Proud Mama Gets 15 Minutes Of Fame

Ryan has one more day of his Lose The Training Wheels bike riding class left tomorrow and he's doing great! Yesterday he graduated to a regular two wheel bike and by the end of today's class, his spotters were barely able to keep up with him.

I'm not sure I could have run along behind him for an hour straight each day - definitely not with this whole wrist injury thing.

Tuesday night we went out and got him a new bike and brought it with to his bike riding class yesterday. He should be able to get on it tomorrow during his last class.

The news media showed up during his session today and talked me into doing an interview on camera. Ryan got plenty of coverage out there while he was riding his bike so we'll see what shows up on the nightly news tonight. There's a chance it could be on their website, too and if I find it, I'll share it so we can all laugh at me together. Ha.

My wrist is still pretty painful and the stupid pain killers make me sleepy and out of it, so I'm limited to when I can take them. I have no idea how this happened. Two weeks ago I started noticing numbness and pain in my right hand. This week it tripled in intensity. Painting Ryan's room probably made it worse, but I was stubborn and determined to get it done before breaking down and going to the doctor. Unfortunately, I can't move my wrist or hand at all now (and typing with one hand is testing my patience) so Ashley's room is going to have to wait. I have a nerve conduction study scheduled for July 10th, but am hoping it will get better on it's own by then if I don't use it. (Ashley had to help me wash my arm in the shower last night and with putting my pants on this morning.)

There must really be a curse out there that gets us every time we schedule a vacation. We're one month out from our St. Pete's Beach vacation. Last year at 6 weeks out from our Disney vacation, I tore 3 tendons in my ankle. Here me now - it didn't stop me from going and having a great time last year and it won't stop me this year, either!

Wonderful

So I somehow managed to get a really severe case of carpal tunnel syndrome with pinched nerves. It's been coming on for two weeks now and I put off going to the doctor until I got Ryan's room done and did more harm than good. I can no longer move my right hand AT ALL. Now I'll be looking forward to a nerve conduction test to see if I need surgery. Wonderful.

Weekend Update

I am officially garage saled out! It's amazing how many people will try to talk you down a mere 50 cents and then walk away when you say no. Or when you have 8 pairs of medical scrubs and someone asks if you'll take a dollar off each one and you say no, thinking that surely someone else will buy them - and then two weekends later they are still in your possesion. Everything is back in rubbermaid tubs and ready to be put away for the next neighborhood sale. If I ever recover from these last two weekends by then.

I went to the doctor to have my ankle checked out again yesterday and he told me, "Congratulations. You've managed to tear all three tendons in your one ankle." Ouch. Luckily, he said that if I go back to icing it every 2 hours again, it should heal up pretty well for our vacation to Disney World in 11 DAYS! We're almost to single digits, people! I may have to wear the air cast he gave me while I'm there, but it should be okay. I just may end up with some pretty horrible tan lines around my ankle by the time we get home.

Well, I'm off to finish icing my ankle and then I'm going to go take back control of my house. It's been neglected for way too long!

Day Three

It's day three of this whole sprained ankle business. Still swollen. Still hurts. Still sitting on the couch with my foot raised higher than my head. I am so over this! Anyone want to come clean my house and do my laundry? It's out of control over here.

The Art Of Delegating

I think it's safe to say that my family is ready for me to be able to walk again. I'm under strict orders to stay off my foot and keep it elevated and iced. If I try to cheat it swells and throbs really bad and makes my toes look twice their normal size.

After a busy day outside (trying) to help run our garage sale, I am now on the couch with my ice bag again. (We ran out of frozen green beans). We did really well today and hopefully tomorrow will go well, too.

