Patients or Patience?

Today I tried Shekinah's patience to the fullest. I scheduled three
appointments in the same day....not on purpose, but that is how it worked.
Joe needed to have an orthodontist appointment this week because last
week's got cancelled, so I made that for 2:30 in the afternoon.
I have been having trouble with my shoulder and after my fingers started
going numb, I decided it might be time to have a professional take a
look...appt time 9:30.
Then on Friday Faith came home from school and showed me her hurting
tooth...it had an abscess in the gum above the tooth. Of course this
past Saturday was the one that the Dentist was not in the office. So we
made that appointment for 11:15 .
It crossed my mind to keep Faith home from school this AM so that I
would surely have enough time to run to school and get her at 10:55 and
then to the dentist, but I hoped that this time the orthopedics office
would be running only 30 min behind schedule.

I went armed with snacks, arriving 15 minutes before my appointment,
filled out the appropriate paperwork and then we waited.....and
waited....and waited at 10:15 we were called back to the examining
room. After the nurse left, Shekinah started saying " come on!", "come
on!" It was all I could do not to help her.
at 10:35 I decided I would give 5 more minutes and then I would leave.
I'd put up with the pain for a number of weeks, I could probably handle
it another couple of days. Well the doctor showed up in the next 4
minutes. Decided to do x-rays, I told him I'm on a time crunch and they
actually got the x-rays and looked at them and had me out the door by
11:00. I had a diagnosis at least...pinched nerve at C5, C6, arthritis
in my neck and shoulder, therapy to follow oh and prednisone with
supposed side effects of increased appetite and irritability....that bit
of information is a post in itself....

So I skidded into the school drive at 11:20 and into the dentist parking
lot at 11:35. Thankfully the dentist's office was flexible and we were
out of there by 12 something with the little pink treasure chest in
hand. She did very well, but questioned me about the 'pinch' that the
dentist did in her mouth with "that thing that looks like a shot"...they
had her numbed up with topical antithetic so she really only did feel a
pinch.

At that point I really didn't feel like running her back to school and
then home only to turn around and get Joe for his orthodontist appt.
We went home for lunch and so the girls could argue over desk space and
crayons.
One wash load and a bowl of soup and we were out the door again. This
time a bit early so that Faith wouldn't miss quite so much of the day
and we got Joe to the orthodontist in decent time.

Of course tonite we had business meeting at church, we slid in the seats
one minute late and Joe forgot his coat and put on his shoes in the van.
Ben offered to hold Shekinah in church so that I didn't have to hang on
to her, it gave me about 15 min reprieve