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Friday, November 9th
Teething
It appears that we're beginning that wonderful time known as teething. Dessa's been drooling up a storm for a while now and for the past 3 days she's been a real handful - fussy, unwilling to nap, just generally crankier than her general sweet nature. She's trying to chew on every cloth that comes her way, is quieted by cold teething rings and... well, we're not completely stupid 'round here. We put two and two together and figured out what it all means.
There's nothing to see as yet, but possibly by Thanksgiving something will be peeking through. It's a good thing she's getting the hang of using her lips to get food off her spoon, because until recently I was relying on her gums for that.
We're working slowly through introducing new foods. Rice cereal and oatmeal went down well, so we moved to veggies. We started with peas, which got a hilarious reaction. Little bird that she is, she opened up for cereal and... what a surprise! The look on her face was priceless and the first day of peas was not her favorite. Next day we tried again, this time along with some cereal and she took it like a champ. Third day was even better and now, while I wouldn't say peas are her favorite, she tolerates them just fine.
Yesterday night we introduced her to squash and that went over quite well. She gobbled her tablespoon of squash and tablespoon of oatmeal in 6 minutes flat and was raring for more. We'll stick with squash for another two days and then go with carrots. Then it's green beans and spinach, which I suspect will not be as triumphant. We'll move on to fruit from there.
I have lots of pictures from the last few week's adventures - feeding, excer-saucer fun, tummy time. My computer is still DOA, but hopefully that will be remedied this weekend and posts have more pictures soon. Keep your fingers crossed!
Posted by GoddessKristin on 11/09/07 at 11:57 AM [link]
Sunday, November 4th
Wow... even I didn't think I could blow it this early
Yeah... so I didn't blog yesterday. Third day of NaBloPoMo and... I skipped out. See, weekends around here are a little tough these days. My mom helps with Dessa during the week but I don't like to ask her to do it on weekends, too (though she, of course, has offered, would do it in a heartbeat and wouldn't think twice). However, I have enough guilt over being unable to completely care for my own child right now and I need weekends to remind me that I do, actually, require assistance sometimes. By Monday morning, I'm reminded that I need the help. By Friday afternoons I keep thinking I don't need it.
I am what experts call a moron.
Anyway, yesterday we spent the morning getting ready to go out for the afternoon. This sounds a lot easier than it actually was. Part of our outing included getting some pictures that Dave needed for a job, so he had to find the right addresses to go to. That takes a while. Then there was all the feeding, burping, changing, dressing, and nap coordination that a five month old (and her broken, tired mother) requires. We blew through one window and had to wait until the next post-feeding, post-burping, pre-napping opportunity presented itself.
All in all it was a nice afternoon once we got going. Dessa slept throughout most of the driving and when we were done we went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, where she also behaved admirably. we also got to go to the shoe store where Dave got some new running shoes, my birthday present to him.
The only hard part was that the whole afternoon took about 5 hours and I was in the wheelchair or otherwise sitting still throughout. That's a mighty long time to be parked on one's ass. Further, we put Dess and her car seat in my lap and Dave wheeled us both around and... I'm not built to hold a car seat like that for too long (nobody is, really).
So, by the end of the day I was pretty beat but it was good to get out. When we got home there was all the regular feeding, changing, burping and getting to bed that needed to be done and Dess was overtired so she fought sleep. It took much longer than usual to get her to bed and by that time I honestly didn't give a fig about blogging. Who blogs on the weekend, anyway? And why? It's not like I get a lot of traffic around here and have people hanging on my every word.
So I skipped it. I'll keep trying to update daily but honestly, between this stupid leg and my dead as a doornail hard drive, I'm not promising anything.
Posted by GoddessKristin on 11/04/07 at 07:50 PM [link]
Friday, November 2nd
Underwhelmed
I went to the occupational medicine doctor today. Because my injury happened at work it's covered by worker's comp. This is a good thing because all of my copays and other fees for the surgery, hospital stay, trip to ER, labs, PT, etc are covered. The downside is that I have to see two doctors instead of one (the orthopedist and the occupational medicine guy), which is not too bad, though it does mean more appointments. The real downside is that I have a case manager from the worker's comp company and... she's kind of a pain.
It's not that she's not nice. She's very anxious to help and gather information and whatnot. It's more that I just find her sort of... irritating. It's all in the little things. When she first contacted me, she introduced herself with her name and said she was a case worker but didn't tell me from what company or anything useful like that. She'd sent out a letter that had, apparently, arrived the day before but which I didn't see. Not that I would have remembered her from that or anything. We got it straightened out but not without a lot of back and forth because she's got a very heavy accent (she's Chinese). Now, I know from not speaking the language that well during my time in France that working in a second language is tough, but really, I do find it annoying to have to have her repeat herself every other exchange we have.
We muddled through and she arranged for us to meet before my occ med appointment today, which she had to attend with me. This is pretty much where the whole case worker thing gets completely irritating. First off, I don't fancy having her tag along to all my damn appointments. I know it's all part of the worker's comp thing but that doesn't mean I have to like it. She's a total stranger to me and I'm a private person so having her hang around at medical appointments is going to get old. Second off, she got the appointment time wrong and was relatively insistent that the appointment was at 11:45 and not 11:15. Wrong. Who needs that aggravation?
