First week of school being out. . .

I have been running children to the dentist since last week. How many trips does it take a mother with 7 at home to get their teeth fixed?

Eldest daughter is leaving for another state soon. I am sad and seeing her for the last time before she leaves this Thursday. She is 12 hours away from the ocean and said, "I am next door to the ocean!" She thinks she will go every weekend!

I had to get a mammogram today. I can't talk medical stuff face to face and I want to crawl on the floor and stay in a fetal position, but saying it in a blog is OK. The lady who did it was great-- I chose the place because it is not my local hospital that I dislike. I in fact drove past the local hospital en route to going there and blew a raspberry at it in my rear view mirror. That made getting it done pretty darned fun. I will go back because the woman who did the scan was nice. She also spells her mane like I do, T-E-A LOL   I got through it.

I also took my Giraffe with me. My giraffe is my protector-- he came through the house fire with me. I like to say that I ran in for my purse because of him. (But it was really for my driver's license!)

I sat in the wait room for a short time and knitted a prayer shawl for a friend. It comforted me as much as the friend comforts me.

I am almost at the end. . .

of a science course. I took an incomplete in it and now I am nearing the finish line to complete the thing. I loved the course (it's on natural science) and I am ready to be through.

I took the statistics test last week and failed it, but I had psyched myself over it. I realized that I could have notes. I relied on them when I could have relied on the class. I make mostly B's on my homework, so I should have gotten it. I learned some valuable lessons about statistics. i did have a couple of profs who liked their 75% drop out rate, but this class is taught by a prof online who wants to make it as easy as possible. I could have gotten it and I had to do it the way I did.

Last week I had bunches of sick kids. I came down with the flu and a fever. I was crying in my sleep. I had it for two solid days-- the kids had it for maybe 24 hours and it was "lite."

I have been ready to gobble up my husband over the last month. He was ignoring everything with stuff going on at work. Over the last weekend, he called one of my friends over to the house and took me out and he kept pouring me Maragritas in spite of me having reacted to alcohol for the last few years. I'd have no reaction, and tempt fate with a glass of wine the next day. Did the naturopath's vitamin cure help me not get a painful rash on my feet, or was it something that she recognized as a mental thing that I could get rid of on my own and decided that I needed a placebo? Placebo or a vitamin working really well in just ten days, I am not complaining. I don't drink that often and Lent is about to start, so I won't know if it really worked. I am impressed with the reaction, but it must be a placebo. Two other doctors had seen this on my feet and had no idea what it was, but I didn't pursue it because they didn't know where to start and it wasn't killing me. I only treated it when I was tentatively invited to a wine tasting and I wanted to be able to enjoy it! Since I spent the same amount at the doctor's office that I would have for pink eye, I am lucky. I must say that I enjoyed chilling out and having a few drinks with my husband. He was being charming-- he has NEVER charmed me before and I must say that it was nice not having to be cerebral with him. He had better let me relax with him again! And soon! I need time to unwind and not get calls from the kids. He was funny-- he hasn't been funny in a long time.

My daughters are all growing. My 18 year old curled her hair and looks just like I did at her age-- but she looks better. My 12 year old looks like my 18 year old did six months ago. I had never confused them because they looked alike-- I'd confuse them because I was thinking of one and looking at the other with a third child's name on the tip of my tongue.

My sons are getting bigger, too, but they are looking more dissimilar. . . for NOW. I have reacquainted myself with old friends and (minus the colored hair) they look just like their parents did 20 or so years ago! My sons, slender as they are now, will be husky like their father in a few short years. (To them it is a lifetime away-- to us, it isn't long!)

I'm getting back to my science class and it will be over by next Monday evening. Then stats will resume for me, but I am not worried because 2-3 hours each night of them will get me through the class.

Stage Specific. . .

I have never been able to stand people in their late 30's, early 40's, droning about their health. I swore up and down that I would never get this way. I am. It started with me getting a rash on my leg whenever I drank wine or beer, so I didn't drink wine until a good friend turned out to be a connoisseur and my friend is an angel and I enjoy this person's company so the wine problem because a bigger problem. On my birthday I tried a wine so I could tell him that I'd tried it and I woke up with bad itching. So. . . I went in for an allergy talk with a doctor.

This doctor asked me many, many questions, saw the rash and said that I am probably not allergic, but that my immune system is shot because my body was reacting to the yeast in the foods and it was getting worse. (I get sick several times each season-- she says that this is not normal.) She held a mirror up to my face and said I was pale. She pointed out the blue pallor in my nails, the ridges in them, and she felt my face, it being "lumpy" under the skin. These are all signs of sever mineral deficiencies. She has prescribed some vitamins for me and is testing me for food intolerances and allergies, but really thinks that my intolerances are due to absorption problems caused by the mineral deficiencies.

These problems are not age related, but she said that the calcium loss in me may cause issues should I Heaven forbid break a bone. She doesn't think these issues are age related but due to me having been pregnant so much in the last 20 years.

Feeling Silly

For the past five months I have been having heart palpitations. They have been increasing in duration and number of times that I have them and I had started to get scared, thinking they were linked to a medication I am on to regulate my cycles. I got worked up over the past few weeks, working up the nerve to call. In the US doctors can make you doubt your sanity if you complain too much, but this doctor never has. I called my doctor's nurse and argued over whether or not to get an EKG. I do not like anyone touching me except for my husband or worse, looking at me, even if it is a woman helping me. EKG's are exposing.

Anyway, I told the nurse and got off the phone, happy that I'd let her know and knew that if anything happened that they'd have a record. When I had researched this, I had looked up "heart palpitations" with the medication. As I got off the phone I looked up palpitations on their own and found a link to caffeine which I have been guzzling for about six months since May to the tune of six to eight cups a day!

I called her back-- stupid me. I am going off gradually lest I wind up calling her about headaches associated with this medicine as well. . .