$$: Health & Clothing

Com­puter Les­son — $0.00

Another fab­u­lously pro­duc­tive One-to-One com­puter les­son on my iMac at the Apple store.   The $79 (usu­ally $99 but as a home­schooler I get their educator’s dis­count) I spent on that year of One-to-One instruc­tion is unques­tion­ably one of the best val­ues and wis­est pur­chases I’ve ever made.

Panda Express — $0.00

For a while The Son was join­ing me in my One-to-One instruc­tion ses­sions but now he really prefers sit by him­self with a huge plate of fried rice, Man­adrin Chicken, and Orange Chicken and a good book for an hour.  As agreed ear­lier this week, he paid for his own meal.

Med­ical Co-Pay — $50.00

After my com­puter les­son I took The Son home then dashed back out to an appoint­ment I’d made to have my hear­ing tested.  I’m 44.  While I didn’t expect to be fit­ted for a hear­ing aid, I was a lit­tle con­cerned about what the hear­ing test results might reveal.  Over the past few years I’ve been hav­ing more and more dif­fi­culty in sep­a­rat­ing sounds — hold­ing a con­ver­sa­tion in a busy envi­ron­ment is almost impos­si­ble.  My kids’ favorite refrain is, “Mom! Get a hear­ing aid.”  I do end up say­ing “Huh?” (in casual con­ver­sa­tion) or “Par­don me?” (in polite com­pany) quite a bit.

But the test results showed that my hear­ing is within the nor­mal range.  I was told to come back in 5 years or so to be tested again.

Maybe my dif­fi­culty in sep­a­rat­ing sounds in a noisy envi­ron­ment has more to do with my addled brain than my middle-aged ears.  All in all, I was pleased to hear that I’m not notice­ably los­ing my hear­ing and that all of those times my mother boxed my ears when I was a kid hadn’t come back to haunt me.

Colon HydroTher­apy — $128.04

My third of three rec­om­mended ses­sions after suf­fer­ing the side effects of a pre-surgery antibi­otic and post-surgery Vicodin pre­scrip­tion (of which, you’ll remem­ber, I took as lit­tle as pos­si­ble).  I’m still suf­fer­ing IBS symp­toms much more than usual these days and can only hope that my gut will calm down given time.

Only $70 of that total was for the ses­sion.  The rest, $58.04, cov­ered the two bot­tles of sup­ple­ments I needed to replen­ish.  One’s an IBS herbal for­mula that seems to, nor­mally, be quite effec­tive at calm­ing IBS symp­toms.  I say nor­mally because lately the IBS seems to be larger than the supplement’s capa­bil­ity to calm it.

Ah, the joys of being a per­fectly healthy chronically-ill middle-aged woman!

Old Navy — $8.60

A long-sleeve but­ton­down shirt for The Son.  I was search­ing for a white oxford cloth but­ton­down for the boy — both to wear to the bal­let tomor­row and for his upcom­ing con­fir­ma­tion — but had no luck.  As you can see, how­ever, I didn’t leave the store empty-handed.

Until lately, The Son was not a big fan of wear­ing but­ton­down shirts.  Oh, he’d wear one when I insisted or the when the cir­cum­stances demanded (when he was play­ing in a con­cert, for exam­ple).  But he never chose to wear one of his own voli­tion.  And, to tell the truth, I never pushed it much because when he did wear one he always wore the shirt but­toned all the way to the top, even when not wear­ing a tie — mak­ing him look like a young, hand­some ser­ial killer.  I can only guess that the need to but­ton the shirt all the way to the top was another of his quirky, prob­a­bly Asperger’s-induced sen­sory issues.

Then he broke his col­lar­bone.  Now if you’ve ever bro­ken your clav­i­cle or know some­one who has, you’ll know that 1) it’s extremely painful, and 2) the act of putting on an over-the-head shirt is a no-no (accord­ing to both the body and the doc­tor).  There we were in the emer­gency room:  The Son belly­ach­ing that he hadn’t had the fore­thought to have a book with him when he broke his col­lar­bone so he’d have some­thing to read dur­ing the long hours of wait­ing in the ER and, me, wor­ry­ing about what he’s going to wear for the next six weeks because he has a clos­et­ful of T-Shirts and only one buttondown.

Well, after nearly 7 weeks of daily wear, The Son has adapted quite nicely to but­ton­downs.  He’s gone from look­ing like a ser­ial killer, but­toned to the top and all tucked in, to look­ing like a hand­some, hip & casual 14-yo boy with the col­lar open and the tails out.  The only prob­lem has been that most of the long-sleeve but­ton­downs I picked up at the thrift store were size Small and the sleeves are so short he can’t actu­ally but­ton the cuffs.  He asked if I’d look around for a shirt or two in a larger size.  Ask, and you shall receive 

Related posts:

1. $$: Panda Express, Gro­ceries, a Book & a Shirt
2. Day 98: Jeans, T-Shirts, & Self-Doubt
3. Day 121: Clothing
4. $$: Dec 2 — Cloth­ing the Boy
5. Day 252: PJ pants & a Mort­gage Payment