The Po Show

The Last Day of Summer

I know it's not really the last day of summer. It's the last day of "my" summer, the Summer of Po, that two and a half week interim period during which both of my kids were occupied with all-day activities. It hasn't exactly been relaxing, since I've spent most of the time preparing and executing my ebaying of last year's fall/winter clothing, plus physical therapy, plus other injury-related appointments and running around and stressing out. But it's certainly been nice to be able to do all that kid-free, and next week's physical therapy appointments and my MRI and my orthopedist appointment will be much more difficult with Tessa in tow. And it's nice, of course, to be sitting here in quiet at the moment, without the sounds of the TV or video games or general chatter.

I should be having another appointment next week, but it's not going to happen. My ortho referred me to the spine specialist in their practice, since my neck MRI looked so bad. On Wed. I called to try to make an appointment, but was told he didn't have anything open till the second week of Sept. The receptionist said that he has two other offices in CT (I don't know what the deal is with doctors around here, but every one I've ever seen has had at least three different practices, usually in at least two different states, which just doesn't seem very practical), so maybe they could get me in to see him sooner. Stamford, CT is only about 17 miles from here, so I called there. After a bunch of calls back and forth, with them trying to schedule me during four different evenings (including the two evenings that Tessa was having her camp performances), they said that they would try to squeeze me in that night at 6:15. Rush hour traffic on the I95 is bad. Ross managed to get out of work early to stay with the kids and I got him home and was on the road by 5:20. I got to the doctor's office precisely at 6:15. Then I proceeded to wait till 7:30 before I got to see the doctor. He was very nice, and it was super nice of him to see me (he said he was missing a dinner with some people and his wife had already called twice, but he hadn't really wanted to go and thus didn't mind having the excuse of needing to see patients :)). He said that he was recommending an epidural injection into my neck to help with the pain and numbness, and that the only time he could do it was this Mon. at the surgery center in Wilton, CT. This all sounded fine, though I would have to take Tessa with me, until he said that I would need someone to drive me after the procedure.

Screeching halt. Ross is leaving for DC on Mon. morning and cannot get out of it. THIS is one of those times when it really, really sucks to have no family and no close friends here. The one friend I feel like I could ask (and she's a friend from our UCLA days) has 3 kids and is moving to London in a couple of weeks, so how could I ask her to drive me all the way up to CT and then sit there with her 3 kids and Tessa for 2+ hours? And the other two people I possibly could have asked (though probably not, since they have small children too) are both out of the country. It's about 35 miles away, so a taxi would cost like $200 both ways.

So. No epidural for me. It was also terribly embarrassing to have to cancel the appointment, since the doctor (who is leaving in a week for a long trip, which is why there were so few scheduling options) was nice enough to try and squeeze me in. Terrible to have to admit to people that you have no one nearby who can help.

Sigh, this post started out about the summer, my summer, but ended up about the general state of our lives.