His Share of Helping the Economy

Notice how he started eying his next purchase... Really speaks to the human nature that one is never enough... For the record, he was looking at the droid transporter- one that I got at 40% off at Toys r Us earlier in the am, and the Sith destroyer.

Happy Black Friday!

It is an interesting phenomenon, Black Friday.

Our Black Friday came early this year. Last weekend, we went to brunch at emilymr's house. It was delicious, and really fun to catch up. On the way home, we drove through fancy Atherton and there was a garage sale. (If one ever goes to a garage sale, I suppose one should definitely stop at a garage sale in Atherton.) We stopped, partly because I was curious what 'rich people' had to pawn off, and partly, the house was on the market and I wanted to grab a flyer.

We bought two things: a little phone and a set of paper plates/napkins/table clothes (not used, still in original packaging- I draw a line at buying used paper plates). All for $3.

The house, as it turned out, was ginormous, which wasn't actually obvious since the front of the house looked like a 'regular' house. Whatever a 'regular house' looked like. The asking price was close to six million greenbacks and the guest house was probably bigger than my real house.

Interesting though, that even people who could afford (to buy or rent) such a home, still wanted a few bucks for their old stuff. I imagine it is quite a hassle to put on a sale. But I suppose they probably pay the AMT, and so even giving stuff away to Goodwill would not generate any tax benefits. Might as well make a few bucks.

Here is Zoe loving her new phone.



I, of course, had to participate in the madness earlier this morning. While it is absolutely ridiculous what people do to save a few bucks, I find it rather entertaining. Before A&Z's arrival, Hubby and I made a sport of this and it was always really fun. We would compare the organization of each store, the people shopping, and make fun of ourselves. Since their arrival, we started to take turns since it would be wrong to leave our sleeping kids home alone, and hiring a sitter would make it a rather expensive expedition, not to mention what sane sitter would want to come over at 4:20?!

Anyway, I got up at 4:20, and it reminded me of my surgery rotation days and also the days when I used to moonlight. The first destination was Toy's R Us, and the main goal there was this Lego droid transporter, 40% off. Thankfully, all the people were very orderly while we waited until 5, and I managed to snag EVERYTHING on my list. The store, however, was not very organized. For all the suburbanites out there, you know how Toys R Us all have one entrance and one exit, and so it would make since to have a counterclockwise path for all the shoppers, to lead up to the registers. But no. They set up the maze that one would have to go back, against all on-coming traffic to get in line. This other guy and I just started to dismantle this barricade they had set up using candy canes. They tried to stop us, but I said, "There is NO WAY I am going to go against all those people getting into the store!!!" I guess that guy realized that a mother on a mission was not to be messed with and let me go.

My next stop was Sports Authority, a very quick stop, although I guess I had missed the cash cards they were handing out. Oh well. You win some and you lose some.

I decided to forgo the waiting line at Target (opening time: 6) and made a dash for Home Depot: They had 99 cent poinsettias! Home Depot was AWESOME. Even though the store wasn't suppose to open until 6, since they were stocking things anyway, they opened shop early! I was in and out.

Then I went to Macy's (cheap stuff!), Gymboree ($14.99 jackets!), and Michael's (25% off entire purchase- Hubby needed more ribbons for his Phat Baby Photography packaging.)

By then, it was 7:10, I figured Hubby and kids would be getting up soon and it was time to go home. I crawled back into bed for a few minutes and then A&Z summoned us.

After breakfast, we headed back to the mall. It was time, for Aidan, who had diligently saved all his allowance for the past few months, to buy his prized walker set from Lego. Really hard to believe, but the man had $100!!!

Hubby is going to connect all the snippets of video that we took on this tremendous occasion, it will be uploaded tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving!

To be thankful- what a concept, one that I don't fully appreciate.

There has been a few insight blogs about this subject recently, and here is one. Often times, Hubby and I talk about how vanilla our life is: That we are married, two healthy kids, employed, being able to pay for our mortgage...etc. That it is easy to take everything for granted.

