Burned by an 8 year old

My 8 year old daughter was very upset the other day. She was in the bathroom getting ready to take her bath. As she was yanking her clothes off and starting her bath water, she was just mouthing away.

She was very annoyed with her grandma and grandpa... very.

One of the twins was outside the bathroom, ear pressed up against the door, listening to the temper tantrum coming from the other side. She was thoroughly enjoying the spectacle.

As the story unfolds, it is important to keep in mind that this particular 17 year old girl is very saucy and never at a loss for words. She always has a snappy come-back, and most of the time, those come-backs are funny. She has a particular talent for burning others with her wit.

Anyhoo, the 8 year old suddenly began to cry. My dear teenager opened up the bathroom door to be confronted by the sight of her little sister hopping on one foot trying to yank the sock off her other foot.

As she opened the door, she asked, "Now how did you get to crying from being all mad?" Of course, her intention was simply to good naturedly torment her little sister because she LIVES to torment her siblings.

The 8 year old child yelled, "Shut the door and leave me alone!" Obviously, this could not go unanswered... so the 17 year old said, "You KNOW... you're going thru a phase that I just don't like." She's thinking she has the upper hand... all smug and laughing.

Without missing a beat, my youngest child snapped, "Well, YOU'RE going through a phase that NO ONE likes; Now SHUT THE DOOR!"

The saucy, always ready with a response teenager nearly choked on her tongue. Without another word, she closed the door and walked away... all the while, in a shocked tone of voice, she kept saying, "I can't believe she just said that! She just got me good!"

Ah, to be humbled by a young child! LOL

Clutter

Have you ever looked around at your clutter? I mean really LOOKED at it?

Where does it come from? How did it all find its way into your domain? Does it replicate itself when you aren't looking? Have wild parties when you're gone, invite it's clutter buddies, and then forget to send them home?

It's all very useful stuff, right?

I don't know about you, but I absolutely MUST have all 157 ink pens, 13 cotton swabs, 2 pairs of scissors, 3 pink beads, 2 plastic barbie rings, 1 large ball of fuzz, 63 elastic bands, 1 3-D cardboard space ship from a happy meal box, and 7 hair clips on my desk... and 2 broken crayons.

After almost 18 years of children, I've gotten to the point that I can overlook the clutter most of the time. However, on occasion, the clutter reaches up, smacks you in the face, and screams, "LOOK AT ME!!!"

So I looked. I KNOW there's a good reason for saving everything here. There HAS to be. Right? Then I decided (for about the 793rd time this year) that it's time to de-junk... get rid of some of the clutter.

Guess what I keep discovering? I can't throw that phone book from 1985 out... what if I decide to move and need paper to wrap my three nick-nacks in?

I can't throw that box of scrap book embellishments out that I bought 5 years ago and never got around to using... one of these days I'm going to actually START that scrapbook... and then I'll need it... I will!

That rusted out old tin? I can use it in the garage for loose nuts, bolts, and assorted crap that I may need some day... I mean, I only have 7 more of those in the garage that are full of odds and ends that I'll need when I do my next big construction project. Right?

Right. Absolutely.

So I threw away three pieces of torn up paper.

Ah well... better luck next time. LOL

Smart folks

If you take daily medications and have to deal with insurance, then you will fully identify with my gripe about the whole situation.

My insurance will not allow you to refill your prescription even two or three days early. Now... if you don't travel and don't have medications that seem to confuse the pharmacy staff every time you refill it, then this is fine... inconvenient, but fine.

For my situation, I both travel AND have medications that makes the pharmacy staff behave like I'm explaining the principles of basic physics to them. I get these blank stares... um... HELLO... is there anyone in there?

It's really very simple. The medicine I'm referring to is Cymbalta. It comes in 30 or 60 mg capsules. If you need higher dosages, you have to combine it. I take 90mg per day. Seems like simple math, right? 30 + 60 = 90... so to get 90 mg, I have to have one bottle of 30 mg capsules and one bottle of 90 mg capsules.

What is difficult about this? My eight year old understands this... if my 8 year old child who hasn't learned to multiply yet can figure this out, why can't college educated adults get it?

So I spent months trying to ration my medications out until I could get them all on the same billing cycle so that I could pick them all up on the same day every month. Since my prescription has been raised from 60 to 90, all that rationing has done me no good.

Above and beyond this, since the pharmacy staff can't get this right, by the time they figure out that I need both bottles and call the doctor so the doctor can explain it to them EVERY MONTH, I run out of my meds.

You cannot order the medication early so that the pharmacy people have time to figure it out because the first thing they do is run it thru the insurance... if insurance says it's too soon, that's as far as they will take it.

Combine red tape and human intelligence... what a wonderful fuster-cluck!

Brief History - Part 2 - My Family

I'm engaged to a wonderful man. (this is our second go-round, so we should be able to get it right this time! lol) We have four girls... three from me, one from him. The twins are 17, so they're almost raised. The other two are 11 and 8.

He drives a truck over the road. I am putting in my time until I'm done with my treatment... then we'll decide together whether or not I go back to work or stay home or go on the road with him while we homeschool and travel... it's all up in the air right now, but we'll figure it out.

My children and my man are my life, and I believe that life would be dull, uninteresting, and just not worth living without special people to love and share it with.

They also provide a healthy dose of laughter, frustration, and insanity... all of which are necessary components in life.

Family (and/or friends) is the glue that oozes down into the cracks and helps keep the boat from leaking too much!

To the glue in my life, I love you all and thanks for holding this crazy lady together!

Brief History - Part 1 - Hep C

Ancient History --- I contracted Hepatitis C in November of 1991 via a blood transfusion on the day I had my twins. Since that time, my health (physical AND emotional) slowly deteriorated to the point that it became increasingly difficult to parent my children, hold a job, or even just function from day to day.

I won't bore you with the details, but my health got to the point that I was afraid I was going to die if I didn't do something... I had been following the research and treatment options as it grew and developed since I first learned that I had this virus.

I didn't want to be a guinee pig and be a research subject for treatments that hadn't been perfected yet... we've all heard those horror stories... and I had children to take care of... couldn't risk THAT... so I waited until they came to the point that they said, "Yes, we CAN pronounce you cured after this, this, this, and this happens."

I had kept a running tally of my viral load, lived healthy, took vitamins and liver supporting supplements, and avoided things like alcohol and drugs metabolized in the liver. Last year, my viral load doubled in the space of about 12 months, give or take a month.

When that test result came back, I knew I had finally reached that critical point where I had to take action or have my health plummet straight down as the viral levels shot up. I made the decision to go on the treatment.

More Recent History -- So I have been on treatment for Hepatitis C for about 30 weeks now. It has been a bit of a struggle as there are good days and bad days... but I can now see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Treatment time varies, but for the strain I have, the treatment is 48 weeks long. It involves an injection once a week of interferon... fun stuff, too. On top of that, it involves taking 6 ribavirin/ribasphere tablets per day... that's fun stuff, as well...

On the positive side, I am responding well... I am tolerating the medications better than I did at the beginning of my treatment, AND the virus completely cleared my system by the end of my 7th week of treatment. The earlier this happens, the likelier it is that the treatment will be successful.

SO! Please feel free to join me for the rest of my journey! I plan to document the rest of my treatment, share my methods for coping with the issues that arise, praise my wonderful support network of friends and family, and share my general/random thoughts on ... well, probably everything!

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog thus far