Sun. - Wed., Jan. 13-16

Sunday dawned ... painful. I decided I'd drug myself up with Tylenol, and head to the church meeting, since I could still function, and I'd be in pain either there or here, might as well be there. pfft I survived, but was ANXIOUS for more Tylenol by the time we got home. Jeremy fixed lunch while I doctored myself; HAVE I MENTIOND HOW MUCH I LOVE MY HUSBAND????? :) I tried to rest in the afternoon, but my mind wouldn't have it, so after J woke up from his nap, I had just enough time before leaving for the Ladies' C.A.R.E. Group meeting (Christians Actively Reaching Everyone) for J and me to build a couple loaves of a new recipe called Cinnamon Swirl Quick Bread, or some-such. It is YUMMY. I took some Motrin before leaving, but during the C.A.R.E. Meeting I got to feeling completely terrible, with a tremendous amount of pain in my ear, my cheek, my jaw, and down my neck, that I couldn't even concentrate. I also had tons of fever in those regions. [Clearly Motrin wasn't what I needed to be taking.] When the meeting was over I decided I had to go home, period, even though the evening service was about to start. :( Thankfully more Tylenol eased up my pain to the point that although uncomfortable, I was able to be somewhat productive through the evening. I got an important phone call taken care of (for Ladies' Day) while I put the Cinnamon Swirl Bread put away, and then made popcorn.

The night was absolutely awful. Within minutes of the Tylenol's 4-hour time period, my pain was back and absolutely unbearable. (Read: "tears rolling sideways down my face into my pillow") That is when I knew something would have to be done Monday. I slept as late as I could, considering how much sleep I lost during the night and how badly I knew my body needed it. I'll leave out most of the details, and just say that the Clinic said they could do no more for me, that I had to go the ER where they would probably want to take a CT scan of my head to make sure the infection in there wasn't turning into Meningitis. So Jeremy and I took the children to Donna (BLESS Donna!) for ... all day. Well, from 2:30-8pm, when we asked her to bring the children back to our house so Elaine could put them to bed. Elaine doesn't drive well at night, and Donna's house is difficult to find at night.) Good thing we made plans into the night, too, because although we got to the hospital around 3:30, I wasn't called in to be seen until 10:30. No CT scan needed. The doctor did everything he could to, pracitcally visibly, bite his tongue so he wouldn't say the clinic needed to get a clue. He was just mad that the doctor didn't originally give me the pain medicine I clearly needed. [She knew I was in pain because when she jabbed me in that ear, I unthinkingly jabbed her back, in the arm, and said, "I don't know, does THIS hurt??" Looking back, because of her behavior through the rest of our time at the clinic, I now think that she purposefully didn't give me the pain meds I OBVIOUSLY needed, like pay-back for daring to jab the doctor. lol Give me a break. But, seriously, a number of things about the rest of that visit are 'off'.... Things that mak you go hmmmm....] So the med that would have cost us $4 when I got it with the rest of the meds Saturday afternoon caused me tons more pain, less effective healing (The body can't heal when the pain is that bad.), and cost us an entire day in the ER, away from our children, and $110. Nice going, jerk-doctor! (Yes, I'm still mad!!)

One funny thing was that the hospital gave me an official printed sheet to give to my boss giving me the day off on January 15th!

HUH???

Well, Jeremy did stay home that next day, thankfully. He had a nice day off (since Monday clearly didn't qualify as that!!), and was a great help to me by cooking supper (Mexican Chip Dip) with N; they had a blast. The children played outside a bunch, and accomplished two days of household service, since nothing got done on Monday. I did feel good enough Tuesday morning to clean up all the kitchen mess from our evening 'meal' on Sunday and everything from Monday (dishes from the kids' lunch I sent to Donna's, etc.). While N & J cooked I caught up on some computer work and made some more progress on some 'hot spots' [Flylady-ism for those areas in the house where piles build up (usually mostly paper)....]. After supper we played Stealing the Old Man's Bundle and Boggle, but I was FALLING OUT from exhaustion, so Jeremy got the children in bed while I struggled to do the bare minimum of my evening routine, and I then proceeded to sleep the next 10 hours, awakening only when the Vicodin wore off.

Oh, I should note this. Probably everyone knows it already. The reason I couldn't keep taking Tylenol (I was just about to go over the limit of pills you can take in a 24-hr. period!) is because overdosing on Tylenol can make your liver 'explode'. Well, probably not literally, but it's BAD for your liver. :( Vicodin isn't. :) I've always lllllllllllllllllliked Vicodin. :) It's a good thing I'm determined to not get a habit!! lol And, thankfully, it's Wednesday night as I write this, and I have NO PAIN in my ear! Well, I mean if I really maneuver it, I can feel some discomfort, but the deal is over now as far as I can tell, except to finish out the antibiotics.... The ER doctor did have a faculty doctor come in and check me out; that was interesting. He talked to me a lot aobut what is causing this ridiculous amount of ear infections. They checked me for Diabetes, since folks with Diabetes are prone to infection; it was negative, thankfully. So he said I need to get to an ENT 'before too long' and see if there's a mechanical problem (i.e. the too-small eustacian tubes I've been told about before....).

Wednesday's supper was just frozen Tameles I dropped in the Crock-Pot, and then after lunch I threw together a Blackberry Fusion Jello (Jeremy's new COMPLETE FAVE) with blueberries from the freezer. Not the healthiest meal, but not terrible either.... So that opened up a bunch of time in the afternoon, which I wanted to spend preparing an 'I-hope-it's-helpful' gift for a young mother in the church here whose marriage is ending. :( Natasha had some YUCKY behavior this morning; her yucky behavior of late usually includes her having to boss or control Justus to the point that when he doesn't do what she's telling him to do, she reaches out and hits or kicks him!!!!! Hellllllllo, self-control! eek! Thankfully this isn't happening *often*, though once is too much! Maybe once a month...? So once that situation was righted, the day went on without a hitch. They played sweetly together in Justus's room for a long time, and outside for a long time, and did good work helping out in the house as well. Natasha spent her 'school time' today reading, rinsing the lunch dishes, and playing with the Counterpillar and abacus for a long time. I lllllllllike to see that. :) :) :) She was asking me for 'hard math problems', so I would suggest, for example, "70-8" and see if she could give me the answer. Boy, she figured it out quickly and enjoyed doing a bunch similar to that. After supper tonight I spent a little time wrapping up the C.A.R.E. Group Meeting from Sunday, and doing some church secretary work.

It feels so good to feel good again. I told Elaine I haven't felt this good in a month, with my back being out and then with the ear shenannegins. (How is THAT word spelled??) However, I am sleepy, happily, so will get to bed earlier than usual, again. Great.

Pictures tomorrow! We're having company!