You know how I like to spend the last night at home before vacation? Packing, cleaning, doing laundry. I like to get everything we’re taking with us organized, and I like to get the house clean too – when we get back, I like knowing we’ll walk into a nice clean home.
Want to know how I actually spent the last night before vacation? In the emergency room with Wildling. Not an ideal situation.
Here’s what happened: Wildling woke up at about 5:00am Friday, and started having a tantrum. Around 5:45 she leaned over the rail on her toddler bed and vomited all over the floor (yet another time I am happy our house is entirely tiled). So I comforted her (and nursed Mellow, who was woken up by all the earlier screaming) while Will wiped up the vomit (which, no surprise, is his least favorite chore). After starting the washing machine to wash the towels he used to clean it, as well as my robe that was too close to the disaster and was contaminated as well, he took Wildling into the playroom. And then she vomited all over in there as well. Unfortunately, that occurred at a time in which it was too late to add anything to the wash, and she happened to vomit on the playroom mattress. So more vomit soaked sheets. Yuck.
Anyway, after all that, she fell back asleep. When we all (minus Will who went to work) got up later, she was really lethargic. She laid on the floor for awhile, and when I picked her up, she told me she had to lay down because her back hurt. I kept asking her how she felt, and she told me she felt good, which is why I didn’t cancel a scheduled playdate (probably a big mistake on my part). Her little friend came over, and Wildling mostly just laid around and refused to play. A couple of hours later, when the friend left, I discovered Wildling had a 103 degree temperature. Tylenol brought it down to 102.
That evening, out of concern for her lethargy and temperature, we called our insurance company’s Nurse Line. After describing the symptoms, we were sent to Urgent Care, which turned out to be a huge waste of a $20 co-pay. Seriously we went in there, the nurse practitioner (no doctors on staff that night) checked her vitals, said it was probably a UTI, but instead of running the tests there, we should go to the ER.
At least we have decent insurance, and the option to go to a pediatric ER (side note: every single nurse we encountered made a face and rolled their eyes when we told them urgent care had sent us, and one of them, upon finding out we had paid a co-pay to Urgent Care went off on a mini-rant about how ridiculous that place is and they shouldn’t charge us if they aren’t going to actually do anything. I don’t think that Urgent Care is held in high esteem at this particular hospital). They got us into a room right away, and we ended up being there until 2:30am. And it turned out not to be a UTI, nor strep throat (I don’t think Wildling’s going to forgive the doctor for that throat swab). He guessed it was probably a viral infection, and wouldn’t let us leave until Wildling consumed 8 ounces of water, which it only took her an hour to do. I could chug that in a second, but nobody was asking me to show off my drinking skills (though secretly, maybe I did drink some of hers because dammit, I wanted to go home!)
Anyway, long story short, the point of this is just to say We’re on vacation!!!!!!! And Wildling is feeling better now. And we’re on vacation!!!! I can hear the ocean.
Mellow and the Wildling 