Monday
Sunday night and on into Monday we noticed Norns was getting a little gaggy. Sure enough ~ mucus in the back of her throat presented itself which has been an indicator of ear infections for her. She was still in great spirits and even slept through the night the night before!
Lots of gags = lots of pukes = naked. It can be a bit of a challenge changing her clothes at such a frequency with her oxygen tubing, so we just opted to let her be nakies. She likes that!
She even came to the dinner table naked!! She ain’t got no kinda manners!!
“No shoes, no shirt, no problem!”
I did talk with the nurse at Dr. B’s office and as long as Norns wasn’t running a fever she didn’t need to be seen, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to have her seen by ENT just to make sure.
Tuesday
The throat boogies and gagging continued to cause pukes through the night. I called Children’s Hospital first thing this morning to see about any available ENT appointments. There were no appointments available until tomorrow afternoon. I stressed the urgency of the situation and was put on hold for a couple of seconds. Once back on the line the receptionist informed me of a 10:00 spot that was open at the Liberty campus, which was about an hour away, can you arrive 15 minutes early, etc. My brain made some excessive early morning computations and I blurted out, “Yes, we’ll take it!” It was 8:45. And GO!!!!! (Insert sound of tire burnout)
(This is my sarcastic face of stress-free contentment)
William was still out of town – so it was just me. Never had I so quickly packed up and moved out!
“Yeah, I tink your gonna wanna take a left up here….”
Kelly and Greta had still been asleep. I peeked in on Greta to tell her what was going on, reminded her that her Kelly was downstairs only if she needed her. Otherwise Nana was on her way over to get her.
Nora and I got all the way to Fairfield before there was an urgency in her cry that required me to find a safe parking lot to pull over in. Poor girl only got to drink part of her milkies before I whisked her off in the car. And I wanted to make sure her medicines were going to stay down. I gave her another ounce of her bottle which placated her for a little bit, but by the time we got to the Liberty exit, she was raging pissed, “I KNOW DAT MILKIES IS UP THERE!!!!!!!!”
The following paragraph is to be imagined in dramatic slow motion with this music playing.
I rushed inside in speed-walker mode, which implied our situation to be much more of an emergency than it really was, “DIS IS AN EMERGENCY, DANG IT! I’M HUNGRY!!!!” I signed Nora in and then frantically fixed her another bottle upon realizing I’d left the remainder of the other in the car. Mid-formula scoop they called her name. Milkies Interrupted. I quickly wheeled the little siren up to the desk and confirmed her date of birth, signed something, and then ran back to our seat.
(You can conclude the aforementioned musical interlude.)
Ahhh, what a relief the milkies was!
We were called back relatively quickly to see a new doctor that we had never seen before. I’m always a little apprehensive about new doctors, ready to lace up my dusty boxing gloves for Nora! However, once Dr. E. entered the room, his kindness, compassion and expertise were immediately perceptible. I let down my guard with a happy sigh of relief as I explained Nora’s ailments. He interacted with Nora, encouraged me as a parent and besides being a very knowledgable doctor, he put joy in my heart and happy tears welling up in my eyes. Upon examining her ears he found there to be fluid within. Her ears were not draining properly. Gavin and Greta never had any ear infections. This is all new territory for me and I misunderstood ‘fluid in the ear’ as the presence of infection. I later learned this wasn’t necessarily the case, it merely increases the likelihood of infection. Dr. E. ascertained that Nora would definitely benefit from tubes because her tiny ears just aren’t draining properly. Nora is scheduled to have tubes put in on September 20th.
Baby Girl was still a bit incensed about having been restrained while her ears were examined. I was relieved not only to have just met such an awesome doctor, but that a solution was in sight. We made our way back out to the car at only a slightly frantic pace. I climbed in the back seat with her to attempt to soothe her, but she wasn’t having any of it.
So I took her picture instead and wished for one of those self-driving Google cars. That didn’t see to help matters either.
I mistakenly assumed that she might settle down once the car was moving. We made it a couple miles down the road to West Chester Marriott’s parking lot. I got her out of her seat and rocked her and loved her until she fell asleep. I had been in brief contact with William, on his way home from Cedar Point. The last he had heard, Nora was upset. I sent him this picture to let him know she had settled.
She stayed asleep for the duration of the trip home and before long some special people that she loves very, very much showed up ~
“I love my Dyad an my brudder!”
“Eenen I love baffs too!”
(We’ve been told that bath water wouldn’t necessarily be the cause of fluid in her ears and/or infection, but we do keep Nornor’s sweet little ears out of the water on the off chance it causes her any issues or discomfort!)
Despite the craziness of the day ~ today is my Oma’s birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OMA!!! I love you!!!
‘May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.’ (Numbers 6:24-26 NLT)