Take your daughter to work day.

This morning I was woken up at 3:30 by a hungry boy who had fallen asleep the night before prior to dinner (I told you they were on another time zone). While trying to find something to appease him, I hear A. intermittently squealing and moaning in her room. We have not been feeling extremely well since we got back from our trip and probably picked up some more junk on the plane ride home but Avery's symptoms had to started to be concerning. I ask her what is wrong and she is complaining of neck/backpain and legpain, which triggers the fear of...I'm sure you're thinking it too...meningitis. Ben does an exam of sorts and determines that we should probably take her in. The last and only time we have been to the ER was with Avery three years ago and after getting the new parent, first time your child has a high fever trip to the ER out of the way, I was determined never to waste their time again, not to mention the tests that must be run.

Seeing Miles' awakening as some sort of sign and not wanting Avery's prediction the day before to come true ("Maybe I am starting to die", whilst sitting on the coffee table pondering her malaise), we headed out into the dark of morning. Growing less worried as we were on our way, doubt turned into embarrassment when we finally got seen and during the exam (by not one, but two of ben's colleagues) as Avery is asked where it hurts she says' "nowhere", followed by more palpations and questions about how she feels sick to which she replies "I'm not sick". Man Motrin works fast! Luckily for our dignity (but not our daughter's comfort) she registered a fever over 103F when we arrived which proved we were not crazy but did encourage a range of blood tests and and IV. The tech was smart to introduce the IV needle as a little straw through which she would be getting a drink and A. was triumphant that she didn't have to get a "shot" during the visit. What she did get was 300ml of intravenous fluids, two seperate blood draws and a catheter to collect a urine sample since we couldn't get anything to come out to do a "clean catch" (and less invasive) method of collection. Oh, and a popsicle.

The attending doctor apologized for our wait, which I hadn't thought was too bad (until I realized we had been there seven hours) and explained that a dotors kid gets priority in the ER, which I initally thought sounded a bit unfair, but I guess considering that a trained physician would know what signs required urgent attention and would have done a preliminary exam prior to bring a child in, I can see how that would be the case. Plus, they probably prefer that Ben be back at work and not sitting with his family waiting for test results to come back. The results were inconclusive by the way, excpet that for certain we can eliminate a UTI and that the cause was most likely something viral (Ben thinks Parvo (yes humans can get a form of it) and I have a different diagnosis which is most likely correct but it sounds bad so I won't disclose it here).

Avery is better now, the rest of us were spared and I now have an appreciation of just how tired B. must feel when he's put in a nearly 8 hour day before noon.