An exciting night

Namine was feeling much better by the time we got home from the urgent care clinic. At that point, it was quarter of eleven, so we ate our Fazoli’s and put her to bed. She was happy to go. When I got home from work, Namine was in pain. Was still in pain. She’d been…

Namine was feeling much better by the time we got home from the urgent care clinic. At that point, it was quarter of eleven, so we ate our Fazoli’s and put her to bed. She was happy to go.

When I got home from work, Namine was in pain. Was still in pain. She’d been complaining of her stomach hurting all day, and the pediatrician’s office was no help. Let me back up.

Namine had an eye checkup, and even though the results were positive, she was not. She was miserable, and she fell asleep on the way home. Jessica took the opportunity to call the pediatrician and try to have Namine seen before going home. This did not go well.

First of all, Namine’s pediatrician wasn’t even in today. She probably works two days a week, and when we do take Namine in, she usually ends up seeing someone else. But I digress. Jessica explained to the nurse what was going on with Namine – the stomach pain, the crying – but the nurse remained unsympathetic.

It sounds like it’s just gastroenteritis, and it just needs to run its course.

No matter what Jessica said – even that since Namine had recently had heart surgery, she wanted to make sure this (whatever this was) didn’t affect her heart, or come from her recently-recovered infection – nothing mattered. The nurse refused to put Namine on the schedule. So Jessica turned to a nurse she knew she could trust, the special needs nurse at the hospital.

Namine ended up taking a fairly restless nap, snuggled in our big bed with Jessica, and they waited until I got home. When I walked in the door at half past six, Namine was still not in the best of spirits. She winced as I picked her up to put her in the car, and her voice was on-edge, sounding ready to cry at the slightest thing. She was not happy about the prospect of going to the urgent care clinic, but the only other option was to go to the ER, as the pediatrician’s office was closed by the time I got home.

We were seen with fair expediency at the urgent care clinic. Namine is still in contact isolation status, due to the MRSA infection, so anyone who came in the room had to gown up. Namine was nervous, expecting a blood draw, at least, but she let the nurse inspect her – taking her temperature (99, which meant that her high fever earlier in the day had come down a bit) and looking in her ears, eyes, and mouth. Namine had not gone to the bathroom very much, but she was able to go in the clinic bathroom. This provided a culture sample, but more importantly, after going she felt much better. She didn’t scoot around the bed the way she normally would, but she no longer had that whining, on-the-edge-of-crying tone to her voice. She even laughed when the doctor was being silly, which she wouldn’t do before.

The preliminary results from the culture showed that she had a higher white blood cell count, indicating that she has an infection. We stopped at the twenty-four hour pharmacy up the road to pick up the prescription sent by the doctor, and went on our way home.

Before going home, we went through the drive through at Fazoli’s. This above anything else that evening proved that Namine was feeling better. When Jessica was ordering through the drive through intercom, Namine piped up,

Tell the guy I want lasagna!

Yes, there was the girl we knew. On the way home, she ate two breadsticks. We didn’t get home until 10:45 or so, but Namine ate well and made it into bed by 11:00. She fell asleep almost immediately, and she slept through the night, having none of the restlessness she had during her daytime nap.

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