So I am thankful that today is Thanksgiving, and I am particularly reminded to be thankful.

I am thankful to be me. With my Hubby, my two young kids, and somethings, being with these Biological-Insert-Their-Last-Name can be challenging. But I am thankful to be IN the circumstance that God has given me, even if it means daily laundry, wiping c.r.a.p. off people's bottoms, and other kinds of c.r.a.p. off the kitchen floor.

I am thankful for Hubby- He makes it easy to submit and show him respect. (To be truthful here, I will have to add, usually.)

I am thankful for Aidan and Zoe's health. For their relationship with us, with each other, and their Heavenly Father.

I am thankful for my job. For all the patients God has given me to care for, even the guy who called me and said, "Hey Doctor! Guess who? You will never guess? I will give you a hint..." I am also thankful for the settings of my job.

I am thankful that I am not responsible for the feast tonight so that we could go to the zoo!

I am thankful that the zoo wore A&Z out and they are both asleep.

I am thankful that tomorrow is Black Friday and Hubby will stay home to sleep in so that I could run out and find a cool something or two for everyone here.

Seriously though, I am thankful for Christ, who died on the cross, for ME. For Hubby, for Aidan, for Zoe, for YOU.

So I Caved...

Alright. I have officially hopped on the train of lots of extra-curricular activities. I caved and took Aidan to Grandpa's Kumon yesterday after Aidan 'harassed' me about numbers for a very long time. Yup. Us. At. Kumon. Something I had resisted for a long time.

Aidan was ECSTATIC. He had an evaluation with a teacher to assess his level of reading and math and he simply loved the work sheets and kept saying, "This is not too hard." After Grandpa put together his little packet with homework, the sticker sheet (to accumulate for prizes- never mind he has been getting these prizes since he was a baby, every time we visited Grandpa, he would get at least one, if not multiple of these prizes. Yes, Grandpa spoils our kids silly), he proudly hung on to it all and said, "I am going to do homework when we get home." He even made a special spot on his nightstand for this. The nightstand had been reserved for Lego things, shock troopers, clone troopers...etc in the past.

Our plan is that we will ask him if he wants to do his homework, and if he does, great. If not, maybe tomorrow. Hopefully, this will paradoxically encourage him to do homework instead of fighting about with us.

I FOUGHT my mother about homework, worksheets, and essentially, structured learning. A LOT. There was a time in third grade that I just decided homework was not for me. I stopped all week, and then, I guess my teacher called her and I had to get back on the homework wagon. I also used to find the answer key for various workbooks and just filled them in.

Yes, I was a terrible student. You see, I have a very good reason for being against structured learning environment. But I guess Aidan is different.

Meanwhile, Zoe enjoyed Kumon also. Although I think she had a flashback of being at the pediatrician's office when the teacher closed the door to the room where Aidan was doing his assessment. She started to whimper and cry. We sat by the open door the rest of the time and she was as happy as could be. Amazing that she has memory.

I also broke my own promise that we weren't going to do more than two activities at a time. Thankfully, soccer ended a few weeks ago. These days, we are doing ice-skating, swimming, and Kumon.

However, Aidan has shown an interest in Mandarin. Will Mandarin lessons be down the road for us? Yes, I could just teach him Mandarin, but my kids do best with outside instruction.

As for Zoe, she has shown an interest in ice-skating. Unfortunately for her, she has to be wearing size 9 shoes before she can start: ice-skating boots only come in size 9 and up. The girl is wearing size 6 right now. I am thinking another year and half. She also wants 'homework.' I can't imagine doing 3 activities for 2 kids: That would be 6 activities for me. Good grief.

Birr

Zoe is a woman of few words. With a big brother who is quite the chatter, I imagine, it is hard for her to get her two cents in. At her most recent check up with Dr. B, we discussed her acquisition of language. Neither Dr. B, nor Hubby, nor I are concerned, however, it would be nice if she had more words.

