annieology

I am living the dream.  Kids always in bed dreaming of sugar plums at a reasonable hour, me always dressed to the nines.  Well, tick tock, time ran out last night.  Midnight.  Well, if I were in Cuba, which I’m not, but around midnight Cuba time, Felpsy presented with a FEVER.  The second I put it in his mouth it shot up to over 100.  Knowing time was running out on Urgent Care, I said if it goes over 103 we’re going to Urgent Care.  It stopped at 102.9 – my sign from the universe that he was OK and that no trip was needed.  He was properly administered Motrin according to packaging directions and the dosage was properly logged on his medication log.  Half an hour later, his fever was down to under 102 – the Motrin was working.

At exactly four seconds after Urgent Care closed, Felpsy appeared before me again.  One hour after the administration of a fever reducing medication.  This time his fever read 103.6 Now the only thing that needs to be that high is a radio station.  But, as I mentioned, Urgent Care was now closed and my only option was the Medicaid Emergency Room.  Translation: 6 hours.  I had a regularly scheduled pediatrician appointment at 9:00 this morning.  Not for Felpsy, but for the twins.  We would have a tag along.  9 hours possibly sleeping vs 6 hours of not sleeping, it was a no brainer.

I administered some “may cause drowsiness” medication, again properly documenting it for the state.  And he finally fell asleep.  He was in and out of it for the next four hours fever eventually breaking around 3:00 this morning.

At 8:00 I was awaken by my “Good morning you awesome woman you” alarm and decided that it would not be three kids but four going to the doctor.  Radical was coughing for the third straight morning.  Of course the doctor’s office doesn’t answer the phones until 9:00 – our appointment time – so it was a surprise.  But when they saw our motely crew coming in, they didn’t make a fuss.

Dr. W.  has been our pediatrician since I found him during an emergency situation near the start of our fostering career.  This morning I took in four kids, two without appointments.  We left our house at 8:45 and were home by 10:15 – I love that about him.  The other thing I love about him is that he’s not medcentric.  All the kids have coughs, all the kids have had fevers.  He ordered one blood test to see if it was a virus as he believes it is.  If it turns out to be something it will likely be the same thing in all of them, if it is a virus, he won’t bother with the antibiotics, we’ll just wait it out.  And I didn’t have to wait for lab test with four very sick kids, just the sickest of them all, who wasn’t going to put up much of a fight.

So, I was trying to explain to the nurse which kid had which problem and when we first noticed it, the worst it got in each of them, and blah blah blah.  Boog has been on steroids at this point for five days, it’s true about the steroids, hyperactive rage.  Fun times.  Only to be topped by trying to explain to the Polish is my first language receptionist the nuances between the FSA and the HRA.  I was unsuccessful.  They charged me for Radical’s appointment, and since I can barely explain the HRA to English is my first language people, I agreed to pay for the appointment out of pocket.  Buuuut, they don’t take cash or debit/credit cards.  Who writes checks anymore?  I hadn’t brought any with me.  So I promised to bring them back a check.   (No disrespect intended by the language barriers – these people went to medical school twice and speak three languages that I know of – I totally respect them, it’s just that sometimes there are issues)

As an aside, while we were waiting, a man was there with his very new baby.  Mrs. Dr. W was discussing things with him, he explained that he was from Mexico, but came to America when he turned 18 to join the armed forces to go fight terrorists with us.  Figuring it was his sacrifice that would help better not only this country, but his family.  So very thankful that his daughter was born an American and the opportunities that she would have for that simple fact.   Drs. W are from Poland and it was nice to hear what people who didn’t have the same opportunity that I had, really truly appreciate it like I cannot understand.  I LOVE America, but I don’t necessarily have all the facts.

So, we are home, and medicated, and sleeping.  I’ve been sterilizing the place, and super dosing with Vitamin C and Coke.  I may go and take a nap.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Kindle, annieology, kids. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.