Born 'n Bred Country Girl

This morning I decided to try and beat the rush in the emergency room at our local hospital. You see, my daughter, although super happy during the day, has been having this weird puking situation at night. She has had one vomit per day at approximately the same time every night for the past 6 days. Very strange and bizarre. My son had, two weeks ago, first voiced a complaint about a sore ear that I thought was just water in his ear from his bath that evening. Last night though he complained again and my husband found a bit of clear fluid. So all of that to say that since our family doctor is an hour away, I figured i'd brave the emergency room and see what the doctors had to say about my daughter and hopefully confirm our suspicion about an ear infection in my son.

My quick trip to 'emerg' ended up being a half day affair. I don't usually carry change with me so we had to park a block or so away and hike it back up the hill to the hospital (note to self...park uphill next time or bring change or petition against building hospitals on hills). We then proceeded to get all settled in. It wasn't until after a lady came in complaining of chest pain that I noticed a sign that said "for service pick up red phone". Which is exactly what this woman did and she was taken in right away (note to self- read all signage before getting kids comfy).

And so began our wait all the while prepping my son for what's about to happen. Now honey, the doctor is going to want to look at your ear and see what's inside. He will probably take your temperature so you need to be a good listener and sit still for him ok? And when it's your sisters turn you need to wait your turn to talk because mommy is going to have to tell him about her being sick.

Pep talk complete.

Then starts the questions. Mommy how come he has to take my temperature? When is it our turn? Is that lady done yet? Oh I hear my name can we go now? I'm hungry. Ok so that's not a question but thank goodness for fishy crackers and sanitary wipes. (Note to self- get over paranoia about children getting more sick from gross looking kids table and ripped hospital chairs)

Eventually the nurse sees us and thankfully both kids behave fairly well for having been there for about an hour . We communicate the necessary information and get registered. We get re-settled in the waiting room.

We/I watch as a broken arm, a sprained ankle, a shoulder pain, a woman walking like she has hemorrhoids, and several pee samples later pass by my view all the while making small talk with my son who was climbing over the chairs as if he was on a jungle gym and playing bouncing games on my knee with my daughter trying to keep her happy cause there is no way I letting her crawl around on those floors. Oh and watching some crime show about a woman who's trying to catch a serial killer who wants to bury her alive. (Note to self-bring better entertainment options)

I finally manage to get my daughter asleep and work up enough guts to change the channel on the tv to Barney for my son WHEN they finally call our names. So we load up again and set up shop in another room. The next 45 minutes were pure torture. Now I am in a room alone, no tv, lots of expensive equipment, with a sleeping baby and a toddler who has decided he's tired of waiting and begins demanding to go home. On top of that, this room must have been heated for a hypothermic 90 year old. We were so stinkin' hot my son had stripped off his shirt and shoes and was trying to escape through the only door that promised cool air and his way to Barney. (Note to self- bring a fan and more water and better entertainment)

By the time we saw the doctor all of our cheeks were super red and rosy and they questionned me about all other sorts of unrelated ailments to make sure there was no other root cause to my kids' bizarre conditions.

So, one prescription and a firm "not sure what's going on with your daughter but she's not contagious" from the doctor three hours later we were free to leave.

All I could think was FRESH COOL AIR! FREEDOM! It was then that the exhaustion set in. My sons legs decided they couldn't hold him any longer and he too needed a ride on the stroller. (Note to self- scratch what I said before- never park uphill. Save the easy downhill roll for the end as the stroller now has an extra 35 pounds added to it)

So finishes another day in this household.

I'm off to bed. Good Night.

P.S. They catch the bad guy in case you were wondering.