'Running' Wild

We're pretty wild over here when we play. Even our really boring and quiet board games can get pretty crazy. Crazy as in tonight while playing Yahtzee with the bigs, One's toe nail was ripped off. Ew. We all did very poorly and it was a great learning experience for the kiddos about how winning isn't everything and sometimes it's a lot more fun to lose. Especially when you lose bad AND lose a toe nail. We're still trying to convince her of this.

Prior to our bigs game night, all the kids (minus Three. Find out below why) had a great day today rearranging furniture and cleaning out their bedrooms. They also spent the afternoon sledding/skiing/snowboarding on the golf course behind our house and ice skating in one of the sand traps. We made berry smoothies (that all the kids loved yesterday, but I made the mistake of letting them see that I put, gasp, spinach in them so now they think they are gross), watched the X Games, and read together.

I left the house with Three this morning at about ten to go to the doctor's office. I'm thinking that there is more going on here than a dairy allergy. Here's the deal. Three of the girls have had the runs since, yes I'm a bad mom, early October. As in six to ten times a day. But I'm not all bad because we do have six kids and let's be honest, stuff is going to cycle through our house at break neck speed. Some of us are more susceptible than others and for a while I just wrote it off as poor immune systems.

Then I finally and barely made it through the bliss of the holiday season without losing my mind (speaking of losing things, we accidentally left one of our kids at a basketball game Thursday. Fortunately it was an English speaking child who knew how to use a telephone and called us to ask where we had gone... oops.) and called my pediatrician who I really like. Who I had actually tried to get ahold of during November and December, but never quite connected. She suggested the whole dairy free thing to see if it helped. We also have other issues like severe eczema, exhaustion, stomach pain and bloating, along with vomiting, so as much as I was sure/desperately hopeful this was not dairy related, I agreed to go without. Unfortunately/Fortunately it has helped, a little. Three was still on the pot like four times a day and throwing up a couple times a week. Not to mention the other kids who have also had similar problems. So this morning when it was 9:30 a.m. and she'd already been to the bathroom four times and thrown up three times, I was motivated to take some action. Usually I'm motivated to get us all out the door and into school on time, but today was, miraculously, a stay at home day! I had actually called said pediatrician last Tuesday when more barfing had taken place and they were like, 'well, it's probably just a bug and it's okay to have diarrhea four or five times a day.' Really? REALLY??? For FOUR MONTHS???? Please, if anyone else believes that it is just fine to have diarrhea a MINIMUM of four to five times a day for four months, please let me know, because I am not okay with this. I also do not think it is normal to be throwing up three or four times a week. Call me crazy. But, given that I love this pediatrician and highly respect her opinion, I had decided to let it go. All week I watched these kids holding their tummies all the time and running to the bathroom every hour, even during school. Then when Huz and I saw how miserable Three was this morning, we decided I would take her into town to a walk-in clinic that I will not ever visit again, at least not to see the doc that I saw today.

I wondered about the possibility of having Three tested for giardia to the nurse who checked us in and this is how the conversation went down when the doctor came in. Mind you, this is how he entered the room:

him: 'four days is hardly time to be concerned about a virus let alone a threatening illness as giardia.'

me, wanting to say, hi, I'm Mrs. H. Nice to meet you. Yes, I'd love to tell you what's been going on, but instead let's just cut to the crap (no pun intended): 'it's been four months, not days.'

him, looking at the notes the nurse took: 'it says here four days.'

totally bugged by his condescending tone right now. okay buddy, do you think it's possible that she wrote the wrong thing down???? I'm here, as the mother of the patient, telling you it has been four MONTHS. Who are you going to believe? Me or the lady we just barely met five seconds ago for five seconds who was simply recording what I was telling her??

me: 'well, it has been going on since early October, so it has definitely been four months and not four days.'

him, in not a very nice tone: 'sooooo, what makes THIS day the magic day? Why all of a sudden can you not wait any longer to find out why she is sick?'

me: 'well, she's been quite ill this morning and I had time to run to town. Also, I had spoken to my pediatrician Tuesday of this week and she seemed to think this was not anything to be concerned about and I don't agree that having diarrhea ten times a day and throwing up three or four times a week is normal.'

him: 'how many kids do you have?'

me: 'six'

him: 'well I'm no math whiz, but if you have six kids and they are attending school and get the typical 8-9 viruses a year then I'm pretty sure that someone is always going to be sick at your house. It's going to be passed around. I'm sure it is not the same kid that is throwing up and having diarrhea this whole time.'

are you freaking kidding me.

I should have just left right then, but I really wanted to have her labs run and didn't know when I could get her back in next week. Besides, I didn't want to make her wait any longer. That being said, I really wanted to kick him in the face. Pretty sure I can remember which kid is barfing and having diarrhea. I'm not a total loser.

me: 'well, I'm definitely certain that this child here has had diarrhea and vomiting for four months now.'

him: 'well, I guess we can run some blood work and get some stool samples.'

me: 'yep, I guess we can.'

Aaaaaaand, so for the next two hours I helped hold down my daughter while they did a blood draw (which by the way showed high white blood cell count, not dangerously high, but definitely high. thank you very much mr. know-it-all-maybe-you-have-your-kids-confused doctor) and held specimen cups with my gloved hands hoping to catch enough, er, specimen to do the testing. At least the nurses were super nice. anyhow, thanks for listening to my crazed ranting.

Let's end on a happy note! Funny thing Four said the other day while I was in the shower. She pulled my tupperware container full of yarn from back in the day when I thought I was busy but I actually had time to knit into my bathroom and sat on it, facing me, like she was about to see a movie, "I'm just going to sit here and enjoy you. What should we talk about, mom?"

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