Just Think Positive...

Well, I haven't posted in a while, so I've got a bit of an update to share. On June 30th, I started my new job at Elexco Land Services. So far, I love it and my supervisor said that I'm catching on very quickly and doing an excellent job. I've been inputting natural gas, petroleum and oil leases into their computer system, which seems to be pretty easy. She is going to start me on something new Monday morning, so we'll see what next week brings. I hope that this will help us to be able to move our family in a more positive direction.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their 4th of July and were able to come together as one to help celebrate our nation's independence. I, on the other hand, was in extreme pain and masked it pretty well for my children's sake so that they could see the fireworks down in Olean. But by the time that I woke up on the 5th, I could mask the pain no longer. I couldn't even take a step without tears coming to my eyes. So, we made the journey over to Bradford ER and things just got worse from there. The receptionist in the ER had me registered as Melissa Knepp instead of Mandy Knapp. She had my birthdate as 8/16/79 instead of my actual birthdate. When someone actually realized the mistake, that account had to be deleted and I had to start all over from square one. Meanwhile, the pain is becoming excruciating and I'm becoming very irritated. After another extended waiting period, I am finally registered correctly and back in a room in the ER. The nurse comes in and gives me my gown and leaves. After I undressed and put the gown on, she returned. She asked to take a look at my "problem area". When she did, her face went white, she said "Ouch!", left the room and returned with a whole table full of supplies. My eyes widened when I saw the stack of needles, but I became a bit relieved when she showed me the bottle of Lidocaine that she said the physician intended to use. She got everything ready and then I just had to wait for the physician to come in and check things out. I was put flat on my back so I obviously couldn't see anything, but from the look on Dan's face while he was watching (he was explaining something about a scalpel and some tweezer-looking instruments), as well as all the bloody gauzes that the doctor threw away, I guess things got pretty messy. The physician also withdrew a vial of fluid that he was sending to the lab as precautionary measures to make sure it wasn't something more serious than he had diagnosed me with. So hopefully, no news is good news. After a quick patch job and some discharge instructions, I was on my way home. Immediately, I could tell there was some relief when it was no longer painful to take a step. I was also finally able to get a good night's sleep last night. This morning, I awoke refreshed and ready to take on the day.

God Bless America!