The Black Cloud Is Back!

May 16, 2008

Well, today didn't prove to be a much better day than I've had since Dad left for his trip about 10 days ago. Why does everything bad have to happen when Dad is gone? Is there some kind of Dad traveling jeannie that comes out and goes crazy the moment he leaves for the airport? Why after almost 30 years of craziness when he is gone can't I get a tiny break? How come the bad things don't happen to him instead of the ones at home? I mean he has lost his clothes repeatedly, but that seems mild to some of the things that go on here at home while he is missing in action. I mean he is off collecting blue mints for the kids and rounding up games for Russell, and I am home finding out that I have 2 fractures in my foot that have been there for the past 6 months. No wonder the thing hurts constantly. Have you ever heard of anyone walking around on a fractured foot for 6 1/2 months? I must be some kind of lunatic, or my doctors are.

I finally found out that the first podiatrist I went to in November last year totally screwed up my foot. By not looking at the x-ray, and just sending me to physical therapy (where his technician burned the bottom of my foot) he just compounded my problem. I now have bad arthritis in the joint where my big toe connects to my foot, and a bone growing in a point because it wasn't set properly, and a hook growing on the top of my foot. The only cure is major foot surgery with two titanium grommet looking things put in my joint. They can get rid of the arthritis, but two grommets!!! Give me a break, I really have a mal-practice suit if I wanted to pursue it. Right now, because of having to go to NYC with Cooper in just a few weeks, we are trying to come up with something that will keep me on my foot but not in excruciating pain until I can come back home. I have a piece of foam glued to the bottom of my foot to see if it might be possible to make an orthopedic insert for my show. However, I think I am allergic to the glue the new doctor used to glue the foam to my foot as I itch something terrible. I have to take a double dose of Benadryl to relieve the itch enough to make it tolerable. Thank goodness I see the doctor again on Tuesday....this isn't doing anything for the pain either. Some days I just sit and cry it hurts so much. They have given me some Vicodin for the pain, but that turns me into a pathetic lump in the bed, so I can't take it all the time....besides I don't want to be dependent on that stuff...I have to be coherent at least some of the time. I am trying to stay off the dumb foot, but have to spend some time on it each day. Now that Dad is home, I can be down a bit more. I think my best option would be get the surgery, but the doctor says the recovery time is a minimun 3-4 weeks, and flying is not a good thing. I guess the pressure changes can be very painful when you've just had surgery. I can't believe it could be more painful than what I have been dealing with for 6 months though. Then there is physical therapy time, and hopefully there won't be any complications. I don't know if I would have to stay in the hospital, but will find out more next week. I haven't been to the dance studio since Tuesday, so things are getting backed up there too.

Other things that happened while Dad was gone....both girls hurt themselves at dance...Cooper pulled her hamstring but is feeling better, and Cymbre did something to her knee. She can't put any weight on it, and the doctor told us today no dance, and sent us for an x-ray. Depending on what shows on the x-ray, we may be doing an MRI on Monday. With competition this weekend, she is pretty upset about the no dance part, but Ms. Ginny told her to relax and get better. She will be a celebrity at competition tomorrow with her ice thing around her knee. We are using the Ice pack the surgeon put on Dad when he had his knee surgery. It keeps it constantly cold, and then she can at least move around a bit.

And the washing machine blew out it's transmission! Why do those machines always die in the middle of a load leaving the tub full of water. Noah could float the ark in the water that spills when you have to take clothes out of the washer and the tub is full.

This happened on Tuesday night, the same day the doctor told me about my foot. I am too cheap to pay for the repairman to come just to come, so I decided to try to take the agitator thing off and make sure there was nothing clogging it up to cause it not to spin. Well I couldn't figure out how to get it off, so I called Grandpa thinking he would be able to help. He just gave the phone to Grandma. Now she can do lots of things, but taking apart a washing machine is not one of them. So there I am, on pain medicine, having just got the girls home from the dance studio. I'm standing on one foot, with my other one up on Cymbre's stool so I don't have my weight on it, and I am trying to get the stupid thing off the washer. Dad of course, doesn't have a long extension to his socket set that has the right size socket, so I am trying to put several pieces of the different socket sets together to make it go to a 90 degree angle. I hear you laughing, so stop it. IT WASN'T FUNNY! I didn't have much luck even after waking Dad up in Norway, but then I decided to just spray some WD40 on the screw thing and let it sit for a few hours. When I woke up to go to the bathroom about 2 am, I finally got that dumb screw out, and took the agitator off. Nothing clogging it, but then I had to use chop sticks to get the screw lined back up with the hole, so I could tighten it back up. I cleaned up all the gross stuff from inside the agitator while I had it off.

BUT, I still had to call a repairman. They could come of Thursday, but I had to go get Dad, so I set it up for Friday morning. I just put the dirty clothes back in the hamper because my foot was in no condition to go stand at the laundramat. Then on Wednesday, the lady called to tell me they wanted to come on Thursday morning to fix the washer....I told them they had to come and fix it and go before noon as I had to go get Dad by 1pm. Well, they were there and gone by 9:30 telling me that it was the transmission, and that would cost almost as much as buying a new washer to fix. I told them I would have to talk to Dad, who was, of course on the plane, so I couldn't get him on the phone. But as soon as I got to him, we decided to just buy another washer.....so that meant going to look for one. Dad took me, and we went to three stores. We finally decided to get the one at Lowes, so poor Dad who was so tired after flying all night went and bought the washer and got things set up for delivery today. So tonight we are trying to get the laundry caught up since we will be gone all day tomorrow for competition.

With all of this drama this past week, and not much sleep, I am certainly not looking forward to Dad leaving for San Diego on Sunday.

AND the other thing this week is Cooper broke her toe shoes that are just two months old. She has such strong arches and muscles in her foot, she just breaks them....and she needs three pairs to go to Joffrey. I will need to take donations soon as they are $60 a pair.

Well, the pain medicine is starting to work, so I am going to snuggle up next to Dad and sleep I hope. He will probably start to snore!!

Say your prayers for Cymbre's knee to heal quickly...she is devastated that she can't dance.

Love you all.

Mom