The Inmates Run the Asylum

So my cousin posts on FB that my grandma is in the hospital for the third time. News to me since I only knew of her being in the hospital ONCE this month.

So I text Mom. She says that Grandma had surgery on Monday but she came home Tuesday, but she'd find out. Mom calls me and tells me that yes, Grandma is back in the hospital. Apparently, she stood up too fast today and fell and they're doing a CT scan to make sure everything is okay, but this sort of thing happens after surgeries like this, which confused me because the only surgery I knew that she was going to be having at any point was glaucoma surgery.

So I ask for clarification.

Oh, she didn't have glaucoma surgery on Monday; it was surgery to remove a hematoma from her brain that the doctors think developed after a fall she had in September and worsened after her first stint in ICU just after the first of the year, which caused her arm to go numb and mimic the symptoms of a stroke, but Mom was totally going to tell me eventually. She just hadn't gotten around to it yet and she didn't think it was a big deal.

Also, my Aunt T had surgery Friday to repair a couple of holes in her eardrum and my step-dad broke his tailbone a couple of weeks ago.

So, yes. The loop. Not only am I not in it, I don't know it exists unless I trip over it.

It's been an eventful two days at the day job. You'd think a short week would be easy, but no. Not in this world.

Yesterday, three of our five trucks on the East Coast broke down. Problem, we still had three runs that needed to be done today. Did I mention that one driver took his truck to the shop without telling us and another driver's truck has been broken FOR A WEEK, but he neglected to mention it? Yeah. Like that. Thankfully, they were able to do a quick patch job on one of the trucks and get the guy going.

There was also the small matter of a guy finishing his run early, but taking his time getting back to the yard. Unfortunately, he had a surprise random drug test waiting for him, which put him behind on getting started on his next run. He's going to cut it close making it home tonight.

Then today, one of my favorite drivers, Sonny, was down by St. Louis picking up coils. He was secured the straps on the load, went to get off of the trailer, and fell. An ambulance was called and Sonny told Albert that he thought he dislocated his hip.

With him on his way to the hospital, we had to figure out how to get the coils back. At first it was decided to have Stephen go from his last stop in Indiana to St. Louis because he had a rider, new guy Mark, with him. Mark could drive the coil truck home. It set up huge problems for us for the next week with Stephen's hours of service and whatnot, but it'd get the job done.

However, Mike showed up and it was decided that Chad would drive Mike down to there and he could pick up the coils with no problems. Albert calls Stephen to let him know he can come home and...Stephen's truck is dead.

All of this took place before lunch.

So, a plan was hatched to retrieve Stephen, Mark, and the broken truck with the use of a tow truck. It would take our spare truck out to Indiana and then tow the broken truck home. Stephen and Mark would drive the spare truck home.

Yeah, that was at noon. At three, the tow truck that was supposed to take the guys and the broken truck from the side of the road to a truck stop still hadn't shown up. When I left a little after 4:30, the tow truck was just leaving for Indiana, a little over two hours away. The boys might be getting home right around now.

Also over the course afternoon, we found out that Sonny had broken his hip and was going to have surgery. He's going to be out for a couple of months at least. This led us to scrambling to adjust the runs next week to account for Sonny's absence.

Needless to say, it's been a clusterfuck for the past two days and I really think we all need a three day weekend just to recover from it.

Bleh.

Beer me.

I don't usually like to whine or complain, but today I'm saying screw it. Everyone else does it, I'm taking my turn.

The frigid, dry air does nothing for my skin. I've already got skin problems and the weather is just making them worse. I'm all dried out and itchy and flaky and unattractive and uncomfortable and all around miserable.

The prelude to my skin acquiring the texture of ancient parchment was a breakout the likes of which I'd never seen in high school. It was like I was channeling a 13 year old boy in a certain part of my face.

I've done something to my right shoulder again. It's got a dull ache going and no position is comfortable.

My lower back is really hurting me today. Not so much when I sit, but when I get up or stand or walk, and I can't seem to stretch it out.

I am more than tired of my body hating on me lately. I know they're just little things in comparison to other people, but their the ones I have to live with and I'm sick of them.

/whine

Carrie's been working very hard this week redecorating her room. I'll give her credit. She decided what she wanted to do and damn straight she's done it and done most of it on her own. Busted her ass, too.

I've helped her out a little bit (I painted a couple of tables for her and helped her move her bed a couple of times), but I figured the least I could do was take over her chore of doing the dishes so she could get more done. Last night, Carrie was trying to finish up all of the painting and she wasn't going to stop until she got the room done, so I washed the dishes again.

Now, the water is shallow and despite the soap, I can see the stuff in the water and I can see my favorite chopping knife in there. I've never cut myself washing dishes before (that I can remember, anyway) and I'm not worried about it now because I can see where the knife is. I reach in to get the spatula and I swear the knife slid over and cut me on purpose. I know the water can distort perception, but not that much. It's like it knew. It's like it laid there on the bottom and said, "Okay, tonight, she bleeds."

And boy did I, but thankfully, not for very long. Upon inspection this morning, it looks nasty and it bled a little more in my sleep, but it looks like it'll heal okay, though I might end up with a scar. That'll make two unintentional, self-inflicted knife wound scars on my fingers.

Carrie's finishing up her room today. I helped her carry two shelving units in their boxes up the stairs. Now, there are several people who can attest to the craziness of my stairs. They are not normal stairs, so carrying things up them can be harrowing indeed. Carrie and I managed, however, to do it without serious injury. I admit, I did smash two of my fingers a little, but not the finger that I cut last night, bashed my knee on the step, nearly lost my balance and fell backward, and I don't think any of this helped Carrie's aching back and we might have added to the awesome bruise collection she's got going on her legs, but there were no tears or hospital trips, so I'm calling it a win.

