I’m not talking about juggling confectionary treats, nosirree. We suspect that Namine has caught a bug of some kind, possibly flu. It is her bad luck – and ours – that she needed to throw up when we had only one spare set of clothes, and on a day of multiple clinic appointments.
Not all the doctor appointments were for Namine, though. The first order of the day was for Jessica – a visit to the surgeon who performed her C-section repair and appendectomy. When Namine became distressed and threw up, it was unfortunate, but not surprising. She often has panic attacks that result in vomiting when going to doctors’ offices and clinics – not just hers, but any doctor – as a result of her own all-too-frequent visits to the hospital.
Fortunately, Jessica had a spare outfit for Namine, so she changed her and they went on their way. They stopped and grabbed some breakfast before picking me up from work for the second and third appointments, which were at Children’s Hospital. Namine showed no loss of appetite, happily eating her eggs, hashbrown, and pancake. When we arrived at the hospital, however, she threw up again. The difference here was that she’d shown no sign of distress at being at the hospital. And this was no one-time thing: she kept throwing up until everything she had eaten was on her lap.
Well, this was wonderful. This seemed to be a symptom of something more than mere stress or a panic attack. This seemed like a bug, and we still had a surgery follow-up appointment to get to. While Jessica signed Namine in at the clinic, I took The Amazing Barfo to the bathroom and cleaned her up, changing her into the fortunately packed alternate outfit. (Further evidence of having some kind of bug was her poopy diaper – hey, this a parent’s blog, you can expect potty talk – because it was green. When I can tell the color is off, it’s really off.
Having transformed Barfo – who, having evacuated the offending food, was now feeling much better – into a much cuter Miss Animal Print Cutey Pie, I brought her into the clinic. A short while later, Namine told me that she needed to be changed again. I asked her if she could wait – and she said “well sure, Haha” – because we were soon to be called back by the nurse. I figured I’d just change her there. Then we caught a whiff of what Namine had hidden in her diaper, and Jessica said, “You need to go change her. Now.” But even she had no idea of what was lying in wait.
If Jessica had taken her back, she probably would have thrown up. As it was, Namine was nearly gagging from the smell. But I have a strong stomach – I’ve had to, with everything I’ve had to do for my two loves – and good thing. Miraculously, her pants managed to escape The Great Pooping. Her shirt, back, and a little of her hair (yes, hair) were not so lucky. It took many wipes, but I finally got her clean. By that point, Jessica was hollering into the bathroom. “Are you almost done? They’re calling her back now.” No, I’m taking my sweet time. But there is an end to all things, and even The Great Pooping was finally down the toilet. (“Down” and “flushed” are two very different things, however. I almost felt bad enough for the poor jerk who’d have to clean the stall to go find a plunger. Almost.)
The surgery follow-up was for Namine’s g-tube removal and hernia repair. And after what we’d just gone through, it was quite anticlimactic. The nurse and doctor looked at her, proclaimed her as Doing Well and let us go. Well, then.
We had more fun (by “fun” I mean “torment”) ahead of us, however: an ENT clinic (yes, another) to check Namine’s ears. Jessica and I knew, as I’m sure Namine would realize if she thought about it, that this meant another Dreaded Ear Sucking. Nothing could stop it, and it was my turn to hold the little one down. (I don’t like it any more than Jessica does, which is to say not at all, but she’s done in three times in a row now. I suppose it was my turn at bat, so to speak.)
Jessica used the opportunity to run (more like walk, slowly – I wouldn’t have hurried back to the screams either) down to the gift shop to get Namine some new socks and a shirt. We weren’t about to take her outside as near naked as she was, with her jacket, shirt, and socks barfed and/or pooped on.
Namine recognized the ENT doctor who performed the Dreaded Ear Sucking last time, and she wasn’t happy about it, not one bit. It took me and two nurses to hold her down. Namine fought, screamed, meowed, and cried. Her left ear is doing better, but there’s still something inside her right ear, deeper than the doctor can get with her ear sucky thing (I’m sure that’s the correct term). So all we can do is see how her ears do, having had the antifungal powder blown in them again – oh yeah, she loved that – and see ENT again on Friday.
I’m not kidding about Namine meowing. Most of what came out of her mouth while I was holding her down was to be expected, like plain old gibberishy screaming; “I’m all done!” “No more!” and “Daddy it hurts!” (No swears, fortunately, but I suspect that won’t last.) But I guarantee I’ve never heard anything as strange as Namine yelling at the top of her (not inconsiderable) lungs, “MEEEEEE-OOOOOOWWWW!!”
For a wonder, though, Namine did not throw up during or after the ENT clinic. She gagged a few times – and I thought then that she would hurl for sure – but that was all. Go figure.
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