The Fish Pond: 2011 is Trying to Kill Me

Or not. It certainly feels like it.

I had been feeling really grumpy about my exercise, or lack thereof, over the holidays and signed up to do a 30 day bootcamp for the month of January. I was pumped about working out every day and getting over this plateau I've been on for a couple of months now.

It was not to be. I was diagnosed with tendonitis, a really bad case in my left ankle, just one week into the month. I have to stay off of it for 6 weeks, go to physical therapy (which seems to be helping, or maybe it's just the young, hot therapist rubbing my foot twice a week), get new orthotics and shoes, and do a bunch of strengthening exercises before I can get back to my beloved walking. The orthopedist said to stay off it, I told him that I have a 4 year old son and that's nigh unto impossible and he said "Do you want to be in a boot?" So I'm staying off of it. The good news is that I've learned that I can maintain this weight through diet alone. The bad news is I still want to lose 25 pounds. Maybe by summer.

Then we got an ice storm that was actually kind of minor, and the kids were off school. Twenty minutes after I woke up Trout came running into the house screaming "Little Man is bleeding!" Now, my kids think a paper cut bleeds, so I didn't think much of it, but about 2 minutes later he came walking up to the house flanked by his two friends, with blood just pouring down the left side of his face. Long story short: BDF took him to the ER, 4 stitches in the outer edge of his left eyebrow.

The following day our pediatric opthalmologist advised that Nemo would need surgery to correct his eyes, that the glasses and patches aren't doing enough. She also told us that we hadn't been patching him properly for the last 3 months, so we have to change how we're patching. Now, he may very well need surgery, and we kinda expected that from the start, but it seems strange to us that she thinks he isn't progressing fast enough when we weren't doing it right in the first place, and that we should see if he makes progress after we correct what we're doing. So we plan to take him for a second opinion.

That very night, I went to do laundry that I needed for the following morning, only to discover our washing machine was broken. On a Wednesday night, knowing full well BDF wouldn't be able to work on it until Saturday. We can't go a week without doing laundry in this house. Laundromats are not plentiful in this part of the country - the closest one is about a 30 minute drive away. Fortunately we have wonderful friends and neighbors who offered us use of their machines. BDF and Trout were able to find the broken part late Saturday night, but of course the part store isn't open on Sunday. We went to my inlaws to visit and did some laundry up there, and BDF and Trout fixed it on Monday. I am grateful they were able to fix it for just the cost of a $33 part, but I'm still not caught up laundry-wise.

Monday we got Little Man's stitches out, and our regular pediatricians, who are somehow affiliated with Children's Hospital, got us an appointment with a specialist at Children's who only does that surgery. Which is great. But we can't get in to see her until March. Which isn't ideal, but we'll work with it. We also found out Nemo has impetigo, a skin infection, so now he's on antiobiotics.

Wednesday we got a tremendous ice/snow storm that due to bad timing and a particularly weird storm, snarled traffic and commutes for hours. My husband took three hours to do what is normally a 40 minute commute. He was lucky, because he waited until late to set out, but some of my fellow DC Moms and their families took 8 or more hours to get home. People abandoned cars all over the place. It was horrible. BDF got home at 1 am, but once he arrived here there was nowhere to park, there was a tree hanging over the road across from our house, there was a car stuck in the middle of the road, and no way to get by. He grabbed our shovels and he and five of our neighbors proceeded to shovel out the stuck car, clear the snow and ice off the tree, dug out two parking spaces, and then dug out the SNOW PLOW that also got stuck in front of our house. From 1 to 3 am. We live in an awesome place with wonderful people.

Luckily, we didn't lose power, though the lights flickered ominously several times. A lot of my friends who are served by above-ground lines weren't so lucky, and many lost power for days.

Thursday I started to feel sick and by that night I was in full-on cold, snot, suffering mode. Which I needed when all kids were off school for three days. On Friday Little Man threw a snowball at Trout which missed her, but she lost her balance off something and obliterated her knee. Well, that's only a slight exaggeration. It's an abrasion, so the doctor can't do anything for her, but it took a good while for me to wash the pants fibers out of her skin. I respectfully asked all my kids to endeavor not to bleed for at least a week. Please.

Friday night I went down to my basement freezer only to find that somehow in the washer repair it had been turned off and everything melted. 30-50 pounds of meat. Five loaves of bread. Too many vegetables to count. Five containers of Breyers ice cream. All my bricks of pumpkin. Bags of fish sticks, recently stocked up on during a sale. BDF cleaned it all up while I cried.

I'm just now starting to feel better. But I do think 2011 is trying to kill me.