a rash judgment
Greetings gentle readers!
Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend.
Now you know I’m not much for political topics & debate, but I don’t think there’s any controversy in relaying my utmost respect to every single one of our men and women in uniform…both veterans and those on active duty. You all do a job that I wouldn’t willingly do, just to protect my freedom. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. My heart goes out to all families and friends of those who have lost their lives.
Now. I was going to dig into the archives for some more of the Mayor’s finest moments, but I had enough excitement over the weekend that was blogworthy: I got to answer these two questions…
1) What do you do when your little muffin angel puddin face is acting fine but develops a weird rash that seems to be spreading and it’s Sunday?
and
2) Why does it have to be on a holiday weekend?
So, yes. Saturday night it was a bit warmer than most so when said little muffin angel puddin face got a bit of a rash inside one elbow, I didn’t worry overmuch.
But when Sunday morning rolled around and it was on both arms all the way to the wrist, I called the on-call physician. She told me that it could be a viral thing and since it’s hard to diagnose rashes over the phone, to be on the safe side, we should probably take her in. So we did.
You know how much fun ER’s are. We were there for an hour before they even checked us in. Nevermind the fact that within the first 1/2 hour Puddin Face managed to chuck just about every toy and/or binkie we’d brought with us, hopelessly contaminating said toys/binkies for further use. Nevermind the sheer number of individuals who seemed to not only have some form or another of plague, but weren’t even making the most cursory attempts to CONTAIN said plague…..(it’ll be a miracle if we’re not all really sick, say, 7 to 10 days from now).
You want to know the amazing thing? My little muffin angel puddin face, (and I assure you I am not making this up…) was a STAR. She didn’t fuss or want to crawl around and get all squirmy (almost as if she could feel the contagion around). She didn’t get mad when one toy after another disappeared. You know what my freakishly-well-behaved darling did, for the better part of 4 1/2 hours? People-watched.
Yes, you read that right. She was just fascinated by everyone in there and didn’t make a peep. Now I know you may be thinking she was ill in some way and therefore not up to snuff, but I assure you she was in top form. She talked, she cooed, she laughed, she smiled….she acted like we were in line for the most fun ride ever ever EVER. (You can imagine my GUILT! Oh, the HORROR!)
After everyone in the room coughed on us at least 3 times, we were called into ANOTHER room where I was told to divest my angel of her clothing and pop her on the scale. No problem. Then I was told to open one side of her diaper and hold her facing me so she could be assaulted by a thermometer the ol’ fashioned way. (This was a first for her). Do you COMPREHEND how completely crappy I felt when she looked at me (from 2 inches away) and her lower lip curled down and her eyebrows went up (well, wouldn’t yours?) as if to say…”How could you let this happen?!”
Ugh. I still feel unclean.
Then they have some be-scrubbed person do the initial “So, what brings you here on this lovely holiday weekend?” interview, and hand me a baby-sized hospital gown and instruct me to put it on my little puddin face so it will be ‘one less thing’ to do once we get back to see the doctor.
Ohhhhhhkay. Nevermind that by the time we see this magical doctor, it’s 2 1/2 hours later and I’ve been doing my best to keep her covered with a blanket because even cutsie little baby gowns with koala spacemen on it gap in the back.
Ahem.
So we wait. And we wait. And we wait some more. I keep hoping she will take a little snooze or something….surely her good nature will run out sooner or later….but she is enthralled. There is far too much to look at!
One thing to look at was a rather large aquarium. There were even fish in it and they were alive and everything! So things were looking up. A little boy of about 4 was also looking up…talking and talking and talking away to the fishees. This was entertaining to all of us. Suddenly he breaks away and turns to his mom…..
“Mom. Mom. MOM. Mom. MOM!”
“Yes?”
“How come the fish aren’t ANSWERING me?” (all exasperated).
“Because fish don’t talk.”
(pause)
“Well SOME do. I SAW one. His name was NEMO!”
Point goes to the kid. Well played!
After a few more minutes….
“Mom. Mom. MOM. MOM. Mom. Mom. MOM!”
“Yes?”
“What’s your name?”
(Pause) “What do you mean, ‘what’s my name?'”
“What’s your NAME?”
“My name…is Rachel.”
“How come *I* don’t call you RACHEL?”
“Because you call me ‘mom'”
“Well who calls you RACHEL?”
“Everybody else.”
(Pause) “Well how come *I* can’t call you RACHEL?”
“Because I’m your mom. You call me ‘mom'”
That woman must be exhausted. And I have allll that to look forward to…yay! I can’t wait to see what Puddin Face is going to come up with. I’m sure it will be a never-ending carpet ride.
So eventually we get back to see the wizard behind all the curtains. He tells us that she has a slight ear infection in one ear (which explains why she was waking up at night more than normal) but that it didn’t really require medication and should clear on its own, since she wasn’t showing any signs of distress. He gave us an Rx in case it got worse or she started to get a fever. He said the rash was most likely caused by whatever viral infection caused the ear thing.
So we had to spend 4 1/2 hours to find out that our little angel isn’t really that sick, whilst getting exposed to countless people who are. (where is that dang thumbs-up emoticon when you need it?!)
I’m glad we went, though. Her rash spread even more while we waited…to her back and chest and up her neck a bit. Eeek.
And yes, she is feeling better already and the rash is fading a lot. Whew!
I hate to cut this short but you know how it goes…my angel is getting restless. Thank you for reading!