Monday Update

After stressing myself to sleep last night (also with a boost of my now "rarely used" ambien) around 9:30... I was wide awake at 6 this morning with a KILLER headache. All of the scary things that Dr. Google told me last night about high blood pressure were hitting me at once. I knew this was the BIG ONE. I took some ibuprofen and laid on the couch for about an hour and... I survived.

I called my doctors office this morning and told them what had happened and they agreed to call me in three more months of my meds. Problem temporarily solved. Then today I found a free clinic in town that is available to people who have income below 150% of the poverty level who don't have insurance and have chronic diseases. I have no idea what the current poverty level is but in the past 9 months my income has been ZERO so that has to be under the limit, right? They specify on their website that they treat things like high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. You have to go in for an interview to see if you qualify so that is on my agenda tomorrow - setting that appointment. I would have done it today but my trip to the library and the pharmacy wore me out and the library wasn't even open.

I still have a lingering headache and I went ahead and took my meds earlier than usual this afternoon because I figure I've got some blood pressure lowering still to do. A lot of things that I was going through over the past week of really not feeling right make a little more sense in the scheme of things. So the official results of my pharmaceutical experiments are: yes, I can live without ambien - no, I can't live without blood pressure meds. Lesson learned.

So yesterday afternoon Austin and I got into a long debate about him going barefoot. I think I mentioned that I took him to Walmart one day and didn't even notice until he was coming out that he was barefoot. He hates shoes. Trying to get him to buy shoes is like shoving bamboo shoots under fingernails - YOUR fingernails. His perspective is that his feet are tough and he's used to it and what does it matter? My perspective is probably whatever you're thinking right now - disease, risk of cutting his feet, and so on and so forth. He thinks that being an adult (chronologically anyways) means that he can make his own choices about what to wear. He thinks that places that require people to wear shoes are just mean. Being the trained Risk Manager that I am, I tried to enlighten him on the possibly hazards he could encounter by being outside. He said that our yard is completely safe and there's no reason he should have to wear shoes outside at home.

After that he and Pop went out to start planting the garden. A gardening tool was dropped on his foot, cutting the top of his foot. He didn't even want to tell me. I suggested he wash it carefully to avoid infection. At first he refused but when I insisted he got mad and took a whole shower. "Happy now?" he said. Not yet. I still have a barefoot kid.

Today in Walmart Pop tried to buy him some appropriate shoes for being outside. He declined. It's fairly impossible to buy shoes for someone whose feet are as big as his are without having him try them. And the bottom line is that if he doesn't want them, he won't wear them. I've been fighting this battle since he took his first steps. It's a sensory thing from the Asperger's. He has to have certain fabric and textures and... ugh.

This afternoon he was grilling on the back patio, right outside my door. When he pulled the charcoal chimney out and poured the coals in the grill a hot ember flew onto the concrete patio. He didn't see it and promptly stepped on it, burning the bottom of his foot. It hurt him bad enough that he wasn't putting any weight on it whatsoever.

THEN... Sarabeth was dribbling her basketball in the driveway. I cautioned her not to let it get away from her because it could roll all the way to the lake. We agreed that would be bad. I went back in the house and not two minutes later she came in and said her basketball was in the lake. COUSIN AUGGIE to the rescue. He hopped down the hill on one foot and used a stick to pull the basketball back to shore.

Once he limped back up the hill the neighbor dogs ran into the yard and Oscar ran off after them. Austin took off to catch Oscar before he made kibble out of the dogs who dared to cross into his territory. Poor trick! His foot is killing him!

And I was right. He needs to wear shoes.

Anyways. So after a snow storm, ice storm, earthquake, blood pressure crisis and mangled Fred Flintstone foot, hopefully we will settle back into our normal boring life.

Hope your Monday was lovely. Love and hugs, y'all!