starting off birthday week in urgent care

Oh my.

It took us 2 weeks, but I think I can confidently say we've turned a corner and are on the road to good health right now.

Two weeks ago Penn had a runny nose and slight fever. He gets sick pretty often, so I didn't think much of it and was hoping it would only last a few days...through the weekend at most and be on the out for the boys' birthday week.

So Penn started his sniffles on a Wednesday and had fevers, runny nose, eye nastiness, etc that week and through the weekend. He woke up on Keaton's birthday {Monday} with all/most of his symptoms gone!

I considered it a birthday miracle :) Keaton also had a cold, but not nearly as bad! I had a cold too. And Ryan. But my hopes were SO high that we were all getting better!

I took the boys out for birthday fun all morning thinking it was behind us...

Chocolate World!

 Zoo!

But I was WRONG.

Flat out wrong. 

Penn woke up from his nap miserable. Absolutely miserable. He cried for probably 3 hours straight - it was awful. I had really thought he was good to go, so Ryan and I were both confused. It was just a rough afternoon/night of trying to console Penn, celebrate Keaton, and get Ryan off to work night shift.

The next morning {Tuesday} I called our pediatrician first thing to see if she thought we should bring Penn in. He woke up in the morning without a fever again and seemed okay...so I wasn't sure what to do. She told me to bring him in and so I did later that afternoon. 

The poor soul - he had some kind of intense double ear infection/sinus infection combo. He was in rough shape. 

Ryan had to leave for work at 4:45pm and I pulled into the driveway with Penn at 4:50pm to pick up Keaton and head to Target to grab Penn's prescription.

And this is where it starts to go downhill {if we weren't already heading straight into a pile of poo}....

For effect: I'll add that it's been raining all afternoon.

Keaton is riding in the shopping cart at Target and I'm carrying Penn {who is SO hot with a fever at this point and just moaning}. I'm walking through Target and notice Keaton's eye is all pink and yucky. UGH. I know it could be from his cold, but it looks a lot like pink eye...sooooo right after I get Penn's meds we head to Urgent Care 2 mins away.

I had called Ryan to ask him what he thought and we both agreed it would be good to get him checked "real quick," as soon as possible.

Oh.my.word.

I pulled into the parking lot of Urgent Care and immediately Keaton starts "I no see the doctor. I go home. No thanks."

It actually wasn't so bad getting him in there, but when the nice, young nurse tried to weigh him and gets his stats he lost his mind. If everyone wasn't already staring at us by that point they all just stopped what they were doing and looked over because we were a mess.

The people at UC were nice and tried hard, but when your toddler doesn't want to do something and you're holding your other sick child who has a fever and is crying non-stop in your ear there's just not much that can be done. 

So we got all the preliminary stuff {kinda} done and started our wait for the doctor. It took a nice long FOREVER. 

I mean...looking back we should have just left, but I felt like by the time I realized that was an option I was past the point of no return. Ya know??

Keaton spent the first 20mins yelling from behind the gurney bed "I don't want the doctor! I don't like the doctor! They hurt me!"

He cried and yelled until he had to go potty, which was across the hall. He was so unsure of the place it took every bit of convincing I had in me to shuffle him across and into the bathroom{I'm still holding Penn}. He hates public bathrooms now and so I knew he wouldn't want to go, but bless his heart he was doing the potty dance big time. I got his pants down and he had to go so bad he started peeing immediately and it literally got everywhere. Like none in the toilet. None. So I'm sopping it up  off the floor with toilet paper and using my best friendly firm voice to say DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING. DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING.

Bless Penn's heart. He's just standing and crying. I mean it was sad.

So we shuffle back to our "room" and Keaton won't go back in. He's sitting just outside the curtain/door making it known to the world he doesn't want to see the doctor.

I'm thinking they might be avoiding us on purpose now, but I can't be sure.

I do get him to come in, eat fruit snacks, and start watching Daniel Tiger. BUT THEN he starts saying his belly hurts and for him that's code for "I have to poop." I try to get him to go with me back to the bathroom, but he's not moving until all the sudden he says "I need to go to the potty. I need wipes" and I'm all excited because I know that will make him feel better and we use wipes at home after he goes so I didn't think much of that. Just as I get our stuff to shuffle back across the hall the doctor walks in and I'm like "sorry we'll be right back he needs to poop!" 

She mentioned having something else to do quickly and so we go and get to the bathroom only for me to find out he already pooped. In his pants. Which were actually his pajamas from the night before. 

HAHAHAHA.

I used another roll of toilet paper to clean up that mess and then we got to see the doctor! She was nice and did well with him. He let her examine his ears and eyes, but only with me hugging him {and I'm still holding Penn. My arm is ready to fall off}.

Keaton had pink eye and an ear infection. 

Thankfully, I got his antibiotics at the same place and we headed home. It was so past their bedtime by now that I just wanted to give them their medicine, a bath, clean jammies and get everyone in bed! 

Of course, everyone fell asleep on the drive home and so unloading 2 sleeping, sick children was a feat in and of itself, BUT THEN when I was giving Penn his medicine he was just so worked up from everything he threw it {plus all the food he had eaten} up all over the place.

Ummmm. Gross.

That was the cherry on top :)

Seriously though, it's been a slow uphill climb from there...that was rock bottom for me. 

I won't even get into what I'd do differently next time. I survived this time and so I'll leave it at that! Everyone slept well and family reinforcements arrived the next day!! Hallelujah!