ROBUST discussion

Patricia's rant made me feel rather bad. All that in one day! Unlike my week from Hades. Hell is too mild a dimension.

I got sick. Real sick with puffy eyes and snot everywhere.

Did you know that a car battery can explode? For no reason? I didn't, and mine did. In pieces, all over my car engine.

When you think chickenpox is done for, it lurks behind you and clobbers you over the head. Two sick kids in 4 weeks is not nice.

When your service provider is also your telephone company and they start digging up the telephone cables in your road, chances are they will dig up the wrong ones, causing you to have heart failure because your internet connection is down.

Feel free to commisserate with crappy things that just happen out of the blue.

Wow. I think you have me beat in the crapola sweepstakes. I didn't know that a car battery can explode. What causes that?

And two sick kids in four weeks? No thank you. When my kid was just a few weeks old, she was in the hospital. They assured me she was fine and I should go home and get some sleep. When I returned, her little cage/bed was empty except for her blankets which were covered in blood. I thought they'd slaughtered her and she was dead. Turned out they take blood from the ankle of a youngster and she wasn't having it. She kicked and fought and the blood collection tube went flying all over her cage/bed. She was just down the hall getting cleaned up.

Another time she was in the hospital, no big deal. She was eight and just didn't have the proper level of energy so her doc put her in the hospital to run a few tests. I'd had a business trip planned that day, and would be out of town for a few hours. They assured me she was fine, no problem, go ahead and go. I got back in town, went to her room, and she was in an oxygen tent with nurses hovering over her. She had a life-threatening blood infection (some dire strain of strep in the blood). Nobody had given me a call to get me to hurry back to town; nothing was said at all even when I showed up. I asked what was going on and the nurses just looked worried and told me nothing. I had to wait for a doc to arrive before I knew what was wrong. He said I might lose her. She was eight years old.

Awful memories.

I went without Internet at home for a month or two. I was taking my computer to the library every day. I thought it would help me cut down on my Internet addition. Instead it caused me to drive around like an Internet junkie seeking a wifi fix in the middle of the night. So much for the curing myself and learning moderation.

Good heavens! I'm sorry to hear all is not well with you, Claudine.

That's typical, everything terrible, terrifying, akward and even just bothersome, always happening at once, the offing universe conspiring against you.

And THEN the morons come dig up your internet connection!

How awful! There's nothing worse as a parent than losing a child. I trust she made it through without any lingering effects.

There are apparently two ways a car battery explodes. A cell runs dry which causes it to overheat and explode or the charge running to it is too high. Mine had neither problem except for being 5 years old. The battery place is going to take it to the manufacturer as a matter of extreme curiosity.

I had a car years ago that had a faulty fan blade. As I was driving down the highway, the blade broke off and flew into the radiator, slicing it and causing all the coolant to leak out. Car broke down. I was fearless, so when a gentleman stopped to ask if he could drive me to a service station, I accepted. I arranged to have the car towed and repaired. The gentleman then drove me several miles to my parents' house. We went out to dinner, the four of us. Had a fine time. Said our goodbyes. The next day my father drove me back some sixty miles to pick up my car. The man who'd rescued me had driven back to the garage and left a letter in my car professing his love for me and giving me a Post Office Box where I could reply to him if interested. Probably married since it was a P.O. Box. I didn't reply.

The garage messed up the repair. Put the new fan on backwards, car over-heated, died.

Yep, losing a kid would be the worst thing to go through. She's fine now. Works two jobs, has a very active social life, and I wouldn't want to have to try to keep up with her.

Good grief!

I was feeling sorry for myself until I read everyone else's problems.

AT least I'm back to work on another Dr Katie McCarty story.