IS THIS A TEST? IF IT IS...I FAILED!



The bedroom closet door - Check

 Well, once again, I failed at following through with a plan. My plan for Monday turned out to be anything, but what I had my mind set to complete. Even if it were just a few words on my current cleaning status, but the words never found their way from my thoughts to my computer. Let me explain why. On Sunday afternoon, I was so excited to share with you my, small but I'm getting there, accomplishments. I got my new closet door hung earlier in the week; it's what's behind the door that has not been looked at. I got my cooking cabinet in my kitchen cleaned but still needs much organization. I began to declutter my refrigerator, but gave up on all this stuff when the realization finally hit me, we had lost a very dear friend and gave her body to mother earth...I just wanted to sit alone, still and quiet. I don't do death well, never have, and I probably never will. I know it is a part of life, but it's a part that I'd rather not think about.  So I took Sunday to try to get my inspiration back, only to be set back once again when I heard my youngest son say, "Mom my throat hurts badly and there are white patches all over my tonsils." Two words came to my mind instantly...Strep and Contagious. CRAP!

I took him to the local clinic, as I knew this would probably require some type of antibiotic, usually amoxicillin or some large pink horse looking pill that tasted bad. There wasn’t any line and we got right in. The nurse did the usual vitals check and then asked what his symptoms were. She too, after looking at the patches in his mouth, agreed that it looked like strep and proceeds with the quick swab test. Is it strep? Nope. Both the nurse and myself looked at each other in complete disbelief. How in the hell could this thing come up negative, I thought. While my son was speaking to her, I noticed that she wrinkled up her face and then inquired as to how long his breath had been this harsh. Yes I am completely embarrassed that she had to ask him this. All that came to my mind was - why doesn’t he brush his teeth like I tell him too – UGH!  But she didn’t ask him for that reason. Who knew that extremely bad breath is an indicator for worse things to come. Then she proceeds with another test that required a finger prick and small miniature glass tube of blood. He was being tested for Mono. I’d heard of Mono when I was in school, Before you start with the wise cracks, yes the buses had round wheels and no we were not pulled by a team of horse. Before I had time to ask any questions I heard her say – It’s positive. My baby has Mono. DOUBLE CRAP!  We got all the necessary instructions, over the counter pain meds and a low dose of steroids to bring down the inflammation in his tonsils. We now had a culprit as to why he had been feeling so badly lately.

So now, Monday rolls in, but it’s also not like any other day when I am home. It was a holiday for students and there was no school – I totally forgot. Then I was reminded that both boys had appointments with their foot doctor, for what I believed was minor ingrown toe nails that just needed soaking to soften the skin. I was right on the ingrown toe nail, wrong on what would happen next. My youngest son had one ingrown toe nail and my older son, lucky boy, and I mean that most sarcastically, had two. TRIPPLE CRAP!

But the biggest shocker of my day, the doctor decides they were going to undergo their procedures, to correct the problems, that day, as they are sitting there, no need to reschedule, lets just do it.  What I thought was going to be an out of the pocket expense of $200.00, turned into a bill that would be well over $1,000.00 because I didn’t have a referral from their primary care physician – I skipped over the EXTRA TRIPPLE CRAP and went right for a SON OF A B*TCH – and why did I do that, because now I had to call both my insurance and the primary care doctor on a holiday. Is this a test? If it is…I’m failing big time!  After about two hours of calling this person, and that person, and this person again, at 11:07am the procedures began. Thank God I missed the needles and the preparation, because at that point, I was feeling rather nauseous. I’m told I am to remain stress free – YEAH RIGHT! HA-HA. At 11:54pm my younger son walked out of the clinic like a pirate with a wooden leg and my older was walking like a duck. I can just imagine what on lookers must have been thinking – “Poor handicapped kids must be a family disorder.” So after another trip back to the pharmacy for another round of medications, we finally got back to our cluttered home at 1:30pm. They sat in the recliners with their feet up, and I sat and pondered..."What the Fudge am I doing wrong?" If these two kids had listened to me when I told them not to cut their nails short, or put their jacket on or they were going to get sick, my insurance company wouldn't be looking at the claims piling up on their desks this morning and wonder - What in the world, happed to the Bolin family this weekend? Ouch!

So this is what happens when I plan to accomplish something here on the home front – life challenges me, and no matter how cluttered my home gets, the health of my family supersedes a day organizing my closet, or cleaning out my refrigerator. But this is why I have this blog, so that I don’t let these types of days, distract me for more than the two days, OK, OK, weeks to months, to years, as it once did. I have to get back up on my cleaning steed and attack this clutter fight head on. Touché!