things that are going on

thing one.  

there is a distinct possibility that i will be moving my office in the very near future.  as most of you know, i did not go back to my firm after having Kitten, opting to throw my hat into the sole-proprietorship ring and open my own practice.  my cousin had preceded me in this endeavor by several years and already operated an office in town - an office with room for two additional attorneys.  so since last fall, i've been renting office space from him.

wellllll, he's done his time and made his fortune and he's decided to scale back in the overhead department.  he's not sure what he's going to do yet - possibly office out of his house, or rent an office from another attorney like i do.  but either way, it looks like he'll be closing the doors on the office as we know it.  i can't say i blame him - i'd do the same thing.  no one relishes paying a ton of money for office space.  it's an annoying expense.

SO.

there are a variety of options i have open to me, including finding another attorney to rent space from, finding another attorney to share a new space with, or opening up my own office and renting space to other attorneys.  none of these options are incredibly attractive to me, as i'm very happy with the situation as it is, but you can't fight the winds of change.  technically i could office out of my house - i know several attorneys who do - but i don't think it's a particularly good idea for me.  i meet with clients OFTEN, and i don't want them coming to my house unless i have a very specific office space with a separate entrance.  

as a result, i spent a ton of time last week weighing options and looking at commercial office space, thus billing very little time to bring in the money that i will require to actually RENT these spaces.  *sigh.*  this is the make-it-or-break-it point in the process of hanging out my own shingle.  if i have to go back to law firm life, so be it, and i know i have several opportunities that are available for the taking, but i'm not going back to that lifestyle without putting up a fight.  a BIG fight.

which might mean i'll be eating ramen for a while.

thing two.

J had arthroscopic surgery on his knee friday morning to remove a portion of his torn meniscus (shock-absorbing cartilage).  we were discharged with antibiotics, lortab, and instructions to elevate, ice, move about freely to ensure continued flexibility and let the pain be our guide.  pain that should be manageable, if not minimal.

this worked fine friday night and saturday morning, but then around noon J's pain level suddenly skyrocketed.  we called the on-call doctor for the orthopedic surgeon's practice and he said, "yeah, that's normal, you're probably doing too much.  have you elevated it?"  well J had been laying on the couch elevating it the entire time.  by midnight, he was in excruciating pain and couldn't move.  not an inch.  laying on the couch cringing for hours, watching the clock tick by until he could take another pain pill.  so we called again.  more "yeah, that's normal, oh, you still have the ace bandage on?  oh, they told you to keep that on?  yeah, that's normal.  yeah, if you want to take some naproxen sodium that's fine.  that's normal.  if it's that bad go to the ER, i can't help."  AHHHH.  jerk.  it didn't seem normal to us, and it was FAR outside any guidelines that we had been given for post-operative expectations.  we decided to try to wait out the night.

this morning J woke up and it took him thirty minutes to make the round-trip to the bathroom.  he was in so much pain his face was white as a sheet, he broke into a cold sweat, and nearly passed out.

enough of that.

so my mom comes over to watch the girls and we pack up and go to the urgent care clinic.

NEVER GO TO THE URGENT CARE CLINIC AT 81ST AND MEMORIAL.

it's funny, because someone told me that EXACT SAME THING just YESTERDAY but we went there anyway because they were the first clinic in tulsa to open up this morning.

so after three hours at the worthless St. John's urgent care, the physician's assistant (WHO WAS ATTENDING TO US BECAUSE THERE IS **NO** DOCTOR THERE - THAT'S RIGHT - **NO** DOCTOR) finally calls the on-call orthopedic doctor from the night before who advises us to head over to the emergency room at the OSU Medical Center/former TRMC because he is on call there and wants to check J for a blood clot.

okay, the minute the PA said "blood clot" i think MY face went white as a sheet.

so i pack J up in the car again we book it downtown to the LOVELY OSU medical center and MAN that place is just scary.  i guess the south-tulsa-shiney-newness has rubbed off on me, but there is NO reason an emergency room should smell that strongly of cigarettes.  ew, ew, ew.  we were in my mom's black jag because it has a much longer back seat for J to lay in, and as we pulled up to the ER J is like, "we are in the WRONG place to be in this car."

so i walk in and i'm like, "surgery friday, inappropriate post-operative pain levels, DR. DANG IS EXPECTING US." and i'm just thinking blood clot blood clot blood clot.

and that's really his name.  dr. jimmy dang.  AVOID HIM.  he (or his associate) cuts you open, bills your insurance, and then completely renounces all moral and ethical obligation for your health and well being.  and as far as his legal obligation?  i'm still mulling over that.  his legal obligation is going to depend heavily on how well J's leg heals. because it better heal PERFECTLY at this point.

anyway, they make us go through all the processing and blah blah blah and it's actually going way faster than the urgent care place even though the urgent care place was basically empty of patients other than us the entire time we were there.  my sister meets us at the ER and feeds me a pepsi and a lunchable because by this time it's noon and all i've had all day is a cup of coffee.

so we get back into a room (and let me tell you the emergency rooms at OSU medical don't look anything like the small curtained partitions at southcrest.  they are big old-school tiled emergency rooms straight out of television.  they scream "SHOOTING!  TRIAGE!")

VERY long story short they don't know what's wrong.  they eliminate infection and blood clot (THANK GOD), give us a couple of other possibilities, tell us what to watch for, shoot J up with morphine, and send us on our merry way.

and you know what?  dr. dang doesn't show his happy shiny face the entire time.  so we drove all the way downtown to get a course of treatment that we could have gotten at any ER in town.  i'm soooo happy we did that.  right.

so by now it's three p.m. and we've spent approximately five hours and seventy-six thousand dollars on medical advice from one physician's assistant, two triage nurses, three emergency room physicians and one absentee orthopedic surgeon, that can all be summed up as "yeah. dunno."

but J's sleeping on the couch now and there's not much more i can ask for at this point.  at least he's getting some rest.  and when we got home, mom had made a wonderfully amazing pot roast which was waiting for us and could NOT have POSSIBLY tasted better.

we are so exhausted that mom took Kitten for the night and i called Princess's mom to take her. Princess's mom actually called me back while we were in the ER and i was like, "i'm the the ER with J would you want to take Princess tonight, no prob if you have plans but it's not much fun at our house this weekend..." and she's all, "yeah, yeah, sure, hey, can i ask you an etiquette question i bought this dress for this wedding and..." and i'm like OMG I AM LITERALLY STANDING IN THE ER WITH J.  ARE. YOU. SERIOUS.  i mean, i didn't ACTUALLY say that, being raised with the good graces not to.  i appreciate that she values my opinions on hemlines and color choices (i was, after all, kappa delta's most beloved Miss Gracious Living in recent history, ahem), but TIMING IS EVERYTHING.

anyway, i feel HORRIBLY guilty sending the girls away because we've spent the whole weekend in chaos with not enough quality cuddling time, but it's best for everyone.

i can't wait until things get back to normal.  J obviously can't go back to work tomorrow as expected, and i don't know how i'll be able to, either, if he's not feeling considerably better.

but here are the good things.  i need to list these for myself at this point.  

• J is in a lot of pain, but by all evaluations he is okay and will improve.  and he is resting.
• Princess and Kitten are happy and healthy.  
• J and are i both gainfully employed for the time being, and no matter what happens we both have the skill sets to support ourselves.
  
• we have a lovely, warm household and a lovely, warm family.

and, THEN, there's...

thing three.

and you know what? i totally do not have the energy to write about thing three.  so you will have to wait, my friends, to hear that rant.