Wednesday, November 7, 2007

I Hate When That Happens

Don't you hate it when your perfect day runs away from you?


You wake up with energy and excitement and a schedule full of activities. You put on your gym clothes and skip the shower...excited to work out while your little ones are in their gymnastics class. You get the big kids off to school and clean up the morning mess.

Then you take a look at your fourth child--who looks sicker and sicker by the minute and realize you must call the pediatrician about the strange rash and dark circles around his eye.

Of course, they don't answer the phone the first few times you call, then they put you on hold for 15 minutes and when you finally speak to someone--they don't have an appointment until tomorrow. So you take the appointment and decide to wait it out. Thirty minutes later you start getting that desperate mommy feeling, call them back and BEG them to see you. She says OK drop everything and come right now.
So you put on some clothes, swipe on some lipstick, do the ponytail and head out the door. You wave a fond goodbye to the shower and know you will feel slimy all day long.

Turns out, the doctor is not too worried about the face rash (excema)...but is alarmed by the circular rash on his leg and sends you to the blood lab to test for Lyme Disease.

You hold your little guy tightly as they tie the rubber tube around his arm. He makes it through without a wimper, but you are ready to burst into tears.

After tucking the twins in for a nap, you head down to the computer to Google Lyme Disease. You spend 30 horrifying minutes looking at all the worst-case-scenarios and imagining all of them happening to you. Right now.

As you are engrossed with the folks on CDC.com, the phone rings. It is your oldest son's special ed teacher, calling to say that he may/may not have punched a girl in the stomach. The two of you discuss the possibilities, causes and consequences. It ends on a positive note, until you walk into the kitchen to find this...


and this...


and this.

After 45 minutes of time-outs, clean-ups and melt-downs...you go upstairs to find this in your master bathroom...

and this in your children's bathroom...

If each of these small tragedies happened on separate days, you might have been able to laugh and even write a humorous post on your blog for posterity.

But not today. And, as you look at the calendar and realize:

  1. In the next 11 days, your children have a total of 2 full days and 3 half-days of school.
  2. Your husband will be out of town for 5 of those days.
  3. There are only 38 shopping days left til Christmas.

...you do the only thing you can possibly do--call your mother, burst into tears and beg her to fly cross-country to help you.


And, because she is the wonderful person that she is, she drops everything and agrees graciously to come. And, because your husband is equally wonderful, he goes directly to Delta.com and books the flight.

So, although the perfect day got away...it has a (sort of) happy ending.

And, in the meantime, I would love to hear from anyone who knows anything about: Lyme disease, wall repair and getting Nestle Quik out of carpet.

23 comments:

Linsey said...

Wow, that is one bad day. I wish I had some advice on Lyme disease, Nestle Quik removal or wall repair for you - hopefully other comments will be more helpful. I'm so glad your Mom is coming, that's exactly what I would have done and wanted. On the bright side, tomorrow has got to be better!

Annie said...

Oh, Gab. You win the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day award. I wish I could make up a badge for you to proudly post on your blog margin but I don't know how!

So glad you have reinforcement coming. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you on the Lyme disease front!

J+S said...

Oh dear. I wish I could come over and give you a hug and bring you some comfort food and a helping hand. I am so glad that your mom is coming. Moms make everything better. I have my fingers crossed that it's noy Lymde disease. I wish you a better tomorrow and rest of week!

Bridget said...

Oh dear. That is one horrible day Gab. At least you had the wits to get that camera and document the horrible-ness for your post. Glad you have your mom coming for back-up. Good luck with the Lyme's disease. Let us know what comes of that rash.

Celia Fae said...

Thanks for the excellent documentation of your crappy day. Hang in there. I wish I had a mom like yours. Give the Oma some hugs from me.

Anonymous said...

Oh my, Gabi! Just know that you will be the go to Mom when YOUR kids have such horrid days! Sending you a big strong hug and planning our next night out!!

eBay said...

wow. I've never had a day like that! I came to check you out too! I had a childhood friend that had lyme disease and it went undetected for years. But they finally put her on some meds and she is a lot better and a successful mother, wife etc. That's all I know about it. Good luck. Mom coming will make you feel a lot better. It always does :)

Travelin'Oma said...