Her room is going to look awesome when she gets it all put together. I hope she's proud of herself because I know I am.

I had a bit of a restless night last night, doing a lot of switching of positions without truly waking up, but not so much that I got tangled in the bedding or rearranged it significantly.

However, there must have been some flailing involved because at some point in the early morning hours, I managed to catch a fingernail on my face and took a little chunk of skin out of the bridge of my nose. I didn't really wake up much when I did it because at first I thought I'd dreamed it. Then I saw the little bloody divet in the mirror and realized that it was no dream.

I guess it will be in my best interest to keep my nails trimmed short from here on out.

If you ask me on any given day how I'm feeling and I answered you honestly, I'd probably tell you that some body part hurt. Something always hurts on me. Something on Dad always hurts, too, so I'm thinking that it's hereditary.

Anyway, my knees have a tendency to ache. It's not easy carrying all of this fat around, especially considering all of the dancing I do. I'm used to them hurting.

But the past two days, my left knee has just been killing me. No position is comfortable, or at least not comfortable for long. I'm thinking it's the bitter cold that's making it hurt worse than normal. That's the only change I can think of that might be affecting it.

Thankfully, it'll be warming up a bit over the weekend and maybe that will ease my pain.

Until then, look for me to be walking like a pirate with a pegleg.

Arrr.

My face is less lumpy today!

The swelling has gone down some in my face and it's not quite as tender as it was. My eye was still swollen and ouchy, but the bites themselves have shrunk. Ice got rid of most of my eye swelling pretty quickly.

I took Benedryl thinking that maybe it might help with the swelling and the itching and not knock me on my ass. I was wrong, at least about the last bit. I took a two hour nap.

So, no doctor today. Hopefully, I'll continue to improve over the weekend and I won't need to go (there's been some urging that I go anyway, just in case, and I appreciate it, but I wouldn't be surprised if my last words were "Nah, I don't need to go to the doctor. I'll be fine" because I'm just that way). If not, the hospital is right down the street.

Now watch me jinx myself by posting about my improvement.

Yesterday, the right side of my face by my ear hurt and felt like there was a knot under the skin and I noticed two bumps by my right eye. They were annoying, but I didn't think much of them.

This morning I woke up looking like an extra in a low budget gore picture. The right side of my face, mostly by my ear, and my right eye were swollen and painful to touch. My jaw and the right side of my neck hurt, too, and those two insignificant little bumps were bigger, sorer, and itchy.

Oh, goodie.

Over the course of the day, the swelling has gone down, but the soreness remains. The bumps are still there, and they still hurt and itch.

I consulted with Dad when he got home from work because I have no health care and no money to see a doctor and even if I did, I wouldn't see one without consulting someone else because I'm lousy at making decisions about my own health unless it's obvious I require medical attention and even then I might waver a second or two.

Anyway, Dad thinks I might have been bitten by something due to the itchy bumps and it's affected the whole side of my face. That seems pretty likely, though I've never reacted to a bug bite like this before. And it eases my fears that I've found a new way to injure myself in my sleep.

I suppose I'll give it another day or two. If it's not better by then, I guess I'll...do something. I don't know what.

Something other than whine, I suppose.

Happy 4th of July to my American friends. Happy Saturday to everyone else.

Due to inconvenient weather being inconvenient, our plans to hang out in a parking lot and drink redneck cocktails while possibly blowing stuff up have been pushed back to tomorrow.

And since it is a day that usually involves someone, somewhere, grievously injuring themselves (and since I haven't done it in awhile), how about a father/daughter conversation on hospital trips.

*Dad sharpens a knife then immediately cuts his finger on it*
Me: Hey, just because our plans for the day got postponed doesn't mean I want to spend the afternoon with you in the ER.
Dad: Like you'd go.
Me: Hey, last time you tried cutting a finger off it was Christmas Eve.
Dad: You wouldn't go to the hospital with me if it was August 13th.
Me: I would if you were dying and I was in the will.
Dad: I'll put your sister in the will. Leave it all to her.
Me: *snorts* Good move. She'd have it all spent before you drew your last breath.
Dad: I'll just leave her the old Jeep. "To Mimzie, I bequeath the old Jeep. You wrecked it, you got it." She'd be thrilled.
Me: Yeah, she would.

For the record, Dad didn't cut himself badly enough to go for stitches.

This makes the third holiday I know of for sure that he's cut himself.

Dad's hardcore like that.

Permit me a whine for a moment.

Yesterday, the left saw of my jaw kind of hurt. At first, I was worried that it might be one of my back teeth (I'm paranoid about my teeth going bad and falling out). But, upon inspection (read: poking and prodding the line of my jaw with my finger), I discovered it actually was my jaw. Took some ibueprofin and figured it would go away.

Today, the jaw tenderness remains and is now accompanied by muscle spasms on that side. Tiny little spasms, twitching in a very small area.

I actually didn't really notice it earlier today. My jaw felt a little strange and it wasn't until started poking around again that I realized it was spasming.

The spasms have gotten more noticible. I'm noticing them right now, actually. They're not really painful, just uncomfortable and unpleasant.

I've just taken some more ibeuprofin and I'm hoping that it will be gone tomorrow.

It had better be gone tomorrow.

I can't imagine the underlying cause for persistent jaw muscle spasms on one side of the face to be cheap to treat.