Summer Days

Hey, long time no see! LOL! It's been a week or so since my last post, so that's not too bad, right? Things around here have been busy as usual for summer. The daycare is busy of course, with the 2 yr old, Kadybug everyday, the two P brothers, C&E (5 & 6.5) and nearly 2 Miss Mack. I haven't had the almost 3 J, thank God! I'm hoping his mom is toilet training him as we speak! And C (9) and his sis A (6) have been away for almost 4 weeks now due to their mom having back trouble and being home from work, and also they have been at camp. I won't have to deal with them until the last week of July! HOORAY!! C is a huge pain in my ass, as you may know. And A is ok, but being the only girl and a bit of a princess (too good to play with the boys) she drives me nuts by following me around all day! Miss Mack doesn't come everyday, but she is a good playmate for Kadybug. The numbers are nice for now. I'm not looking forward to adding two more...sigh.
So L and R have been ok so far. Not too many, "I'm BOOOOOORRRED"'s yet! They both had upset stomachs in the middle of the night a few days ago, and I thought we were going to have to deal with a stomach virus, but they seemed fine the next morning. Then last night L had diarrhea and was complaining of stomach pain, and also he was burping up horrible rotten egg smelling sulphurous burps! The smell was disgusting! I can't imagine how nasty the taste was. (TMI?) R has had this before, twice actually and he ends up puking a couple of times after a few hours, a horrible rancid smelling puke (I know, puke stinks but this is beyond gross). I have no idea what it is, other than researching on the internet and finding out it may Giardia. Anyway, L was distraught when I told him he may end up puking. So I got him very reluctantly to drink some baking soda mixed into water (it was recommended on several chats regarding this egg burp, and it couldn't hurt so why not?) Ok, if you've ever tasted baking soda in water ladies, you'll know it has a very, VERY familiar taste....relating to oral sex....s'all I'm sayin'...
I also decided to go against medical advice and gave him a teaspoon of Pepto. They say now kids shouldn't have it, because of the same dangers as giving them Aspirin, but I had it all the time as a kid and I'm fine. Plus, he didn't have a fever, so I wasn't too worried about him getting this Reye's syndrome. And it seemed to help. He slept all night, and ate breakfast, but I'm not going to say he's cured until he goes to the bathroom again.
Monday this week I had an unexpected day off. It was really nice. I was only supposed to have Kadybug, but her dad wanted to spend the day with her (Awwwwwwww) and so she stayed home. My mom, nan and nephew T came over, and we took the kids to the splash pad. It was so nice to spend time with T without his mom around (sorry N, I did miss you though...). Kids are always different without their parents around, mine too, I'm sure. Instead of being sucky and clingy to Mommy, T took my hand and led me all around the splash park, smiling and laughing with me. It was so cute. Then later when we got home, he and L went upstairs and played together. That was sweet. Usually I see R being the more "brotherly" figure to his cousins, but it was really great to see L in that role.
After they left, I took the boys to a local public pool and we went swimming. So, lots of water Monday! I'm wondering if L picked up some bacteria or virus from one of those places....I've had a weird itchy rash on the underside of my right arm since...hmmmm....
I started the kids on their new summer workbooks. L is not too happy with that, of course, seeing as how he hates school so much, but he needs it the most. The P Bros don't mind, especially E who is going into SK. He has already flown through the first part of his book. I'm going to have to get him another! R and L got thicker ones, containing much of the Canadian Curriculum. It's not the Ontario curriculum, but whatever. As long as they're learning/reviewing something and it's not too American (meaning history, spellings and currency) then I'm happy. We usually do this in the summer, and start off with gusto, and that wanes and fades. It's a lot of work for me, having all these kids needing help and all being different levels. I really don't know how home-schooling moms do it! One kid, yeah, maybe two, meh, but more? I couldn't do that full time!!
