Sherri Cornelius

We had an actual thunderstorm yesterday, with no snow, no sleet, no frozen water in any form. There’s something so comforting about thunder. Extra comforting this time, because maybe it signifies the crazy white stuff is gone for good. Maybe? Please?

I went up to the office for a while yesterday. It doesn’t get much use since my kids are all in school. I miss it. Although, while I was up there yesterday something was irritating my eyes. I think it’s the stinky chair. (I tried to find the posts about the office and the stinky chair for the new readers, but I think they’re on the old blog.) So that chair has to go, and then we’ll see. It makes sense now why I’ve always felt sleepy up there. Some subtle chemical irritating my eyes. I’ve only been up there 2-4 times since I eliminated fragrances.

The writing went very well yesterday, though, despite the irritation. I’ve been feeling pretty crappy about this book because it I was cutting and cutting, watching my word count drop and drop, and that is the most depressing damn thing in the world. Yeah, yeah, I was cutting bad stuff. Whatev. But yesterday I saw an ENORMOUS plot hole, and I think I can make up all those cut words and then some! It’s a huge opportunity for expansion. I’m excited again. And I’m still close to being done.

Gotta go get ready for my doctor’s appointment. This is my yearly assessment of thyroid level, but I think I should also tell the doc about the old injury to my hand. I have the money but that won’t be true in a couple of months. It’s probably to late to do anything about it, but it can’t hurt for him to look at it.

Yesterday was crazy. Over the weekend, Maggie fell and hurt her arm, but other than a red spot which faded after a few minutes, it looked fine. That night it started to really hurt her, so I wrapped it up and gave her some medicine, mostly just to placate her because you probably know how big of a deal even minor injuries can be to little kids. But the next day it started to swell, she wouldn’t use it, and it was painful to the touch. Time to go to the doctor.

So the doctor said it was probably a something-or-other kind of break that kids get all the time, sent us for x-rays and prescribed a brace, which nobody had in stock. Finally went to Wal-Mart and picked up a grown-up’s wrist stabilizer, long enough to go almost to her elbow but an adjustable width. I thought it would be a good temporary measure to protect her tiny arm at school, but it works so well, we might keep it long-term, if she doesn’t need a cast. I don’t think she will.

I wish we’d gotten the brace from the doctor herself, because as we were walking to the car after our appointment, Maggie tripped and fell on her bad arm. She cried all the way to the hospital for the x-rays, during the x-rays, and all the way home. It’s an understatement to say I felt her pain. It’s hard to go about your business when your child is hurting, even when that business is the only way to make it stop eventually. The promise of ice cream helped a little, and once she had a cone in her hand she smiled again.

I’ll get the results from the x-ray back today.

Despite a relatively quiet Internet on my end, the blog traffic doubled for some reason. Does WordPress count the spam comments? Because at 30 per day, that would explain it, disappointing though it would be. I used to be able to sift through them all before they were deleted, but now the volume is too high. If you have a comment which doesn’t show up, that’s why. Just send it again.

I ended up crying at the doctor’s office yesterday. I feel pretty dumb about the blubbering, but it just serves to show how frustrated I am by the whole thing, how much I really need to figure this sinus thing out. The X-rays showed nothing abnormal (it so cool to see inside my own skull) so he gave me a course of antibiotics and steroids.

I told Doc I’d been dealing with this problem for 6-7 years, but as I look back I think it’s been closer to eight or nine. I’m not sure if Doc believes me when I tell him how my old doctor dealt with these chronic problems. With the backward lens of time and experience, it seems like the old doc hated me. I wish I could see what he wrote about me in my chart.

It won’t surprise me at all if antibiotics clear it right up. The old doc refused to consider it. I love having a doctor who listens to me, even when I’m crying.

And oh yeah, I told him about the fragrance thing and he didn’t laugh at me. He didn’t get defensive. He didn’t dismiss it. He said some people have sensitive airways, and that was it. I’m hoping that the fragrance sensitivity will shake out when my sinuses are healed. I’d probably never go back to the old level of stinkiness, but at least I’d be able to be around people again, which means writer’s cons and a job and TCoB in general. To be normal would be the height of awesomeness.