As usual on vacation, Claire acquired new language skills.  In her repeated stumbles this past weekend, she began saying "owie".  After tripping, Claire grabs her knee "owie".  Music too loud in the car, "owie"; bumps her elbow, "owie"; bored and looking for attention, "owie". 

Additionally, Claire communicated more heavily regarding bathroom phrases – literally.  When asked, "Claire, did you go potty?", she’ll shake her head yes and respond "pee-pee" or "poop" or "poopy" or a combination.  Then she’ll grab herself or reach her hand in to help out.  She has begun laying down or going in search of diapers when I tell her that we need to change her diaper.  Claire tries to flush the toilet when in the bathroom or wipe herself when on the changing table.  Of course that is not a good thing when toilet paper is not involved or when only one parent is in the room.  She has been really entralled by the whole potty process lately.

I’m now waiting for us to start potty training so that we can combine the potty experience with "owie!" when she learns to push out her first load…

I finally got hooked up with a new place to get my meds, and I had an appointment today. I left after work and drove over there to find the place. It’s a lot closer than going up into downtown Phoenix. When I got there at 12:30, the infusion nurse says, "didn’t you get my voicemail?"

Uh-Oh.

The medicine wasn’t delivered and I have to go back Friday. Now, remember. I premedicate with Benadryl, so by the time I made it to the office I was groggy. This wasn’t a good thing. So I left, drove 20 miles back to work for an afternoon meeting, and could barely make my way through the office. I ended up in the nurses office where she let me sleep it off in the back corner behind some curtains for an hour.

I haven’t slept on the nurses cot since ’93 when I’d hate a class or not have my homework and go to the nurse’s office to hide. What memories…

My mother called me on the way to work yesterday and said she’s recently talked to my mother-in-law and they both came to a conclusion that they wanted me to share with Claire:

Tell Claire she’s got two special grammies. One is bionic and the other is radioactive!

It’s like having super heroes for grandparents, but in actuality my mother had a hip replacement and Donna’s mother had a procedure where she could not go near people or they’d get sick and puke, since she was in fact radioactive from the procedure.

Brings new meaning to the phrase "Nuclear Family"

Every two months I go to my doctor for a special medicine procedure. I’ve had great success with this medicine and am happy he offers it in office. He use to send me to the hospital to get the treatment, but that was over $800 every two months! Then he began doing it in office two years ago and I was only charged a co-pay.

I was suppose to go last week.

They canceled on me. Told me that they had lost too much money last year. Said it cost them $80,000! I asked them through gritted teeth when it went into affect. They said IMMEDIATELY. I was annoyed. I was not feeling well, needed my meds, and was cut off immediately. I tried to explain to my doctor that I was going to get sick, I could not afford this, and that he probably made FIVE TIMES more money than me each and every year. He didn’t seem to care.

Although he did promise to call me back within 48 hours. Three days later I called the nurse but she could not get me an answer until Monday. This is now a week after I found out my meds were canceled and I’d have to go somewhere else.

So now I have my meds finally scheduled elsewhere and would like you all to remember: NEVER go to Dr. David Drewitz at Digestive Health of Arizona. Just don’t do it.