Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Where Have I Been?..You Might Ask?

Okay, so I'm sure nobody's really asking, but there are real reasons for my blogging absence of late. There are, as always, long and short versions, but because one of those reasons involves the likelihood of physical pain, I'll keep things short for now. Without further ado, the top reasons AcadeMama Hasn't Been Posting:

1 - A nasty neck injury/problem that arose out of nowhere a week from this past Saturday (7/21). This problem has since involved - among other things - 1 trip to the urgent care clinic, 1 bottle of Valium, 1 bottle of Vicodin, 2 visits to the chiropractor, 1 visit to the family physician to get referral to an orthopedic specialist, and 1 giant steroid pack. In short, sitting in front of the computer for a long time hurts. A lot. As does rocking my baby to sleep, bending down to hug H, trying to cook dinner, standing at the sink to *try* to wash bottles, etc.

2 - Lots of pain pills = very sleepy AcadeMama = more sleeping and less energy than usual.

3 - Prep work for meeting with Advisor last Friday, despite being in much pain and on much druggage. The end result, however, was fantastic. She told me that not only am I right on track, she'd call me "ahead of the game!" Seriously?! I couldn't believe it! After hearing that, I gave myself permission to not try to be at the office hovering over my books and taking notes for 7 hours straight, three days a week while recuperating from severe compression of three top vertebrae.

4 - H is back = me wanting to spend some quality time with her before she goes back to Home State to make the Grand Tour again. I rested up a few hours last week while she was at daycamp, then picked her up early and she and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie. We loved it! We shared the butteriest popcorn ever! The largest Coke they had! And even a box of Milk Duds! (None of this is the norm for our movie going practices...it was a special time for us).

5 - E is sick. She had a viral thing over a week ago that was really just a nasty cough. The pediatrician gave her some medicine, we rode it out, she got better, and we thought we were done. Not so much. She woke up yesterday morning with a fever of 102.9. It turns out the viral thing turned into a bacterial sinus infection, so the doctor put her on antibiotics, and it was a rough night last night. I was up until almost midnight, but the Greatest Daddy Ever took over after that. He literally slept on the couch with her all night, propped up at an angle so that it would be easier on her sinus drainage and breathing. He was up clearing her nose with the booger sucker about every hour and a half until 4:00 a.m., at which time her fever had come back, so he gave her more Tylenol and she was able to get a solid three and half hours of sleep. Did I mention he's the Greatest Daddy Ever? I just really heart my hubby these days! He's stepped up to the plate and taking care of everything he can, including both girls' swim lessons when they haven't been cancelled by rain :(

So, yes. Those are the top 5 reasons I haven't been posting. I'm hoping this steroid pack will do the trick on my neck, though, because a) there are lots of things on which I'd like to post, b) I miss reading all my usual blogs, and c) I really, really don't want to have to go see an orthopedic specialist....it just sounds scary...and expensive....and like something I just don't have the freaking time to do right now.

3 comments:

supadiscomama said...

Geez, lady! Any explanation for how you hurt your neck in the first place? Supadiscodaddy and I have both had severe back problems since little one arrived, so I can definitely sympathize with the difficulties of taking care of a child when you can't move your body (without excruciating pain).

I'm glad your meeting went well. If you were to glance back through your posts about your meetings with Advisor, you'll see that they all pretty much say the same thing: you're doing great work. Maybe you can be more secure in your brilliance now ;)

Take care of yourself!

M said...

We've missed you! Take care of yourself--even if that means going to the orthopedic specialist!

M said...

I forgot to add that something must be going around b/c S was sent home today with a fever of 101.2. C took him to the doctor to rule out an ear infection, and luckily, he doesn't have one. His fever is down now (without any medicine), so I hope he'll be ok tomorrow. He and C will have a day together at the very least while I head to school to teach.