Two Seconds Away From Panic

All day I've felt like I am two seconds away from a full-on panic attack.

I draw in breath and forget to let it out, I stare at the piles of files and papers on my desk and become convinced it is an insurmountable mountain of work, that I cannot possibly be ready to leave in a week's time, that I cannot possibly have all the paperwork I need, that I cannot possibly have my visa (um...yeah, I actually called home and asked Husband to LOOK INSIDE the passports to make sure the visas were still there. Hmm...who did I think took them? The Victor-the-Invisible-Visa-Napper?)

Let's see, other random terrified thoughts running through my mind - that I will actually physically die if I am away from Gabriel for so long, or, on the flip side, that something terrible will happen to Gabriel while we are gone - that he will get lost, that whoever is supposed to be caring for him on any given day will forget that they are supposed to pick him up or drop him off or meet his school bus after school. That he will get sick, that he will get sad, that he will never forgive us for leaving him for so long, that Skype won't work, that my parents won't be able to figure out how to make Skype work, that Vietnam will be struck by a typhoon/earthquake/monsoon while we are there, that our house will be struck by a tornado/earthquake/random flaming asteroid while we are gone; that Lan will hate us, that Lan will refuse to come with us, and on and on and on and on and on it goes.

It's possible that I have become a crazy person in the last few weeks. It's possible I was crazy all along and that this has just shoved me right over the edge of the CLIFFS of INSANITY.

Cross your fingers for me that my head doesn't explode,
LM

In case you ever wondered what comes in a package from Satan

There is a great deal of irony here.

Inside the package...was a peace crane necklace...much like this:

https://www.museumshop.com/gifts/product/image/27891.gif

So, there you go. Satan. Working for peace through origami. Who knew?

LM

Why 6-year-olds need help labeling gifts

Under my tree, attached to a gift lovingly wrapped by father and child, in Gabe's unique handwriting:

To: Mommy
From: Satan

I am pretty sure he meant "Santa".

I hope so.

LM

His law is Love and His gospel is Peace

On this holy night,

Merry Christmas to All!

Love,
LM

The Bahamas Misses Me

I got an email today...from the Bahamian Minister of Tourism.

I believe I recieved this email because when Husband and I went to the Bahamas two years ago with our friends M&R, they asked us for our email address on our immigration form.

Anyway, the email says something like, (I'm paraphrasing, but, it's mostly right),

Dear American Friends,

Please know that when you travel again to the Bahamas after January 1, 2007, a US Passport will be required. Please apply for a passport so you can visit the beauty of the Bahamas again soon.

The Bahamian Minster of Tourism

I feel very very special and I am sure that the Bahamian Minister of Tourism sent this email to me, personally, and that it was not a mass email sent to every person who has landed in the Bahamas in the last three years....(NOT.)

Anyway, this email made me weirdly, freakishly sad.

And I think the reason for my sadness is: there is no way we will be able to afford to go to the Caribbean or the Bahamas this year (and even if we wanted to, there is no way we would have Lana's US Passport in time). And we ALWAYS go to the Caribbean or the Bahamas in the spring.

It's a stupid thing to whine about, especially since we will have the opportunity to experience a whole new culture for three whole weeks, and Vietnam will be an amazing adventure.
But, it's not, you know, being pampered by the Bahamian Minister of Tourism (well, you know, not the minister PERSONALLY, but, his minions of Bahamian pampering folks)...I'm going to be depressed come the last week of March, is what I'm saying...this concludes my whine for the moment.

Speaking of being pampered, I had an amazing morning at the Spa today. My father and step-mom had given me a spa day for Christmas last year, and I forgot to use it. It was going to expire after Christmas, so, when I called last week, they fit me in for a morning of spa treatments today. I had an amazing massage (this was only my second massage ever, the first having been a gift from my Girlfriend H~ when I was her bridesmaid last summer), and then a soothing facial, and then a cleansing, detoxifying body wrap followed by a "vichy shower".

The vichy shower sounds kind of either dirty or kinky to me (in my own little twisted mind), but, it was actually really amazing. You lay on a table and these jets spray your back and neck at five key points (chakra points?). Anyway, it felt amazing. Then I had a green tea and mint body scrub, and I got my hair done. I feel like a princess.

That's all for now,
Gretchen

Year in Review

I got this idea from Nicki (http://sixmonkeyjungle.blogspot.com/2006/12/2006-year-in-review.html) and Nina (http://ourttc2journey.blogspot.com/). The idea is to take the first sentence of the first post you wrote in each month of 2006 and put them in one post. Mine is below. (The title of the post is in parantheses.)

