Doctor's Visits and Scott's Birthday

This week I went to the Pediatrician's office twice. TWICE! On Tuesday Sara had her 6 year check-up. Nate and Aaron got to come along. She's perfectly healthy and at the 90th percentile for both height and weight. On Wednesday, Savannah called home from school around 11 to say she had a painful earache and needed to come home. She had also called home Friday afternoon to say she needed to come home because of a stomach ache (which magically went away as soon as she got home). So on Wednesday, I loaded up my two little boys and went to the school to pick up Savannah. When she got in the car, she was holding her ear and saying how much it hurt, so I thought that just maybe she had an ear infection (we've all had colds, so it wasn't unreasonable to think that she might have one). I went home and called the pediatrician's office to see if I could get her in to get her ear checked. Our regular doctor wasn't working that day, but they said I could see the nurse practitioner. So an hour later I loaded up Nate, Aaron, Savannah, and Sara (who was now home from Kindergarten) and headed to the pediatrician's office.

The nurse practitioner that we saw was nice enough, but she had a medical student following her around that day, and she let the medical student do the exam. The medical student was nice also, but way too thorough. She went through every question imaginable (when did the pain start? is it constant or just sometimes? does it feel like a sharp pain or just dull? have you been swimming lately? on a pain scale, where does the pain rank?). As she went through 20 minutes of questions, I tried to keep Nate and Aaron happy and quiet, while I really just wanted to yell, "Just look in her ear and skip the questions!" Finally, she looked in Savannah's ear, but couldn't quite see because of some wax buildup. So she scooped some wax out, then pronounced Savannah's ear perfectly healthy looking. She then looked at Savannah's throat and discovered that it was slightly red. She decided we needed to do a strep test (even though Savannah was not running a fever). I wanted to scream. I knew Savannah didn't have strep, but how do you as a parent tell the doctor that you are too cheap to let them run the test they deem necessary? So, we sat in the little exam room (with 4 restless kids) while they ran a rapid strep culture--which of course came back negative.

Once we got out to the car, Savannah sensed my frustration. By now her earache had gone away, and she was playing with Nate. I told her she was going straight to bed when we got home. She said she wasn't tired. I told her that she had skipped school and just made me spend $100 at the doctor's office just so they could tell me that she was fine. I told her that if she was going to do that, she could at least act sick and take a nap when we got home. I also told her that it was only the second week of school and already she had come home "sick" twice. I told her that from now on, I would not come get her from school unless she was actually throwing up.

We finally made it home. I had spent 3 hours running around for Savannah's "sickness". I had wanted to spend those 3 hours cleaning my house. It was Scott's birthday, and I really wanted to have him come home from work to a clean house. It didn't happen. It was a school night for the kids, so we couldn't do too much to celebrate. I made him a fancy dinner (using the recipes that I learned in Coeur d'Alene). He got his birthday present last week (an impact driver and new drill) to use in a building project that he started, so we didn't even get to do presents. It was a pretty lame birthday, if you ask me, but I did my best under the circumstances. I just am so tired and sore these days, that even my best intentions have to yield to my poor pregnant body's limitations.

Tonight I have a baby sitter lined up and we are going to dinner and a movie. I'm hoping to make up for not doing anything for Scott's birthday two days ago, and call this his official birthday celebration. And just maybe, if I start now, I can get the house clean before all my energy gives out for the day....maybe.