Sick Baby

A baby with a cold is just miserable.  It's so hard, too, as all you can do is hold, walk, rock, sing, and try to comfort the poor lad, but sometimes none of it works and he just cries.

 

Then he falls asleep in your arms and it's wonderful.  You may have to remind yourself that it's wonderful when it's at 4:30 a.m. for the fourth day in a row - but you know that as soon as he's feeling better, he'll start moving again, so you take the reminder and enjoy it.

This past week we weren't seeing too many of B's smiles but we're glad to say they're back and he's back on track for walking very very soon...

In Sickness and In Snow

One of my new year's goals is to just get 'er done.  I am SO GOOD at procrastinating, it's embarrassing.  So, this year I'm just doing it.  Part of the goal is to spend less time on the computer, as it is my go-to when I am avoiding, which has made not doing the blog easier.  See, I want to catch us up over the last 4 months in which so much of life I'd like to remember has not be memorialized on Livin' Life, but then here I am once again dragging my feet in writing a simple post about today...

The past week has been different for a few reasons.  All three of us had the flu, each coming down with it two days apart.  John & I were trying to figure out last night what is easier - taking care of Helena when she feels good but we feel awful or when the roles are switched - and we honestly couldn't decide on an answer.  But, thank the Lord, our sick symptoms are almost gone. 

The other reason it's been crazy has been due to the weather.  One day - freezing cold.  Next day - supposed to be 50F but instead it's wet glorious snow.  Third day - cold.  Fourth day - barely need a jacket outside.  Fifth day - back to being frigid.  And so on.

On day 2, Helena & I went out and played in the snow while John fought the flu.



On day 4, John & Helena went and got soaked in puddles while I was in bed.

On day 8 (today), Helena wanted to build a snowman but that's not possible in green grass, so we made one inside.

The Emergency Room

The Canadian health care system is a major topic of interest when we go south of the border. As we just had a new experience with it, I thought I'd share. [Again, please understand that I am saying nothing - good or bad - about the American health care system. I am simply sharing a part of our life in Canada.]

Friday evening John & I decided to take Helena to the ER. She'd been acting unlike herself for days, had had a fever for almost 48 hours, and seemed to be getting less relief with each new dose of Tylenol.

We walked in the ER doors at 6:40. The triage nurse checked Helena's vitals, gave her more Tylenol, and told us it would be a 1 to 3 hour wait. The first 2 hours went by quickly. The third stretched on and on while we started to recognize the different characters from the Disney Junior commercials, as we'd already watched their shows. At exactly 3 hours, John went up and asked how much longer we'd be waiting. The answer, "Helena's name is next in her area."

What did "her area" mean? After 50 minutes of waiting to find out, I asked how much longer it would be. "Her name should be called soon."

And so it was ten minutes later. We saw a doctor within a couple minutes of being put in a room, Helena was checked out, it was determined she just had a virus, and we were sent into an in-progress waiting room to rehydrate her with Pedialyte for the next hour so that her vitals could be checked again. By the time she was discharged, it was 12:15.

If you do the math, that means we were at the ER for 5.5 hours.

FIVE AND A HALF HOURS.

According to the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care in December 2011, our wait was only 45 minutes longer than the average ER visit to this hospital for a minor condition. And when we asked the nurse if the night was particularly busy, she looked at us with a quizzical look and answered, "No, actually tonight we're a bit slow."

It's not just here in Toronto. In 2008, a man died in a Manitoba ER after waiting 34 hours. In a quick google search, I found recent articles from Vancouver, Ottowa, and Toronto discussing the crowds in the ER. Perhaps my friend said it best in an email about our visit:

"That's Canada...sorry. ERs in Canada are the worst place to be in Canada... it's a huge Canadian issue and has been for quite some time...5 1/2 hours is actually pretty good. :("

Sick

The happenings of a day when all three members of a family are sick: 

-the laundry grows exponentially

-the father tries to teach his 11-month old how to blow her own nose

-even though no one is eating much, the dishes pile up

-the vaporizer travels from room to room

-the daughter has moments of happiness and many many minutes of sadness

-the kitchen table gets lost beneath the mountain of Tylenol, Kleenex, papers, dirty bibs, and I don't even know what else

-the mother takes her daughter on a walk by making 20 laps of our floor's hallways

-the babe sleeps and we all rejoice