Oh, and go over and give Christina (http://mrsbroccoliguy.blogspot.com) some kind words because that poor girl has been in a house with FOUR CHILDREN and NO POWER for WAY TOO LONG.

2006 Year in Review - Adventures of Lawmommy

Jan 2006
My darling husband and I are in the process of adopting a child. (Why Adopt?)
Feb 2006
I had an enlightening conversation with my adoption agency yesterday. (Dong)
March 2006
Monday evening around 7:00 PM Gabe said his tummy ached. (Puke Fest)
April 2006
Well, Husband and I are back from our week in Jamaica - which was FABULOUS. (Home Again.)
May 2006
I need to get the Cheetos out of my house. Also the cookies. (I need to stop drowning my sorrows in Cheetos.)
June 2006
As you may recall from my previous post about my cousin Gwen's off-broadway show:http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=21460665&postID=114769913465331296I am pretty proud of her. (The New York Times)
July 2006
I was doing a happy dance on Friday because husband sent me a text message during my all-day-long CLE (continuing legal education class) that we had received a "favorable notice" from the USCIS. (Evidently the USCIS is trying to drive me insane.)
August 2006
I said the rudest thing yesterday and I just can't believe it came out of my mouth. (What the Heck is Wrong with me?)
Sept 2006
I contemplated calling these posts, “Driving Around Jersey with a Crazy Person” or possibly, “Travels with a Complete Whack-Job”, but, I decided against it. (Scenes from a New Jersey Interfaith Wedding)
Oct 2006
Most of you know that Lana is in DaNang. (Completely Hysterical).
Nov 2006
I had been hoping to hear from our adoption agency this morning. (A bit of steam to blow off).
Dec 2006
That's the diagnosis I got from my doctor this afternoon, as I lay in a pathetic heap on the examining table in his office. (Viral Bronchitis.)

Back to the Lab Again, Yo

I got home from my Families with Children from China (and other parts of Asia)* Ladies Night Out and Holiday Ornament Exchange at about 10:00 last night. Husband said that Gabriel had complained of chills before bed. I went in to check on him and he was like a furnace. I took his temperature and it was 106.1. ONE HUNDRED AND SIX POINT ONE.

Husband gave him 200mg of ibuprofen and I paged the doctor who asked if he was "breathing quickly" on top of the fever. I said, "yes, he is breathing quickly and shallowly" and the doctor said, “get in the car right now and go to the ER.”

So, to the ER we went.

Where they gave him 300 mg of Tylenol on top of the 200 mg of ibuprofen. They took his blood in a screaming horrible scene that I don’t want to think about ever again. They took a chest xray and a urine sample and various other sundry tests.

And when all was said and done, they said they didn’t know what was wrong. They knew it wasn’t strep and it wasn’t pneumonia and it wasn’t a bladder infection and his white counts were normal, but, he was running a fever in the neighborhood of 106 degrees and his heart rate was elevated "slightly" and that it was “probably a virus”.

All of this leads me to the conclusion that medicine is very far away from an exact science.

(I have mentioned before that my uncle is a physician. It would be nice to be able to call him and ask his opinion, however, he has chosen to live as a mission doctor in some godforsaken outpost of African grassland, so, he was unavailable for consult.)

At 1:45 AM, after the ibuprofen and the Tylenol and one more dose of ibuprofen for good measure, and two popsicles and a glass of Sprite, Gabe’s fever was down to normal and they sent us home.

I put him in bed at 2:00 AM. At 2:10 AM he was up crying hysterically about some lizards and the bathtub drain. (?!?). I put him in the guestroom bed and crawled in with him, and my family slept like the dead until 8:45 this morning, when I had to haul my sorry self out of bed to be in court by 9:30. Where I looked quite pathetically bedraggled.

I’m tired. I want to go back to bed and sleep for a long time. But, I have 150 cases pending that I need to deal with before I get on a plane two weeks from today, so, that’s not going to happen.

LM

*We just call ourselves the FCC group, because the FCC(AOPOA) group is just too cumbersome.

Better

The doctor checked out Gabe and determined that he was clear of ear infections or any other scary things, and said he thought it was a virus that was going around. Gabe ran another very high fever over night, but, at about 6:30 this morning, he was covered in sweat and running a normal temp.

At the moment he is sitting on my office floor watching DVDs on a laptop, and generally making it difficult for me to draft a response to a motion for summary judgment. :-)

In great adoption news, our visas came today from the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington DC! We are all cleared to enter Vietnam on January 5!

