Comedy of Errors, part 2

Comedy of Errors: Christmas Break Style part 1

Jeremy and I debated whether I should take Libby to the ER or Urgent Care. We decided on the ER because according to their website, the wait was much less than Urgent Care. My darling Mother-in-law offered to come with, and I am SO glad I said yes.

We got to the ER and there were maybe 10 people ahead of us. Some were pretty ill, others looked okay. We were definitely in the looking okay category. Libby sat on my lap and we laughed and joked, anything to keep her mind off her foot.

After 2 hours in the waiting room we were taken to triage. At this point we were all starving – we left the house at 12 and hadn’t had lunch yet. Right before we went to see the triage nurse, my mother-in-law went to get Libby a snack. When she came back we found out Libby couldn’t have it now. They were wanting her to have an empty stomach in case she needed to be put out. We hid the food in my purse and went back to the little room. The next 4 1/2 hours were spent with a lot of waiting. She had an x-ray trying to see the angle the toothpick went in. The x-ray didn’t pick up the wood though, so a while later a doctor came in and did an ultrasound. I gotta say, I was little tempted while we waited with the machine in the room to put it on my belly and see this little person, but I used some restraint When the doctor did the ultrasound poor Libby screamed. It hurt for anyone to even touch her foot, but he was able to see it and got us set up for surgery.

Thankfully they were able to get the entire toothpick out, bandage her up, and we were on our way…well, as soon as she woke up. I laid my head on the table and slept a little with her, it was nice.

Sleeping off the medicine in the ER

By the time we got home, Elliott was really not doing well and dinner was ready. We ate, we laughed, we cuddled and of course, I cleaned up a little vomit. This was becoming par for the course for our Christmas.

Christmas morning we had a small miracle, everyone was feeling good. We had a wonderful Christmas morning, then got ready and went to lunch with Grandma and Grandpa before they had to catch their flight home.

That afternoon was a calm one, Seth was still not feeling great, Elliott was pretty miserable and Amelia was complaining of a headache. So we all snuggled up and watched A Christmas Story, had a yummy dinner and went to bed.

The next 4 days are a bit of a blur to me. They involve 3 sick kids (Libby, Amelia and Elliott), being trapped under two sick kids (Libby and Elliott), cleaning up too much vomit (Libby taking her medicine on an empty stomach because she didn’t want to eat anything), and watching way too much TV.

Finally everyone was doing better. I could honestly say we were all healed – and then Libby broke out in a rash of hives – head to toe. I just laughed when I saw it, because – of course! After a little investigation, we realized it was a reaction to the Augmentin she was on, and with the help of our friend Benedryl, she was doing better by New Year’s Eve.

If that was where it ended, I would be happy and still call our break a bust…but of course it isn’t. Wednesday afternoon the kids were watching a movie with one of Seth’s friends. I was making dinner when I heard the words, “Mom! The toilet overflowed into the hall!” I walked over there and found not only was water in the hall, but the bathroom, laundry room, hall closet and out into the garage.

I've already dumped 20 gallons of water from my shop vac. I am not impressed.

I waded through the 2 inches of water to the garage, got the shop vac and started cleaning up the mess. What else could I do? While I was NOT impressed with this new twist to our day, I just went with it. I called Jeremy and had him rent a rug doctor – hey the rest of our carpets were looking a little gross too, so why not?

Overall, this vacation has been a bit of a bust. But I have learned to laugh when I want to cry and found patience I never knew I had. I promise to make it all up to my kids over Spring Break – we will do loads of fun things and play so hard they collapse from exhaustion at the end of the day.

That is, if the sickies can stay away long enough!