Hospital Revisited

We had to make an unexpected trip to the hospital yesterday. I took Booie to the doctor in the afternoon after being told to bring her. She was running a fever for the first time after having a cold for a couple days. She coughed and complained that her "lung hurt." Considering her condition, the doctor wanted to see her.

The place was packed. There was no seating in the main area, so we were exiled to the alternate waiting room where Booie and Hammy played with the magnetic table, and I witnessed an unusual display of a mother not letting her kids get away with murder. We waited until a couple seats cleared in the main waiting area and moved. The wait was surprisingly short considering we were squeezed into the schedule, but it was long. I had hoped to avoid going in at all, but Booie is more delicate now than she used to be. We can't take chances with her anymore, as if we did take chances with either of our children previously.

As we were led back to the exam room, the doctor spotted us in the hallway. I hate the fact that the doctors all know us by sight now. We used to be pleasingly anonymous to them in our lack of contact. Now the whole office knows us. The upside of that is he practically followed us into the room to examine Booie. We didn't have to do the usual routine of waiting in the waiting room and then waiting in the exam room too.

The doctor checked her and found nothing remarkable. She showed no symptoms of anything specific, which came as no surprise to me. She has a bad habit of doing that. She wouldn't take deep breaths though, so the doctor couldn't listen to her lungs. He suspected a touch of pneumonia or possibly a sinus infection, so she had to get x-rays. Because infections can cause a recurrence of symptoms, quick action was necessary, so we packed ourselves up and made the familiar trek to the hospital.

There was an odd joy in traveling to that place and knowing we were leaving again. The only wait involved was in registration, but it was only a matter of minutes before we were finished and sent to radiology. After following wrong directions to go to the radiology department that had already closed, we made our way to the ER. The ER radiology department looked different to me than it had in my sleep-deprived visit in the past. It was much less traumatic for Booie too. She was pleasant and cooperative and able to lie on her back. Though no position on an x-ray table is comfortable, lying with your face pressed into the table is even less so. It was nice to see her face this time and watch her smile at me instead of grimace in pain.

As soon as the x-rays were done, we were able to leave. We got a snack and got our parking validated. The ER receptionist was kind enough to give us a pass for free parking, which was an unbelievably welcome favor just two days before payday. It was so good to leave that place as a complete family and not be one of the many people coming in with pillows, bags and food, wearing patient passes and weary faces.

We found out later that evening Boo does have pneumonia, so treatment is being called in this morning. It's more medicine for her, but if that means the tremors in her hands and aches in her legs will once again subside, it will be gladly given. She's better today, without fever and less sleepy. Thankfully so since I have that torturous trip to the dentist this afternoon.

I need to go brush my teeth again.