So yesterday was a busy, never ending type of a day. We started out alright, getting everyone off to school on time. Later on in the morning, I needed to take Josie to Costco. We have to buy milk in bulk- 5 gallons or more at a time! And that doesn't even last a week, but it's pretty much all the fridge will hold at once. On the way to Costco, I stopped by the Derm office to clear up a billing error. While at Costco, I got a phone call from the school nurse. I get a lot of calls from the school nurse. Even before Steven was a student, I got a lot of calls. My kids just seem to love going in to see the nurse. This time it was Luke. He was bleeding quite steadily from his ear, but didn't seem to be in any pain, and so what would I like to do?
Hmmmmm, too bad the Doctor was out of the state at the moment.
I thought that bleeding steadily from an ear with no complaint of pain or trauma probably had to do with his ear tubes, and that if he's not able to be in school because of the bleeding, he should at least go to see a doctor about it. If Mac and his otoscope were home I just would have waited for the dawkter to make that call...
Anyway, considering all this while standing in the bread aisle of Costco, I did what any good, loving, attentive mother would do: I finished shopping (well, at least I only bought the milk and one other item!), I strapped my non-compliant, screaming 2 year old in her car seat, and I headed home to put the milk away...
After that important work was done, Josie and I continued on to the school to check out the situation. Luke's ear had mostly stopped bleeding, but there was a lot of dried blood. I got in touch with Mac, who thought it was probably nothing that needed to be seen urgently. I decided I didn't like his analysis, and so I went ahead and called the peds nurse, and when she told me the only urgent care appointments available were all the way in the city (forget that!), I just went ahead and called the ENT clinic. Even though Mac hasn't physically worked there in nearly a year, I think they still remember him! A little... Enough to walk us in "whenever we got there".
So, after a quick 45 minute power nap for the baby, Luke, Josie and I headed out to the clinic. The clinic is about a 30 minute trek from our house- without traffic. Luke ended up needing to have the dried blood suctioned out of his ear, and some drops applied to help stop the bleeding, but ultimately he's fine. He'll use the ear drops for a few days, and the tube will probably be coming out shortly, but it's not a big deal... He would've needed to be seen by the ENTs sooner or later to get all the blood suctioned out, so it's better that I just brought him in. Had we gone to the peds (like Mac advised), the pediatrician would have just referred us to ENT. Always better to go to the front of the line when you can, right?
While all this was happening, Kate came home from school, followed by Steven and Isabel. Kate made arrangements to get a ride to her swim practice. As I drove up with Luke and Josie, Kate was leaving for swimming, 15 minutes late already. Sigh.
It was now time for the kids to do their homework, finish reading, and practice their instruments (I have no idea how to help Izzy with the trombone- how do you make different tones? How does it work?). After a rather loud twenty minutes or so, we were off to pick up Kate from swim practice, then back home to make dinner, then Kate went off to soccer practice in the park by our house, then...
Ahhh, the day was almost done. I got Josie's bath going, and she was almost done with it when I remembered...
The Cub Scouts pack meeting. Sigh. Commence the race to get out of the bath and dressed. Of course the boys' uniforms weren't ready yet... So, we showed up about 10 minutes late to the meeting, looking a bit bedraggled and unprepared. Better than nothing, I suppose.
By the time the meeting was done, Kate had returned home from soccer, and finally, after another hour or so, everyone was asleep.
It seems like this week has been like this almost every day. It's definitely not easy when Mac is gone! In just over one month he should be heading back home. I think we'll make it...
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