Spoke too soon

Jenni warned me about thinking we were "getting over it" too soon!!

After Alex voluntarily ended a play-date early, and laid on the couch dozing for a few hours, he sat up and said, My neck hurts, Mama.

Now I was about to walk upstairs and get my favorite yoga clothes on and then leave for a special two hour seminar with my favorite instructor (who has since moved to Chicago).

So... I was hoping it was just a sore neck that could be "cured" with some TLC and some Tylenol. But it was swollen, tender, painful and downright scary looking! And only on one side!! Alex was in tears with pain!

We pulled out the trusty childhood "symptoms" books that walk you through what your child might have and what to do. The closest was MUMPS! Mumps?? Doesn't he get vaccinated for that?? But with his pain and his fever, it was time to say good-bye to yoga and return once again to the U of M ER.

A side story... this past week I was making small talk before a meeting and mentioned the trip to the ER with Jameson last weekend. A colleague commented that our trip was pretty short (2 hours) and that it was a good thing I hadn't gone after the OSU game when the ER would be crowded! Call it prophesy or call it small-talk, I was on my way to the ER within an hour of the game ending.

With Alex whimpering in the backseat, my (I admit!) fear of the situation, and the game-day traffic the 3 mile drive took a long time. But the waiting took much, much longer. I was somewhat reassured when, in triage, they didn't immediately whisk him away yelling "stat" or those other terms you hear on TV shows.

Instead, we waited. And waited. We were triaged and then waited in the Children's ER waiting room. And then waited in our room. And then waited as each person came in to evaluate him. At times, it was honestly quite difficult as Alex huddled in to me moaning or crying.

Eventually they took a strep test (positive) and decided to give him a CAT Scan to make sure that the swollen gland wasn't causing other problems--like an abscess. The CAT Scan required an IV, which was very scary for Alex. But he recovered pretty quickly once he found it didn't hurt beyond the initial pin-prick AND he got a Scooby-Doo sticker. (thank goodness for those wonderful, albeit overworked, nurses!)

Alex loved the CAT Scan---in retrospect. I was quite proud of my parenting skills in making him think of it as if he was an astronaut preparing to go in to outer space. He repeated that over and over to Daddy when he arrived later.

Stefan enlisted the help of my wonderful in-laws once Jameson was in bed and came to join the madness at the hospital. By then I was thankful to have a room at all---the hallways were lined with sick and injured kids, crying babies, tearful and stressed parents. Stefan brought the camera (yay--I was already thinking that this event needed to be recorded on the blog), books, and---the big hit---a Star Wars lego set.

The meds had done their magic on Alex's pain level and he went to work on the legos. As we continued to wait. And wait.

Soon they gave us some bad news---we were losing our room to someone "more sick". After a move to the hallway and more waiting---we were given the "all clear" sign. No abscesses... just treat with antibiotics, pain meds and liquids. Now this, I can handle.

I can't help but think our 6 hour trip was stressful and difficult, but then we went home and slept in our beds. We know we'll recover--even if it seems to me like we've been sick forever. How do the parents of really sick kids handle it?? How do the nurses and doctors and technicians deal with all the scared and sick and angry kids and parents?? And here we are at one of the best hospitals in the world. What if we were someplace without enough trained clinicians? Or medicines? Or even clean water?

It just makes me thankful to be where we are with generally healthy kids. Even if I do need a reminder every now and then.