Last week we brought "Oh the Places You'll Go" home from the library. Somehow I never read it before, and it turns out it was a timely read for me.Today I was entrapped in the waiting place.
Took Mary Tessa in at 10a.m. for a real normal "she's been coughing now for three weeks and got a fever yesterday" doctor's visit. The good Dr. quickly noted that she had a double ear infection. Then I had to open my big mouth and mention that she swallowed part of a lollipop wrapper last week while we were plodding through grocery store purgatory. (Side note: I used to really like grocery shopping. Now people swallow wrappers and whine and have to go poo when we are 75% done and on the other side of the store.)
With that fool statement, I got myself sent with Mary to the Children's Hospital emergency for chest x-rays and etcetera. Lucky for me, Mark works a building away and could take the big kids off my hands and to a WIC appointment (hah ha!).
Not lucky for me: 1. I left the Dr's order on the passenger seat. 2. the good dr. didn't exactly tell me where to report to. 3. i waited in the wrong place from noon to 4:30***. ***lots of extraneous details omitted here. 4. got admitted to the actual e.r. or was it the e.c.? i'm still not really sure 5. sometime between 4:30 and 9:45pm Mary Tessa received a second x-ray which took about half an hour. the rest of the time? you guessed it! waiting. 6. sometime around 7pm i started to get that cartrip feeling. you know the one. where you feel like you've been eating lots of fruitsnacks and trailmix and chips and SITTING and you almost feel like you really have to go to the bathroom, but not quite because you've been sitting for soooo long. 7. around 7:30 mary accidentally pushes the BIG RED/ CALL NURSE button. it beeps for over 45 minutes with no response. during this time i also somehow get our sliding glass room door stuck. TRAPPED. nurses obviously don't care that our "distress" button is beeping. (happily, this psychosis-inducing turn of fates happens after our bathroom trip)
I SPENT ELEVEN HOURS WAITING WITH A (ANGELIC) TODDLER IN SMALL, GERMY? PLACES!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I learned:
Mary is truly an angel baby. She only had a meltdown after 7 hours, and that was because she hadn't hardly napped, nursed, or eaten (didn't know if we were going to be sedated, you see.)
It's neat to find $3 dollars on the floor.
The Children's Hospital must subsidize fruit snacks, because they were only 35 cents. I think that's nice.
Keep your mouth shut about swallowed things. Just take your antibiotic prescription and run. But maybe not to Walgreens. It's 11:35pm and we're still waiting for the stuff.
Unbelievable.
But she's totally okay. No pneumonia, no "foreign body".
Please vote for universal health care. I saw people in distress today.
Oh, the places . . .
. . .. perhaps tomorrow I'll go to the grocery store. I hear we've been out of milk, cheese and bread for a few days now.
8 comments:
Oh man, oh man, Emily. That seems like quite a lot of drama in your guys' life. Seems like you survived it without too many physical or emotional scars. Thank goodness Mark was near by to take the two older kids. I don't know how I would do half my life without Derek's help. Aren't husbands great?!?! Well, you guys take care and when things calm down, we really need to get together and play. My kids need some playmates and I need some Emily time. Hope to see you all soon and let me know if there is anything we can do to make your life easier.
Oh so you really WERE gone when I called you. Weird.
I read your post and had anxiety for you. I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate stuff like that. Hate. Hate.
I don't have bread in my house. Don't feel bad.
I only grocery shop at night. Won't. Even. CONSIDER. Doing it with 3 kids.
Let's talk sometime. And be friends. Because even though everyone else in the world is ridiculous and insane and you could have been dying in the ER for 45 minutes before the nurse noticed, we can still be friends.
First off, I'm glad she's OK. 2nd- I will be more careful with wrappers with my kids-- had no idea swallowing part of one could get a kid rushed to the ER. 3rd-- did you go to Texas Children's? I ask because I really like this new reality show on TLC called The Little Couple. The woman on the show is a pediatrician at Texas Children's in Houston. I always think of you guys when they show the outside shot of the hospital. 4th- you deserve a day off.
Brutal. Wow. Seriously, I'm speechless.
so many things to say...so little time...so many hours spent needlessly in hospital...so many congratulations on surviving.
I once spent a long day at the same ER with Ben...horrible! Sorry to hear about your bad day.
Off-topic question - have you ever found a place to buy rhubarb? For some really strange, unknown reason ;), I want to make strawberry-rhubarb jam. Really bad!
That is H E double hockey sticks if I've ever heard it. You're pretty hilarious though, Em. Oh, my heart goes out to you and Mary T. (maybe i'll call her that??) What a crappy way to learn all of those lessons!
What an aweful day! Ahk! 11 hours, you have GOT to be kidding me!!
And on a side note, until you've lived through Universal Health Care (for 18 years I might add) I wouldn't be so quick to say yes to it. There have got to be much better, and affordable, solutions out there.
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