Dear Diary/Journal/Bob 3.0

[Boothby]

Thanks! I'm especially proud of the seamless job I did obscuring the license plate numbers....

[Luet]

Dear bob,

I fell down the basement stairs on Sunday morning. I mostly just banged up my arm but the problem is that it's the arm I broke five years ago, which has a metal plate and screws in it. And each day it has hurt worse and worse. Not so bad that I can't stand it but bad enough that I am taking OTC meds fairly round the clock. Normally, I would just go to the doctors but this is the ONE time that I don't have insurance and won't for another month and a half. I really, really hope it feels better soon and that I didn't do any real damage.

[Gravity Defier]

Good grief, woman, it has not been your week and that makes me so sad. You deserve a good week. *hugs and love* I hope your arm feels better.

[LilBee91]

What Alea said. <big hugs>

Feel better!

[elfprince13]

Dear bob,

I fell down the basement stairs on Sunday morning. I mostly just banged up my arm but the problem is that it's the arm I broke five years ago, which has a metal plate and screws in it. And each day it has hurt worse and worse. Not so bad that I can't stand it but bad enough that I am taking OTC meds fairly round the clock. Normally, I would just go to the doctors but this is the ONE time that I don't have insurance and won't for another month and a half. I really, really hope it feels better soon and that I didn't do any real damage.

That sounds like a bad situation. Be careful with the OTC meds though, I know people who've done worse damage to their stomachs, from heavy ibuprofen or acetaminophen/paracetamol usage, then the injury they were seeking relief from in the first place.

[Luet]

Thanks, elf. I've been taking one or two doses of naproxen a day. It hurts so much right now that I can't sleep. Tonight I was very tempted to take something stronger (codeine), so I think I'll be biting the bullet and going to an urgent care tomorrow. I called today and it'll cost in the range of $400 for the visit and x-ray but i'm 80% sure something is broken, like a hairline fracture. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense that it is hurting worse each day, being a week later now. I'll let you know later...

[elfprince13]

Thanks, elf. I've been taking one or two doses of naproxen a day. It hurts so much right now that I can't sleep. Tonight I was very tempted to take something stronger (codeine), so I think I'll be biting the bullet and going to an urgent care tomorrow. I called today and it'll cost in the range of $400 for the visit and x-ray but i'm 80% sure something is broken, like a hairline fracture. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense that it is hurting worse each day, being a week later now. I'll let you know later...

Naproxen has the same issues with prolonged usage causing stomach/digestive issues as most other over the counter painkillers, so it's good you're going to get treatment. I hope it's not too serious (or expensive)!

[Luet]

The preliminary report is that nothing is broken, though the radiologist is going to look at it tomorrow to be sure. They said it was just really inflamed around the old break and plate. Sent me home with codeine and said not to use it much, which is kind of hard with work.

[elfprince13]

I suspect work would be difficult with or without codeine, for differing reasons. The handful of times I've been treated with opioid painkillers, I've been incredibly lethargic and found it hard to focus.

At least there's no new break?

[Luet]

I'm sorry, they didn't say not to use the codeine much...they said not to use the ARM much. And that is kind of hard at work. I only take the codeine at night, when the arm is really bad.

[elfprince13]

Oh, that makes sense...good luck at work!

[Briseis_Liberated]

Must be the moon...halloween night my daughter fell on our front steps (concrete) and busted her lip up pretty bad... had to have stitches on the inside. Then she got a little fever blister right on her bad lip. THEN she wasplaying with the dog while it was asleep and the dog snapped at her and shes got a big pinch bruise on the corner of her eye.... the school is oging to think we beat her....

[Claire]

Bob,

I'm so tired and so sad.

Claire

[Gravity Defier]

*hugs for Claire* I hope thinks pick up for you soon.

[starlooker]

Dear Bob,

Nine-month well-baby checkup today. I'm nervous. Atty doesn't babble yet, and he's late enough with it that some websites are telling me, yeah, okay, don't panic or anything, but maybe it's cause for concern, and definitely be concerned if he isn't in another month. I'm also worried because his pattern of head-growth is an autism red flag, the gestational diabetes also bumped his risk, as does having two ADHD parents.

I'm not so much worried that they'll tell me something is wrong as I am concerned they won't take me seriously. I do not want to be brushed off as Mommy who reads too many Internet articles. I KNOW he will probably be fine, but I want a plan for getting him referred and having someone whose job it is to know make that call.

[starlooker]

Grrr. One dismissive nurse already. "Oh, parents always worry with the first child, la la la."

Bite me, sweetheart.

[Jayelle]

Grrr. One dismissive nurse already. "Oh, parents always worry with the first child, la la la."

Bite me, sweetheart.

Grr on your behalf! A mother's instinct is NOT to be ignored.

[starlooker]

Thanks, Jan!

The actual doctor (really, nurse practitioner) we saw was much better. She's going to call the local early intervention place and find out at what age they'd accept him for screening, and she'll call me back and we'll go from there.