My daughter is (unenthusiastically) learning all about doing laundry. She's officially been instructed through a load and there's plenty more piling up where that came from. Bret surprised me when I got up this morning with a clean house that had been picked up the night before. Ryan (smartly) has disappeared downstairs to the world of Star Wars Play Station so I haven't been able to assign him anything yet. I might just have to milk this for a few extra days. Ha! Everyone that knows me can tell you that I can't handle this for long. Eventually I'll have to find a way to clean the house, catch the laundry up and organize something or I will go insane.

Vacation Curse Hits Again!

Guess it was my turn to make a visit to the emergency room. After a day of setting up garage sale stuff, Emily and I drove around putting up signs to increase our traffic flow. After watching her jump on the signs while trying to get them into the dry ground and laughing my butt off at her, I decided to give her a hand.

While carrying a sign, I was so busy watching for oncoming cars that I didn't pay enough attention to the big ditch between the parking lot and the road and down I went. It all seemed to happen in slow motion. My first thought on my way down to the ground was, NO! Disney World! I felt my ankle give out. I heard it crack. I saw it swell up to the size of a tennis ball immediately and then I felt the agonizing pain. I was sure that is was broken. Em immediately drove me (while I sobbed) home while I tried to call someone to meet me there to take me to the ER. No one answered. Bret was in the dentist's chair. His mom was in her doctor's office. No one else was answering their phones. So I called my sister in law at work and begged her to come get me - thankfully she did and quickly, too.

After a hour and a half of enduring painful positioned xrays and long boring bouts of waiting, I learned that it was only sprained. Not broken! I can still go to Disney World! What a relief, because I was going to go anyways - even if Bret was going to have to push me around in a wheel chair!

Let me tell you - it's great to have friends that are so dependable. One's that you can drop off a baby to with no warning. And one's that will be there for your kids when they get off the bus. And especially the ones that will carry your sad and clutzy self through the door and even pull your pants up multiple times when they start to fall down from hobbling aournd. Because when these things happen, everything gets so chaotic that it's reassuring to know that the people that mean the most to you will always be there for you. Thanks, guys!

The Bravest Little Boy Ever

What a day it's been! Bret and I had to go separate ways with a kid each this morning. I took Ashley to volleyball while he took Ryan to swim lessons. When entering the locker room this morning, the door slammed into Ryan's big toe, causing the nail to fall most of the way off and blood to come pouring out from his toe. I met Bret at the emergency room where Ryan made us so proud, being such a brave kid. They had to numb his toe, which made him scream loud enough for most of the hospital to hear, so they could clean it and drill a hole through it, in hopes of saving the nail.

Now, don't judge me for taking pictures in an emergency room, but I happened to already have the camera in my purse from having been at volleyball, so I thought, why not?

Ryan got his own personal TV, which helped him take his mind off of the pain. The staff in the ER were so great to him. They explained everything in advance directly to him to ease his fear. The doctor was amazing with him - just the kind of person you want helping your child in the event of an emergency. In fact, I think she was the same ER doctor that treated Ryan when he was a baby and cut his finger on a formula can.

Bret got to play with the TV, too.

Over in the xray department we learned that his toe was not broken. Thank God for some things!

Guess what came in the mail today with perfect timing? His new GameBoy and Star Wars games. Could that not have worked out any better? He was so excited about it that he hasn't once complained about his toe.

Hopefully nothing else happens before we go to Disney in June - remember that vacation curse? Poor kid was sick last week with another throat infection and now this. Looks like he's going to be getting his tonsils out this summer, too. Does it ever end?

Update: Ryan says he's going to punch that locker room door the next time he goes to swim lessons. Take that, you terrible door!

Paging Dr. Wetherill

I attempted to perform some minor surgery this afternoon to remove a wooden splinter from our deck out of Ryan's friend's finger. His mom was looking pale so I decided to do it myself. However, I've decided not to give up my day job (ha!) after spending a half an hour trying to dig out the splinter and not being able to reach it. The tears and the "ouches" broke my heart and I couldn't bare it anymore. Dr. Wetherill. Kind of has a ring to it, doesn't it? Not in this lifetime, I'm afraid!