Arizona Girl and The Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Thanksgiving Weekend

The Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Thanksgiving Weekend started out promising. I had no idea it was going to be a nightmare for me. After all I wasn't thrilled with having to drive to Phoenix Thanksgiving morning. I wanted to leave Wed. night, but my husband didn't want to deal with the horrid traffic we dealt with last year (two extra hours to drive the normally only two hours between Tucson and Phoenix). Since I didn't want to miss the morning, and cooking with my family we decided and compromise by leaving around 5am (miss the morning traffic). We went out to dinner, and then got my husband a new cell phone.He decided to go with the Sprint Moment, it runs on Google's android programing and has a qwerty keyboard. I think I might get the same when it is my turn to upgrade. But I digress.

Part I: The accident and hospital

Well I baked my pies -mint chocolate cheesecake and an apple pie with an apple crisp/crumble topping.This is where the whole day went wrong. First I forgot to put vanilla in the mint cheesecake pies. They still tasted okay, just not great because something was missing. Then after finishing the apple pie I realized that the recipe I used didn't call for cinnamon and although it was too late to add-it would have been better with it. I then was happy to go to bed. Since we were going to leave around 5 and at this point it was already midnight, I wasn't expecting much sleep, but I was happy to get it. My husband had already gone to bed so the bedroom light was off. I stood in the bedroom, in the dark for a moment to decide if I wanted to remove my contacts or sleep with them in. I decided it was best to take them out-even if it was only going to be for a few hours. On my way to the bathroom, even though I was going slowly to try to no bump into a wall, I stepped into a laundry basket (too short to pass the wall test), lost my balance (nothing new for those who know me) and fell down (nothing else new there either). What was new was my hand hit something on the ground. My screams of pain and surprise awoke my husband. I told him I was fine and asked him to turn on the light. That was when I saw the blood on a pant hanger-you know those clippy ones you hand pants or skirts onto.Even at this point I was thinking it was just a small cut, and then I saw my hand, the gushing blood and, gaping hole. Everything else comes through

as though I was watching me on TV or such. The only thing I actually felt was the pain and insanity. I was not myself. My husband rush around getting dressed and trying to get someone on the phone to help give me a blessing and some to watch Baby Al. I tried to think of who was still in town, since everyone had gone. We went to the emergency room. They wouldn't let Baby Al in the building. The front nurse was not nice or sympathetic about it (she needs series training). I was hysterical (remember I felt like I was

watching all this happening, not that

I was the one balling in the ER screaming that I needed my husband by my side.) My husband is trying to tell the nurse (at this point still calm) that I needed him and he couldn't leave me and that we didn't have anyone to watch him because everyone is out of town. She then told my husband to put our baby in the car and lock the door (this is when he lost the cool, he had been doing so well with since it all started). Thank

goodness for members of the church who are head nurses. He is in the Elder's Quorum with my husband

and heard his voice. He took me back, helped calm me down, we had been able to reach the EQ president to help give me a blessing. So the EQ president ended up watching Baby Al out in the car, and the brother who is the head nurse helped my husband give me a blessing. I am thankful for the power of the priesthood in my life. I can always count on a blessing to give me peace and comfort. They were unable to do it right away and the doctor was about to stitch me up. I asked him to wait and allow them to give me a blessing first.

He was respectful of this. When it was all over I had 5 stitches, a Tetanus booster, a numb hand that hurt like all get out, and a husband so pumped up on adrenaline he didn't want to go back to bed. I already hated this Thanksgiving the most

in my life (I've had some lousy Thanksgivings) and it was only 2:30am. I gave my husband the option of staying home, no one would blame us if we choose not to go up. But he said- lets go.

Part II: Thanksgiving the day

We left right away. My husband was wide awake until the half way point at Piccacho Peek where we pulled over and slept (not like I could drive since I was told "no driving" at my discharge from the hospital). When we arrived in Mesa it

was around 6am. We woke my youngest brother and he let us in. Baby Al was not in a mood to sleep and my bum hand made feeding him extremely hard and impossible. The whole day we were so tired and having trouble enjoying anything. We drove so much, up to Mesa, back to Casa Grande, back up to Mesa. Then my sister keeps telling me she is on the way to my parents

with her family to spend time with us, we wait, hold off going to bed and wait for 3 hours before they make a show. We need to go to bed so much.

