Austin's bum toe

What a Monday we had! I have been putting off taking Austin to the doctor because 1) he hates to deal with that sort of thing and 2) I was missing so much work due to my own issues, it was hard to justify taking more time off of work. Except... the kid had an ingrown toenail that was oozing and swollen ... obviously infected. I have suffered from ingrown toenails from about his age... until the time that the podiatrist finally removed my two big toenails for good. So I made him an appointment for the latest they had available - which felt like a great idea until I realized that regardless of what time his appointment was... I was going to have to get him from school by 2:40 (their check out deadline) or otherwise I wouldn't be able to pick him up until 3:30 - the time of his appointment.

So I leave work in time to meet the ridiculous check out deadline at the high school ... drive like a crazy woman to make sure I get there in time... sign in at the window of the office (they won't actually allow you IN the office) and waited. and waited. I asked the little aide who was sitting in the window texting if they had called Austin yet and he said, "she's busy with something else", meaning the secretary. Do what? I said, "then kindly tell me what room he is in and I will go and get him myself". Seriously. I thanked God again that we are almost finished with the absurdity of public schools. Rather than having me go wandering through the halls, they found time to call Austin. We have to check him out by a certain time but they can take fifteen minutes before they bother to call him? Ugh.

Of course... this sort of messed up our plans. Since I had to pick him up an hour before his appointment, our itinerary allowed us *just enough time* to have a nice lunch in town. The fifteen minutes I burned waiting for them to call Austin put us in a position where there wasn't really enough time for a sit down lunch... so we drove through McDonalds... both of us were starving since we had both skipped lunch anticipating going out for a decent meal... we got gas... and went on to the doctors office.

Where we had to wait. And wait. And wait. Some woman wandered in without an appointment and asked to speak to the doctor, thinking about changing to this practice. I appreciate the fact that she wanted to meet with the doctor before she made her decision. I disagree with allowing her to walk in without an appointment. This got things behind schedule. Then... because what Austin needed done was going to take longer (apparently) than what other people needed done... they saw everyone else who was there for the afternoon before they saw him... so we spent a full two hours at the doctors...

His toe was (as I suspected) badly infected. They removed half of the toenail and put him on an antibiotic. They also gave him a prescription for his stuffy nose and something to help with his trouble falling asleep. It was definitely a needed trip, even though it was a long process.

Then the check out girl had an issue with the way the intake girl had processed Austin's insurance and that was a big hairy hassle ... while the poor kid was standing there with the feeling rushing back into his foot and his toe throbbing. Then we had to go pick up prescriptions which took for-blooming- ever.

It was a rough day for my back. Cold, damp rain... my osteoarthritis was flared up like crazy... by the time it was time to leave the doctors office I had trouble standing up. I waited at the pharmacy standing up because I couldn't stand the thought of sitting again and honestly wasn't sure if I sat in their hard chairs if I was going to be able to get back up again... got home... heated up some leftovers... read for a little while and went to bed.

The frustrating thing was that my day was so jam packed that I didn't have time to put into bible study and that has really been my source of strength this year. On top of that... when we cleaned out the car on Saturday... Austin took my bible and my Beth Moore study book out of the car. I would have been able to put that study to great use while i was waiting at the doctors office instead of reading "Welcome to White County" and Vanity Fair and old issues of Sports Illustrated.

And the hardest thing for me was that it was the first time ever that he has gone back by himself at the doctors office. I'm usually hovering, making sure that he is able to properly articulate and explain what is wrong with him. He wanted to go alone. I gave him a list of things to discuss... and based on the prescriptions he was given, it looks like he discussed all of those things. It's hard cutting those apron strings, but I'm trying. He did fine without me.

This morning my back is literally back to square one.... muscle spasms... the spinal stenosis is bad because I'm having trouble with my left leg. Any time things get swollen and aggravated in my spine that left leg gets weak. It's frustrating but I got a great night's sleep and I'm confident that I can do whatever I need to do today. At least, because of all the diagnostic testing I went through last year, I know exactly what it is and how to treat it and don't have to worry that it's something like kidney stones or something scary.

So... the moral of this story is... we survived Monday. God is good. All the time. Hope you have a great Tuesday! Love and hugs!