Unlucky

Well, November brought a handful of unexpected and not really welcome surprises for us. First, John got an ulcer in his eye and since we are in between insurances we had to pay for all the care for it out of pocket, including the super expensive drops (like $90) he had to get to clear it up. He seems to get an ulcer about once a year unfortunately.

Next was a mysterious incident with Joseph. He was playing on the floor one night, I was reading, John was on the computer, when suddenly we realized that Joseph was crying so hard he couldn't breathe. He was laying on the floor and holding his wrist, apparently in extreme pain. We tried to determine what had happened but had no clue. Our best guess was that somehow he leaned on it funny and BROKE it... we were certain it had to be broken for how he was acting! He wouldn't let us move it at all and was in a lot of pain. We researched what we could on the internet about what to do and decided to make a homemade splint for the night and called the doctor to make an appointment for him first thing in the morning. (It happened after nine at night, so we didn't want to take him into the instacare since, again, this was all coming out of our pocket.) He was one sad little guy that night.

He finally was able to sleep and in the morning was still completely unwilling to move his arm or wrist. We kept our appointment and the doctor sent us to get some x-rays taken. After examining the x-rays he was sure there wasn't a break, (that was good news) but knew that something was the matter because the pain Joseph was in wasn't matching up with the x-ray pictures. He ended up adjusting his arm for nursemaid's elbow, and we waited to see if it made a difference. After a while, Joseph did start moving his wrist a little, which was more than he had done since the night before, so that was a good sign. They sent him home with a little sling to keep his arm in and by the end of the night, he was completely back to his normal self. Strange little experience there... and an expensive one too!

And the straw that definitely broke us was that I got a speeding ticket, my first EVER, on the way home from school one day. UGH! I was so frustrated about it! Of course, no one is happy about a ticket... but get this. I always use my cruise control while traveling and set it just a few miles over the speed limit. No cop would pull me over for the three miles over the speed limit I'm usually going. Well, I was having a "conversation" with Joseph and briefly considered pulling over to the side of the road, and as I was briefly considering that, I put my foot on the brake, breaking my cruise. I changed lanes, but then decided that it probably wasn't the best place to pull over and that I'd wait until the next exit. The next TWO MINUTES (that's it) found me deeply engaged in "conversation" with my three year old when suddenly I remembered that I had my foot on the gas and I'd better check my speed. I looked down to see I was going 13 over and immediately hit on the brake to reset my cruise, but it just so happened to be at the EXACT moment that I passed a cop who was just waiting to pull over a speeder. Oh how frustrating it was!!! He, of course, assumed I was braking because I had noticed him, which made him all the more determined to write me up a ticket, I'm sure. *sigh* That was a "first" experience that I would rather not have had.

And my lovely ticket definitely ensured that our plans to head up north for Thanksgiving were, sadly, completely out of the window. :(