Unexpeccted Stay

Carl got back from Wisconsin on Sunday. He was actually able to get an earlier flight so he got home around 10:00 instead of his flight landing at midnight. Yeah for us. It was great to have him home. The plan was to wake up early Monday and get on the road. We called early that morning to see if the trailer was ready. To our dismay, we found out that it was not. They had just started working on it. We were not happy at all. They discovered that problem was a lot bigger than they anticipated. They thought they were just going to have to adjust the cables. When they got into it they found out that a whole weld had come lose. They had to completely take apart the slide and do some major work and put bracket and welds. They also found the seals on one of the windows was not right. They had to take the window off and put it back in correctly. They also took down the cabinets and fixed the hole in the wall. All of this damage was caused by the precious owners who traded it in without the dealer knowing the damage was as extensive as it. I feel bad for the dealer because they are losing labor and parts costs as we are not paying for any of this. Carl has really shown restraint in all of this but he is getting frustrated with the dealer and the service department.

We decided to stay at my mom’s house on Monday which was fine because Carl was able to depress from the trip … a little. He went into the unit to drop some stuff off and ended up being several hours counseling a soldier. Loooong story. We were able to visit with my mom a little bit longer and do some last minute laundry. Tuesday dawned and the dealer said that they were still not done. Sigh!!! WE decided to pack up and head down to Concord anyway with the hope that if we sat in the lobby with 8 kids that they may finish faster. We drove the 3 hours to the dealer and found out that they were done. We arrived at 4:30. They close at 5:00. Talk about a close call. We looked at the work they had done and pushed at the slide. It looked the same. It still looked like it was sagging. Almost like the bottom of the slide was not pushed out all the way. We also found out they had not installed the window properly. The only thing that looked like it had been done right was the patch on the ceiling. Talk about frustration. With them closing any minute they decided to let us stay at their campground and see the service department in the morning. We kept trying to tell them that this is our home and that we have no other place to go … with our eight kids. I was so proud of Carl though. He stayed calm in a very high stress situation. After a trip to Walmart to buy groceries and dinner at Chick Fil A we settled down in the trailer for the night. I was still suffering from the oral surgery so I took some pain medication and went to bed. I think that I have a dry socket on the one side because food keeps getting caught in the hole where the tooth is. Anytime I eat, the pain is almost unbearable. I cannot get to the oral surgeon because of all the ordeals with the trailer. I am stuck taking pain medication and praying that we get the problem taken care of.

The saga continued Wednesday morning with a wonderful breakfast and then taking the trailer back to the service department. The way the dealer is set up is that the sales and service department is right next to the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The campground is on the same property. It has made it so much easier for the service to be done. After a lovely breakfast of eggs, bacon, and biscuits, we hooked up the trailer and took it to the service department. We were told that they would look at it as soon as they could. Apparently they have quite a few people out sick this week. After a few hours (yes, a few HOURS) they came out and said they could finally look at it. Another hour later we got the news. The work that had been done before was not done properly and had to be redone. Talk about a test in patience and mercy. Carl was not pleased. I was in such pain that I did not really care. All of my pain medication was in the trailer which was being looked at. I finally had to get one of the kids to go and get it out. I had taken one bite of lunch and had gotten a small peanut stuck in the incision site. It was so painful. I was in so much pain. I don’t really remember much of the rest of the day as I was using every medication in my arsenal to combat the pain I was in. We had to get the trailer hauled to another campsite and spent the night …again. I was able to get some relief, enough to do a few loads of laundry.

The next morning we overslept and had to rush around to be ready for the service techs to come and get the trailer at 8. They were planning on working the entire day on it as they needed to take the slide out completely apart… for the second time. Ugh. We did not want to sit in the service area all day long so we drove into Charlotte. We went to the Discovery Place and it was awesome. It was like the Museum of Life and Science but better. They did not have any outside things to do but the inside was amazing. We literally were there from about 9:30 until they closed at 4. The kids had so much fun. We returned to the dealer at 4:30 and they were still not done. They finally finished about 45 minutes later and we were off to Falls Lake. We got there about 10:00. Setting up in the dark was fun but by that time I was in so much pain I did not care. I was crying and rocking back and forth. I almost had Carl take me to the ER to get some IV medication as nothing I did stopped the pain. I knew I had an appointment at 1 the next day so I just stuck it out.

The next day, Friday, we dropped the kids off at my mom’s and went to my appointment. While the hygienist was irrigating my mouth I was about coming out of the chair. I was crying and in agony. The oral surgeon came in and took a look and informed me of what I already suspected. I had a dry socket. She told me that the Percocet I was on does not touch the pain of a dry socket. Neither does ibuprofen. She inserted a syringe inside the dry socket in inserted some clove oil paste in it. Within 5 minutes I was crying out of relief. For the first time in 7 days, I had pain that was manageable. It was amazing. She told me that I should be on the road to recovery now without too much pain. I just need to take care of irrigating the incision sites and continue with the clove oil. Talk about an answer to prayer. I am so thankful for friends who have prayed for me during this ordeal. I truly can say that I have never experienced pain like that in my whole life. As I was lying awake one night trying not to moan and wake up everyone, the Lord laid on my heart the fact that the agony I was in at that moment was nothing compared to what Christ endured on the cross. It made me that much more thankful for all that Christ did for me on that day on Calvary. I think that every once in a while we need to be reminded of the agony and suffering that Christ endured for us on the cross. Sometimes we take it for granted. We know it but do we truly KNOW IT. This week God gave me a little teeny tiny taste of suffering. My heart is thankful for the sacrifice that Christ WILLINGLY took for me. Great is our LORD!!!!!!