Gestural language only goes so far when we are out to dim sum, and there are literally 15 different things on the table. As she points emphatically, we keep busy by offering her everything in sight: Does she want the fork/spoon/cup/straw/chop sticks/rice/ noodle/vegetable/shrimp/buns... It makes meal times 'interesting.'

To complicate things, she is quite particular about how the food is presented too. Does she want the shrimp dumpling pre-pierced with the fork? Or does she just want to pierce it herself? Or what.

She tries to help by signing: More, All done, Eat, Hat... Still, the girl needs words.

What she does say include the following: Mama, Dada, DahDah (Aidan), DahDah (Zoe), Bye, Hi, More, MINE, Birr (bird, bear, cup, boo,...and about a gabillion other things.)

Birr...

Shuffling

There is one thing I really do not like to do professionally. Schedule shuffling. I despise it. It just pains me so.

I would call the patient.
"Hello! This is Dr. Me, how are you? I am calling because I need to move our appointment. Something came up, and I won't be able to see you insert-a-day. Would you be able to come insert-another-day? That would be great. Thank you. See you then."

I don't like to do this because I sound, well, not well organized. If a patient is paying me money for my professional services, I owe it to them to be organized.

But alas, life happens.

Children get ill, children have field trips, and very rarely, I need a day of rest.

What is worse than the above conversation?

When the children stay ill for a long time, and I have to reschedule the rescheduled appointment.

"Hi! This is Dr. Me, how are you? I am calling because, well, I still won't be able to meet with you insert-today. I apologize. Will you be able to come insert-Tuesday -of-Never?"

To Go or Not To Go?

Aidan has been obsessed with numbers, particularly, number 7. His AYSO jersey was number 7, and he had been on a hunt, for all numbers bigger and smaller than 7. Is 6 bigger or smaller than 7? How about 8? After a short while, this has gotten OLD. I asked Aidan last week, "Honey, do you want to learn more about numbers?" His answer was a resounding YES!

This has made the issue of extracurricular activities resurface again. While Grandpa runs a Kumon Center (for math and reading, Japanese style, repetitive learning...) and even though he has not said anything about it, I know it would delight him so to be able to teach our kids via his work. Besides, if inquiring minds want to learn, who am I to stand in the way?

However, I know that Aidan tends to act out when he is bored. For instance, at swimming and skating, when he no longer feels challenged, he will say, "I don't want to go today."

I don't want to ever hear him say, "I don't want to go to school today. I am so bored there." Therefore, should I reserve all learning until kindergarten so that he will always be challenged? I just don't know.

Yesterday, at Zoe's well visit with our pediatrician, Dr. B. remarked that Aidan's handwriting is excellent and that he is obviously ready for real school. I am proud of Aidan's progress, of his enthusiasm of learning, and I want to encourage that, but I also don't want to raise him to be a "I-know-more-than-all-my-friends" kind of snotty kid. You know?

Should I take him to Kumon or should I not take him?

As Thanksgiving is fast approaching, my other question is: Should I go shopping for Christmas or should I stay in denial?

We have not bought anything so far. Who am I kidding about this? Must get in gear...

So, after work today, I am going to go to the mall. If nothing else, to get Zoe a hat. She has been asking for a hat. Who am I to deny her accessories?

Only Temporary...

We had dinner with A&S last night, and it was lovely. We talked about life, house, kids, and ended the evening with a lengthy discussion about lunch. Yes, lunch. If you know A&S in real life, you will have to grill them about 'lunch.' (Ok, so the only people who read this who also know A&S would be C&V, and yes, you two should ask about lunch.)

After they left, I kept thinking about the idea of my life being in the temporary phase at the moment. In med school, I felt I could do anything since all rotations will eventually end, even the really grueling ones. Surgery lasted just eight weeks. Even the longest rotation, internal medicine, with 6-day work weeks, still only lasted twelve weeks.

