Mommy's flub

I'm so frustrated.  To make matter worse, I'm frustrated with...myself.  Paulo has suffered through 7 days with no allergy meds.  Why?  So he could get his blood draw done today and be tested for food allergies.   It's gotten progressively worse for his poor nose.  We're neti-potting both at bedtime and first thing in the morning.  The poor little dude can hardly breathe when he wakes, he's so plugged up.

Last night I went to my purse to get the paperwork for the lab.....where's my paperwork?  Don't know.  I put the print out my naturapath gave me that told me where to go today in my planner.  The lab paperwork though?  MIA.  The lab can't do anything without the order from the doc.  I had brought the papers with me to work last Thursday so I could call the lab and ask about drug interactions.  I swear I put the damn papers in my planner...yet they obviously are not there.  I start to panic.  Around 9:00 my husband volunteers to go check my desk at the shop since if they aren't in my purse-which I've emptied multiple times-then they must be at the office right?  I must have left them on my desk right??  Wrong.  Rene drives all the way to work, getting stuck in construction traffic in Tigard, checks my desk, my drawer where I put my personal crap, sorts through my piles o'paperwork, nothing.  No lab order.  Drives all the way back home, getting stuck again in construction traffic, we continue looking high and low, nothing.  No lab order.  Panic.....

We get up early today and I bribe my sleepy son with promise of breakfast out to compensate for the unholy hour I've woken him up.  He's not happy, but the bribe works.  He's up, we neti-because again the poor kid cannot breathe in the morning-get dressed and hit the road.  Stop for a lovely breakfast, just the two of us, then go to the shop for one last look.  My last ditch effort, check my recycling bin.  Maybe, just maybe, I recycled it.  Fortunately my bin is big and doesn't need to be emptied everyday.  I pull up and am greeted at the door by Rene with a sad face and a shaking head, nope, not there either, he checked this morning.  Panic.  Naturally I needed to paw through it myself, just to be sure.  Nothing.  No lab order.   Where the F is this thing?!?  I mean really?  Where is it?!  I have no idea where the damn thing disappeared to.  I call my doc's office, they're not open, leave a panicked voice mail on the phone and set off to find the National College of Natural Medicine which, by the way, is almost impossible to find.  I'm from Portland and I was driving in circles until I finally, by dumb luck, found the sign pointing me to turn right.  So at this point, I'm pissed I lost the paperwork and I'm frustrated that I am lost, in my hometown. 

We arrive, wander the grounds for a few minutes until we find the clinic-Paulo by the way is still treating this as an adventure.  Go in and go back to the lab only to be told, as expected, there's nothing we can do without the lab order.  We walk away and I lose it.  I am not a crier.  But I was so frustrated this morning I sat in my car and cried.  We sat there for about a half hour in case Kelly got the message and was able to fax over the order to the clinic and we sat there so I could sniffle in relative safety.  Driving through tears while blowing ones nose is not the safest thing to do!  Finally I gave up and drove my son to his Grandma's.  At this point, it ceased to be an adventure.  Paulo realized that without the blood work he still can't take the Claratin and now...now he's pissed.  Who's he pissed at?  Me.  I would be too if I were him. 

Come to find out though all my panic was for nothing.  I called the lab back to reschedule for his blood work and the nice lady that saw me panic this morning told me that regardless of the paperwork they would not have been able to take his blood today.  You see, when I made the appointment last week no one asked what lab my son's blood was going to.  It's going to a lab up in Washington.  Apparently they only take blood going to that particular lab on Monday through Thursday.  That is so they can over night the blood to the lab during the work week.  This makes sense.  I get the logic.  I wish I'd thought to tell them where my baby's blood was going when I made the appointment.  I certainly won't make that mistake again.

The other mistake I won't make again?  Procrastinating.  The irony is not lost on me, I, the one that constantly nags my teenager not to procrastinate, waited until the last possible moment to check my paperwork for Paulo's appointment.  And what happened?  Damn paperwork was not where I was sure I had left it.  I was positive it was in my planner.  I suspect though this episode of missing paperwork is closely tied to my June fog.   I'm trying to cut myself some slack, Rene keeps telling me it's not the end of the world, but he's not the one that lost the freaking papers.  Nor is he the one that was so frustrated that she said "I don't know where the fucking papers are!" to her mother in law.  Yes, the f bomb slipped right out of the hanger and dropped right onto my pretty, polite and proper Mother in Law's ears.  Nice, real charming, huh?  It's been quite a day, folks, I'd like to go back to bed and press restart.