Because it really is personal…

Yesterday about 10am, Mom called “#4 is running a fever of 103 and has tenderness in his lower gut. Plus, he has diarrhea and is throwing up some. I think he might have appendicitis, what do you want me to do?”

“Take him to the ER. Now.” I replied

(cue the dithering hand-flappy noises) “Oh. I thought I could just take him to the doctor when your dad gets home from Lions Club.”

“No, mom. Take him to the ER now. I am getting in the car right now to get there but it will take 4 hours. Take him to the ER.”

(more hand flapping) “Oh, I’ll try to get ahold of your father. He can take us there.”

(cue the gnashing of Rootietoot teeth and general attempts at being diplomatic) “Ok Mom, just get him there ASAP.”

I love my Mom but nothing, not appendicitis, or snake bites or arterial bleeding will coax her into driving if there’s absolutely any way she can get out of it. Oh, she’ll drive to the Dr.s office (across the street from the hospital) for her quarterly checkup, or to Loachapoka for a museum tour, because she wants to, but she has this *thing* about bodily fluids that belong to other people, and the thought of #4 hurling in her car was off-putting, and she wanted Dad there for moral support.

So, they got there eventually, and the good people at EAMC gave #4 a thorough going over and determined that he had a stomach virus, a nasty version going around that they’d seen several cases of in the past several days. He was badly dehydrated, couldn’t keep anything down (oh but they have these clever blue barf bags designed with a mouth gasket and are long and deep thus practically eliminating splash-back) and they had a heckuva time finding a vein to stick for an IV. Bless his heart, #4 was so embarrassed when he realized the sick 2 yr old in the next bed made less noise about getting an IV than he did.

We arrived 3 hours later (call me Dale Earnhart 3, by God I dared anyone to get in my way or stop me, and made that 4 hour drive in 3 hours even through Columbus rush hour), to find a pale and peaked #4 laying in the bed rolling his eyes at Gramps’ attempts at humor. Gramps was grumping at the difficulty the nurses were having at finding a vein to stick, and made noises like “I can put an IV in a mouse” and “have you ever tried to put an IV in a shi-tzu?” but the nurses were used to assholes and were able to block it out and eventually got the job done.

The good news is, we’re home now. The diarrhea was reined in with copious amounts of Immodium and I deemed it safe to bring the boy back to Statesboro. Dad said if we had to we could leave him there until he was cleared up enough that travel wouldn’t be hazardous to the upholstery (Mom flapped her hands and looked nervous), I opined that we could duct-tape a barf bag (the hospital gave us a whole stack of them to bring home, bless them) to #4’s butt, however #4 vetoed that idea with a deep sigh and some eye rolling. But, the poop issue was under control, and barfing is managable so we all came home today.

#4 is still feverish- 102-103, and is having issues with keeping anything in his stomach. I bought some Emmetrol and that seems to be working. He’s asleep on the couch, still looking peaked. If I’m not happy with how he’s looking tomorrow, we’ll visit the doctor here. Honestly, I like the hospital in Auburn better than the hospital here, they are quick to respond when asked and do everything they can to keep the patient comfortable (tho not fast enough to suit Mom, never mind that #4 was kinda low on the triage list, considering the 2 very sick babies that came in right after #4). They said he’d be sick a day or two longer, that these things tend to last 48 hours or so. Kinda vague, but there we are. I told Mom to go around her house and bleach everything #4 touched, including the toilet seat and shower. She sighed and said that was kind of inconvenient as She Has Plans. I said that her plans would be worth naught if she got sick with this, and at her age it could be much worse than it was for #4.

So there we are, a rapid fire trip to Auburn, an Emergency Room visit, and an equally rapid fire return home. Terry *had* to be back at work today, as the Owner Of The Company is in town, and Terry had absolutely NO choice. Well, if #4 had actually had appendicitis, that would be different. It would be priority. But he doesn’t so…work is priority. Bless him. Terry looked like leftover hell this morning. Between not sleeping for over a week due to his broken arm, and all the excitement with #4, he’s been through a wringer.