Parenting Community Forum - bad, bad luck ongoing for weeks! (OT)

I've had an exhausting few weeks. First, DH's back is messed up (partially bulging disc). He's been seeing a chiropractor and doing PT but not getting better and so needing steroid injections (which is a long process since it's under anesthesia and someone has to drive him).

Then, our air conditioning went out (over the weekend too). We suffered until Monday, when our phone went out and I didn't catch the call back from the AC repair company. The serviceman got booked up, but finally I had my mom call and give them a hard luck story and got the serviceman out & the AC fixed. Thank God because it was very humid and warm and uncomfortable in the house.

My ILs arrived that night. Their 2nd night here, FIL had an accident getting out of the shower and pulled the big toenail off his big toe and broke the toe. My bathroom looked like a homicide scene with blood everywhere. (FIL is diabetic and doesn't have much feeling in his toes, he's always banging them up.)

Oh, somewhere in this, DH ordered me a flat screen computer monitor. The first one went dead within a week. We sent it back. We ordered a new monitor from Amazon and it worked fine except one pixel was always red. Had to ship that back to Amazon and exchange it for another. We got the new monitor and will set it up today, let's hope it works!

I started having problems with severe tightness in my neck and back. Went to the doc, got muscle relaxers and then realized my muscles are tense all over -- arms, legs, back, face even and just won't relax. I started doing research online and I suspect I may have something called chronic hyperventilation syndrome (where you hyperventilate over time by breathing thru the mouth into the upper chest vs. thru the nose into the thorax). It's difficult to diagnose because the person doesn't appear to be obviously hyperventilating. Moreover, I realize, this has been going on with me since Jan. 2006. Yesterday, I had an appt. with my primary care doc and she agreed it was plausible, especially as I had a numbskull psychiatrist who took me off a pharmacy of meds abruptly and it did trigger severe panic. I am now going to have to see a pulmonologist to confirm the diagnosis once the metabolic panel the doc ran comes back. I suspect something could be off with my metabolism because of it. If not, it is something I'm going to have to control with breathing and relaxation and I have an eval. next Friday with a homeopathic place that does acupuncture, reflexology, etc. Anyway, the worst of it was the blood draw. I'm never good with those, have fainted once in the past, but I thought I was fine afterwards. DH & I left the doc's (thank God he drove me) and I started feeling really weird in the car. I told DH to turn around and go back to the doctor's office, I needed to lie down and drink some juice or soda. We got there, and I thought I'd be OK, took about 3 steps into the lobby, and I fainted cold. Unfortunately, I hit the back of my head hard on a chair and scraped my cheek and chin bad on the carpet when I hit the floor (went down head first). My face looks a nightmare. I have rug burns all over the right side and on my knees too, the cheek is swollen and going to bruise I think. DH said thank God there were witnesses, no one would think he had beat me up (as that's what I look like). I've got a massive headache (a bit better today), my scalp is sore where I walloped the chair, I just feel banged up.

The only blessing is my ILs are still here and MIL has been taking care of DD for me while I recuperate. DD is 4 months old and on a growth spurt at the moment which is trying since I'm breastfeeding all the time once again.

I don't know how we're going to juggle all our appts. with just one car either. DH sees the chiropractor 3 days a week, I'm seeing the chiropractor too, plus the pulmonologist, Tessa's 4 month checkup, DH's thyroid check (it's this month too) & dental cleaning, and any acupuncture/relaxation stuff I may need and how we're going to afford that since insurance won't cover it (but I don't want to see a psychiatrist and get on psych meds again as that is what I feel screwed me up in the first place). I feel stressed out to the max.