Anyhow, we met up at the office and she asked me about 50 questions that I've already either answered before or filled out forms about which... whatever. It's not like I'm changing the story or anything. Several times I had to explain medical information to her... and she's supposed to be a nurse. But, for example, I had to explain that gestational diabetes goes away after the baby's birth so, no, I'm not still on insulin and no, I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary to control my blood sugar because it no longer requires controlling. She's fun.
Then we went in to see the doc and got to really check out all the x-rays, including the ones they took during the surgery, which sort of made me queasy. 7 screws look gross. I also found out that it appears that I have three fractures, not just two. The big one is, of course, the fibula, which sheared completely at an angle, so the break is long. The second two are in the tibia and will heal simply by being immobilized. We reviewed that, yes, my foot had shifted out of place and that yes, I have quite a bit of healing ahead. The good news is that, with luck, everything should be back to normal... eventually. The bad news is that I'm going to be feeling this for months and months to come.
Throughout the appointment Case Worker Lady (I'm going to need a new name for her... suggestions?) asked all sorts of annoying questions that occasionally had something to do with my leg, sometimes had to do with the software that the doctor was using and a few times didn't seem to have anything to do with anything. She extended the appointment at least 15 minutes longer than it needed to be and if she keeps that up, I'm going to have to say something. I need to sit in uncomfortable chairs for more time than absolutely necessary like I need a hole in the head.
After all, I already have 7 holes in my fibula. Who needs more than that?
Posted by GoddessKristin on 11/02/07 at 05:29 PM [link]
Thursday, November 1st
Hi! I hate my life!
Welcome to NaBloPoMo 2007! I am NOT too late to start posting because it is still just under an hour before midnight on November first... Pacific time... so! Not late! Still in the game! Hello! Are you still with me?
I have a LOT of reasons why I have not posted before now. Care to hear them?
1) My leg is still broken. I broke it two weeks and one day ago and despite the fact that I totally think that is more than enough time to heal, my body (and my surgeon) think otherwise. Yesterday (YESTERDAY!) my leg went into a hard cast and I was given the OK to reduce my leg elevation time from "all the time, sucker" to "put it back up when it starts swelling, dumbass". Turns out that the "swelling and hurting" thing kicks in about 45 minutes after I put my ankle below my heart but I have a LOT to do, so I try to ignore it. I may be a dumbass.
2) My hard drive DIED! My goddamn home computer? It is in the refrigerator right now as we speak (well, the important part is). This is not a Vicodin induced hallucination, ok? My hard drive has spent the vast majority of the past week in the fridge. Dave swears this is a tech support trick that will allow him to recover vital data from my hard drive like a) all the pictures of my sweet baby, b) all the information from iTunes, yo. And 3) other miscellaneous crap that I totally need from my computer but forgot I stored there. Like the address I require in order to, um, BLOG! Yeah, that took 15 minutes to figure out just now. Which is totally why I'm so late posting today. Yeeeaah. That's the ticket...
3) I have a five month old baby. She is probably cuter than you, unless you are, yourself, a baby. If you are a baby, I say unto you, "Awwww... WHATcha doing? Hey there... WHATcha doing!? You sweet thing! WHATcha doing?" And if you're not a baby... I have nothing to say to you.
4) I went into work today. BIG mistake. I have had, apparently, subs who did not speak sufficient English to read my sub plans, let alone teach my class (sadly, I am not making that up). I meant to spend about an hour meeting with my long-term sub and outlining what needs to be done before I get back. The long-term sub? Not there today. There was a sub for my SUB!!!! Gah! So I spent FOUR HOURS organizing my room, writing ten thousand notes, putting together a long term overall plan, LOCKING THINGS UP and throwing things away. This doesn't sound like it would take 4 hours but it did. Here is what I came away with:
a) The candy that I bought the day before I broke my leg? The $20 worth of candy that I stored not 30 hours before I tripped? All gone. Who gave it out, or stole it, or felt it was important to give to my students or WHATEVER? A total mystery.
b) My teacher plan book? That I bought myself? That I used to plan out my year and track my schedule and pace things and figure out who had borrowed what from me? GONE. Not in my room anymore. I have no idea who has it or where it is. I am... sad (for sad, read FURIOUS).
c) The kids in my afternoon class have been acting up like nobody's business. Apparently the principal went in and read them the riot act two days in a row and all the 8th grade teachers ganged up and yelled at them this afternoon. I am embarrassed beyond belief.
5) I have no number 5. My leg is so swollen it's not to be believed and I still have to write a letter to my students to reconnect with them and remind them that I AM COMING BACK! I, like Patton, will return.
As I will return tomorrow. It's November. I haven't forgotten. Broken leg, dead hard drive, fatigue... whatever. I will be back.
GoddessKristin on 11/01/07 @ 11:08 PM [more..]
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Notes from a Yarn Hacker