When Aidan was a newborn, I felt my life was OVER. The incessant screaming, endless feeding, and no-time for myself situation, left me in tears. I thought that was going to be my life. Forever. No more fun, just screaming baby. When other experienced moms told me that this phase will end, I simply could not, would not, believe them.

But alas, they were right. That hideous phase ended, and all children DO eventually sleep through the night.

This temporary idea, of course, extends beyond raising kids. My work is also just temporary- to avoid the AMT, and other taxes. Our unending house work is also temporary- there will be a time when the house will be painted. Our church life is also temporary- since God can call us to different things later. The only eternal thing is the Kingdom. Thankfully, that is the only eternal thing.

Meanwhile, I am certain God wants us to enjoy things here, however temporary. For Aidan, this means getting a roommate! We moved Zoe into Aidan's room so that they would have a big play room. Aidan was simply ecstatic. "I will take care of her! She is my responsibility!" Getting to bed last night was a little tricky. But they were quiet by 9 pm, and I heard Aidan go use the bathroom in the wee hours, and no one made loud noises. This morning, I got up at 7, and was wondering, who will make noises, and how do I let one continue to sleep when the other gets up early...? I walked by their room and it was as bright as the sun! Aidan had decided that the room was too dark (we switched to a dimmer light for Zoe) and he had turned on his 100 watt table lamp! Zoe was sitting in her crib, watching her big brother sleep. It was priceless.

A new phase of life for us: We once again have access to the printer between the hours of 7 pm and 7 am. This will only be temporary, of course. But we are loving it.

Lessons for Parents

Aidan LOVES the Berenstain Bears. The bear family is just like our family: Brother Bear, Sister Bear, Mama Bear and Papa Bear. They have all kinds of adventures, of dealing with bad habits, bad manners, going to school, and the one we just read, bullies.

I usually like the bears, they are cute and wholesome. However, I find it offensive, that Papa Bear sounds, well, sort of dumb, a lot. Mama Bear seems to be the one who always has the 'right' answers, and would step in to stop Papa from scaring the cubs about strangers, or yelling at Sister Bear for biting her nails, for example. Why can't these parents share their parenting: That Mama would make some mistakes, and that Papa would have the right answers.

In the story about Tuffy the Bully, it has this lesson for parents: Violence begets violence. Spanking your children will make them hit other kids. While we have decided to not spank our kids, I can see this as somewhat offensive to those parents who use spanking as a discipline method. Who knew these bears can be so controversial?

A Song

It is just amazing what a song can do. There are times I hear a melody and I immediately get transported back to some place at a certain time. It all feels so real that I might as well be living that moment.

There is the overture to The Marriage of Figaro. I learned that piece in fourth grade, and played the violin part with the orchestra. Hearing the notes, I remember the boy that I had a crush on (who was very mischievous and ran into a glass door once, he shattered the glass and the broken glass had cut a tendon in his forearm. He got in SO much trouble.) Like I said, the memories are vivid.

There is this song, "Your Beloved" by Brent Helming.

Lord it was you
who created the heavens
Lord it was your hand
That put the stars in their place
Lord it was your voice
That commands the morning
even oceans and their waves
bow at your feet

Lord who am I
compared to your glory Oh Lord
Lord who am I compared to your majesty

Chorus
I'm your beloved
Your creation
and you love me as I am
Yo have called me chosen
for your people
Unashamed to call me your own
I'm your beloved

Lord it was you
Who created the heavans
Lord it was your hand
that put the stars in their place
Lord it was your voice
that commands the morning
even oceans and their waves
bow at your feet

Lord who am I
Compared to glory Oh Lord
Lord who am I
Compared to your majesty


I'm your beloved
Your Creation
and you love me as I am
you have called me chosen
for your kingdom
Unashamed to call me your own
I'm your beloved

When I hear the song, I can almost hear my roommate from medical school, R, humming it in the hall way, while she cooked dinner, while she studied. I think, this was one of her favorite songs when we were second years. I also remember singing this at a retreat as a first year and there were tears streaming down my face, because in that instant, God told me, "I am His beloved, and He would withhold nothing from me. He will give me ALL His good gifts." He did give me all good gifts, including dear Hubby.

