Stress - "You don't know what you've got, 'til it's gone."

You know - sometimes you don't know how stressed you are until some of it goes away.
Today was the first of TWELVE medical appointments for our family in the next THREE weeks. It's not that we're all that unhealthy, it's just that November kind of crept up on us, and caught us unaware. I've been working hard on time-management (which is why I got really annoyed at losing that last blog entry). I've been putting everything into my Outlook Calendar and using it to optimize my schedule and avoid double bookings. Well, I can safely say that it kind of works. I've managed to fit more things into less time than ever before. The problem is, there isn't "less time", so I'm just plain doing more in the same amount of time. My "free time" hasn't grown, and hasn't really shrunk.

But back today. Today's appointment apparently was a source of a great deal of stress that we didn't even know we had. Well, we knew we had stress, but hadn't really clocked today's doctor appointment as being relevant to it. You see, we're renovating during this month too. I'm trying to schedule flooring guys, counter guys, and plumbers to arrive here soon, but not before the stuff they're supposed to be installing. So between this and doctors, I'm pretty busy. Oh yeah, there's work too....

Today we went for the pre-assessment assessment for Doug's Autism tests. We don't think he has it, and never have. But there are some "tendencies" that may put him "in the spectrum". And as good cautious parents, we're taking on the additional stressload just in case there is more to it than meets the eye, and extra support and funding for treating it. Today went well. The doctor interviewed us, and examined Doug. He came to the same conclusion we did, in that Doug is "well outside the spectrum". The relief in the room was tangible. At that point I realized that I was pretty worked up about this - despite believing that there was nothing to worry about. I guess we've experienced the "worst case" diagnosis before, and our bodies were working themselves up to deal with another one.

What have I learned? Stress is bad. Being to busy is stressful - and worst of all - being too busy masks the root causes of stress. Fortunately there's a sermon series under way now at church about managing stress. I'll be paying close attention.