{6/10}...streaming

I thought stepping away from the computer for a week or so would help us recover and get back into the swing of things. I was wrong. I guess we all waste time, in one way or another, I just found a different way to waste it. I was running around a lot in the car, so maybe I wasted it there. I intensely dislike running around. It wastes gas and time. What did we do before we had cars to run around in? I would like to have that lifestyle back, where the grocery store was within walking distance, and if you really needed something you could get it, but you didn't run to places at the drop of a hat. Of course, I guess that means you didn't run to the doctor when you needed on either. Unless you were really, really sick.

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Speaking of which, we had a little scare last week and I was grateful to be able to run to the doctor at the drop of a hat. Faith came to me last Tuesday morning and showed me a "bump" she had on her leg, just above her knee on the inside of her thigh. When I felt it, and felt the other leg, I realized it was not a bump, but a lump. Or maybe it is a bump, but not the kind you get when you fall down. As soon as I felt it, my heart fell to the stomach and I said "Oh, we'll have to get that checked" in the most nonchalant voice I could muster. And then I called the doctor from the next room. They got us in that afternoon and though he felt confident he knew what it was, he sent us for x-rays. The next morning (yes, I waited for almost 24 hours; thank you to the two blogging/IRL friends whose mobile phone numbers I have and who answered my texts) we learned that she has a benign bone tumor (femoral osteochondroma) which will likely grow and will likely need to be removed, but which rarely turns cancerous. I will be checking the ends of all of her long bones (that's where they usually grow -- at the growth plate of long bones) regularly to make sure she doesn't have more, but mostly we will wait and have regular x-rays to be sure it's not changing. It was a scare and we have been very fortunate, thank you God, to not have many health issues with our children. One with life-threatening food allergies and asthma, one with severe headaches, and several with eczema is enough drama.

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Fortunately, we have new medical insurance as of June 1. Our old insurance discriminated (there is no other way to put) against children. We had lesser benefits for the children because the hospital system my husband was employed with did not treat children (a Catholic system, no less). I was told providing lesser benefits for children (age discrimination ) violates Ohio insurance laws, but I never fought the issue for fear that aggravating my husband's employers would cost him his job. Now we have insurance which provides equal benefits for adults and children, a great relief lest we need it.

The reason our insurance changed is because my husband has a new job. I had been praying (you may have noted that in my Daybooks) for an intention close to my heart and this was it. It was a really hard decision. My husband felt he was not serving God in his current job, even though he was working for a Catholic hospital system. There were just so many roadblocks. Every day was a new fight. The management was primarily non-Catholics and they just didn't care about the Catholicity. He will now be working for a small Catholic university locally and they have expressed a desire for a greater Catholic environment, so he feels he can better serve God there. It took a lot of prayer, because the switch certainly wasn't for more money, but there were many signs along the way that showed us the move was a good one. Switching insurance companies and managing the changes with all of our doctors is a full-time job, however.

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Speaking of doctors, again, I called the hospital business office to question a bill we received and got the standard "If this is an emergency, please hang up and dial 911." Tell me, who pulls out the hospital bill to call for medical care? Or is that in case you have a heart attack when you open the bill and see what you owe?

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I started physical therapy again last week (is that all I talk about you are wondering?). It was actually very interesting seeing the therapist this time around. My doctor is having me go to stretch the IT band (a band of fascia that runs from your hip joint to your knee joint along the outside of the thigh) because she thinks some of my pain might be from a tight IT band (of course, it's not typical IT band pain, so who knows?). At my first visit, the therapist, doing deep massage, noted that instead of feeling like a smooth flat ribbon, my IT band felt like a knotted rope. Not good. It's a real question as to how it got that way because the other side is fine. I fear I will have to donate my body to medical science when I die because I have so many medical mysteries. Anyway, yesterday I asked if the bursitis I almost always have in my right hip could be caused by the too-tight IT band, and she replied, "Absolutely." And it could also be causing the pain in my sacroiliac joint on the same side. You know the whole "the thigh bone connected to the hip bone" song? Well, it's apparently very true.

And did you know that song -- the bone song -- came from scripture: Eekiel 37:1-14

The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he led me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me in the center of the broad valley. It was filled with bones.

He made me walk among them in every direction. So many lay on the surface of the valley! How dry they were!

He asked me: Son of man, can these bones come back to life? “Lord God,” I answered, “you alone know that.”

 Then he said to me: Prophesy over these bones, and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!

Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Listen! I will make breath enter you so you may come to life.

I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow over you, cover you with skin, and put breath into you so you may come to life. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.

I prophesied as I had been commanded. A sound started up, as I was prophesying, rattling like thunder. The bones came together, bone joining to bone.

As I watched, sinews appeared on them, flesh grew over them, skin covered them on top, but there was no breath in them.

Then he said to me: Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man! Say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: From the four winds come, O breath, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life.

I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath entered them; they came to life and stood on their feet, a vast army.

 He said to me: Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel! They are saying, “Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off.”

Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Look! I am going to open your graves; I will make you come up out of your graves, my people, and bring you back to the land of Israel.

 You shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and make you come up out of them, my people!

I will put my spirit in you that you may come to life, and I will settle you in your land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. I have spoken; I will do it—oracle of the Lord.

There, you learned something new today.

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I thought I had more to chat about today, but I guess I droned on for long enough. I'll come back tomorrow to talk about knitting and other projects. I need to go make sure the milk I have on the stove for tapioca pudding isn't foaming up.

Pax