Blue-Footed Musings

Marshall started complaining about a sore throat last week. Since we were all sick, I didn’t think much of it. I just mentally filed it under “Contact Doctor If Symptoms Do Not Improve.” He didn’t seem feverish, or incapacitated in any way, so we sent him to school as usual.

Then on Friday night he got a bad earache. He was in a lot of pain, but it was so late that the doctor’s office and the urgent care clinics were all closed. We knew from experience that the emergency room is a bad idea, so we had no choice but to wait for the morning. We gave him ibuprofen, but the doses just didn’t last long enough for him. He kept us up half the night with his crying. It was horrible for everyone except Livia, who seems to have slept through it all.

We called the doctor the next morning, and they told us to “wait and see.” But later that day, just after the doctor’s office had closed, he started leaking fluid out of the ear. At that point, I convinced my husband to take Marshall to the nearest urgent care center, which is not only very close, but dedicated to children’s care.

I’m glad that I did. First they told us what we already suspected: ear infection and ruptured eardrum. But then they slammed us with the unexpected part: walking pneumonia.

Walking pneumonia? That sounds scary! The word “walking” makes me think of the zombie show, “The Walking Dead.” That makes “walking pneumonia” seem like it must be the worst thing ever.

It’s probably not quite as awful as that, though. My research indicated that it’s a specific type of germ that causes it, and it’s considered a mild form of pneumonia. But still, it’s pneumonia, and that’s something that you don’t want.

The ruptured eardrum also sounded bad. But again, research was somewhat consoling. Ruptured eardrums seem to be relatively common among children (the same thing happened to me when I was a kid, and no one made a big deal of it). They’re usually small ruptures and heal up on their own, with no lasting hearing loss.

Anyway, to cure Marshall of his pneumonia, keep him breathing well, and help his ear heal, the doctor prescribed a bunch of medicines. It’s actually scary how many different meds he’s on. They seem to be working, though. He’s behaving like his usual self today.

But Livia, the poor girl, now has an earache of her own. And it’s too late to go to the doctor. And the nurse that we contacted through our doctor’s office says, “Wait and see.”

This scenario feels awfully familiar, and therefore sort of dangerous, and yet I’m not sure there’s anything to be done. When we researched ruptured eardrums, the information we found suggested that antibiotics don’t necessarily prevent it. And pneumonia, if she has it, can’t be treated until it’s diagnosed by a doctor. So there’s not much we can do. We’ll just have to “wait and see” and hope that things go better for Livia than they did for Marshall.

It’s likely to be another long night. And to make things worse, there’s a snowstorm bearing down on us. That could make a trip to the doctor’s office tomorrow rather difficult. The school board has already cancelled school for tomorrow, which is not a good sign.

This is no way to start the spring!

As you may recall, we were audited by the IRS over the 2008 First-Time Homebuyer’s Tax Credit. We did everything our tax guy said to do at the time, including paying back the loan amount in full and writing a letter to the IRS. It turned out to have been bad advice, or at least ineffective. The IRS ultimately garnished our tax returns until they had paid themselves what they felt we owed them, some $3,000 in fees and interest.

But my husband and I refused to accept their decision. I mean, if someone takes that much money from you wrongfully, you fight it, right? So we ignored our tax guy and contacted the IRS directly. They were actually easy to deal with and very specific about what needed to be done. They told us to send a letter asking them to reopen the case.

This letter was more the kind of thing I had wanted to write initially. It contained zero pleading and lots of facts. Instead of “Please be nice to us because we’re good citizens,” it said, “Please reopen the case because you made the wrong decision. Here are the facts that support our position.”

Their response was not exactly speedy. For a long time we’d get a letter every month telling us that they needed more time to review our case. Then the letters stopped coming, and we didn’t notice at first. When we finally did, I started pestering my husband to call (we file under his name, so it’s complicated when I call).

He finally called them this week, and guess what? We won our case! In fact, they say that they already sent us a check for the refund. Only somehow it never arrived here, and it got sent back to them, and it seems to have been for the wrong amount anyway.

So, there will be more delay as they look into the matter, but eventually we’re going to get a nice chunk of money back. Plus, for the first time in years, we will probably get a tax refund. I wish I had the money in my pocket today, but the news that it will be forthcoming is still pretty darned good.

Today my husband described one thing as “terrible” and another as “horrible,” and he used those descriptions in a way that implied that one was worse than the other. This struck me as odd, because I think that “horrible” and “terrible” are roughly the same on the Scale of Badness.

I suppose if forced to choose one over the other, I would say that “horror” is slightly worse than “terror,” and therefore “horrible” is slightly worse than “terrible.” But on this my husband and I do not agree. He says that “terrible” is like a habanero pepper and “horrible” is like a jalapeno. Sometimes a jalapeno can be super hot (i.e., very bad), but most of the time the habanero is hotter (i.e., worse).

Which do you think is worse?

I just tried to click on my cat with my mouse pointer. He was standing so close to my laptop screen that it seemed like I ought to be able to do it. He is an icon, right? But of course not. Only a sleep-deprived person would think that!