Not the best week

So I've been having a bit of a crappy week. Just a combination of many factors, really, but mostly because the cold bug that BR and DH have been passing around to each other finally managed to catch up to me. So I've been coughing and sneezing and generally feeling miserable, but because of a super tight deadline at work I wasn't able to take any time off (in fact, I worked in the evening more times this week than all year so far). Luckily I seem to have mostly fought it off by now, so I'm hoping for a better weekend. In the meantime, I'm going to take a few minutes to vent here, so if you're not prepared to read through a bunch of grumpy drivel, feel free to skip the rest of this post. I'm hoping to come back with some more interesting content soon...

This week I took BR for her 18 month checkup visit at the doctor. It went mostly well, except for two minor annoyances. First, the doctor gave me a hard time for BR's eczema, suggesting I give her a bath in the Ave.eno oatmeal bath treatment twice a week "and it will all go away". This is the same advice she has been giving me since BR was born, and while it helps keep the skin moisturised, clearly, it doesn't make it go away. I use the bath treatments, I use super thick ointment, I am careful with soaps and detergents and everything... And overall, I do think her skin is doing ok, but it's certainly not perfect porcelain baby skin (which incidentally I had a chance to see last weekend - the 18 month old daughter of a friend of a friend has the most amazing delicate baby skin, enough to make me jealous!). So I get a little annoyed when our doctor seems to completely forget that BR has skin issues and treats it like something new that needs an "intervention", when I'm already doing everything I can think of to keep it under control.

The other thing that made me shake my head was the doctor asking us what kinds of TV shows BR watches. I was taken a little bit aback, as I didn't expect the question. It turns out she just wanted to distract BR with talk of her "favourite" characters, and was looking for some input from me (Do.ra? Sponge.bob?). But BR hasn't seen much TV, and so far seems pretty impervious to its influence - last weekend at the cottage with 4 other 18 month olds, when the kids would watch videos she would sneak into the toy area and play with the toys noone else was interested in anymore - she thought it was a hoot. Given that the AAP recommends no TV for kids under 2, I was quite surprised to have a physician ask about TV characters... Next time I'll be more prepared. After all, BR is very interested in animals, so an elephant would have been a good "character" to suggest in this case.

Once we got BRs appointment out of the way, DH had one the next day to discuss the results of his checkup a few weeks ago, as well as the biopsy of a growth that was cut out of his face last month. His checkup results were mostly ok, with some concern about high tri.glycerides (could cause heart disease) and generally being somewhat overweight. The biopsy results indicated it was basal cell carcinoma. DH feels that it's not a great surprise, what with his fair skin, many sunburns in his younger years, and family history of cancer. And after reading a bit about it, it's not that scary of a diagnosis - low risk of metastasis etc, but it's still not something you like to hear. From the looks of his nicely healing cut where the growth used to be, they got the whole thing, so he should be done with this one. He'll have to get checked regularly of course, and be even more diligent about sun exposure (is that even possible?), but it really looks like they caught it in time. Still, it's a bummer.

So that's pretty much the summary of my week. I think I'm still processing most of the stuff, doesn't all quite feel real yet. I guess that's what the weekend is for...