Right now, we are scheduled to fly out of Detroit on January 4. We will fly Detroit to Chicago on Northwest, then Chicago to Seoul and Seoul to Hanoi on Air Korea. We should land in Hanoi at 10:30 PM on January 5, 25 hours after we leave Detroit! Yikes!!

LM

In Dreams I Walk the Streets of Tokyo

Gabriel is sick. He is a very very sick little boy, with a fever of 104.7 right now. His fever reached 105.2 in the middle of the night. He is mostly in a good mood, very sleepy right now, but, he didn't sleep very well from 2:30 to 5:30 this morning. Possibly because his mother kept shoving the thermometer in his ear every few minutes. I was and am still worried that we are going to end up in the hospital again like last summer - unexplained scary high fever that won't go away...we have a doctor's appointment at 4:00 PM.

When I called his school this morning to tell them he wouldn't be in, the school secretary asked if it was a high fever, and I said, "yes". She said that the first grade had a "bunch" of children out with high fevers. It's sad because today was their last day before Christmas break and Gabe is missing the Holiday party. Poor little guy. :-(

Gabe and I finally fell into a deep sleep about 5:30 this morning. Odd dreams followed.

Last week I had two dreams about meeting Lan for the first time. In one dream she was sitting all alone on a swing in an empty park. I sat down in front of her and she started to cry. In the other dream, when Lan saw David and I, she turned and ran away from us, and suddenly we were chasing her through a crowded subway station in Tokyo. (Specifically, it was Shinjuku station, I'm not sure why that was so clear to me.) She kept running and I lost her in the sea of Japanese business men. I woke up terrified.

In this morning's dreams, I was wandering through the streets of Tokyo, looking for something, but, I didn't know what. I kept trying to ask people for what I was looking for, but, the words wouldn't come out of my mouth. I woke up at 8:30 confused and frustrated.

I find this odd, truly I do. It's been 11 years since I've been to Tokyo, 11 years since we moved back to the US. Until last week, Japan had not been the backdrop of my dreams (remembered ones at any rate) in years. I have no idea what to make of this,

Haunted by Tokyo,
LM

New Pictures of Our Girl

We were pleasantly surprised to find new pictures and an update of Lana in our email box yesterday. (Evidently someone at our agency must have been working on a Saturday).

I am hoping you can see them through this link:



The report says that Lan understands that she is being adopted by an American family and that she recognizes her "American parents" in photographs. It also says that she wants to send gifts to her foster mother once she comes to the United States with her adoptive family. :-)

LM

An Open Letter to the First Energy Corporation

I am very unhappy with my electricity provider right now, and since they have a monopoly in this area, and since I am powerless (pun intended) to do anything else...FIRST ENERGY is about to get BLOGGED.

Below is the text of the actual letter I sent them this evening, via their website.

I logged into your website this evening in order to set up online bill pay, as my husband and I will be traveling to Vietnam for the month of January and I wanted to be able to set up the ability to pay bills online SO THAT I CAN PAY YOU PROMPTLY IN THE MONTH OF JANUARY.
Much to my consternation, after registering my account, and attempting to make this month's payment, I received a message that unless I agree to stop receiving paper bills, YOU will not allow me to pay my bill online UNLESS I pay an exhorbitant and ridiculous fee of $3.95 for a credit card payment.
Frankly I am appalled by this. All I want to do is PAY YOU. And you are ATTACHING STRINGS to my ability to PAY YOU? That's absurd.
I get so much spam email that it simply is not reasonable for me to agree to allow you to only email me your bill, where it could easily get lost amid the myriad offers for Viagra and enormous breasts - that's not a risk I am willing to take.
I pay you HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS every year. And you make this childish requirement that unless you let me save you TWELVE STAMPS during the year you won't let me pay you online.
Quite frankly I am so angry right now that if you were not a monopoloy in this area I would switch to ANOTHER COMPANY and quite possibly PAY MORE FOR MY SERVICE than continue to use your service.
Exceedingly annoyed and unhappy with the First Energy Corporation,
LM

What the Heck is wrong with Blogger today?

I have tried to post comments over at Mrs. Broccoli Guy and at Snips and Snails, AND BLOGGER WON'T LET ME!. GAR!!

Anyway, Chris and Kelly, I tried to post on your blogs today!

LM

A Slightly Awkward Christmas Card Photo

Believe me...this was the best of the bunch. Even though it looks like Husband is clutching Gabriel's wrist in a weird way and you can barely see me. Trust me. This was the best one.