Still pissed at that idiot nurse. Are you a developmental specialist? No? Do you know anything about child language development? Not really? Do you have any qualifications to tell me I'm just an over anxious parent other than having kids that turned out just fine? No? Then shut up. Your reassurance is not reassuring.

When she returned to give Atty his flu shot, she asked what the doc said. I told her about the phone calls/possible referral. Maybe that took some wind out of her sails for next time.

[thoughtreader]

Not to...

"Oh, parents always worry with the first child, la la la."

But more to offer a hope everything works out just perfectly fine... Chris (the husband) didn't babble or speak until he was 2 years old (according to his mom) he just sat back and observed the world. and then right around his second birthday he started talking and has grown into the intelligent driven man that I love. It could have been partially due to him being a super preemie but to quote his Dr. "some kids just do things on their own tome"

But I'm glad you are looking into it early and hopefully everything turns out perfect.

[Gravity Defier]

Bob,

Just had the weirdest conversation with my dad where it centered around him telling me not to mourn his death when that time comes. He didn't just say it once, he repeated it numerous times. What the hell? It was awkward and uncomfortable for me when added to the other things he was going on about.

[Boothby]

Well, I'm here in Maryland, by myself, with my family and friends (for the most part) a few hundred miles north. It's an odd Thanksgiving. I miss spending this time with my daughter. The last three times I went up to NY to visit the family, my son tried his absolute HARDEST to goad me into actually fighting him; he screamed and cursed at me, he rolled up his sleeves, got in my face (3" nose-to-nose) and even tried the "flinch" move with me. He dredged up every last thing that I ever did that bothered and offended him--basically, how I "ruined his life." And the discussion that inevitably led to such a blow-up?

Him: "Dad, can I borrow the car?"

Me: "No."


But the real reason I decided to post here was to give a big, virtual hug to everyone here who might need one.

Happy Thanksgiving, guys.

[Satya]

Dear Bob..

My, it's been a long, long time.

I can't quite remember the first time anymore. When I posted in this thread. I must have been about 16, 17? Ten years ago. I don't even know the person I was then. He's a stranger to me, one who died a long time ago. But I also don't really know who I am right now, either. What am I doing? What am I doing it for? Where am I going to be next year, 5 years, 10 years from now?

But I guess asking those big existential questions never really helps.

Anyways, how are you doing? I'm alright at the moment. Spending almost (lol, alright, not even almost) all of my free waking moments working on my site. In just 19 weeks, just 4 and a half months, we've hit well over a million posts, and millions of pageviews. But somehow I'm unsatisfied. The perfectionist and the compulsive, obsessive in me demands more, says it's not good enough. And it's kind of consuming me, to be honest... I don't really know what to do with myself.

[Gravity Defier]

Bob,

My mom is sending me some of my Christmas presents since I'll be here on Christmas day and won't head back to AZ until the 28th or so, long enough after gift-opening has been done. Also, bringing stuff back on the plane would be a pain in the butt.

She is so silly to trust me not to poke around at them before Christmas.

Yeah, I never grew out of the "What'dya get me?! What'dya get me?!" phase.

[jotabe]

Yeah, I never grew out of the "What'dya get me?! What'dya get me?!" phase.

Haha, and why should you? XD i never did either.

[buckshot]

Hi Bob , I really never thought much about what we spend on Xmas before. This last few weeks my wonderfull wife has been re- building our bedroom even sanding down the oak floor, so anyhow all the Xmas gifts ect. are getting stacked up in the basement kitchen . I had no idea how much stuff we buy for everyone it's kinda getting to me since I have to go by it all all the time. I also don't really get into the shopping like Julie, she hits the first sales thanksgiving night and the next two nights pretty much all night! Since I've shown a little intrest she broke out a list to show how she saves more than 50% on the whole thing by shopping so hard those first few days, that gal is pure gold! she always manages to outfit the whole family and some friends with all the necessarys to get through the year. Don't know she does it!

[steph]

Bob,

I hate it when people have an incorrect opinion of me. My friend stopped me in the hall at church today. She was recounting what she'd been going through to try and get her daughter the gifted services at school. She said that she was told that a child HAD to be tested and identified as gifted in order to participate in the after school clubs. She told them that her friend (me...though not mentioning who I was) had said that you only had to be on the watch list in order to participate. They responded to her with "Well, we don't know how Stephanie *Last Name* worked the system." Yep, they named me by name and claimed I worked the system.

Worked the system? Excuse me? Let me tell you our history with the GT program. Last year, near the beginning of first grade, we randomly got a sign up sheet for after school GT clubs that would take place throughout the year in his take-home folder. I wasn't surprised that Tyler was being asked to participate, since well, he's Tyler, but I was surprised that I was given no other information besides this sheet. We looked over the classes, talked about them and Tyler decided he wanted to do all of them that were listed for grades 1 and up. Great! So we signed him up and he participated and he had a great time.

