WHAT THE FUCK!

I got a letter in December from MCI from the toll fraud department about unusual activity on my phone. When I contacted them, I found out there were over $400 in charges. Then I got my $689 December phone bill.

When I confronted my son, he told me he had made the calls and he felt guilty every time he did and he wanted to tell me, but he knew how mad I'd be.

Right.

Didn't stop him from doing it again...and again....and again.

I spent an hour and a half on the phone yesterday with my local phone provider and various other providers regarding the charges, courtesy of my 16 year old hormone bomb son. Three of the companies were excellent about crediting the charges. Especially, when I explained that the phone is in my name, he wasn't authorized to make these calls, they allowed a minor access to their adult services, and I wasn't paying the charges. I requested blocks with each of the companies. The one I'm still getting the run around from is MCI. MCI was recently bought by Verizon; my provider. Verizon told me that, although the calls were billed by MCI (on behalf of the "900" company) they were not the "900 Company" provider and then connected me with said company. I ended up at some womans voicemail. I left a message, surprisingly, she did return my call. According to her, one of the two phone numbers called (repeatedly), they had no record of and I needed to call Verizon and have them credit my account. Verizon tells me that only the business that charged the calls can make a credit. Round and round I go.

I will get credit for the $600 in charges and, my son will pay me $600 for the calls and aggravation he has caused me. He's forbidden from using the phone and I've canceled my long distance service. Consequences for his actions. I have nationwide service on my cell, so that's where I'll make any long distance calls from. Whatever happened to the days when the worst a Mother had to worry about was finding Playboys under the mattress? Now, there are personals, phone dating, phone sex and who knows what else available with a simple dial of a few digits. To top it all off, when I was on the phone with one of the companies I found out that my darling son had made another call that day! After he was already busted and in such deep shit he'll still be shoveling when he's 30!


Mom was hit with a very strong sharp pain in her shoulder the weekend before she was to return to work. She was much improved after a Cortizone shot. The Doc still wanted her to have an MRI to rule out anything spinal. His diagnosis was a ruptured deltoid tendon. Nothing much they can do about it and it heals on it's own.

She received the MRI results today and she has spinal bone spurs that have caused two bulging discs in her neck. The spurs have actually moved her spinal cord. The Doc is optimistic that a shot in her spine and PT will correct it. As Mom put it, that's the least of her worries.

Mom has a second mammography scheduled for tomorrow because something showed up on the one she had last week.

Mom and Dad met with the oncologist today. The tumors are growing and either there are more or more nodes affected (I was too numb at the news to clarify). The front line Chemo, that seemed to be so effective, isn't working anymore. They are switching him to a different Chemotherapy drug, the second choice. His cancer blood count (whatever the medical term is) is back up to where it was when he was first diagnosed. Next week, they return to Boston to see the results of the Gamma Knife procedure Dad had on his brain.

My heart was breaking for my Mom as she told me the latest news. I couldn't find any comforting words as she said "I don't know what the fuck we've done to deserve this. They say God doesn't give you anything.." "That's bullshit!" I didn't even let her finish. "No one should have to go through all this. God and I aren't exactly on speaking terms". All I could do was cry on the end of the line with her and say "Oh Mummy, I'm so sorry". I wanted to be there to hug her, to try and take some of the weight off of her. I nodded my head in agreement when she said we need some good news and that that she wasn't sure how much more of this she could take. I couldn't speak through the tears, for fear of sobbing. I wanted to say something encouraging, something positive....But, I couldn't find anything good in this clusterfuck of hell.

Go ahead, say it with me people: WHAT THE FUCK?!