It sounds really bad there. Now I'm kind of scared to come. Will the nestle's quik be cleaned up by then? It sounds like you need a shopping spree. I'll hold the fort while you wave the credit card. And that little girl probably deserved punching.

marta said...

gabi!! i'm so sad for you. what a mizzzerable day. perhaps you shouldn't get out of bed in the morning and see if tomorrow can top today!

after a good vent session to oma, a long hot shower, a good cry, some instantly soothing chocolates and a can of caffeine, you'll see that your days will be brighter and all will be happy soon enough. your kids will turn to angels while your back is turned!

keep looking on the bright side. omi's comin' to the rescue! am sad i can't be there for the girls reunion.

Paige said...

All of that is bad and has happened to me, except getting up and being excited about working out. That's never happened. And the Lyme disease. But it's not lyme disease. I can tell by the picture it's just ringworm. Ask Celia about that.

Jessica said...

1)Never google any illness. First problem right there.
2)A big fat sorry...and I'm so glad you have a nice mom. We've all had that day (many times) and it's not even fun to read about it happening to someone else.
3)Tomorrow will have to be better. Probably.

kelly said...

oh baby! i'm glad mod is coming to the rescue! i definitely feel for you! i only have two little terrors running around, i can only imagine!

Christie said...

I was going to write a big whiny post about my bad day. That really wasn't a bad day compared to yours. So I'll suck it up, quit complaining, and join the line of condolences your way. Best wishes for tomorrow. Give Omi a hug from us!

Scrapbooks by Amanda said...

My cousins son had lyme disease but they caught it early and he has no problems from it. Keep us posted. and no more websurfing on lyme disease.

We had a similar hole in the wall and you can buy a textured sticker like thing to cover it. Ofcourse, it isn't as strong as it would be if you patched it with drywall but it is easy and cheep. Good luck!

Here's to hoping tomorrow is a better day!

Jake said...

Thanks everyone...I'm feeling a little embarassed about my online pity party. Today has been a lot better and at least now I have my mom's visit to look forward to! Thanks for all your words of encouragement....

Wendi said...

Terrible horrible no good day is right! What a day. I'm so glad you're mommy's coming to rescue you!

I had a day like that last week, and I called my husband, told him to made sure to come directly home from work, do not stop for gas, to not visit with anyone, come directly home or the kids may not be alive. When he got home I said "They are all yours! =) If you need me I'll be in the bathtub and my room, but I'm not coming out until they're asleep!" And he took one look at the house and understood, and took care of it all. And by the time I emerged, he'd been cleaning and I was ready to face my life again!

Lisa-Marie said...

I'm so sorry. I am hoping that today is better and you have received good news from the doctor. And I agree. No more web surfing on lyme disease. Even if he does have it. You'll just have to blog instead. OR maybe you could write a cute little poem about lyme disease or horrible terrible no good very bad days. Like the fun Halloween one. PLEASE!

Rochelleht said...

Oh my freakin' heck! That is so scary!!! I am so worried for you. When will you know about the Lyme disease?

I really didn't want to laugh cause it was all so tragic until I got to the enormously humorous picture of the kid eating Nesquick off the floor. Good for you for having your wits about you enough to take pictures for the blog. We readers thank you.

And GOOD LUCK!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Woah...
Gabi I wish I could be there with you! I just cried to you last week - I'm so sorry. Oma will save the day. She is the ultimate Hero. Good luck to you.
Heed

laina kay said...

Yuck! What a day! So nice that your mom is coming to help out. Some days it's all just too much to take on by yourself!

Extra hard when the Husband is traveling, too! Yikes... 4:30pm comes and I think I'm going to implode and no one is coming home to save me! Add school holidays and... oi!

Sorry I don't have any tips on Lyme disease, carpet cleaning or wall patches. I'll be thinking of you though, and wishing you much better days to come!

crystal said...

I will not sugar-coat it: THIS DAY SUCKS! You poor thing. I'm hoping to hear an update on the Lyme situation.

I'm Wendi dancinqueen's friend, just so you know. And I found you from Mique's blog too.

Hope the past few days have been better!

mama jo said...

hang in there...super oma to the rescue...it's terrible when these things happen and they do seem to happen like that..all at the same time...you do deserve a pity party..you have to get it out of your system somehow...i agree with marty...shopping sounds great, it usually cures all problems..i'm thinking of you guys...

i said...

I don't even know how I got to your blog....But here I am and just a note to say thanks for the huge laugh. It's not me...today at least! Thanks!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...