Just when I was kicking along, thinking I would be in prime writing mode, my pc did the slow down, die thing as I tried to reboot.  It wouldn’t.  I shut it off and tried again to get the ‘your computer did not start properly, try windows repair’ or something like that.  I did, it went nowhere, just to a light blue screen with a big, stark, white arrow that was supposed to be my mouse…which wouldn’t move.

I spent about 2 hours messing wit it. Tried system recovery disks I had made, and all sorts of incantations where I danced around over it, swearing, begging, tossing things in the air, (not really but it sounds good on paper). But I was doing some of it, you won’t even have to concentrate to picture the swearing. I finally gave up and called Master Tech out here in the big city I live in.

It was about two hours before they close and I went AFAP to see if I could get this piece of shit wonderfulness up and running.  It wouldn’t boot up for the repair guy either so I left it.  He didn’t think it was the hard drive, I did because I did manage to get in through the system diagnostics and run the tests, everything showed good except the hard drive.

The following day he called to tell me it was the hard drive, epic fail.  Nothing was spinning, it showed no signs of life even when with stabbed with a massive ice pick…oh wait…that’s not exactly what happened.

But it was dead.  They could put in a new 1T hard drive, install windows operating system AND, get this, download my back up that was up on Carbonite, plus I had a mirror image drive on an external hard drive (that I would have to run in to them) that was also part of my package with Carbonite and it would be just like it was before it died.  I accepted.

I was frustrated, irritated, time stressed, and a bit sick, I had writing deadlines for PokerNews.com and some work that was way behind on PokerWorks.com.  I did have a laptop set up on my gigantic TV screen…yeah…really, that I use to watch Game of Thrones and other movie downloads or just to log onto the Internet when I need to access through a different view.

So there I was.  Heading for my easy chair and the laptop with my wireless mouse and keyboard.  It was another moment of frustration until I realized I could log onto Carbonite and find my massive, encrypted password file which allowed me to get into a few things I needed.

Having the PC repair guys do all the back up download saved me $.  I get 200GB a month on this air internet plan, each time you go over, you pay for each 10GB tier you move into. Mine is usually around 100 but it’s gone over a few times with Riot here and Dan downloading some huge games, etc.  My usage this month — because I put a new operating system on Riot’s PC which wiped out his old one and we had to redownload WOW for him – that’s about 30GB or some such nonsense — is already at 168.

The Carbonite back up was over 200GB. Let’s hear it for yippee-skippee.

Anyway, new HD, all info restored, running like a champ, except for one email glitch with Outlook 10, all under $180.  I’m happy.

It’s been a crazy past week though.  I picked Riot up on the 5th in Vegas.  He had an earache. It didn’t improve over the weekend.  I gave him intermittent children’s motrin, tylenol, and advil.  He liked a hot pack on it so he got it.

I had an appointment on Tuesday at my doctor’s office for an pelvic ultrasound.  I took Riot with me and tried to get him checked in, filled out all the paperwork, had a state insurance number for him, they didn’t accept those so it would be $75.  By the time I got out of the ultrasound, they said they couldn’t treat him unless I had a faxed approval of consent from his mother. I asked how they could prove that.  Oh…BTW…it has to be notarized, that was after the fact.

Momparental and I aren’t bosom buddies.  Sent her a text, she didn’t have a fax.  No shit? She consented to go to her bank and have something notarized and fax it.  I was in tears by now.  Real ones.  Very frustrating and my little buddy was in pain.

I went to Smiths, they have Western Union and bill pay and…and…and..but no fax.  The lady behind the counter was kind enough to find the phone # of the UPS store for me.  I called and got their fax # and texted it to Momparental.

We pretty much hung out in the parking lot in the car by UPS until she texted to say it was faxed.  Got it, and it had his insurance card copy on it.  We went to Quick Care. I filled out more forms, they took his insurance, and accepted the approval and within 25 minutes he was being looked at.

Problem is, the ear had been an ongoing thing.  He had been to a Dr. in Vegas who diagnosed that he had a rock in his ear and he would have to see a specialist.  That didn’t happen so here it was, popping up again.

This Dr. seemed quite knowledgeable and straight forward.  She said she would try to flush it except there was so much stuff in his ear, she didn’t know what she was dealing with.  It could be some type of clutter with ear wax formed around it or who knows what.  She gave me a pain killer to put in his ear (a scrip) and another scrip for an antibiotic to put in the ear.  She didn’t believe he had an inner ear infection.

Then we were off to Walgreens.  They didn’t have the antibiotic in stock and would have to order it, it should be in the next day…it wasn’t.  But it didn’t matter, we ended up driving to Vegas. Texted Momparental and told her he needed an appt. with an ENT specialist.  She got an appointment with the same Dr. that saw him previously, a children’s Dr., and it was the next day in Vegas.

I took him in.  It meant sitting with Riot and Momparental for over 3 hours as we waited to get in and then got stuck in the back offices like they always make you do, their times is important, yours is worth Jack Shit.  *heavy sigh* The things I do for that boy.

They did flush his ear.  Gobs of weirdness came out of it after she scooped out some clumps of ear wax or something.  But they were also the ones who recommended warm olive oil in the ear every night, so imagine body cells, lint, cat dander (he sleeps with his cat) and any variety of things getting trapped in the ear.

They flushed it four times. And finally could see some yellow looking mass on the side that might be an infection.  He got another scrip for an antibiotic to go in the ear and this one I picked up at Walmart on my way out of Vegas.

Long and short of it, he came home with me.  The ear bothered him intermittently the first few days, but nothing like before. He now has an appointment with a specialist on the 25th.  Guess who gets to take him?  Naw…you already knew the answer.  Momparental has to work as I’ve been informed that since I have the paperwork, I can take him.  OK…just another 6 to 7 hours out of my day, no big deal.  And around 160 miles of driving.

I will be happy to know when he’s taken care of so I guess it all works out.  I believe when I drop him off, I may not see him again for the summer, will wait and see.

But let me not forget to add another epic fail in the land of medicine.  When I went in for the ultrasound, it was supposed to be to check a cyst on my right ovary. Yah, I know, at my age I’m not supposed to have ovaries, the left one atrophied and dried up some years ago.  I guess the cyst keeps the other one plugging along but it doesn’t ship out any hormones, it’s just T-H-E-R-E!

I get on the table, Arthur, the technician, a wonderful, soft,spoken young man, asked me if I’d eaten anything. I said I had 3 animal crackers and coffee with cream a few hours before because I had to take medication with food…and I queried, but this is for a pelvic ultrasound?

Nope.  It was an abdominal ultrasound.  They scheduled me for the wrong one.  Since I no longer have a gallbladder, the teensy bit of food turned out not to be a problem.  But this week I go back to have the ultrasound I originally was supposed to be scheduled for.

There just seems to be no way to get medicine done right.  Arthur said he’s worked in big and small offices (he comes in from Vegas twice a week) and he said the mistakes are universal.

My thought is that if you don’t take an aggressive stance on tracking your Doctor’s recommendations, and making sure they are followed by the doctor and his staff, you are simply FUCKED!

Let me end this small book and move on.  Laters…