A Very Long Day

I grew up in a “neighborhood” that my friends referred to as a compound. My mom's side of the family surrounded us. Literally, my maternal great-aunt & uncle, grandparents, aunt & uncle, paternal great-aunt, and paternal great-grandmother lived on adjoining lots. I grew up completely enveloped by family. While there were plenty of things about that set up that were challenging, (like, say, the complete lack of privacy), the on-call nature of family is something I sometimes miss. Especially on days like today!

K was well enough to go back to school today(i.e., she had been vomit free for 36 hours). She joined P, who remained my healthy trooper. R was still febrile and wiped out (not to mention coughing his sweet head off!) so he stayed with me. We had a terrific, low key morning together. When I arrived at the preschool at 1pm, Ms. Traci & Ms. Jennifer warned me that K & P seemed to be fading.

K woke up from her nap with the croup. She was flushed and in good spirits, but my sweet girl's voice had been replaced by the soundtrack of a seal. As P described, "K's voice sounds like a ball bouncing up against a wall."

Because we've been through RSV, I am always a little nervous about respiratory issues. The pediatrician's office advised me to give her a breathing treatment at home and see if that helped. While I had her hooked up to the nebulizer watching a video, the boys were eating a snack in the kitchen. Suddenly I heard R squalling and dashed into the kitchen to find him covered in stomach contents. He had coughed until it made him vomit. I cleaned him up and changed his clothes before going back to the family room to check on K. Her breathing still sounded funny--and that cough was unchanged, so I called the pediatrician's office again. It was 4pm, so they advised me to take her to Immediate Care.

My husband was in surgery and had another case to go...and you cannot exactly call a sitter to come stay with your febrile, vomiting child(ren). So, I loaded everyone up and off we went. What a ragtag group we were! K crouping, R hacking, P beginning to cough and me lugging a large purse containing wallet, cell phone, books, Purell, three sippy cups, a bottle of water, two Magna Doodles, a notebook and a handful of small plastic toys. I was hoping to not repeat the hour and a half wait from yesterday, but determined to be better prepared just in case. As we settled into the waiting area, I couldn't help but giggle. The children were not in coordinating outfits, R's hair had not been combed all day, and I was definitely looking worse for wear. The symphony of coughing and sniffling was truly something to be heard and we were surrounded by sick people who I could tell were squirming at what additional germs my trio of preschoolers were spewing! Eventually we were led back to a small triage area where K received another breathing treatment as her brothers climbed the walls and explored as much of the off limits medical equipment as possible.

At one point K looked at me with her little sick eyes and asked, "Mommy, why did God make my throat sick?" (I choked on a good, age appropriate theological response and replied, "I don't know." Then, I quickly changed the subject.)

Two trips to the potty later, we were still waiting to be seen. In our small 8 X 10 exam room, I had almost completely exhausted my bag of tricks. At one point we were having a dance contest to the various ringtone choices on my cell phone. Seriously.

The pleasant doctor finally made it to our exam room, gave K a good once over (as I assured him my even more ill-looking son, R, was indeed on an antibiotic for his obvious ailments) then sent us on our way. It was 6:15pm and we still had to go pick up the prescription. Suddenly, I was one of those mothers. You know, the ones who bring their obviously sick children out in public when they really should be at home resting and sparing the world their germs...but what could I do?

We stopped by the grocery store pharmacy, then made a mad dash through the store to stock up on the basics: Gatorade, Children's Tylenol, Purell, and ice cream. As we sat waiting at the pharmacy, I realized it was an hour past our usual dinner time. We had been out for 3 hours. Despite being under the weather, the children had truly been troopers...so I opened the frozen Dibs and had a little ice cream snack with the children. It immediately bought us a few more minutes of happiness and compliance. Which was a good thing, because we had to make 2 more trips to the potty while we waited. There is nothing quite like leaving your cart full of groceries outside the door while you unload three children into a disgusting public bathroom, only to hear "maybe I didn't weally have to go."

As we were driving home, I was reminded that I had a feeling this was coming a couple of days ago when I blogged about teetering on the edge of sickness. Interestingly, that foreknowledge has made all the difference today. Somehow there have been no tears shed by Mommy--and a lot of resigned laughter. I also do not think it is a coincidence that the CD playing in my car all day was a story teller's version of the Jewish folktale, Things Could Always Be Worse.

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. I Thessalonians 5:16-18

Even after a long, exhausting day full of challenges, I am so thankful for my life.