Braden and the $300 Torture Appointment.

What do you do when your kid gets rashes all the time?  When he has diarrhea and cries a lot?  When he has a history of food issues/possible allergies/intolerances, and you’re ripping at your hair trying to pin them down?

What do you do when you’ve tried the trials and you came to one conclusion only to do a 180 and come to the opposite conclusion a few months later?  And then you still weren’t sure if your brain was working right when things flip on you again?

What do you do when your child has splatter craps, then normal poop, then splatter craps again… and there was no real change in his diet to clue you in on WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?

What do you do when your kid gets such awful butt rashes that he cries and thrashes about, screaming with every diaper change when an active one is present?  What do you do when almost everything you’ve tried in order to stop this has failed?

Seriously.  What do you do when you feel like a big, huge, stressed out FAILURE because you can’t properly and safely do one of the cornerstones of good parenting: providing a nutritious and healthy diet that doesn’t make your child ILL?

Answer:  You jam a big, fat needle in the brat’s arm.

Serves him right for messing with your emotions, damnit!

Really.  We didn’t want to do it.  We were LOATHE to do it, in fact.  That’s why we tried doing the trials at home.  The idea of paying $300 so that we could pin our baby down and stick a needle in his arm for long enough to draw a vial of blood was right up there with eating a turd sandwich.  Or threading barbed wire through my intestines manually.

But there’s a new $300 medical bill on its way to us right now.

And we’re happy.

Because ahead of that bill, we have the results.  Braden has NO allergies.  That means no more worrying about every little thing he wants to eat, no more trying to find breads and other foods that he will actually eat (this ”picky” phase SUCKS) that contain no milk, wheat, or eggs. 

We cut out lactose and that stopped the rashes.  We reduced his liquid intake (and he wasn’t even drinking juice - apparently excess liquid of any kind can add to that whole “Toddler Diarrhea” thing), and the poops are taking form again.

At lunch today, Braden had wheat bread with peanut butter on it.  And his satisfied munching sounds did my heart good.

So, you know, next time you’re stressed out, just jam a sharp object into someone’s arm.  Worked for us!

Hai-This Suc-ku’s

Once upon a time,
our gas bill was very high
and I wrote this post.

Called to complain to
the Property Management.
Something must be wrong!

Owner of this home
didn’t care to make it right.
“Let’s just ignore it!”

We wanted to move.
Instead we turned down the heat,
trying to save cash.

Latest water bill
clued us to the real problem.
And then the gas bill.

This time the gas bill
was a whopping three-fifty.
And from LESS HEATING!

Checked water heater.
OH MY LORD, it is leaking!
Both water and gas!

And, oh my, the mold!
It is being birthed right here,
then coming inside.

This mold in Braden’s
room is growing because of
leak in the heater.

Mold on all windows,
making us sick for a month…
now we know the “why.”

Inform the owner…
“Someone will be out sometime,
for an ESTIMATE.”

But we need help now!
Leaking! Dangerous! COME ON!
But they do not care.

Two days after that,
our hot water is all gone…
check water heater.

Both water and gas
spraying out of the unit.
This is REALLY BAD.

Call and tell the turds
“property being damaged.”
Here within an hour.

“It must be replaced,”
says the contractor who comes.
But then what happens?

They send another.
Owner did not like the first
estimate he got.

So still we’re waiting.
Now owner says “his man” will
fix the old heater.

But this is not good.
It is beyond fixing, and
this is dangerous.

And while we still wait?
We have no hot water here.
Wash dish? Take Bath? NO.

I bet that you can
smell me from where you are now.
I really stink. Yuck.

I look at this shot,
and I long for my shower.
It’s now but a dream.

Oh, yeah, and the mold?
Will cost a lot to clean up.
We doubt it gets done.

Can’t stay here like this!
Our health is compromised, and
that is not okay.

But lease runs through May.
Will they let us out of it?
What do you guys think? :-S

But look at this face.
We will do whatever it
takes to protect him.

We must get out now.
Things might get pretty ugly.
Please send us good vibes.