Busy Week Coming...

This is going to be a dynamic week... one way or the other.

This week, my husband is coming home again. If you've read this blog for long, you know some background on the husband (and if not, you can use the search box to find out). Anyway, I asked how long he was staying this time, as he generally comes when our daughter has a medical trip and then leaves again. He said, "this is a one-way ticket." I don't even know how to feel about this. On one hand, relieved. Is my two-year stint as a mostly-single-parent over? Will I actually get to shower for more than 5 minutes before having to run dripping wet through the living room chasing my toddler who decided that playing Legos in the bathroom while Mommy showered wasn't as fun as, say, putting Play Doh in the VCR? Will I get to rest when I am sick, take a walk without a kid on my leg, and cook vegetables for someone who doesn't say "yuck?" Wow, it seems like a dream!

But then I remember the bags of candy placed on my laptop, the case of Heath bars left in the bedroom, the nightly crunch-crunch-crunch of chips being eaten. It's not easy being married to a junk food junkie who thinks we can all eat whatever we want as long as we take a walk every day.

Well, it is what it is. I'll try and focus on the good, and see what comes of it. I'll be glad for the company. Maybe.

This week we are travelling several hours out of town to take my daughter for some medical testing and appointments. It's the testing that I've dreaded all year... the appointments that kept getting rescheduled since last summer for one reason or another. But lemme just ask for prayers for my daughter, because she is the one who may be suffering. All I want from this week is for her to be okay. That's all. I don't care about anything else. I just want my baby to be okay.

I don't generally get into my kids' medical issues on this blog, but I'll tell you this. She is having a VCUG (voiding cystourethrogram). She had one before, when she was under 2. It was absolutely horrible. Some kids tolerate them better than others, and some technicians are better than others (which is why we are driving almost 4 hours to get the test done THIS time). Imagine having to hold you little daughter down on a table, naked, legs spread while strangers put in a catheter with NO anesthesia at all. I had to hold my baby down while she screamed in terror last time. I had to hold her down for over 20 minutes while they pumped dye into her bladder, waited for her to pee it back out onto the table, and took lots of x-rays. She had NO understanding of what was going on. She was crying the whole time for me to pick her up and make them stop, and instead I had to hold her down. It was awful.

This time will be different. She is 3, and she is potty trained. She knows what "privates" are and has a sense of modesty. So it's harder in some ways for a child this age because they don't like being naked around strangers, having someone swab their privates, and they certainly DO NOT want to pee on a table or in a bedpan (since they have JUST gotten the whole potty training thing down). But the good thing is, she is older so I can explain. She will know what's happening to a greater degree. I will be there with her, a special therapist will be with us, and she will be lightly sedated. So it *should* be better. I hope. Although kids do react very differently to sedation and some get hyper, or some get knocked out (which wouldn't be good for her other medical issues). But yeah, now I am rambling a bit, but I am/have been a nervous wreck about this for so long. If all goes well on that trip, I will feel 100 pounds lighter by the week's end no matter what I really weigh. Hopefully this test will give good results and she won't need surgery. Please send good thoughts!

Our "extra" little girl won't be going on this trip with us, but she'll be living with us for most of May. So far there has been minimal jealousy between the two girls and nobody has had their eyes scratched out over My Little Ponies.

I hate to say that my weight is on the back burner right now, but it is. I spent the weekend getting out from under the suffocating piles of housework and clutter (and made good progress!) My focus for this week is the kids. My boys have some major homework and projects to get done and will miss a day or two of school for our medical trip, so I'll be helping them with that stuff as well as washing clothes and packing to leave. Between that and the husband stuff, the focus is just not going to be on weight. But the good news is, I won't have the time nor the privacy to binge. So I hope the simple balance will reward me with a maintain for the week.

Thanks for caring :)