Interrupted

My Life Thus Far
2008-02-06 05:08:45 (UTC)

Ear Puss And A Rainbow

****

What a day. It feels like a million and one things
happened from morning until evening. I'll take them one at
a time, or my day would be too daunting to chronicle.

Kiki started my day early, as is the custom on Tuesdays
and Thursdays. Only today was a little different. Kiki was
having her follow-up hearing evaluation. Last November,
her left ear failed the test. As it has most of her life.
But, today there was good news! For the first time ever,
Kiki passed her hearing test! Which explains why she's had
a huge surge in her speech and vocabulary. She can finally
hear! So, the final word is, no tubes in the ears, but
she'll still have to have her tongue clipped.

After I dropped Kiki off at daycare, I headed straight to
work. It was a painfully slow day. We were looking for
anything to do. Tamara had us switching around some
beauty. Putting Beauty Rush on the mirrored walls and
garden on the tables next to the cashwrap and as we were
doing that, the phone rang. It was the receptionist at
Annie's school. Annie had a 103 degree temperature and I
had to come get her. I'd mentioned that Annie had been
sick this past weekend, but I thought she was getting
better. Turns out that wasn't the case. I grappled with
myself whether or not to take her to the doctor, but for
some reason my motherly instincts (as hard as I try to
smother them) kept urging me to take her. So, I did.

When we walked into the Emergency Room, it looked like
every elementary school within a 10 mile radius was in
there. I've never seen so many sick kids in one place at a
time. We sat down for what I thought was going to be a
very long wait. I even started second guessing myself,
wondering if it was really necessary to bring her in. But,
as I looked at her, she looked so bad. Her face was beet
red, her eyes were glazed over. Her lips were cracked and
bleeding. I reached over to tuck her hair behind her left
ear and noticed something stuck in her hair. She had
something crusty matted in her hair, running down her face
and filling her ear. That made me a little curious, so I
waited. I guess they were going by highest temperature,
though, because Annie was called back almost immediately.
When we met with the triage nurse, she took Annie's vitals
and asked a few questions. I was sure we'd be spending at
least an hour or two in the waiting room, but we were
called back before Annie and I could even get settled back
in our seats in the waiting room. 10 minutes later the
doctor came in and evaluated her. He looked in her right
ear, didn't say anything. Then he looked in her left ear
and I can distinctively remember seeing a grossed-out look
cross his face for a split second. He turned to me and
said "the matter that you're seeing coming out of her ear
is puss and fluid. Her eardrum has ruptured and she's got
a pretty good infection going." Annie is hardly ever sick.
She's never had an ear infection before, but her first one
is so bad, her eardrum ruptured under the pressure of the
puss? Nasty. All I could think about was me sitting in the
waiting room pulling the chunks out of her hair wondering
what she'd had for lunch (food in the hair is common with
her). I couldn't wash my hands enough after that.

So, to make a long story short, she's got a bacterial
infection in her left ear. We're going to have to make
sure she doesn't get any water in it and finishes all her
medications. She's got a ton of them, too. One for the
chest congestion that brought her oxygen saturation down
to 92%, one for the nasal congestion that helped
facilitate the ear infection in the first place, Motrin
for pain (which I'm sure she's in), Amoxicillin for
widespread infection and an antibiotic drop for her ear. I
protested all the drugs at first, but the doctor looked at
me like I was stupid. He says if the infection isn't
gotten under control quickly she could lose some hearing
in that ear. So, I shut up. It's not like Annie takes
antibiotics regularly. This is her first ever ear
infection and the only time I can remember her ever being
on an antibiotic. So, I'll do as I'm told...This time.

After we got home from the hospital, it was the usual
evening rush. Nothing new to report there. I did have one
splendiforous moment in my day of craziness, though. On
the way out of the parking garage at the hospital, I saw a
rainbow. I even saw the end of it, but it was over the
water, so I'm guessing the pot of gold sunk :) Ciao, I'm
so going to bed now.




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