Today, I heard this song at a funeral- the funeral of my patient who died last week. It was a beautiful service, it provided closure for many, myself included. And, it was beautiful to consider, once again, God has claimed us as His own, just as we are.

Gris for the Mill

When we met up with V&C a few evenings ago, we talked about blogs, bloggers, and why people blog, and how they choose their contents.

I blog, because, well, I have a lot to say. Apparently.

I have realized that I consistently don't blog about my relationships with adults. Obviously, a lady has to keep certain things a mystery. =) What I do blog is the following, in no particular order:
Aidan, Zoe, Hubby, Hubby's photography work, my work, shoes, baking, and lately, a lot about money.

When I am sitting with a patient, and inevitably, life happens and our sessions go one way or another. For instance, when my session was interrupted because Aidan was sobbing outside. I console myself with the phrase: It is just more gris for the mill. That all those things, just help me to collect more evidence about how my patient interacts with his/her real world. In the above example, if my patient became really annoyed, I would draw one conclusion. Or if the person isn't rattled at all and offers to end the session early, I would draw another conclusion. Just more gris for the mill- a Western Midland phrase from England, actually.

Money, I have found, is an excellent gris for the mill.

At work, since people pay me, they have to put a certain value on the issue they are working on to justify the cost, especially in this hideous economy. By the way, we got our statements for October from E trade yesterday- OUCH.

In my life, I find that how I spend money tells a lot about myself. Clearly, Jesus repeatedly talked about money for a reason: It is really hard to manage money well. As I struggle with what is a reasonable amount of money to spend on this or that, "Is $7 for a loaf of cinnamon bread too much?" But the time it takes me to make the bread is also not insignificant. (Whereas, shoes I cannot make, and thus, any amount is reasonable for shoes!) How do I reconcile these things? I don't know all the answers, obviously. However, as I often tell my patients: I am not here to provide you answers, I am here to ask questions and make interpretations so that you can find your own answers. Incidentally, most patients just want me to tell them the 'right answers.'

As for this blog, perhaps I should monetize it, on the suggestion of V. If I manage to monetize this, can you imagine how many cleft surgeries I could buy?

Stuff...

Warning: This post might be gross.

I realized that I hadn't been very good about sticking to the point of this blog: The Adventures of Aidan and Zoe. This blog wasn't meant to be The Rants of an AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) Payer, or The Fury of a Legal Druggist.

But alas, I digress often. And before I go on to tell about the latest and greatest of A&Z, I just have some other thoughts about the AMT.

I think we will not escape the AMT for 2008. In all the previous years, we have sort of skirted by AMT by the fact that I just didn't work. As a resident, I made pennies. (And actually, my resident the other day told me that when she collects disability when she goes on maternity leave, she will essentially have her full pay- I was shocked to remember how little residents make.) Anyway, since I made pennies, it helped us to avoid AMT. Then, Zoe came, and I stopped working and making my attending salary in 07, and that helped us to avoid some AMT. Although, we forgot to include my moonlighting income in 07, and owed back taxes. Just last Friday, Hubby and I both got letters from the IRS, announcing us in good standing again, momentarily, since 2008 is coming to an end. Looking at our numbers, I am pretty sure we will hit AMT. AMT is lame. The article I referenced about the HENRYs from yesterday had an illustration of how the AMT affects the HENRYs. After comparing a family that makes $200,000 vs. $250,000, the family that made less money came out ahead after the aforementioned evilness, aka AMT.