I was so tired and no happy.

Part III: Black Friday is Right

I actually enjoy going out on Black Friday. This year I wanted a new camera. Mine sucks through batteries. It makes posting pictures here really hard. There were also other things I wanted too. I've been promising my husband all year (since last Black Friday) that he would not have to go out with me- I had to break that promise. Since I'm not allowed to drive he had to take me. I have such a wonderful husband. I got my camera, but not much else of what I really wanted. One item we wanted we found out the style is no

longer carried "in store" and had to go online to get it. That was a great use of my time that morning. Then at Joann we waited for over an hour-just to get fabric cut, I finally gave up on some of the prints I wanted so I could go through the express cut line. We had family pictures in an hour and were not ready. Since my baby brother is leaving next week to report to the MTC

we were doing family pictures. Good idea and this time we tried to match. Well I hope they look okay because I felt like junk. I couldn't do my hair with one hand, I had a huge pink bandage on my hand, I can't fit into anything because I'm nursing-if the item fits me in the waist it most likely doesn't in my bust. To add to my trama,

my baby is being so cranky and had enough with the taking pictures before we got started. We spend the rest of the day nursing a fever of a 7 month old. Besides being cranky, he seemed fine-except for the fever. We'd give him Tylenol- 4 hours later it was back up. He was wanting to feed every 3 hours (though the night). Again no sleep. Before going to bed we called our Pediatrician-who listened wonderfully and said if he is acting fine, just wait out the fever, use the Tylenol to relieve him, if he gets worse take him to an urgent care.

Part IV: And I thought it couldn't get any worse Saturday

In the morning Baby Al seemed to be better. 6 hours since the last dose of Tylenol and no fever. My husband and I left him with my parents and went to the temple. We missed 2 sessions we wanted to try to make trying to get there. I had such a hard time with my bum hand, thank goodness for helping sisters. When the session was over we came home with the intention of going to the ASU vs UofA game only to learn that our baby's temp was 102.5 and the Tylenol had been given an hour ago. We then made the choice to go to the urgent care instead of to the football game. I guess its for the best ASU lost,

in the same lousy fashion they have lost all their games this season-having it snatched from them in the last minute. The urgent care doctor told us its most likely a virus (well duh I could have told him that), and to wait out the fever and give him relief with the Tylenol as needed. Now why did we pay money for that? Why did we miss going to the game for that? Why is this weekend getting worse by the minute. For the rest of the night, Baby Al won't let me put him down. He won't sleep anywhere but in my arms, he won't eat anything that I'm not feeding him. Not daddy, only mama. To make it worse, may I remind you I have a bum hand. I can't hold him or do anything for him with my left hand (its also making typing this really awkward). He keeps us up all night-again no sleep.

Part V: A day of Rest, Rest in Peace

Around 3am we think part of his fever broke. He was soaked and hungry. We fed him and then we slept for 3 hours, Hallelujah. The rest of the morning he seemed a bit better, a little warm to the touch, but the thermometer read normal. We took him to church (my brother's farewell) sat in the back, didn't let anyone hold him but us and left after sacrament meeting. But he spent the rest of the day: refusing to sleep, cranky, a little warm, peckishly eating. I said good-bye to my baby brother, won't see him again for 2 years.

Then we drove home to sit in lots of Thanksgiving traffic. To make things worse, we put Baby Al to bed after feeding him, he slept for about 15 minutes, awoke, and proceeded to cry for 2 hours straight for no apparent reason. So again no sleep. I wish we stayed home, in bed all weekend. I spent it all feeling horrible, in pain, helpless, and reminding myself everything could still be worse. Yes I'm thankful I'm still alive, that I cut my left hand and not my right, that we didn't get into a car accident, that we have a good Pediatrician, that we have Urgent Care available to us, that the hospital here is at least competent, that we know the head nurse and he knew how to calm us down. But I'm not grateful I had to think about any of those things, being thankful for them-in this case means the slightly less bad option did happen. Can I re-wake up Wed. morning and do it right this time?