The $70+ Pokie That Was More Than A Pokie And My 800th Post

First of all:

HAPPY 800TH POST TO ME!

To you?

TO ME!

To you?

TO ME! TO ME! TO ME!

TOOOOOO! MEEEEEEE!

OK, now that we have that outta the way, on with the post.

See this child:

She is in big deep doo doo trouble. She has this problem with refusing to wear shoes when she goes outside. And that my friend is a real problem where we live. We have pokies everywhere. When I was growing up we called them stickers. My girls call them pokies. Call them what you may, we have an over abundance of them here. I have pulled about 8 bajillion pokies out of feet since we moved in 2 1/2 years ago. About a month ago Emily got about 20 pokies in her feet, all at one time. I got most of them out. But there was this one that I just could not find. I figured it would work its way out eventually. Well, it didn't. And it got so swollen up about a week ago, it was huge! We kept soaking it and I kept thinking it was finally about to burst forth from her foot, but it never did. I finally called my dear nurse neighbor to look at it and tell me if she thought it was something I could lance and take care of myself, or if I need to take her to a doctor. My neighbor was so nice. She came and looked at it and then tried to help us lance it, but when she cut it open instead of anything bursting forth, there was no liquid in there like we thought there would be. So I finally gave in yesterday morning and took her in to see the doctor.

I was really ticked off with our doctors office. We made the appointment at 9am for a 9:45 appointment. We had all just woken up so we quickly ate and then showered. I had all 3 girls with me because the boys are at scout camp. I could not possibly take my children out in public without bathing first. So by the time we got in the office, it was 9:50 exactly. We were 5 minutes late, which I did not consider to be a problem being that I have never been taken back anywhere close to 5 minutes past my appointment. We got inside and the receptionist was on the phone. We waited for about 5 minutes and then she had to check the lady in that was waiting in front of us. By the time she got to us the clock on wall said 9:56. She told me she would have to check with the doctor to see if she could still see us today since we were so late for our appointment. I told her we were only 5 minutes late when we got there and it wasn't my fault she was just now checking us in. She still had to check with the doctor. **** (that's me being highly irritated remembering it). The doctor graciously said she could still work us in. I paid my $35 copay (we have crappy insurance) We were at the doctors office for a total of one hour. We saw the doctor for a total of 90 seconds. I kid you not. She came in, asked what was wrong, glanced at her foot and said we would have to go see a podiatrist. Great. I figured it would take forever to get in with a podiatrist and we are about to have a bunch of company and we are going to be going and doing and Emily needs to be all healed before then. And I would have to pay another $35 copay and a podiatrist visit would probably go towards my huge deductible and so I would have to end up paying that full bill, whatever it came out to be. And with our fantastic insurance coverage each person can only go to the doctor 6 times a year so why not waste 2 visits because a kid can't put on a pair of shoes before she goes outside???

As soon as we took our second round of suckers from the reception desk (I was gonna get my money's worth outta that visit) and walked out to the car I called the number for the podiatrist. I had to leave a message. We got on the highway and started making our way to my mom's office to eat lunch with her. We were almost there when the podiatrists office called me back and said if I could come right now, they could get us in. Woo hoo! I flipped that car right on around and took her in. We went right back and didn't even have to wait for the doctor.

He glanced at her foot and said, "That is no sticker". Turns out it really was a sticker/pokie that got infected with the W. virus (Emily says I cannot under any circumstance put on my blog what it really was on her foot). And so that was a huge W. on the bottom of her foot. Funny because her brother told her that's what it was. Guess boy genius was right. The doctor removed it and now she has a huge hole in the bottom of her foot.

It is now a federal offense for any person to walk outside of my house without shoes on. It carries a swift and heavy punishment. Already Emily has broken that law. She broke it about an hour after we got home yesterday. And tonight we had to go somewhere and she actually had the audacity to ask me if she had to wear shoes. I'm about to superglue a pair of flip flops to her feet. You see this huge weed below? We are surrounded on all sides with these. Its as tall as me. They grow in our grass and we mow them down and believe me, they are not pleasant to step on. Not to mention the millions of goat head pokies we have that make our bike tires go flat every other day. PUT ON YOUR SHOES EMILY! PUT THEM ON!