LM

My Head is Still Spinning

The past few days have been a flurry of activity and I think my head is still spinning.

Right now we have confirmed seats on a flight leaving January 5, (going Detroit, Chicago, Seoul, Hanoi, DaNang) and are waitlisted for a flight leaving on the 4th, which would be our preference. It's going to be a long exhausting trip and I would like to have the 6th of January (a Saturday) in DaNang to recover from the flight before we meet Lan. (We don't have any guarantee that we will meet her on Sunday, since we are scheduled to meet her on Monday, but, it seems like most families from our agency have been able to have a meeting with their child on the Sunday they are scheduled to arrive.)

I've spent the weekend preparing paperwork such as our visa applications and Husband's estimated state taxes for the year (because we live on the state line, he works outside the state and they don't take out the taxes of the state where we live), and trying to do Christmas cards. And trying to balance the checkbook.

We went to church this morning and had one of those mornings where I felt like the priest's sermon was directed right at me and some of the things I have been feeling lately. (Although, at one point, the priest was commenting about God infanite capacity for forgiveness, even of those who commit crimes, and Husband leaned over, quoting from a movie, and said in my ear, "Well boy, that might getcha square with God, but, the State of Mississippi is bit harder case" and I had to stifle a serious giggle. That's my Husband, making me laugh in church.)

After church I had a very annoying experience at Toys R Us. I am really unhappy that they would run an ad in this morning's paper, indicating that they have the Tekno Robotic Puppy on sale for $49.99. Because guess who drove all the way out to Toys R Us, only to be told they had not had any in stock for over a week? Yes, that would be me, Lawmommy. And when I asked for a rain check, I got a sigh and a look that said she would like to kick me in the teeth for asking, and then she had to "check with her manager" and I heard the manager's comment back to her over her little walkie talkie which was something along the lines of "well, tell her if she absolutely must insist on having a rain check that she can fill out a form at guest services, but, she has to SPECIFY which one she wants or she's not getting one at all." I looked at the girl and I said, "I think I'd much rather shop somewhere where I feel like a customer and not an annoyance." And I left. Grrr...

We went this evening with my mom and step-dad to a Christmas light display at the Zoo. This is an annual tradition with us and we love it. This evening was the first night in about 3 weeks that it wasn't FREEZING, so, it was a good night to go. They had this one display, an enormous display, of lights of several colors, stretched across 7 different trees, and the lights blinked in coordination with a gorgeous rendition of the Carol of the Bells. My eyes got all full of tears, it was just so beautiful. (I know that probably sounds hokey, but, it was beautiful, with the twinkling lights and the music and the cold (but not freezing) night air, and my six year jumping up and down because he loved it so much. It was a beautiful moment and I am prone to fits of sentamentalism, what can I say?)

After the zoo, we all went to the Saigon Bistro again for dinner. This evening the resturant was quite busy. The food was excellent as it was last time, and the waitress remembered us and coached us how to pronouce the dishes we liked best. Gabriel, of course, at a dish of plain white rice. I'm not sure how to expand that child's palate beyond PLAIN CHICKEN and PLAIN BROCCOLI and PLAIN RICE and PLAIN TURKEY and ravioli with PLAIN RED SAUCE (no green stuff in it!!). He is really only adventurous when it comes to dairy products, at which point, I believe he qualifies as a "cheese snob" - he has to be the only 1st grader who will tell the deli lady at Kroger that he would prefer some "nice Havarti" when she has offered him a piece of American to sample. (Yeah, my kid is weird like that.)

Anyway, our dinner was excellent and I think I am becoming addicted to "bubble tea" - those fruit or tea smoothies with black pearl tapioca in them. Tonight we had a melon flavored one and it was heaven. When we were leaving the waitress told us she hoped we brought our daughter home soon. I told her we were leaving on the 5th of January and she was very excited for us.

I do believe that is all to report for now. Oh, anybody who has flown Korean Air, please let me know what your experience was. You can email me at l a w m o m 2 0 0 3 at y a h o o dot c o m.

LM

Travel Approval

Our agency called.

They want us in DaNang on January 7, 2007.

I am shaking.

I am calling the travel agent.

Wow. This is really happening.

