Bum knee, lousy car, and what next???

I think that stress and winter have finally combined to hit me with their best shot.  I've been up most of the night dealing with things that I won't mention here!  Suffice it to say that even if my car were up to traveling, I wouldn't be leaving the house today.  Sigh.  It sure seems like I've been not feeling well way too often lately. 

I'm just going to get my gripes out of the way here, right now.  Maybe by "voicing" them, they will go away and leave me alone!

I'm not feeling horribly stressed at the moment, which is extremely surprising, given that I don't feel well, my car is rebelling horribly (and probably very expensively) against being driven at all, and Bruce is on his way to PA.  I'm also having serious issues with my knee.  I can't walk very far at all without experiencing some nasty pain and a locking-up knee.  The insurance that covered me through my cancer treatments and the following years, expired in September of last year and since I'm not actively receiving cancer treatments, I no longer am eligible for that care.  Which leaves me with no insurance.  Now, working for a doctor is a blessing when you have no medical insurance!  However, leave it to me to come up with something (my knee) that the doctor I work for really can't help me with.  He can help me figure out what is wrong, but he can't fix it for me.  Which leaves me walking on a knee that leaves me yelping out load now and then, more often than not, and wondering what to do for it next.

Then, there is my car.  Really?  I'm close to getting rid of it.  No, really.  The plan was to use my income tax refund to help replace the car.  So, what does the car do?  It digs in... literally... and refuses to go.  Bruce and I parked on a hill the other day, a rather steep hill, and I set the parking brake.  When we went to drive away, the brake wouldn't release from one of the back tires.  When we drive on snow/ice, the tire won't turn at all.  When we get to clear pavement, the tire will turn, but still drags from the brake.  Good grief.  We thought we had it "broken loose", and I didn't have to drive again before Bruce left,  but we were wrong.  I drove to the grocery store yesterday afternoon and by the time I got back home, you could smell the heat coming off of the tire/wheel.  Let's see.  I could leave the car parked and walk to work.  It's a walkable distance, and I'd have time to rest at work before I walked home!  Oh wait!!!  I can't walk that far because my darn knee won't let me!  ARGGGGGG!!!  I'm truly not sure what I'm going to do with the car.  I'd really like to just get it fixed enough to drive for a couple of weeks until I can replace the car, but I'm not sure that is an option due to safety.  (I can't really just have them disconnect brakes..... can I??????)  Oh well, I'll come up with something.  I have to.

I'm pretty sure that the tummy issues that I've been experiencing all night, and that are continuing on this morning, are due to the above issues.  You'd think that I would be impervious to stress related issues by now!  My system should be able to handle car/knee/Bruce going to PA stress without even a burp.  I've dealt with enough stress over the past 5+ years, thank you cancer and all the surgeries that followed that experience, that I should be able to handle something as mundane as car trouble and a bum knee with my eyes closed and one hand tied behind my back.  Instead, I feel like I've been double-whammied.

So, I'm probably going to spend this day at home  (since I can't really walk or drive anywhere), snuggling with critters in the recliner, watching football, and hoping that my tummy settles down quickly.  I'll spend some time pouting and feeling sorry for myself.  I'll get it all out of my system today, so that tomorrow I can deal with the issues at hand and hopefully start to get things fixed around here!  I sure can't sit around here for too darn long!  I've got to much to do out there!  : )