One More Thing

Full Speed’s newly updated glasses finally arrived at the optometrist. In all fairness, it was a mixed blessing. Of course I’m grateful that he will have his new glasses (we have waited over a month and a half for them) but I dread going to the optometrist’s office. It never goes smoothly and at some point, I either want to pull my children’s hair out or my own.

When we are enclosed in the tiny room where Full Speed gets his glasses adjusted, he starts grabbing all the pliers, cleaners and mirrors that are within his reach. His little bottom is squirming all over the chair and I can barely keep him focused and still. While the patient employee is trying to get Full Speed’s fit right, his little brother decides to start climbing his way up me and almost knocks me over. I look down at T.Puzzle and notice with the angle his head is turned, that on the side of his neck he has a bulging growth. I put my hand to it and my heart drops as I feel it’s squishy consistency. Logic tells me it’s a swollen lymph node from all of his extended illnesses; crazy, Mommy-fear tells me he has cancer.

During my-child-possibly-has-cancer realization, I am informed that because Full Speed’s prescription is so highly specialized, that he will not be able to have the rec-specs that we had ordered as well (protective eyewear used for active sports). My heart drops again. I have to go to a very zen-like state of mind to keep my eyes from rolling in exasperation. I’m exasperated because the optometrist staff is trying to tell me that his regular glasses are more flexible than average and could suffice in a sporting situation. Uh,… have you met Full Speed? Rec-specs sure would have been nice.

When I get home, I get on the computer to look up swollen glands on WebMD. As I click to the homepage I see a list of common ailments in a column on the left-hand side. I’m about to put T.Puzzle’s symptom in the WebMD database, when the words anxiety disorders jumps out at me from the column. In that moment I knew what I really should be doing is diagnosing my own anxiety issues and letting T.Puzzle’s swollen glands run their course.

T.Puzzle was definitely tired and I could tell he was possibly fighting off some new virus or bacteria (he did end up puking the next day). I put him to bed and then, Mad Dog headed upstairs to put Full Speed down.

Mad Dog returns shaking his head in frustration. Full Speed’s new glasses are broken. He had them for less than three hours (can u see why rec-specs might be a necessity and not a luxury for Full Speed?).

I wonder if WebMD has a diagnosis for a Mom who honestly can’t take one more thing going badly. I’ll let you know if I find it.