So.....I was in the ER again yesterday (for the third time in 10 days) this time for Rosie. Let me back track a little so you get the whole story.
She's been sick for about a month. She had been very congested which inflamed her nose and mucus drained down irritating her throat making her cough a lot, so much so that the school called me twice in one week even though I was giving her over the counter cough&cold medicine. I took her to the pediatrician who said that taking the over the counter stuff for more than 5 days actually made things worse so she gave her Nasonex, Claritin and some antibiotics. She finished the antibiotics a few days ago but has continued taking the Claritin and the Nasonex as prescribed but her breathing is still labored.
Yesterday, she woke up complaining of body aches, tummy pain and a sore throat and she had a low grade fever so I called the pediatrician who was "on call", it being Saturday and all the office was closed. I explained what medication she was on and her new symptoms and sure as shit she says I need to take her to the ER to rule out meningitis *rolls eyes*. I knew it wasn't that because she felt better with the ibuprofen I gave her but the doctor said she'd be waiting for the ER's call so like a good mommy I took her.
It was fairly empty so we didn't have to wait long for her to be seen. They took chest x-rays and did a strep culture and ruled out anything bad. Basically she has a severe case of sinusitis and maybe a virus so they gave her a popsicle and discharged her with a prescription for yet another antibiotic. We walked out the doors of the ER and went right upstairs to visit John who is still hospitalized. Can you tell I've been practically living at this medical center for a few weeks now?
After I get home I just want to take my pain meds and get some sleep. Not happening! Ring Ring, I should know better then to answer the phone after midnight but I did and it's John's cousin (really just a long time friend of his family). She says her car just died in the middle of the street so I throw my kids in the van, pick up my friend Ralph and his nephew to come help. So now it's 1am and they're jumping the car and it won't keep a charge so it's probably the alternator; we push the car toward the only available parking spot and some lady pulls in it. I explain to her that the car is dead and ask very politely if she could move to another spot, she refuses despite the circumstances. Can someone say it with me...BITCH! Yeah, so at this point the little devil in me starts whispering in my ear "key her car".
No, I didn't do it but damn I thought about it. So we wait in the cold until another spot opens up across the street and we push it in a U turn across 4 lanes, it's a main street, as oncoming traffic is speeding toward us in order to get the spot.
UGHHHH, it gets better.
My good deed doesn't end there, she asks me to drive her and her friend home with a trunk load of groceries mind you. Wouldn't be a big thing if she didn't live 2 friggen hours away. My vicodine and muscle relaxer is starting to kick in by this time so my friend Ralph reluctantly agrees to drive even though he hadn't slept in 24 hours. We finally get her home and drive 2 hours back to Chicago when as we're entering the city limits we see a horrible accident. The car must have hit the guard rail and flipped a few times because it was mangled like nothing I've ever seen. I freaked out when I saw the lady on the highway, her clothes were ripped off and she was dead, I knew as soon as I saw her that she was, her body was all mangled. It must have just happened a few minutes before I got there. There were two cars pulled over and the people were standing there on cell phones but none of them dared to go near her or the car, it was practically standing upright. I called 911 and they transferred me to the state troopers and I gave them all the information.
I didn't get home until 5:30am. My heart hurt and I had an awful headache. I was still pretty shaken up so I didn't get much sleep. In the morning, I called my cousin who is a state trooper and asked her about the accident. She said the details of that crash were still sketchy but someone had hit her car and left the scene. I kept trying to remember if someone went speeding past me, trying to remember anything. I did manage to get in a two hour nap this afternoon but I still feel on edge. When you see something like that it makes you think about how fragile life is, it's gone in an instant.
I took the kids to see John today, they did some additional testing but we won't get any results until tomorrow. He looks well though and is sleeping and eating normal again, he asked me to stop and get him a Phillie cheese steak sandwhich on the way to the hospital because let's face it, hospital food isn't that impressive. So...I'm not feeling good, I'm sleep deprived and the kids have been driving me nuts the whole time he's been in the hospital so I really didn't want to go, all I wanted to do was stay home and sleep but I know first hand what it's like to be there. So I go to buy his sandwhich and bring him his laptop and when I walk in he's sitting there with three of his cousins chowing down on a Big Mac. Shortly after, his aunt and uncle walk in with food in hand. *Grrrr* I could've stayed home.
Anyway, they did tell him that he has a thyroid problem which isn't related to the other stuff that's going on though. He'll probably have to just start medication for that. I'll update with any news.
fin
