Thirtysomething

Testing 1, 2, 3

So far, this week is kicking my ass all over Texas. Why Texas? I have no idea.

Monday I managed to throw my back out, doing nothing other that getting up off of the sofa. I always wondered about that term "throwing my back out" and what it meant. Well, since birthing a child, it's happened to me at least 3 times, for no good reason and the result is always me leaning over to one side because I simply can no longer stand straight up. I have a feeling my lower back has always been on the weaker side and apparently months, going on years, of doing no strength training isn't helping.

Then on Tuesday I got "the call" from day care, the one where they told me in a completely panicked tone of voice that Rolo had accidentally drank another child's bottle and was having an allergic reaction. So then I had to run to daycare, literally run, when even walking was uncomfortable with the whole back thing. Turns out adrenyline will carry you through those moments and it won't be until later that night that you find yourself completely paralyzed.

So Rolo had his first real allergic reaction and it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it wasn't fun either. He was scared and extremely uncomfortable and so I took him home for the rest of the day. Part of the problem was that we didn't have an "action plan", which is something you're supposed to have for a kid with allergies. Correct that, we did have an action plan, but my allergist's office (see: Dr. Crackpot) wouldn't release it to me. On our last visit there, the allergist prescribed an epipen, and so I tried to bring it to daycare and they were all like "okay, but we need an action plan" which would basically outline when they should give something like Benedryl and when they should administer the epipen. This made total sense, that you would have a plan like this in writing. So I called the allergist's office and they were all like "Oh we didn't give you one? Well you can come in to pick it up."

The problem is that the doctor's office is 45 minutes away and they close at 4pm. No way I could get there after work and I couldn't imagine taking time off of work to pick up a form. Could the fax the action plan? No. Could they mail it? No. I had to pick it up in person, and they had to walk me through it. Okay, so they didn't care enough about the damn action plan to actually give it to me when they should have, but now I have to come in to talk about it? No thanks.

I sort of knew this was a ticking time bomb, that Rolo didn't have an action plan, therefore didn't have an epipen at school. I was figuring I would eventually get him an appointment with a new allergist here in the city. Well Tuesday, after his attack, I called up my pediatrician's office, got the number of their recommended allergist and as luck would have it, they had a cancellation for yesterday afternoon.

So I took off from work yesterday afternoon, saw the doctor, which took 2.5 hours and ALL of that was actually us being seen by nurses and doctors. These doctors have a TOTALLY different approach to medicine than Dr. Crackpot. While I agree with the approach in theory, it means a LOT of testing for poor Rolo. Two X-rays, a couple of blood tests, a couple of skin tests and a sweat test. Oy. It'll be great when we're on the other side of it, but I'm dreading the testing. Anyway, we leave with a lot of paperwork and scripts and then proceed to almost get hit by a car. As in an elderly person who mistook the accelerator for the brake while I was crossing with the light in the crosswalk. I had to hurl the stroller to my right to put myself in between the car and Rolo. And did I mention the bad back? Because instaneous decisions to hurl strollers do not go well with bad backs.

So today I drop Rolo off at daycare and get a call two hours later, that I need to pick him up because he has watery eyes. Seriously. Watery eyes. They think it's pink eye, of course, but it's his freaking allergies really and then I've got to track down the allergist he saw yesterday so she can write a note saying he's not contagious. I can tell day care is not pleased that I have no intention of picking my child up because of his watery eyes and I basically tell them where to go because already this week? I missed a bunch of time from work because no one was watching my kid closely enough to prevent him from drinking someone else's bottle. I'm not missing more work for God-damn watery eyes.

The End.

Labels: winter of my discontent

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 10:23 AM