The Gifts That Keep Giving

Well, I have only worked one day this pay period, and I am lucky that it turned out to be a full day. I was scheduled for a half, and one of the teachers asked me to fill in for her instead. Meanwhile, the bills are coming in. I think each of the three credit cards will be about $500 more than I would like to pay. This means about $1500. That should take me until summer to pay off at the rate I am going. With all this talk of lower interest rates ... why aren't MINE any lower???

And so we survived the swim meet this week. Megan went in exhausted, but the other girl was in the same boat, having just come from practice herself, so the two of them dueled it out to the end. Luckily, it was a meter pool, so they cut the 500 down to a 400, and they only had to do 16 laps. They were pretty much neck and neck, but Megan pulled it off at the end. There's one meet tomorrow, but that team doesn't really have anyone. The Big One comes next Friday. At least it should be exciting, win or lose. Too bad there is no official timing at that meet. No Y National times there. Although she has one chance this weekend, on Sunday, at a meet at our own Y, in the 200. I don't know, though, the conditions are not quite right, and I have a feeling she will be the top seed. It's always better to have someone to chase when you're trying to make a time.

Brian pulled the old headache thing again. I hate when he does this so close to the neurologist appointment. He called me yesterday from school at 1:30 and said his ear and head hurt. The nurse said she looked in his ear and thought there was pressure on the eardrum, but no infection. I gave him some triaminic last night but it made no difference, so we went to the doctor today. Now he has rynatan, hopefully that will help. I also bought some liquid motrin so he can take that in the nurse's office and not get sent home all the time with headaches, since he still won't swallow even the smallest of miniature pills.

I took advantage of being at the pediatrician to ask if the neurologist has sent her a letter since our summer appointment. I am still anxious because the radiologist read the chiari area as crowded, so I wanted to see if he said anything to the pediatrician in his letter. Unfortunately, he has not sent a letter, either about Brian's summer visit or, she says, many of her other patients who see him. However, I did read the letter from August 2006, where he said that the brain tonsils, which used to be 8-10mm below the foramen magnum ("big hole") they are now just slightly below. He was happy about this in 2006, and last year I asked if there had been a change since 2006, and he said no, there had not.

My own headache has prevailed since before my birthday. Today, for the first time, I felt some lasting relief. I took advil this morning, but I am beginning to feel like an advil-addict. After lunch I noticed it didn't hurt at all anymore. I hope it lasts. We are going to a funeral for one of the swim girls' dads today, after Megan's practice. He died somewhat unexpectedly when he went for surgery for what has been an ongoing cancer battle for him. It's very sad, unimagineably so. I remember him going in for one of his biggest surgeries, and perhaps one of his first, just one week after Brian's chiari decompression.

Meanwhile, Brian is winding down his piano lesson. I must go without a creative afterthought.

My Head Hurts

No sub calls today. I had the day off.

I decided to start it off with a swim. That actually went pretty well, I had a lane all to myself for the whole 25 minutes that it takes me to swim a measly 40 laps these days. On the way out, I noticed that they had a "giving tree" set up at the Y. I studied the remaining tags and chose two little girls. One only wanted Bratz dolls, but the other was very specific: a monopoly game, a hooded sweatshirt, and Nike sneakers. Woah! Anyway, my credit card was reset to $0 as of today, so why not.

(Sure, it's only ONE credit card that's at $0, the others are probably considerably more, but I hope to have them all paid down by the time I stop getting paychecks again in June!)

But by now my head was really hurting. Some online Bratz shopping hadn't helped what the 40 laps had somehow started. Maybe it was the leaky goggles. I had to take some advil and lie down for an hour. I watched How Clean is Your House and You Are What You Eat. Who in the world signs up for those shows? All I would need would be for my mold and dust to be filmed for national television. And then to have to keep the house clean until the "surprise visit" from the British ladies who helped clean it in the first place.

Eventually I managed to drag myself up and shower. I went out into the snow and searched high and low for Nike sneakers and a hoodie sweatshirt, which I finally did find. The little girls should be very happy.

Afterwards, I faced the true source of my headache: church. They are requiring that Megan must satisfy one requirement for her confirmation in April. She must either attend a retreat on the day of her high school regional championship meet, or she must fast for 30 hours over President's weekend. This is in addition to the four hour meetings once a month + homework. I can feel the holy spirit fading from her person as I type this. If you may not worship any God but the true God, then I am afraid we will have to count her out. Her god? Her swim team coach.

Although, that is not entirelly true, because she will not even be swimming for him on the day of the retreat. Will God really close her out of heaven because she went to the conference meet? That doesn't really seem fair, when she is usually very nice to everyone, and she even serves at church when she can be there. Does her very salvation ride on her refusing herself food during the peak training period for her championship swim season? How scary is that?! Whatever happened to "God is Good! All the Time!"

And did God say she had to do these things? Was it through His wishes that the schedules were made up for these events? Don't the homeless people have to be fed every day? Why, then, is it that she must be there on February 9th?

In fact, she is at swimming now. She should be back soon, but one never knows. It's her day off from swimming, so she was able to go to the high school practice. The first meet is tomorrow, but the parents can't attend. They're holding it under top security. Ah, the folly.