Day 34: When It Rains, It Pours

Anyone else ready for the bad news to end?

Well, to catch you up, today marks my 14th day with a cough.  As of Tuesday, I was diagnosed with Sinusitus and Bronchitis.  I came home from work early yesterday and stayed in bed from 4:00 pm till 7:00 pm.  Woke up, ate a little bit and then went back to bed, sleeping off and on till 1:00 pm today.

I think I may have needed the rest.  lol  Luckily, I do finally feel like the rest, water and medication is making a difference as today was not altogether unbearable and the cough was minimal.  Thank God for tiny miracles.

You may or may not remember that my father is supposed to be having knee replacement surgery on his right knee.  His surgery has already been postponed twice since 8/27 due to minor skin infections (aka: "pimples") located in the area of the surgery.  He is currently rescheduled for this Monday, 9/10.  Having already taken off two different days for the surgery, I had planned to work Monday and go to the hospital immediately following my shift...but as of tonight, it would seem that my mother had other plans.

While I was at work, my parents attended my niece's 18th birthday party.  Sadly, no one caught the  moment that my mother decided to randomly jump into the pool with her clothes on.

"Why in the world would she do that?"  I asked my father on the phone, never having imagined that THIS would be the explanation for why he was calling me from the Emergency Room.

"Cuz she wanted to make her18th birthday something that she would never forget."  Was my father's reply.

"How bad is it?"  I ask, unsure if I'm on the verge of laughter or tears.

"She thought she was jumping in the deep end, but she didn't quite move down far enough.  She jumped in with both legs extended.  The doctor thinks that she's torn the ligaments in her left ankle."  He responded.

By now, I was laughing.  AND crying.  "Oh, she jumped off the deep end, alright!  So, let me get this straight - I now have a mother who can't walk on her left foot and a father who can't walk on his right knee.  I have two invalids for parents.  Is that it?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right."  Comes my father's laughing reply.

"Why should I have children when I'm not done raising my parents yet!"  I respond, the tears flowing freely as I crack up.

I should have been home by now but this entire conversation was so unbelievable that I had to pull into a parking lot only a couple of blocks from my job.  I'm pretty sure the cops would have sent me away to the looney bin if they had taken a look at me laughing and crying in a dark Taco Bell parking lot at 11:00 at night.

For anyone who knows me personally, now you have proof as to who I get my accident prone nature from - I inherited it from BOTH of my parents.  I don't care how recessive of a trait that is - I was doomed from conception.  *shaking my head*

Mom is in quite a deal of pain right now, sadly.  They put her in a temporary splint before sending her home but fortunately, we have a boot available from one of my family's MANY previous injuries.  (That's right - we have a stock of crutches, walkers, boots, knee braces, hand braces, thumb braces, ace bandages, ice packs...my senior year of high school ALONE paid for a new wing in our local ER!) So, Dad's bandaged her up properly, I've propped up her foot with a blanket, we've relocated a desk chair from upstairs to downstairs so that she can wheel herself around more easily and we have her stock piled with water, snacks and pain meds by her chair.  As soon as I'm done updating this blog, I'm gonna cozy up in my dad's recliner for the night in case she needs anything - as going upstairs to sleep in her bed is not a possibility right now.

BTW:  She's wearing purple nail polish right now - that is not a sign of lack of blood flow.  lol

 

So, I'll be going to work tomorrow and speaking to HR to file paperwork for Family Medical Leave of Absence in order to take care of my mom at home and my dad in the hospital for at least the next week.

 

I always knew I'd have to take care of my parents when they were old, but I never imagined that "old" would be this young!  lol

 

I expect there to be lots of stress and running around - both symptoms that tend to lead to less exercise and worse eating habits - but I'm not going to let that get me down.  As long as my cough stays under control, I totally got this.

 

Oh, I almost forgot!  Although in the internet world, my loyal blog readers and FB friends are known as "followers", I don't really like the term.  It makes me feel like I'm running some kind of wacko cult or something.  So, I asked my FB friends for some ideas, and they came up with great suggestions like "ChuChi's Chiclets", "ChuChi's ChaChas" and "ChuChi's Chickadees & Chickadudes".  I threw in some other nicknames, like "ChuChi's Cheerios", "ChuChi's Champs" and "ChuChi's Challengers".  But, after a week long poll on FB, the winner is:

 

ChuChi's Chubby Chasers!!!

 

I won't lie - it was my favorite so I'm really, really glad it won.  lol  So, henceforth, my "followers" will be lovingly referred to as ChuChi's Chubby Chasers.  Now, I happen to have two ideas for logos that I would like to work on, but seeing as how I am not in the least bit graphically inclined, I'm asking around to see if any of my Chubby Chasers would like to collaborate with me to bring a couple of my cartoonish logos to life.  If you're interested, comment below and, in the EXTREMELY unlikely event that I get several offers, I'll turn it into a competition...cuz I'm fun like that and stuff.  :o)

 

Alright my buddies - I'm going to wrap this up so that I can get a couple of hours of sleep in the living room before going to work at 8:30 am.  WHAT FUN!  Keep me and my crazy parents in your prayers please, cuz we're gonna need them.  (What in the world have we gotten ourselves in to?!)

 

Kisses and Squishes!

Your ChuChi

PS:  In response to the rough couple of days I've had, Chubby Chaser Jennifer Balan posted this lovely bit of motivation on my FB wall.  I thought it was loverly and wanted to share it with all of you.  Isn't she all kinds of wonderfull?  Having everyone's support TOTALLY pulled me through the funk I was in and brought me back to being all wide-eyed and bushy tailed this morning.  THANK YOU ALL!!!