What a week

This has been quite a week in the Baur household.  Friday was our only day this week that we didn't have to visit any type of doctor's office.  Only 2 of the 5 visits this week were scheduled.  For a family of 5, we typically stay pretty healthy and rarely have visits other than well-checks with the doctor. 

The majority of our Monday was normal:  kids to school, pick up, nap, dance, dinner, bed.  At around 9:45 that night I awoke (yes, I had been asleep for a good hour or so, haha) to Emma screaming in her room and found Marc in there trying to console her.  She had fallen out of bed and was crying inconsolably.  It seemed she was still asleep too, so once we laid her back in bed and got her calm, we went back to our room.  Only not even 5 minutes later she started screaming again.  I went in her room and she was saying her neck hurt.  I turned the light on and started looking at her to see if I could see where she might have hurt herself.  I touched her shoulder/collar bone where she had broken it in September and she let out a loud scream.  I picked her up and took her back to our room.  We got her and ice pack and some tylenol while we tried to decide what to do.  The Urgent Cares all closed at 8.  There was always the Orthopedic after hours urgent care, but a quick look online found that they closed at 9.  It was a little after 10 at this point.  I got her sling out, but that just made her cry even harder.  We finally decided to suck it up and take her to the ER close to our house.  She and I got there around 11:00, and got taken back almost immediately.  They set us up in a room and within about 15 minutes someone came to take us back to x-ray.  We finished up there and were taken back to our room.   The longest wait of the night was waiting for the dr to come in.  She came in and showed us the x ray and said she didn't think it was broken, that the curvature in her collar bone was probably still from her break last Fall.  She hooked her up with some Tylenol with codeine and told us to follow up with our Ortho or Ped in a couple days.  We got home around 1:30 and finally back to sleep around 2.

Tuesday morning came around a little too quickly for us.  We were exhausted.  Emma woke up in a good bit of pain, and was extremely tired for obvious reasons.  We got dressed and went to school anyways, as she seemed to perk up a little after getting another dose of the good stuff.  I called to schedule an appointment at Orthocarolina for that afternoon.  I use the term "appointment" loosely though.  When I called, I was told the PA had an opening at 2:00, so we took it.  We arrived at their office uptown at around 1:45, signed in and took a seat in the waiting room.  After almost an hour and a half of waiting, and watching at LEAST 22 other patients called back and then watching them leave, we ourselves got up and left.  The receptionist told us we were a "work-in."  Funny, because I was told that she had an opening at 2:00.  She asked if I wanted to schedule another "appointment" to come in, and I laughed and said we would go elsewhere.  Andrew had his yearly well-check scheduled with our pediatrician on Thursday, so I just decided to take her there.  It's not like the Ortho dr could have done anything differently than we were already doing.  Immobilize it, and medicate for pain as needed.

Wednesday was our first pre-scheduled appointment of the week.  Mary McLean has been having problems with recurrent UTI's, so we had an appointment with the urologist Wednesday afternoon to check for reflux.  This turned out to be an easy peasy appointment.  She had an ultrasound of her bladder and kidneys taken and they said all looked well.  We got some handouts for a bathroom schedule to go by and some other guidelines to follow to see if we can get the UTI's under control.  They want to see us back in 3 months to re-evaluate then.

Thursday as we were pulling into the school parking lot, Mary McLean says, "Mommy, Emma's about to throw up!"  I got her out of the car just in time and she threw up in the parking lot.  I took Mary McLean inside and left her in the office with our director, Dean'a, until her teachers arrived and then I took Emma back home.  She threw up in the car on the ride home, and once when we got home.  After that she seemed to be feeling all better, so I thought maybe it was a reaction to the codeine in her medicine.  As I had mentioned earlier, Andrew had an appointment for his well-check that afternoon, so I made an appointment for Emma to be seen as well about her collar bone.  Andrew breezed through his appointment.  Dr. Edwards looked at Emma's x ray again and said that she thinks it was re-broken, that it should have healed more than it had since September.  She agreed about taking Emma off the codeine and putting her on some Motrin.  She said that should help with the swelling some too.  She said for us to leave Emma in the sling for another 4-5 days for comfort. 

Whew!  I was done, and I promised myself that Friday would not lead to any office visits for the Baur crew.  We fulfilled that promise and made it through the day safely.  Although Mary McLean woke me up at 1:15 this morning to tell me she had thrown up in her bed.  Great, we made it through Friday without any medical mishaps, but obviously I should have asked for Saturday too.  :)