oy vey

Drama at the Young house yesterday. Much muuuuuuuch drama. Oy! I cannot wait for Jonathan to come home.

First of all, I overslept and so we missed the kids' weekly swim lessons.  Blue slept with me Sunday night (and I use the term "slept" lightly) because she saw a big spider in her room and it freaked her out. It freaked me out, too. She said she saw it coming down from the ceiling on its web and it landed on her bed. She is usually pretty cool and collected when it comes to spiders and bugs, but that was a bit creepy by anybody's standards and she climbed quickly out of bed and started to cry. I looked (not very hard, I'll admit) for the spider but quickly determined she should just sleep in Mommy's room for the night.

We both did not sleep very well. And therefore I overslept and we missed swimming.

I came staggering out of my bedroom at 8:30, feeling extremely tired and cranky, and almost stepped into a huge pile of dog vomit just outside my bedroom door. Nice.

By the time I got the carpet cleaned, my coffee made and the kids fed we were very late heading out the door to the thrift store and all the good books were gone. Sigh. So we came back home and I decided the kids needed a nap. Lion was cranky and Blue, as I said, hadn't gotten much sleep so they actually went right up to bed without a fight.

I took the time to watch Harold & Maude. And I absolutely loved it! What a great movie. I thought it might be a bit grotesque, what with the affair involving a teenager and an eighty-year-old woman, but the director handled it so well. And I was afraid Maude's character would be too exuberant, too in love with life, if that makes sense. But she struck a perfect chord. I really, really liked it. And I just love Cat Stevens who supplied the soundtrack. Why had I never seen this movie before?

Anyway, Blue came down after the movie and I gave her some lunch, but Lion was still sleeping. Finally at 3:00 I went upstairs to wake him up. And he was burning up. Like seriously hot. So I took his temperature, which wasn't fun because he was a very weepy and angry young man. And he had a temperature of 103.9 degrees!

So I gave him some Motrin and called the pediatrician. And tried not to freak out, which is always my natural inclination.

The pediatrician asked me how long he had had a fever. And I told her, "Well, he had one yesterday, but it was just a low fever. It was only 101 so I gave him some Tylenol and then he was fine."

She paused and said she didn't really consider 101 a "low fever" and that I should definitely bring him in. The problem is our pediatrician is about 45 minutes away. I found one I liked down in Aurora when we were living in the apartment and haven't really looked for one up here in Westminster. I know, I know, I am a slacker and that is something I need to get on top of. But I just haven't gotten around to it. So, since it was 3:30 by this point, and driving through Denver in rush hour traffic with a sick toddler didn't appeal to me, we decided I should just take Lion to one of those 24-hour urgent care clinics.

So I wrangled the kids into the car, with poor Little Lion Man weeping and complaining the entire time, and drove to the urgent care clinic nearby. And got lost trying to find it. In a car almost out of gas. Grrrr.

There was a bit of a wait at the clinic (of course) but the kids tried very hard to behave. They finally brought us into the back and quickly determined that Lion's throat was red and his glands were swollen. So they did a strep test and we had to wait some more for the results. The results came back negative but the doctor told me they are sending the throat culture on to a more comprehensive lab because, in her opinion, Lion definitely has strep. In the meantime, she wrote us a prescription for amoxycillin and sent us on our way.

To Wal-Mart, with a tired, roaring Lion to get his prescription filled. Which took over an hour and a half.

I hate Wal-Mart.

By the time the prescription was ready Lion (and I) had had it. He threw a tantrum in the line at the pharmacy, during which he accidentally smacked me in the eye. I just snatched his Happy Meal toy away from him, told him firmly, "We do not hit," and let him scream away at me while I stared at a spot on the wall over the head of the person in front of me in line and tried very, very hard to find my happy place. I think in my twisted mind letting my child scream his head off was my way of punishing the pharmacists for not filling our prescription in a timely manner.

By the time we finally made it home at 7:00 I was ready for a stiff drink. I gave the kids some rice pudding, gave the Lion some of his amoxycillin and some Tylenol and put them both to bed. I gave Lion a ten-second bath to clean him off and cool him down, read him a story and kissed him goodnight.

Then Blue was crying in her room. So I went in to find out what was the matter with her. I think she was just as tired and overwhelmed by the whole doctor/Wal-Mart fiasco as I was. So I got her into her jammies and tucked her in and told her how proud of her I was for being such a good girl at the doctor's and for helping me take care of Lion. She calmed down and gave me a hug and I found my way downstairs.

I talked to Jonathan on the phone and made a cup of decaf coffee, since the only alcohol we had in the house was some rum, which I don't like at all. I watched The Closer and it was a really good episode so that helped a little. But I still felt like I had a fist squeezing my heart. It had been such a nightmare evening. I hate when one of the kids doesn't feel well and I hate the helpless feeling of not knowing what is wrong or how to help them. And then the massive relief of a diagnosis and a remedy and the flood of overwhelming sympathy for parents who never receive either.

I was still feeling stressed out and angry at Wal-Mart even after the coffee and The Closer so I watched Amelie. That made me feel so much better. I love that movie! And a gorgeous thunderstorm rolled in which really soothed my spirits and helped to cool down our hot, stuffy house. I opened some of the windows to let in the breeze and went to check on the kids in case the thunder, which was very loud, woke them up. Lion was awake and he was crying. So, for the second night in a row, I did not sleep alone.

And that was my day. The End.