A Trip to the Doctor

It has been a long time since I have blogged.  Our internet chip broke a couple months ago, and I have only been able to get on away from my house. I could write a couple hundred experiences, but I will start with this week...

EK and baby Josue have to have regular check-ups.  To save on gas, I scheduled both of them to have an appointment Tuesday.  I have taken two kids for check-ups before, so that wasn't that big of a problem.  My mom told me she would help with the kids.  Haley came along too because she needed a vaccine, and since she is not Honduran like Emma she does not get free vaccines. 

We got to the doctor an hour early.  We always allow two hours from Santa Ana to allow for extra time for traffic and parking.   The traffic was clear, so we were there a very long time before our 3:00 appointment, and the doctor didn't show up until 3:20.

Emma went first.  Overall she is healthy, but very short.  She is 27 inches and 18 pounds.  Short is ok, I'm just thankful she is well.  The only changes for her are some extra vitamins and daily use of an inhaler to help with the constant cold she has had for over a month.

Next came Haley.  I always make a big deal when she gets shots and tell her she will get a candy bar if she is a good girl at the doctor.  She was such a big girl getting her shot.  She didn't even flinch, much less cry.  Then she sat down at a little table in the dr's office and started saying she was very sleepy.  I assured her that we would be done in a few minutes.  About 30 seconds later, she started screaming and crying.  I impatiently turned around to remind her that we were almost done, only to discover that she had thrown up EVERYWHERE.  My mom scooped her up to try to clean her up as best as she could and got to the bathroom to find that she did much more than throw up.  Because Haley has  been potty trained for about 18 months, I don't ever have extra clothes with me any more; therefore, cleaned up was not very clean.

Upon my mom's leaving to take care of Haley, I was left with Emma and Josue, and Josue still needed his check up.  Even Dr. Castillo was a bit perplexed as to how I was going to manage this.  I said, "Emma can just play in the floor." She wiggled and crawled all over the dr.'s office and was very happy.  After examining Josue, the doctor said, he is still behind, but is steadily improving - PRAISE GOD FOR THAT!

As we were finishing up, and Dr. Castillo was explaining the different perscriptions and or vitamins for each of the three children, Haley fell asleep in the floor using a Toy Story chair as her pillow.  She was so sick, and I felt so sad for her.  We finished up, I told my mom if she could get Josue to the care, I could get my two downstairs.  In saying this, I thought Haley would wake up enough to walk to the elevator, but I was wrong.

Haley did wake up enough for me to drag her to the receptionist and pay for all of the services we received, then I had to carry both of my girls to the elevator puke, diharea and all.  The girl's doctor is on the seventh floor, and the elevator generally stops on every floor on the way down.  On the fourth floor the elevator kept saying FULL, so a family kept entering, exiting and roatating trying to all get down at the same time.  In the amount of time they wasted doing this, they could have walked down to the first floor twice.  All the time I was toting a sleeping 3.5 year old and a restless 9 month old and smelling the stench that was now covering me, Haley, and Emma.  I don't know if they didn't notice my predicament or if they simply didn't care, but it took great self-control on my part not to yell at all of them.

We got down and I sat down with the two of them hoping my mom would get there soon.  Emma was tired and fussy and Haley was getting heavier by the second.  We finally got loaded in the car, got to the pharmacy and filled most of the perscriptions.  I grabbed Wendy's for me and Matt and 2.5 long hours of fighting traffic later, we were in Santa Ana with a very tired baby that only dozed for a couple minutes in the car and a very tired little girl that slept the entire time in the car.

Now it is Friday, and Haley is feeling better, but is still more tired than usual.  She has not thrown up anymore, and her daddy stayed home with her on Wednesday and Thursday while I was taking the kids to Teleton.  Today we are all relaxing at home instead of going to the beach as planned as her last fun thing while she has had two weeks out of school.