I am trying not to get arrested, but it is really hard...

   Everyone gets discouraged. I get that. I really do. But sometimes you go through periods that are more discouraging than others. When everything seems to be a battle you are poorly equipped to fight. You find yourself fighting one battle, only to have a second front open up unexpectedly. And then a third. And maybe a fourth for good measure. Pretty soon not only are your troops spread thin, but your supply lines are stretched and your ability to communicate dwindles. Even if you achieve victory on one front, you feel worn down, unable to put up much of a fight on another. You begin to question if it is worth sending out the troops at all.

Even good soldiers have bad days.

Have you noticed that I am talking about myself in third person?

You might say the last few weeks have been a little stressful.

I hurt my knee. In my sleep.

   The knee that is on the same leg that gives me trouble with drop foot. The leg that I wear a muscle stimulator on so that my foot will lift when I walk, protecting me from close encounters with the ground that often result in bruised body parts. The leg that has the ankle I have sprained more times than I can number. The leg with foot that has a collapsed arch that causes said foot to roll in when I walk. The leg that bears a scar from a biking accident involving a screen door.

Yes, I had a biking accident involving a screen door.

Look, just read, don't judge. These things happen. Especially to me.

   How, you might ask, could I hurt my knee in my sleep? I don't know, I was asleep, wasn't I? All I know is I woke up and it was kinda bent all backwards and hurt like the devil! I managed to get it to bend back the way it's supposed to be, but that hurt like the devil too! I rubbed it a bit and tried to go back to sleep, but as I was drifting off I made a huge error.... I rolled over and it went backward again. Kinda like it was over-extended, but stuck. The next day it seemed fine and didn't really bother me at all. So I decided to wait and see if it got better on its own. Wouldn't you?

   No such luck the next night. Or the next. Or even the next. There was not enough coffee to make up for the lack of sleep. So after about a week and a half of hoping it would get better, I contacted the doctor's office and made an appointment.

The soonest I could get an appointment was in two weeks.

   In the meantime, I stopped wearing my walking aid, as I was worried that electrical stimulation might aggravate my knee and stress it further. Now that the Christmas stuff was put away, I reasoned that I should have less stress.

The bank emailed me that my credit card was over due.

Nope, I checked, I paid the bill.

The bank had applied my payment to the wrong credit card.

They applied my payment to the card with a zero balance due.

Somewhere this probably makes sense.

   Oh I was chipper and called them asking if I had somehow made a mistake. I was reassured that it was an error on the bank end, I had even selected the correct account number to be paid. They were quick to fix (I could see the fix like magic when I refreshed my computer screen) and all was well. They even sent me apology notices and contacted the credit agencies to let them know it was not my error so this would not affect my credit. 

Then I discovered a box on the front porch.

The clinic that handles my walking aid had sent me supplies.

Without asking me first.

Or notifying me that they were sending me a package.

Or checking with my insurance.

   I had called and left the clinic a message mere days before my knee decided to do its Ostrich Act. But, since they had not returned my call, I had thought to resume my inquiry after I figured out what was wrong with my knee. Just in case it needed to be amputated or something, which would make getting supplies for the walking aid pretty silly.

   I had been pretty clear that I wanted to know ahead of time what billing instructions they had received from the insurance so that I might follow up on my end before making the appointment. Since there were billing issues in the past I wanted to be fully prepared before committing to a year's worth of electrodes. I also needed to obtain a referral.

You might say I was a little surprised.

You might say I was a lot perturbed.

  Still needing answers to all my earlier questions (the box only contained electrodes and a permission request to bill my insurance), I sent them an email so that we might both have everything in writing.

   Putting aside the box and all the issues it contained, I now went about the business of destroying the car by running over the snow embankment at the end of driveway. Okay, so I didn't destroy the car, I only pulled off a stupid plastic part. My brother helped me get clips and put it back on. He said it might hold temporarily. And he helped me look up a replacement part. I am hoping it holds more than temporarily. 

Needing to relax, I thought I could unwind by watching our new smart tv.

Nope. Not happening. 

The remote stopped working. Replacement for smart tv remotes start at seventy dollars.

While trying to contact the tv manufacturer, the phone company calls.

Threatening to turn off my service.

I had paid the bill.

    After a little account research, I discovered that they too had applied my payment to an account with a zero balance. An account that had been canceled when I had upgraded my service a few short weeks before.

What genius applies money to a canceled account?

The customer service representative said she could help me with that.

    I was informed that in the future to reference my new account number. Hey, my payment did reference my phone number, which didn't change. Didn't that ring any bells?

   Did I mention that I still have more RE students than desks?

The director is working on that.

    I was basking in my phone victory, when a bill came in the mail for the electrodes to my walking aid. According to the letter, the insurance company will not cover my electrodes.

The insurance company doesn't know what they are talking about.

I am running low on coffee.

I have a tick in my eye and look Chief Inspector Dreyfus.

   With a thank you I have returned the electrodes to the clinic so that I will have the proper time to obtain both a referral and a definitive billing plan from my insurance. 

After I go to the doctor next week. 

I think I should hear back from the tv company about the remote by then.

Did I mention that their chat room is not in operation at this time and I didn't have another thirty minutes to spend on hold, so I sent them an email?

   Meantime, I have resumed wearing my walk aid. My last trip to grocery store resulted in an ungraceful entrance and a bruise to my ego and my elbow. I don't want the doctor to have more to examine than my knee. 

No way, that can't be another Christmas decoration....