When it Rains.....it pours

Well, we had a very eventful start to our three day weekend. We were supposed to go to Huntsville today to spend the day with family and celebrate my mom's birthday, however things changed last night. Yesterday was a work day at school for me so Stephen's dad was willing to keep all three kiddos here at the house for me. Lauren woke up with a low grade fever so I came home at lunch to check on her and she seemed to be doing better. So, back to school I went and ran a few errands. When I got home around 4:30, Lauren was in bed running 102 fever. She had chills and was crying that her throat hurt really bad. I called our pediatrician's office praying that their after hours clinic would be open, but with my luck it wasn't - they closed at 5:00. So, against my better judgement, I decided to take her to this "Quack Shack"....er........I mean...... Oaks Medical Center (which is like a walk-in emergency clinic). I had actually been there for myself back in November so I felt like it was an okay place to take Lauren. Well, who knew that the "WALK-IN" clinic prefers you to have an appt. So, we waited......and waited......and waited....... Did I mention we W-A-I-T-E-D???????? We sat there and watched as all these people came pouring in from God knows where with appointments! The whole time Lauren is in my lap burning up with fever, shivering with chills, and crying that she wants to go home. It couldn't get any worse than that right? Meanwhile, Stephen was picking up his mom on his way home from work and they were headed to get dinner and meet us back at the house after our doctor visit. Well, Stephen and his mom never made it to get dinner because his dad (who is at our house watching Logan and Leah) calls Stephen on his cell and says, "Get home now". Stephen didn't ask any questions......he just assumed his dad was really needing a break from the kids after having been with them all day.

So, here I am with Lauren waiting at the Quack Shack when I get this frantic call from Stephen. He says to me, "I think Leah has broken her arm again."

'Scuse me???

I literally thought the man was joking and I was not having any part of this ridiculous joke. The more he tells me, the more I realize he's not joking and then I can hear Leah sobbing uncontrollably in the background. It was the same cries of pain she cried when she broke her arm last August. Stephen then asks me if I think he should bring Leah up to the same clinic we were at or if he should go to the emergency room. I told him I would go and ask the front desk if they did x-rays and I would call him back. Lauren overhears our conversation and then says, "Awwww man, does this mean I have to start sleeping up on the top bunk again?"
I guess she was having flashbacks of when she had to sleep on the top bunk for 2 months when Leah broke her arm before and couldn't climb up the ladder on the bunk bed. Can't ya feel the sisterly love?
Anyway, I proceeded to walk up to the front desk and felt like the worst mother in the world as these words came out of my mouth, "Mam, do you do x-rays here because my husband just called and he thinks our other daughter just broke her arm".

Fast forward.....

Stephen shows up to the clinic carrying Leah in his arms and they get right in to a room. Lauren and I continue to wait out in the lobby. Lauren tells me that she doesn't think it's fair that we have to continue to wait so long to get called back, but her sister walks right in and gets seen immediatley. Finally, we are called back to a room. Stephen and I are communicating by cell phone to each other what is happening to each twin and giving status updates. We both received a few strange looks from the nurses....almost as if they were thinking that we were negligent parents or something. What a way to kick me when I'm down! Then Stephen calls me and tells me that her left arm (same exact arm) is broken and it is much worse of a break this time. He also tells me that they are wrapping it up, but are sending them to St. Luke's Emergency room to have their "Pediatric Specialist" set her arm and wrap it up better. So, they leave and Lauren and I continue our wait. They do a strep test - negative. Flu test - negative. Blood test - determines it's something viral. Chest x-ray - she has fluid in her lungs. All of these tests to give me a final diagnosis of.......................................

Are you ready for this folks?

Infectious Asthma!!??!!!???

That crazy doctor barely gets out the words....let's go ahead and give her a breathing treatment right now.... when I said we're outta here! Lauren has never had any kind of asthma related problems in her life (all 5 years of it)! I could have made a better diagnosis than that by looking on WEBmd.com. Have you ever heard of bronchitis lady? She then hands me an inhaler and tells me she wants to see Lauren use it before we leave. Ain't happenin' lady! I told her we had a nebulizer at home that we were quite fond of. Then, she gives me a prescription for some weird steroid or something. I took it by CVS just to see what it was and they said that they couldn't even fill it because she didn't give adequate information about the dosage and the quantity.

OMG!

Meanwhile, Stephen is at St. Luke's with Leah and I come home with Lauren and get her in bed. I finally go to bed around 3:00 a.m. with all hope lost that they will ever come home. They arrive at 5:00 a.m. (they were at the ER for 10 hours)!!!!! Way longer than what it took last time. We're getting to where we know the ropes of these ER's, but who in their right mind would have thought you'd need a freakin' sleeping bag because you'd be there so long? Not only that, but they had to give her an I.V. to knock her out from the pain when they reset the bone because it was so painful - and not only did they have to do that once, but twice because they couldn't get it set right the first time! He told me that there is no way I could have sat there and dealt with what they did to her. I just don't even want to think about it.

They both rested alot today. Leah and Stephen slept ALOT! Stephen basically went with no sleep for 24 hours straight.....I don't know how he did it and still managed to remain focused and calm through it all. He is amazing and without him I don't know what I would do. I guess I'd be in the loony bin........wherever that is. We took Lauren to her regular doctor's office today. Praise God for the Saturday Care Clinic they have available during cold and flu season! We were advised to never visit the Oaks Medical facility again and also advised that Lauren does NOT have asthma. She does have some sort of upper respiratory infection and she has been feeling a bit better today.

Now, to answer your number one question......how in the world did that child break her arm again? Here's the story I got from her.......she was on our bed watching T.V. and she stood up and walked to the end of the bed and tried to jump off. When she did, she somehow fell and landed on her arm. I tend to believe that she was probably horsing around on our bed (which I've seen her do many times). She's also been warned MANY times, but chooses not to listen. Well, maybe now she'll listen. I don't know though.......my parents say she's alot like me at that age. I was VERY stubborn, hard-headed, and extremely accident prone. I guess you could say she "gets it honestly". I had several teeth knocked out, nearly cut my nose off, and got my finger stuck and broken in a window all by the time I was 8.

This blog is like my journal. I hope to one day look back at this archived entry and be able to smile about it all. Today I didn't feel much like smiling about any of it. Thank God that Logan is fine....no injuries or illnesses to report....praise God! We're going to try and enjoy what's left of our weekend, rest, and get well. Oh, in case you read my last blog entry about Leah's unknown stomach pain.......well, we ended up taking her in for an an x-ray earlier this week and found out that her intestines are impacted bigtime......which basically means she has really bad constipation. Of all the things it could have been, I would have never guessed that! So, now she has to deal with a broken arm on top of everything else. Don't think I'll be getting mom of the year award. LOL!

Is there a moral to this story........

#1 - Stay away from the Oaks Medical Center if you live around here.
#2 - Make sure your kids eat LOTS of fiber!