Can this week be over now?

To put it mildly, we are not off to a great start this week.

-Last night my brother (15/sophomore) was playing in his JV football game (he usually plays 95% of the game- offense, defense, special teams, etc.) when he came off the field, said something to the coach, and the trainer came over and started talking to him and pulled him off to the side. He was up against a kid who was a senior, 100 lbs more, and well over 6 feet tall. My brother is not a small 15 year old, but this kid was way, way bigger. Anyway, I guess he got hit hard and his head started hurting and he was dizzy. The trainer was mildly concerned but his eyes were fine. Today she redid some kind of test that they do for concussions. (They do it at the beginning of the year for a "baseline" and then again if there is any question of a head injury.) Anyway, it was significantly worse than his baseline at the beginning of the year so they suspect he did indeed have a concussion. The latest stuff on head injuries and football players in particular is terrifying, to me. My brother is now whining because they only have 3 games left this season and if his (our current) pediatrician even THINKS about letting him go back on the field this season, I definitely will be switching. (Actually, I'm already planning to switch anyway, but this would just tell me that he is even more laidback than I thought.) I don't see how they can let him risk having two concussions in a month as a 15 year old. (My brother has a kid on his team who in 8th grade had 3 concussions in less than a year, all from playing football. What that kid's parents were thinking, what his doctor was thinking, I don't get it.)

That is the sucky part of having boys. Luke already starts clapping whenever he gets a glimpse of football on tv. I think that's just from going to my brother's games. But he will sit on my dad's lap and watch at least a full quarter of the game, perfectly content, which is a huge thing for a 17 month old. I do not plan to let Luke play football, at all, ever.

-My appointments yesterday were okay at first. (Baby needed 20 extra minutes to pass the NST but did, fluid levels were up to 10.) Then I went to see my high risk doctor and she was out. Her seriously dumb nurse practitioner saw me instead...not the one I saw last time. She smiled at me brightly and the first thing out of her mouth was, "So, are you planning a VBAC this time?" (Somehow she glanced at my chart enough to see I had c-sections but missed that it was a classical.) I had heard about this particular nurse practitioner before, it wasn't until she started talking that I realized it was HER though. She said several more dumb things and it was pretty much a waste of time. I don't think she had any idea why I was there, why my doctor is seeing me weekly, she was inappropriately unconcerned about everything, it was a joke.

-This morning Joe found out that their company has now officially lost their government contract (and the appeal.) Lockheed Martin is the main company taking over, but there is a different major company taking over the part that mainly does Joe's job. There are rumors that they *have* to re-hire 85% of the people currently working there as part of the contract, but nothing I've actually seen has convinced me. Also it sounds like they plan to cut staff and cut salaries. The company that is taking over Joe's part of things is pretty notorious for frequent layoffs. It's also pretty up in the air when the takeover will happen, he has a couple more months there at least, most likely. But still, I really hate all the uncertainty. I'm sure it will be fine, he's already had a couple of interviews and he gets calls and emails from recruiters pretty regularly, but ugh, not really what we wanted to be thinking about right now.

- This afternoon while we were at lunch with a friend, Luke ran off. I got him and had him by the hand walking towards the door when he got mad about leaving and tried to throw himself down, while I was still holding his hand. He started crying but at first I thought he was just mad but then he started crying harder and was holding his hand awkwardly. We tried to get him to move it and he wouldn't really, even to grab things he likes, like car keys. Thankfully Kim who is a nurse was the friend that was with me or I would have probably totally panicked because the first thought that came to my mind was taking him to the ER since we were only a few minutes away from the hospital. I think she suggested I call our pediatrician instead and they fit us in pretty quickly. Of course today would be the day when someone decided to have a major car fire on the highway and shut down two of the three lanes at a time when there normally is no traffic, ended up being over a half hour of traffic.(Which gave me much too long to stress about him being in pain- having to deal with him getting an xray, or his arm fixed, or in a sling or cast, and also having child protective services called on us for injuring my child...it was a super fun drive.) Luke fell asleep in the car so at least I knew he wasn't totally miserable.

He cried when I had to maneuver him out of the carseat and he was still awkwardly holding his arm by his side in the waiting room as he pointed at the fish in the fish tank and played with the germy toys. When the nurse called us back she even glanced at him and asked, "his left arm?" Yep. Then she had me put him on the baby scale and he freaked out and cried and cried. Even as we were back in the exam room, he was still sobbing. I picked up a book and started reading to him and as he calmed down, he started turning the pages with his left hand all of a sudden. (Before he wouldn't even reach out and grab anything with his hand.)  Then he reached up and grabbed a different book from the counter beside us, with his left hand. It wasn't much longer that the doctor came in. Decided he must have had "nursemaid's elbow", or a dislocated elbow, and that he must have fixed it himself. I took off his shirt and he didn't so much as flinch. The doctor pressed on his shoulder and elbow and wrist and moved them around and he didn't flinch at all either. He said he would order an x-ray if I wanted it, but didn't think it was necessary or would show anything. He was clearly fine by this point so I opted out of an x-ray.  We have wasted a lot of money on unnecessary pediatrician visits (two colds that were just colds) and an unnecessary ER visit (crying), but this was BY FAR, the best "wasted" copay money because at least if nothing else, we went in with his arm hurt, we came out with it 100% better, even if the doctor didn't have to do anything...it was a huge relief that we didn't have to deal with xrays or the doctor fixing it or anything. He played normally all evening using both hands and arms, dancing around, etc. So I am completely reassured that it's fine. And I am really glad I didn't spend 200 extra dollars taking him to the ER.

Toddlers are so fun. 

Luckily, I'm out of bad things, but it's only Tuesday, and considering it's only been two days into this week, it's been bad enough. I'm a little afraid to leave the house tomorrow.