have the strength to do that. It will have to wait. Doesn’t help that it decided to get incredibly fucking cold. God.

I put him to bed and I think I’ll curl up on the couch in a blanket and watch TV. Maybe take a short snooze until Junior gets up. (Please God let him sleep awhile! lol)

R told me that when he’s back to “normal” I can take a week off. That would be nice. Not having to lift/pull him will be a big help. I’ve been having to watch myself… the desire to take tylenol like candy has been difficult. I don’t want to destroy my liver and eat up my stomach. Ugh.

He did more x-rays and he said he doesn’t think it’s broken. It’s strained and R probably rammed the ball into the socket joint on the elbow. My shorthand explanation. He said there could be a hairline fracture that they can’t see on the x-ray but he believes it’s okay. He told us to keep the splint on tonight and tomorrow start taking it off once in awhile and gently exercise it. They showed me how to re-wrap it. He sees him again in two weeks.

He had corn dogs and french fries for lunch… he could eat them with his weaker hand.

He took the splint off later today and started trying to use his keyboard and mouse. He did okay for a first attempt. It’s got to hurt like hell but he’s trying. Bless his heart.

I went to the store, dragged everything in, put it away, made lunch, picked up packages at the post office, took out all the trash, and changed the catpan.

I was kinda surprised at something today. I didn’t think going to the ortho surgeon would upset me as much as it did. Before we went in I had written a list for the store and had no trouble writing. When it came time to pay the co-pay I couldn’t write for my hands shaking. I think it has something to do with my Mother having been diagnosed with Cancer by an ortho surgeon. Stupid I know but unconsciously I guess I was scared. Twelve years out from her death and I still get the shakes.

Richard broke his arm Monday while getting the mail. He ended up going to work after trying to find someone to take his place and failing.. no one really wanted to give up their holiday time off. One even asked if he was going to the emergency room. Yeah, right. Go to the emergency room at 9pm and be able to go into work at midnight. He went in to work and they sent him home after seeing how much pain he was in. I was waiting to take him to the ER. We got there around 1am and we were there until nearly 7am. They were supposedly being “overrun” but it didn’t look like it with only 4 people in the waiting room. It took them 6 hours to do the paperwork to get him in, x-rays, splint his arm, and do the paperwork to kick him out. He was there 3 or 4 hours before they gave him something for pain. I in the meantime was dealing with a kid who was slowly freaking out over being in the hospital. He did his best to behave but it was scary watching Daddy yell from pain.

He broke his dominant arm, the left. Because of the CP his right arm is weaker so he needs assistance doing almost everything. Doesn’t bother me to do what needs to be done. I have past experience with a patient with one arm out of action. My Mother. I know all about moving people who are disabled by injury. I love him and this is part of the deal I signed when I married him and the reason I wear his ring. He’d do, and has done, the same thing for me. It’s a no-brainer. Besides this time my patient won’t die… unless I screw up meds or something. lol

We weren’t going to do anything special for Thanksgiving anyway because he was scheduled to work. We’ll probably do what I’d planned. Deli meat, cheeses, veggies, dip, rolls, crackers, and some dessert.

Found the perfect gift for the kidlet this morning.

He loves his Zoo Tycoon 2 game. In the game the elephants paint at easels. The child is an elephant freak. He loves em. His Auntie is buying him an easel and this morning I found something to put on it Christmas morning. I want it to be the first thing he sees when he wakes up.

I found a website for an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee where there was an elephant named Tarra who painted. On their website I ordered a print of one of her paintings.

I’ve been looking for a charity for him to donate to but wanted something that he’d care about. I think I found it. (Click on the text below to visit their site.)

From the website:

The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, founded in 1995, is the nation’s largest natural habitat refuge developed specifically for endangered African and Asian elephants. It operates on 2,700 acres in Hohenwald, Tennessee - 85 miles southwest of Nashville.

The Elephant Sanctuary exists for two reasons:

To provide a haven for old, sick or needy elephants in a setting of green pastures, old-growth forests, spring-fed ponds and a heated barn for cold winter nights.

To provide education about the crisis facing these social, sensitive, passionately intense, playful, complex, exceedingly intelligent and endangered creatures.

I went to the Doctor yesterday and I’m finding that I actually like a Doctor. He saved me a boatload of money yesterday in two ways, held off on a gyno exam until Jan and cracked me up while doing it. He said he knew I wasn’t looking forward to it and that he told his patients if they were looking forward to a pap smear that they didn’t need a physician they needed a psychiatrist. lol

Richard’s still fighting the damned cold he picked up from a co-worker who works part time in day care. Bless his heart the coughing is driving him insane. Oddly enough I haven’t caught it. After having Joshua I’ve lived with eight years of catching everything that passes my way. Maybe my immune system is kicking back in. lol

After my appointment yesterday we went shopping. Walked around the store, picked up some things. (Including some holiday yarn in red and silver… I picked up two skeins and Richard asked me why I only got two. That I should at least get four. Gotta love a husband that is like that!) Paid for the crap, walked out of the store, was damned near home and realized we didn’t buy what we’d gone there for… boxes to mail the afghans in. I had about 5 seconds to be disgusted with myself for forgetting…

A squirrel raced across the street and I had no way of swerving to miss and ended up hitting him. I hate that. Made me sick to my stomach.

Today we’re going to try and package up the afghans, which have been washed and dried, and mail them. Using vinegar in the rinse water worked great. They’re so soft and they don’t smell like a two dollar whore which they would have if I’d used the current crop of fabric softeners. Ick. They make me sneeze my head off.