Round Ligament Pain

Since Sunday, I’ve been occasionally having this very sharp pain at the left side on the bottom of my abdomen.  It’s definitely not cramps, but it has been painful.  It usually happens when I stand up, change positions, or roll over in my sleep.  I finally looked it up and it’s called Round Ligament Pain.  Apparently, your body has to stretch out its ligaments and tendons in your belly to support the growing uterus.  I think it must be very common in the first pregnancy. 

 

The thing I like about the link above it that it gives good information about where exactly the pain is likely to occur.  I hate when “they” use semi-specific terms like groin or lower abdomen because, at least for me, my lower abdomen is not all that small.  This link said the pain should occur “along the line of a very high cut bikini” which pinpointed where the pain actually occurs.  So, I’m including the link for anyone else who would like the info. 

 

All Around Financial Pain

 

So, Monday night was figuring out what we had spent last year. Last night was figuring out what we’re going to spend during the next year.  That, I have to admit, was no fun whatsoever.  If I didn’t have a student loan and if I could have kept the Celica alive for a few more years, we’d actually have a bit of extra money and that maid would be in the house at this exact moment.  But no, the Celica had to commit hari-cari on Interstate 85 1 1/2 years ago.  It shot a rod through its own engine; it was 14 years old. The student loans, (un)fortunately, are what have allowed me to become a professor, but will keep me at a state of gross poverty for 27 more years. Unless we win the lottery. 

 

So Dave and I spent last night looking over the budget and deciding what “necessities” we need to cut and which “wants” we can’t live without.  In the Los Angeles Times, they used to have a Money Makeover column where people would volunteer to reveal their financial status while experts would help them make decisions about how to achieve what they wanted.  And yes, usually, their dreams often involved becoming a screenwriter or a director or something like that.  What I took from that column is that one way of thinking about budgeting to save money is to realize you only need to deny yourself something for a little while until you can reach that goal.  For me, budgeting is a lot like dieting.  It’s a lifestyle choice, but also, occasionally, you can’t have every cookie or margarita you want.  And it’s probably better for you in the long run anyway.   

 

So tomorrow, we’re definitely eating as many black-eyed peas (for luck) and collard greens (for money) as we can hold.  We’re having folks over, and I just realized that in inviting them over, black-eyed peas a la Hoppin’ John and collard greens, as the traditional New Year’s Day food, are Southern things.  These folks are transplanted northerners and have been repeatedly asking “Hoppin’ John?  What’s that???”  We’ll all be rich and lucky next year! And we'll use more Ebay.

8:27:44 AM