plumbing

I cleaned out bathroom drains on Friday. Three of them. It was really gross. The smell reminded me of the perms I used to get in the 70's. We had to do them outside because the smell was so strong. Who knew that the combination of water, hair, soap and spit could create such nastiness. As gross as it is it is nice to be able to turn on the water and have it flow through the system without getting backed up.

This of course made me think on my sweet Zoe who has been struggling with painful constipation for the past two weeks. She has missed a lot of school, shed a lot of tears, spent a lot of time on the couch-and on the piano since I wouldn't let her watch TV while she was out of school. We weren't sure what it was, but an x-ray (and to be quite honest her smell) after 10 days confirmed that she had non-obstructive impacted bowels. Good Times. Zoe has been on some heavy duty laxatives for the past 5 days-which create their own form of abdominal pain. She gets to take them for the next month to get everything flowing normally through the system.

Problems like plumbing make you realize how grateful you are that everything works and even more grateful that you have the tools to fix it when things don't work. It also reminds you how much maintenance is required to keep everything in our lives working smoothly.

Like that ever happens...