Weekly Mileage #85 and the ER Visit

Tuesday morning we stopped by the polling location on the way to music lessons. We lucked out and it was just misting down as we went in, and there was no line. Apparently there'd been one earlier, but our timing was great. We left just a few minutes later, and as we drove out of the parking lot, the rain started pouring down again. Even better timing!

I rode my bike on Tuesday. I had a few twinges from my foot flexing more than usual in my bike shoes, but nothing too bad. Twisting out of the clip at the end of my ride did hurt a bit though. I rode my bike again on Saturday and wore my boot to do it (I tied it to the pedal, like I did the first time I rode my bike after breaking my foot). This felt a lot better, since there was much less flexing going on in my foot and I didn't have to twist out of the clip.

Tuesday evening we took River to the ER for the first time (Sunshine's now the only one not to take a trip there yet). He and Sunshine were messing around in the kitchen just before bedtime and he fell backward and cut open his head on the corner of a cabinet. Like all head wounds, it bled like no other. I didn't look too closely at it (I don't do well with human blood), but Mr M felt it was big enough to need stitches. Sunshine put Ocean to bed (it's so nice to have a kiddo old enough to babysit!) and Mr M and I took River to the ER, with me holding a rag to the back of his head while Mr M drove.

staples = no shaved hair!

The ER doc decided to do two staples, instead of stitches, which was a super quick process. In fact, the whole visit only took about a half hour from the time we walked in the door to when we walked back out. Definitely unexpected, but such a blessing. River wasn't happy about the staples (they did hurt going in), but he got a popsicle and some stickers from the nurse, and he was pretty calm within a few minutes. It's healing well and after Wednesday it hasn't bothered him. We'll get the staples removed just before Thanksgiving.

The boys and I did some out-of-town sourcing on Wednesday after we dropped Sunshine off at nature class. On the way home we stopped in Shenandoah NP and hiked a small section of the Appalachian Trail.

Last week I talked about Ocean's ear situation. His pediatrician was out of town when we visited the audiologist, but once she returned she looked at his results and gave me a call to see if we wanted a referral to an ENT. Yes, please! So we've now got an appointment with an ENT scheduled for the end of the month.

Thursday we hiked one of the newer trails in our local trails park. The boys and I hiked part of it a few weeks back, but this time Sunshine was with us and we took the trail all the way to the back of the park. There's a number of new trails that branch off that one, so we'll be spending some more time exploring them. The trail we hiked goes past the very decrepit remains of an old homestead, a single grave, and a small grave yard. The park is hilly and covered in trees, but back in the 1860s people were living there and scratching a living out of the fields they cleared.

that stone with a corner cut into it is one of the last visible remains of either the foundation or a fireplace. there's another mound with a couple shaped stones nearby, but again, it's impossible to tell what their original purpose was.

I've realized that while illness at the beginning of the year and a broken foot in September have put us behind on our hikes, the weather is a factor as well. It's been a very rainy year, and while I don't mind hiking in the rain, I don't like hiking on muddy trails, especially now, with my foot still healing. I don't need to slip and fall again. We need to be doing an average of 3 hikes a week, but we're already behind on that because of rain that invariably falls on the days we have hiking time available. I'm still determined to do 52 hikes by the end of the year, though.

I've also realized that Ocean just is not ready to walk the entire time we hike. While I won't carry him on my back anymore (I don't need even more weight on my foot), I will start bringing the stroller so he can ride when he gets tired. Hopefully he won't need it for too long, but in the meantime it will make our hikes a lot more pleasant when he gets tired.

The VA ER doc did indeed get a followup appointment scheduled for Mr M, which he went to on Friday. The doc he saw wants to run a bunch of tests, but first wants to see if he needs to be seen at our local VA clinic. We had heard that our clinic referred everything to the VA hospital in the big city, which is why he went there to begin with. The doc thinks the smaller clinics contract stuff out to local medical professionals, so we should be able to get everything done locally. She's going to find out about it, so we're still in a bit of a holding pattern, but with hints of progress on the horizon.

Weekly Mileage
Tuesday- 10.0 miles biked
Wednesday- 1.19 miles hiked
Thursday- 2.60 miles hiked
Saturday- 10.0 miles biked
total- 23.79 miles

29 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
2.14 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

331.27 foot miles towards #365milechallenge
285.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
618.41 miles total