This year, I started seeing notices through school emails and newsletters home from teachers that GT testing was coming up and parents or teachers could nominate students for testing and that testing would be "rigorous." I emailed the principal to find out more information on what services Tyler could receive if he did the testing that was different from what he was already getting. After all, he was invited to participate in the GT clubs already. With Tyler's past anxiety issues, I wasn't sure I was ready to have him "officially" tested, especially since he was already getting the clubs. Through those emails and conversations with Tyler's teacher, etc, I was finally put in contact with the school district's GT specialist. Come to find out, Tyler had gone through round 1 of testing in the spring of 1st grade and I was never informed nor did I give consent for them to do it. I was shocked that they would do that without telling me at all. We did decide to finish testing Tyler this year (my frustrations on all of that are a completely different post for a different day), and he is now fully identified as a gifted reader. (Duh.)

So, long story short, the GT liason in the building last year (who is different than the guy in charge this year) invited Tyler to participate in GT clubs before he was tested (which is apparently NOT ok this year), then they did round 1 of testing without my permission and NOW they think that I "worked the system"? And they are gossiping about it?

I'm trying to laugh it off as funny, because in reality, it IS funny. Especially when you know the facts. But in reality, it hurts because I have a "label" that I did nothing to earn and people are thinking badly about me because of it. Grrr.

[CezeN]

Dear Diary,

It'd been a while since I'd been in that room. It'd been a while since I'd hung out with and confided in her roommate, also a good friend of mine.
I noticed she still had my latest birthday poem undisturbed on the top of her desk; was pretty surprising. I still have the original draft on a random notepad perpetually hanging virtually on my laptop. It went like this:

"Happy Birthday: Happy Birthday _____, its been another great year, we've grown closer as friends, some of what we've endeared,
is my first concert at the Tabernacle, Lupe threw water at us; it was quite the fiasco,
I went to the Coke factory for the first time, some of the international colas tasted divine,
we stood up to Chuckie - our childhood fear, we went to the Chocolate Bar but couldn't drink beer,
we stayed up talking philosophy nocturnal as if we were reptilian, apparently it's ______ian because it's worth a million?
We ate some Icecream at Atlantic Station, you eat really slow, but I'm very patient.
We made secret codes, like Joey and Monica too/two, I'm "clueless with women" - according to you,
It was a great year, you're a great friend.
I can't wait to hang out with you when the summer ends."

It was at that point that I realized I could never be friends with you again. Your willingness to throw away two years of close friendship - the experiences, good times, and inside jokes mentioned in my present to you - over something comparably insignificant? Your unwillingness to compromise and understand it wasn't a matter of someone being right and someone being wrong, but understanding where the other person came from. Their perspective, their feelings. Like I did with yours.
Clearly we were on different levels of friendship.

Your roommate asked if I missed you. [Sidenote: Your roommate didn't even know we weren't friends anymore and haven't talked in 5 weeks...the shock on her face. This must be one of the best kept secrets of all time, I don't think they even realize it at work, despite how our shenanigans used to envelope the entire room.] I admitted I did. But really, it doesn't matter. I don't want to make up with you, regardless.
I see you 2-3 days out of the week at work, will probably do so for the next year and a half of college, but I don't ever want to speak with you, ever again. Aside from conversation strictly professional and job related. And I will ignore my feelings till my heart grows completely cold to you. Till I don't even notice when you're in a room. Till I've ignored you to the point that I'm not ignoring you because you mean nothing, positive or negative, to me. Till you are not even a blip in my thoughts or my consciousness.

This is the epilogue of our story.

-Your ex-bestfriend

[Syphon the Sun]

*hugs steph*

That's also super insulting to Tyler, given that they're basically saying that he's only there because you "worked the system" and not because he deserves to be.

Ugh.

[starlooker]

Dear Bob,

He's BABBLING! Woot! I'd made up my mind to suck it up and call early intervention today, but now I don't have to because ba-ba-ba-ba!!!

He literally woke every two hours last night. I don't even care. Maybe his brain was figuring out how to do this. Woo-hoo! Ba-ba-ba-ba!

[Syphon the Sun]

Ba-ba-ba-ba!!

[elfprince13]

baa baa black sheep!

[Claire]

Yay!!!

[steph]

[starlooker]

Thanks! He did it several times throughout the day, plus some new sounds - said "la" for the first time - so I'm thinking he'll keep it up. I'm so glad. It reminds me of the later weeks of pregnancy, when he'd be quiet for a while and I'd try not to worry and then he'd kick and I'd be so relieved.

He also stood up by himself for about five seconds today. I was just in total disbelief. It looked so strange to me, just standing, balancing, studying a toy in his hand.

Quite a day, development-wise.

[Gravity Defier]

Bob,

Tentative excitement over a place. Just waiting to be emailed the application and that sucker is getting filled out and submitted. For real. I LOVED it.