What I Need

I've been continuing to hobble around with my damned knee killing me. Sometimes it's o.k. and then other times it's excruciating. I ice it and devour ibuprofen like a fiend but it doesn't seem to be improving. With some nagging from my colleague I finally called Carle yesterday. They said I could see my doctor May 5, or a nurse/practitioner in half an hour. I asked my colleague to help with the meeting I was supposed to have, called Ernie, and said, "come get me!!" So I saw the nurse/practitioner and he didn't even say 'of course your knee hurts, you're old and overweight." Instead he said it was time for an x-ray and some pain medication. I trotted out and set up the x-ray. The woman told me I was checked in, I just had to go sit and wait outside the radiology/lab, that it wouldn't take long. So I went and I sat. And I sat. And I sat. Ernie went up and asked the woman at the desk why we were waiting so long and the said she couldn't help us, she had nothing to do with x-ray and that we should just wait. So we sat. And we sat. And I started to get grumpy. And we sat. Eventually Ernie went up to the desk again and and kinda said, "Well, what do we DO if you can't help us?" She said she could check to see if I was checked in. She got on the computer, scurried off, came back and avoided us pointedly. Suddenly I got called in. I told the woman it would be helpful if we were told that things were running late and she said they weren't running late. Evidently the person upstairs had never checked me in and the person trying so hard to ignore us must have finally done so. I don't know. The x-ray people were lovely but it hurt like hell trying to hold my kneed the way they wanted and I just wanted to cry for no reason at all. They gave me Tylenol with codeine which is helpful except that it knocks me out too much for me to take it at work. Eh. Well. We'll see.

It's been a long, long week. Today Ernie and Owen are off on the train to meet an online friend of Owen's because she's visiting Chicago this week. Yes, I'm letting him miss a day of school, and YES, train tickets cost more than I thought. Hopefully they have a great time though. I did ask for pictures.... Maybe Leo and I will curl up tonight and find a good tornado or train show to watch. Time with my sweet peas...that's what I need.