You know who doesn't pay AMT (yet)? A&Z. These two kids have it SO good. Seriously. Aidan now has $73 in his wallet, getting ever closer to his AT-AP Walker from the Lego Store. And, we have promised him when we set up his allowance system, that his benevolent parental figures will take care of sales tax.

Another digression. Our sales tax in California might be greater than 10% soon. At that point, I will no longer buy things here in the State. I will illegally buy things via amazon and drugstore and skirt the issue of sales tax. That, I am sure, will help California to recover from this recession. HA!

As a side note, as Christians, Hubby and I actually believe in paying taxes. As Jesus asked Peter to go look in the mouth of a fish to fulfill their tax obligations, and said, "Give what is due Caesar." We, too, give what is due our government- in the existing tax code. We just don't want the tax code to go up even more, and preferably, if the tax code could be changed to lower our tax obligations, that would be awesome.

Anyway, Aidan has been an awesome saver, and his 10% monthly compounding interest rate has helped a lot. We are trying to teach him that if he is able to save like this in the long run, he can live off of his interest! If grown ups can save like he does, we wouldn't be in the situation we are in!

As for Zoe, who remains allowance-less, is very set on protecting her food. After her meals, even though she is full and no longer interested in her grapes, she will sit there, just to have the company of her bowl. When we try to take it away, she gets really mad. The solution: We now have all these minuscule containers in the fridge. Holding a piece of chicken, or soggy cereal, or two green beans. As long as she gets to put the containers in the fridge, with our promises of, "You can have it at the next meal." she moves on. But then, we forget out the green beans, and she forgets about the green beans. Even when we remember to offer her those two green beans again, she looks at the green beans with utmost disdain. So the green beans are just growing old.

As for growing old, I finally took Hubby's laptop hostage today. One problem with having a professional photographer in the house is similar to having a dentist as a parent: We don't ever get prints just like the dentist's kid has the most cavities. There are so many awesome pictures to pick from, and I get lazy, and Hubby gets busy, and why do work for ourselves for free when he has people who will pay him? However, we also refuse to put Zoe in the position of, "You never took pictures of me! Where are my pictures? It is all because I am not the first born!" So. I am ordering lots of prints this evening- 277, to be precise.

Also, Hubby is now taking pictures of families for various holiday cards, and so, I told Hubby last night: "We are booking a session. This Saturday, you, me, A&Z, we need pictures. We will pay via kisses." He said, "It better be a whole lot of kisses."

A&Z have grown so much. It is incredible. Of course, there are some pictures that will go down in infamy, like the one where a certain someone pooped all over his/her Maisy book...



As soon as Zoe is potty trained, we are also ripping out the carpet and burning all of it.

I am Henry, Nice to Meet You

First of all, I have had lots of opportunities to process the loss of a patient since this blog took a break, and many thanks to my supportive family, friends, and colleagues. I suppose I sound like a wimp, I mean, as a physician, I ought to be able to handle losses like a pro, but alas, for the most part, I like my patients, and when they die, it is sad, and will always be sad. I will always remember them and their stories.

But that will be for another day.

This evening, we had a lovely dinner with some friends from NYC. Good times, good times.

They told me that I am a HENRY, and HELLO! I am HENRY, nice to meet you!

This acronym stems from an article in Fortune, meaning High Earners, Not Rich Yet.

I wanted to cut and paste the article, but it was just too long.

Basically, we are not rich, and while Hubby and I have graduate degrees that ought to make us 'comfortable', I think and contemplate our finances often. These days, mainly the uncertainty of how much more taxes we are going to pay. I mean, I am happy that Mr. Obama got elected, American is moving in a new direction, and hopefully, better direction. In Peggy Noonan's words this weekend via the Wall Street Journal: The Children are Watching, and it is a good thing!

