I had to take my husband to the emergency room last night as soon as we got Connor off the bus. Stephen had been pushing through pain in his lower back all day long yesterday while he worked. He finally couldn't take it by the time he got home. He burst into tears and was screaming in pain along with the kids who wanted to go with me to the hospital. My mom watched the babies while I took my screaming husband to the hospital. I'm pushing my mother-in-law's van that we're borrowing until we can get a car of our own to its limits without getting a ticket. I make it to the hospital and go to get a wheel chair. Stephen falls out of the van onto his face and I have to heave all 214 pounds of him with my constantly hurting back into the wheel char and roll him in. We get him checked in and I'm doing my best just to keep him from rolling out of the wheel chair from the pain. He's begging me to make the pain stop while I'm trying to answer the doctor's questions as they try to hurry and get him a bed. They finally get him a bed and I have to help hold him down to keep him from thrashing so the nurse can put an iv in his arm. Stephen finally calms down when they give him something for the pain. While I'm calling Stephen's boss and texted his mom and called my mom to let them know we were in the emergency room, they diagnose Stephen with urinary retention in men. Basically, it's when the bladder won't empty completely or, in Stephen's case, at all and it just keeps growing and growing until it causes severe pain. They put a catheter in him and expected him (note I said EXPECTED) him to keep it in for three days until he goes to a follow-up with a doctor to have it removed.

This morning, I had to take the kids to their doctor's appointment. My mom went to help me out. Both of their check-ups were excellent and they both got flu shots. We come home and Stephen has pulled the catheter out and thrown it away. Now I'm having to figure out of to get us food, because he's going to be out of work all this week and it's going to hurt his paycheck...severely. I know that you guys have helped me out before, and I hate asking for help again so soon. You have to figure that we have 5 people in the house (Stephen, Haley, Connor, myself, and my mom) and two cats. We need bath soap, washing detergent, my mom has prescriptions that need filling because of her knees having no cushioning between her kneecaps and she has doctor's appointments to go to to ATTEMPT to get on disability. There's so much I could preach and I know it probably wouldn't matter because you guys have your own problems. I'm just so stressed from these past 12 hours and I still have two classes worth of work to get done plus your commissions.

I'm sorry to ramble on so much and I'm sorry if I've made you feel guilty at all. I understand if you can't help and I won't hold it against anyone. We'll get through somehow. Thanks for reading.

Much Love <3