LM

Hannibal Rising? and Saigon Bistro

First, how did I miss the fact that the prequel to the Silence of the Lambs is being released on Tuesday??????? How could I miss news of a book publication that important?? Evidently, I did. And, evidently, Hannibal Rising is being released on December 5. So, if Husband is reading, I SO NEED THAT FOR THE PLANE RIDE TO VIETNAM. Also, Greg Iles has a new novel being published on December 12, called True Evil - I'm going to need that one too. And one of my favorite authors, Lisa Carey, recently had a book published, and I totally missed when it happened, but, then I saw it on the library's "new release" shelf, so, I grabbed it and I am now engrossed in Every Visible Thing. (I highly recommend Carey's other three books, The Mermaids Singing, In the Country of the Young and Love in the Asylum. She's a great young author and I hope she keeps writing.) It seems I have been so very wrapped up in adoption issues that I have not been paying attention to publishing news.
______________________________________

Gabe spent the day and night at my dad's house last night (thank goodness, since I have been so sick), but, last night, I started to feel slightly less miserable, and Husband and I went out to a restaurant called Saigon Bistro, which we have been intending to try for months. When we arrived, there was only one other table, but, they were Vietnamese (or at least were Asian people who were speaking Vietnamese with the owner, so, we assumed Vietnamese), so, took that as a good sign of authentic food. We sat down and poured over the menu for a while. The family at the other table left, and one of the waitresses came over to help us. We explained that we would be spending 2 to 3 weeks in Vietnam adopting our four year old daughter and would need to know how to pronounce (or at least read) some dishes we would enjoy. The waitress helping us was a gorgeous teenager who clearly spoke English as her first language, so, she helped us to find some authentic dishes on the menu and then she told us that she was Laotian, and didn't speak any Vietnamese, but, she called the other waitress to come talk to us.

The other waitress, whose name was Tan, was incredibly nice to us, and explained several Vietnamese dishes that she said we could expect to find and that we would probably enjoy. I wrote down Lan's full name on a piece of paper and she pronounced it for us. I had never heard anyone say Lan's name before, and I almost cried I was so grateful for this knowledge. I was relieved to hear that her first name, Lan, is pronoucned as we expected, although I am still not able to say her last name or her middle names, at least I have an idea of how the words sound. We had planned to change Lan's legal name to Lana Sophia Bich Thi W~, but, upon further consideration, we will probably name her Lana Ngo W~.

Tan told us we could bring Lan to the restaurant anytime if we needed help translating what she was trying to tell us, and to "give her a taste of home." Then, we enjoyed a meal of Vietnamese style Egg Rolls (filled with beef instead of shrimp, and which we wrapped lettuce and cilantro around, before dipping in sauce), crab rangoon (admittedly not Vietnamese, and probably not readily available in Vietnam, but, which sounded good to me last night), and beef with flat egg noodles and beef with crispy fried noodles made to look like a birds' nest. Also, we ordered a Mango Boba Tea (this is like a thin mango smoothy with black pearl tapioca in it, served with a huge straw to allow the "black pearls" to pass through the straw). It was good, but, the mango was very very sweet - it almost would have been better mixed with another fruit, maybe pineapple or banana.

We had the restaurant to ourselves until almost the end of our meal, when another couple came in with a small Asian girl (the couple was not Asian.) I kept staring at the little girl - she must have been four or five. I stared and stared at that child and could not help myself. I must have looked like some kind of pervert freak. I wanted to go over and ask if she had been adopted from Vietnam, but, it seemed more likely she had been adopted from China. I know have said this before - I wanted to talk to that couple, but, somehow I couldn't bring myself to. Then, our waitress came back over and started asking us when we would leave for our adoption trip, and what city our daughter was in, and I could tell the woman at the other table was listening in, and she smiled at me as we left. So, hopefully she knows why I was staring and won't continue to think that I am some kind of pervert who stares freakishly at adopted children.

Must go back to bed now (still not feeling 100%)

LM

Hannibal Rising? and Saigon Bistro

First, how did I miss the fact that the prequel to the Silence of the Lambs is being released on Tuesday??????? How could I miss news of a book publication that important?? Evidently, I did. And, evidently, Hannibal Rising is being released on December 5. So, if Husband is reading, I SO NEED THAT FOR THE PLANE RIDE TO VIETNAM. Also, Greg Iles has a new novel being published on December 12, called True Evil - I'm going to need that one too. And one of my favorite authors, Lisa Carey, recently had a book published, and I totally missed when it happened, but, then I saw it on the library's "new release" shelf, so, I grabbed it and I am now engrossed in Every Visible Thing. (I highly recommend Carey's other three books, The Mermaids Singing, In the Country of the Young and Love in the Asylum. She's a great young author and I hope she keeps writing.) It seems I have been so very wrapped up in adoption issues that I have not been paying attention to publishing news.
______________________________________