However, what will this mean to us? I don't want to be punished for having a good job, you know? There will come a day, when one of us will quit, just so that our children can get free tuition in college, we will pay less taxes, and even though, we will have less money, I will have more time for bread making, and time for napping too. I hope President Elect Obama is keeping this in mind: that in my generation, we are not so into working as hard as we can (unlike the baby boomers), we want a work-life balance. And, if the financial allure of working is growing dull due to taxes, it is very likely that we just won't show up to work! And how is that going to help America to advance?

With Great Sadness...

It is with great sadness that I share the news of losing of patient. In accordance with HIPPA laws, I will not elaborate much, but I hate this part of my job. The occupational hazard: that one will have patients that die. Inevitable. Yet, always awful.

Maybe at some point, I will talk about all the patients that have died while under my care, whether the typical psychiatric issue of suicide, or previously existing medical conditions.

For now, this really hurts.

I am also achieving some weird professional milestone with this particular person. This is the first patient of mine to have passed in my private practice. At all my other institutional jobs, there is always the system that takes care of letting the family know (when outpatient) and I have never had a patient die as a 'real doctor' while I worked at a hospital. The process is usually shared with nurses, social workers...etc, and I never actually called the family (since I practice adult psychiatry, family usually does not get that involved and administrators usually make that phone call.) However, this time, I am it.

I did meet with the family, we processed the events of these last few weeks, and I cried. I am just so sad...

In honor of my patient, this blog will be silent until next week.

One more thing, I never had the pleasure of a casual run-in with this person... Our potentials for run-ins were cut short...

Tomorrow...

On Sunday, I ran into a patient with my family in tow.

During my quick run to a big discounter store during lunch time today, I ran into a different patient.

Will I run into one tomorrow? The likelihood is quite high, since Aidan starts as an eel tomorrow evening for his new swim class and there is that young person who likes to go to the gym.

I seriously feel like I live in a very small town.

Meanwhile, at the discounter store, I saw that my patient peeked in my shopping cart- fortunately, or unfortunately, the cart was full of boring stuff, like cereal, water, Lunchables (I loved those things as a kid!) It would have been interesting if my cart was full of, say, lubricant, condoms... But alas, today's shopping list did not include such items. But tomorrow might bring on all sorts of new opportunities... (One can't write about such things without some dry humor, right?)

Speaking of lubricants and condoms... I am planning on presenting a workshop next spring about such matters with various churches: the physical act of LOVE. In all seriousness, there simply isn't enough talk about sex, sexual difficulties, disorders...etc, especially in the church community. Frankly, the church community is supposed to be a place where people can talk about this. Feel free to use the anonymous option here, and leave me some questions you would like answered. Remember this, don't be shy, I probably have talked about this with someone already. I am, however, prepared to not get any comments since sex can still be a taboo topic, nonetheless, prove me wrong!

Who Punched Me?

This morning, I woke up at 3:41, and felt that my left lower lip was very swollen. Upon inspection in the bathroom, my left lower face was totally swollen but there were no other weakness. What happened?

My differential:

1. My left lower face was allergic to all the medications I had been taking for this nasty cold, although one would think that such allergic reaction would have been noticed on the first day I took all those decongestants, cough suppressants...etc.

2. My cranial nerve number 7 or 5 had gone crazy. The facial innervation is very complicated... Did I get an upper motor neuron injury and thus only the lower face and left face was affected? But is a swollen face a deficit of motor or sensory or neither? Beats me. My CN are probably totally fine.

3. Somebody punched me. Since I was in bed since 10:30, the only person that had been there all that time was Hubby. Did he punch me? If he did, why didn't I wake up?

4. Did I get punched while trick or treating at the mall and didn't even notice due to the surge in blood sugar? We had gone with some friends to the mall, and believe me, (for someone who had spent a lot of time at the mall), I had never been to such a crowded mall! BTW, mall shops, in general, do not give out very good candy.

5. Did Aidan butt my face with his head and I didn't notice? Did Zoe butt my face with her head and I didn't notice?

6. Was I so hungry while asleep that I took a big bite off of my own face?

Anyway, the swelling had steadily decreased through the day. Just weird.