The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Let's go in order, shall we?

The Good: The Boy had an appointment today with his gastro doc; a weigh in appointment. He ROCKED it. He weighed 34 pounds, which is 2 1/2 pounds up from 3 months ago. I don't think I need to tell you all how huge that actually is. He is actually on the charts. He had also grown an inch. And as far as I'm concerned it is a combination of his appetite stimulating medication and his Pediasure that he drinks every morning. Because frankly, he still eats like shit. Or rather, he doesn't eat shit. But whatever. As they say, the scale doesn't lie. We actually get to go six whole months before our next weigh in. I don't think that has ever happened since we started seeing this doctor when he was a year old. We are going to continue what we're doing through the winter months and if all goes well we can even talk about stopping the medication come next spring. Totally rocks. I'm completely stoked. Definitely "the good."

The Bad: So this morning when getting ready to leave for our appointment I was feeling a tad bit smug because I had been so damned productive. I had already bathed both kids, fed both kids, dressed both kids and all I had left to do was to get myself ready and I had an entire 45 minutes with which to do it. ALL proud of myself. Until. Until I was leaving the kitchen and I stubbed my freaking toe on the damn baby gates. I can't even tell you all how many times I have done that. As I sat in the hallway thinking, "this hurts...like A LOT!!!" I grabbed onto my toe to try and make the pain stop. I pulled my hand away from my foot to get up because, seriously, buck up! and move on! When I pulled my hand away it was covered in blood. Crap.

I hobbled to the sink and ran my foot under the water to try and assess the situation. There was a huge slice out of the top of my pinky toe. And it was bleeding. A lot. Crap again. I grabbed a paper towel after I had thoroughly rinsed it and wrapped it up and tried to walk away on my heel, therefore avoiding the painful toe. Except that my foot was wet from the sink. So when I went to walk away on my heel I slipped and landed on my ass...HARD...on the kitchen floor. Triple crap. I sat for a few minutes before glancing at the clock and realizing that my "leisure" time this morning was beyond over and I was barely going to make it to the doctor. I grabbed a random bandaid, put some neosporin on it and a flip flop on my foot and got dressed and got the kids and ran out the door.

Fast forward to the end of the doctors appointment. I was on a high from the news about my son and I figured we were on a roll. I said, "Can you just take a look at my toe and make sure I don't need stitches or anything...?" She looked at it and, after making a horrible grimacing face, said she didn't think I needed stitches but that she bet that hurt like a "son of a gun." I was all smug thinking we'd get nothing but good news that day until she added as an afterthought, "But you definitely need a tetanus shot." Huh? A shot? What the hell? She had earlier been telling me that I needed to get the whooping cough vaccine and that is combined with the tetanus shot so I thought she was just being funny. I laughed at her "joke" until she looked me in the face and said, "You sliced the top portion of your toe off on a baby gate...you NEED the shot." And then to make sure it actually happened, she looked at my mom and said, "She needs this. Today. Make it happen."

So..."The Ugly:" Well my toe. It's freaking ugly. It took all of my restraint to not take a picture of it and post it here on the blog. But then I thought, seriously, who actually wants to see that? But trust me. It's blue and purple and sliced open and just plain nasty. And it hurts. Still. A lot. And you know what else hurts? My freaking arm. My arm is sore from the shot and my toe hurts. Wah, wah, wah. Poor me.

I got a little perspective last night however. A city about 30 minutes from where I live had a major disaster. A natural gas pipe blew up and created an explosion that literally flattened 54 houses and damaged a total of 120. There are already 6 people dead and I am sure there will be more found now that they can get to the rubble. It happened at 6:15pm. Hundreds of people were sitting down to dinner at their table with their families when...BOOM!! And just gone. It was on the news all last night and I watched it with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach while imagining what I am usually doing at 6:15. I am usually at my most frustrated point with my kids. I am putting dinner on the table while the kids whine because they are hungry. I am tired and cranky and exhausted after a long day. To have it all be over right then...? I just can't even imagine.

So poor me with my sad little toe and my sore arm. But you know what? I'm here. My kids are here and they are safe. We are all safe. And I feel completely blessed for that.