Gabe spent the day and night at my dad's house last night (thank goodness, since I have been so sick), but, last night, I started to feel slightly less miserable, and Husband and I went out to a restaurant called Saigon Bistro, which we have been intending to try for months. When we arrived, there was only one other table, but, they were Vietnamese (or at least were Asian people who were speaking Vietnamese with the owner, so, we assumed Vietnamese), so, took that as a good sign of authentic food. We sat down and poured over the menu for a while. The family at the other table left, and one of the waitresses came over to help us. We explained that we would be spending 2 to 3 weeks in Vietnam adopting our four year old daughter and would need to know how to pronounce (or at least read) some dishes we would enjoy. The waitress helping us was a gorgeous teenager who clearly spoke English as her first language, so, she helped us to find some authentic dishes on the menu and then she told us that she was Laotian, and didn't speak any Vietnamese, but, she called the other waitress to come talk to us.

The other waitress, whose name was Tan, was incredibly nice to us, and explained several Vietnamese dishes that she said we could expect to find and that we would probably enjoy. I wrote down Lan's full name on a piece of paper and she pronounced it for us. I had never heard anyone say Lan's name before, and I almost cried I was so grateful for this knowledge. I was relieved to hear that her first name, Lan, is pronoucned as we expected, although I am still not able to say her last name or her middle names, at least I have an idea of how the words sound. We had planned to change Lan's legal name to Lana Sophia Bich Thi W~, but, upon further consideration, we will probably name her Lana Ngo W~.

Tan told us we could bring Lan to the restaurant anytime if we needed help translating what she was trying to tell us, and to "give her a taste of home." Then, we enjoyed a meal of Vietnamese style Egg Rolls (filled with beef instead of shrimp, and which we wrapped lettuce and cilantro around, before dipping in sauce), crab rangoon (admittedly not Vietnamese, and probably not readily available in Vietnam, but, which sounded good to me last night), and beef with flat egg noodles and beef with crispy fried noodles made to look like a birds' nest. Also, we ordered a Mango Boba Tea (this is like a thin mango smoothy with black pearl tapioca in it, served with a huge straw to allow the "black pearls" to pass through the straw). It was good, but, the mango was very very sweet - it almost would have been better mixed with another fruit, maybe pineapple or banana.

We had the restaurant to ourselves until almost the end of our meal, when another couple came in with a small Asian girl (the couple was not Asian.) I kept staring at the little girl - she must have been four or five. I stared and stared at that child and could not help myself. I must have looked like some kind of pervert freak. I wanted to go over and ask if she had been adopted from Vietnam, but, it seemed more likely she had been adopted from China. I know have said this before - I wanted to talk to that couple, but, somehow I couldn't bring myself to. Then, our waitress came back over and started asking us when we would leave for our adoption trip, and what city our daughter was in, and I could tell the woman at the other table was listening in, and she smiled at me as we left. So, hopefully she knows why I was staring and won't continue to think that I am some kind of pervert who stares freakishly at adopted children.

Must go back to bed now (still not feeling 100%)

LM

Viral Bronchitis

That's the diagnosis I got from my doctor this afternoon, as I lay in a pathetic heap on the examining table in his office. My fever was only 100.2, but, I still felt like I was certainly dying. Dizzy, aching, coughing, sniffling, and alternately hot and cold. And the coughing - oh the coughing up a lung. I haven't been to work in 2.5 days and have spent enough time coughing on the phone to my assistant that I am sure she must want to kill me. (Question, if you were a legal assistant, would you resent dictation given over the phone interrupted by copious coughing?? Isn't it better over than phone than from the next room where one might be infected by the coughing person??) (I am not suggesting that she DID resent it, just that I am WORRIED that it was an annoying thing for me to do...)

Anyway, the good doctor says I have viral bronchitis and need to spend the next two days sleeping and drinking an ocean of herbal tea. Or lemonade or water or basically anything wet that is caffeine free. He did prescribe a nice heavy duty cough syrup that is supposed to make me sleep alot. And while I was there, he was nice enough to write scripts for Cipro for Husband and I for our trip to Vietnam and an antibiotic for Lan with instructions not to reconstitute it. For those of you who have traveled, what other prescription meds did you take with you? Did you take anything for maleria?

We heard nothing from our agency today, so, I guess we didn't get travel approval in two weeks like some other families. Guess we'll wait and see what next week brings.

LM