Calm Amongst the Chaos

Oliver started having cold symptoms on Monday, just when Lily and I were getting better. I didn’t think too much of it since well it is rare that someone doesn’t have a cold in our house. Then Monday evening I was at Target with Andi and she was a bit whiney, I looked at her eyes and said, “Oh my, you are sick” she said her throat hurt. Well it wasn’t an hour later we were home and she was running 101 fever. That poor child, her eyes tell me more than her mouth ever can so she will not get away with much as a teen unless she can fix that. I still think nothing of it, Andi always runs a fever whenever anything is wrong with her. I’m sure in a few years a math test will put her at 104. So Tuesday I keep her home from school and take both kids into the office. Oliver has been very clingy and whiney but he never had a fever so I just figured the cold bothered him. Then yesterday Wed, I keep Andi home again since she was still running around 100, not high but high enough to keep her home. I did take them to the gym with me. I figure everyone has colds, mama needs to get her work out on. Besides Andi seemed totally fine. We do some running, probably pushing my luck with Oliver, then we get in the car on the way home and Andi says, “my ear hurts”, I tell her we’ll go home and get some bubble gum medicine (motrin, healer of all) and then starts getting more hysterical. At home I put Oliver in his crib and Andi and I sit in the rocking chair and she is screaming about her ear. I give her Motrin, I put ear ache drops in her ears, she just screams and screams. I call the Dr. they say come right in, I explain I have a sleeping baby so we push it about 90 min later. She cries and cries on my lap, I rub her back and she falls asleep. For Andi, that is a sign something is seriously wrong. Andi does not nap. An hour later I take the kids to the Dr. and he looks at Andi’s ear and says it is moderately infected in her right ear. Then he says let me peak in Oliver’s ear and he says “ok raging infection in right, moderate in left.” Then he says “pink eye as well”. All he said he had to do was look in his eyes and knew he had an ear infection. Ouch to my mommy heart. Here I am dragging around this baby all around town, putting him in daycare at the gym. Complaining that he is whining and I am worried about Andi who I could tell by looking in her eyes that something wasn’t right. Sigh.
Of course we are in a 72 hour transition of an insurance swap so we’re not covered for rx. I tell the Dr. Andi refuses Augmenten so he rx something else that taste like strawberry milk. Guess how much the GENERIC costs? $215. Per kid! Target was very kind and worked with me and all I have to prove is I have insurance in 5 days and we’ll get reimbursed, and she figured something out to get the total down to $150, so if we don’t get that proof of insurance in time although I will be out a buck fifty, that is a lot better than a truck payment. Sigh. Insurance crap.
So yeah. I am worried about one kid who is not near as sick as the other whom I wasn’t worried about. Mother of the Year.
Tomorrow we are headed up north to go snowboarding. Lily and Oliver will be in the child care center there, they said they will have a one on one staff member with Lily, cool right? Andi will do lessons again and I will get back on a snowboard for the first time since Lily was a baby. Oh brother. Don’t be surprised if I am posting from a hospital bed next update.
Go Cards!