Just One of Those Days...

I've been sick for a couple weeks now. This happens every couple of years...I come down with bronchitis that takes a couple weeks to go away....this time, though, I'm not able to cough anything up (yes, I know it's gross) so it's not getting any better. Yesterday I went to the dr and he gave me another antibiotic, cough medicine with codeine (love that!), an inhaler and steroids for the cough. So I went to go buy out the pharmacy when I had a major coughing attack in which I could barely breathe. I was in the drive-thru line, the pharmacist came to the window and told me it would be a few minutes...I told her if she didn't get me my inhaler immediately she was going to have to call an ambulance. So she passed it through while she was waiting on other stuff. I took several puffs which helped some, but then I became light-headed. The kids were kind of worried...I was trying to not act too scared because I didn't want to worry them further. I had P call his dad to tell him to come over because it was clear that I was going to have to take a large dose of the codeine cough medicine which would completely knock me out! So we get home safely, I go to sleep and wake up feeling better. I get E & P off to school, drop J off at day care and head in to work. As I'm pulling into my work parking lot I start coughing quite a bit. I head into work, my boss hears me and promptly tells me to finish the little bit of stuff that has to be done today, and go home. Personally, I just think she was sick of hearing my cough (I know I would be if the situation was reversed). I decide I might as well make a dr's appt for J because he hasn't quite gotten over his cough from his last dr's visit two weeks ago and has just barely started complaining about his ear hurting. He's going with his dad to Houston for Thanksgiving on Wednesday and I want to make sure he's not sick when I'm not around. I leave work and head to J's school to pick him up, about two miles from the school, my car starts jerking and sputtering and the engine light is flashing hysterically. At this point I'm just praying that I won't break down in the middle of the highway...I make it to J's school and pray once again that the car will start...it starts. When I pick J up it is clear that he has gotten worse and really needs to see the dr today. I quickly decide that I'm going to still try to make it to the dr as it is only about 3 miles away then I will take it to the shop (about 2 miles from the dr's) or have it towed. I'm praying the whole way to the dr's that the car will make it...while I'm trying to get a hold of neighbors or my parents to see if someone can meet me at the shop. The car dies as soon as I pull into the parking space. Thank you, Lord! See the dr...J has a sinus infection and a double ear infection...decide to see if I can get the car started and hobble to the repair shop...please Lord. It starts, and I drive (hobble) away. I feel like I'm driving an old clunker, hoopty the whole time. It is jerking and sputtering and making a horrible noise and sounds as if it's about to fall apart! Just as we are pulling into the parking space at the shop it dies again. Thank you Lord! They're going to run a diagnostic on it and I get ahold of one of my neighbors that comes to pick us up. By this time it is after lunch so my mom just decides to leave work and come drop off her car for me to use, so I drive her back home. On the way, E's teacher calls me to tell me that E fell and hit his head...she doesn't think it's serious just wants to let me know. I inform her that any head injury with a kid who has hydrocephalus could be serious, I tell her the warning signs to look for to see if I need to take him to the emergency room. So now I am back home, it's been uneventful for the last 30 minutes or so...we'll see if we can make it through the rest of the day. Right now I'm waiting to hear from the shop to see what the damages are. The minivan has 93,000 miles on it so I'm going to be facing the repair or replace decision pretty soon. The only problem is that I have to have a minivan (or an extremely accessible SUV) because of E's problems (behavior and physical) and so I have room for his wheelchair plus groceries. That means that I can't get away with spending just a little bit of $. I was planning on getting another car in the spring...we'll see.

Thank you, Lord, that the car didn't break down last night while I had all the kids and I was having problems breathing.

Thank you, Lord, that the car broke down when everyone is taking time off for Thanksgiving so it's easy to share.

Thank you, Lord, for neighbors and parents so willing to help!

Thank you, Lord, that I have yet to hear back from E's teacher so it looks like he will be fine!