Today I was supposed to have a follow-up Dr. appt. for my cyst problem. Not sure if I blogged about that or not.... Anyhow, about a month and a half ago, I was in terrible pain and went to the ER thinking I had a kidney stone or something. Turns out ovarian cysts. I was told to go to my doctor and have him make an appt for a U/S in two weeks. I laughed hard at that, and it wasn't because I was stoned on morphine either. Our Dr. NEVER has appts. As you can tell, my follow-up appt was for more than a month later - today. However, due to the fact that I couldn't get the day off, I have had to cancel it. I tried to ask the parents to find alternate care, but I made two big mistakes:
One, is that I neglected to ask them right away. It just slipped my mind, so I ended up asking them last week. Kinda short notice.
Two, is that because I was an idiot, I felt bad about asking them for time off at such short notice and I ended up telling both sets that if they couldn't find alternate care to "not worry about it". I sort of figured that at least one set of parents would be compliant, and that would help me out, but of course, Murphy's Law, neither one of them did. Well, actually, the one set of parents I'm pretty sure completely forgot to try. Typical.
So last night I debated and debated and this morning I debated and debated. Take five kids to the Dr. with me? Or cancel? The baby is no prob. She's easy to take anywhere. My two, fine. But the P Bros? They are good boys but combined with my own two lately and they have been quite the foursome to handle. Very rambunctious and loud and giggly and silly and at times, a little out of hand. I really didn't know if they would behave being left in the waiting room by themselves. It wasn't something I felt comfortable with. Plus, my truck only fits four kids. R would have had to ride in the front seat, something I don't mind if we're just going around the corner to the school or the local beach, but not for a +20 minute drive through town. I can't turn the airbag off in that vehicle.
But cancelling means that I don't get taken care of. I feel alright now of course, but something tells me that this is more of a chronic thing rather than a one-off. And cancelling means no appt again for months. Sigh.
So I called this morning and cancelled. It wasn't worth risking my child's safety or my own sanity. I called around 9:15. The office opens at 9, but apparently they don't answer the phones until 9:30 (WTF?). These people drive me nuts. It's like they try to work as little as possible, and get max. amount of money for it. Sheesh. So they are open Tues, Wed and Thurs from 9 to 4, that's only 7 hours, and really it's only 6 hours because they are closed from 12 to 1 for lunch! They are only open from 9 to 12 on Fridays. On top of that, they don't answer the phone until 9:30? Why? How do they get any business done. It's no wonder we are struggling in our city with sooooo many people without regular healthcare.
Anyhow, the thing that pissed me off was that when I called and listened to their long message before I could leave mine, I heard them say that I would be charged a fee for a missed appt, or one cancelled with less than 24 hrs notice. WTF?! There is no way in hell that I am paying any God Damn fee!! It's not like they couldn't fill the missed appointment. I'm sure anyone on their very long list of patients waiting for appts would gladly take my place. If they send me a bill, I'm going to rip it up and mail it back to them. They make me wait all this time for a simple appointment, and then they have the nerve to tell me I have to pay a fee for missing it? NO WAY.

Ouchy!

On Wednesday morning when I got into the shower to start my day, I could feel a pain in my back on my right side and what felt like a menstrual cramp in my groin area on the same side. I couldn't understand why I was feeling this, because really, it was completely the wrong time of the month for that. Plus, I never get cramps on one side only.
So I carried on with my day, although the pain continued to get worse. By mid-morning I had to lie down and just let the kids play around me. By noon, I was dying for naptime, and had to call DH to come home as soon as he could. Movement aggravated the pain, and I wanted to walk around holding myself hunched over like an old lady.
Finally, 5:00 came and all the kids left and DH sent me to the clinic. Two hours later I was home with no diagnosis. Stupid, useless Dr. They did test my urine and said no infection was present there, and that I wasn't pregnant. Well duh! I could have told them that! I actually did tell them I only just finished my period the week before, do wouldn't that be a little too soon for pregnancy? Whatever. So the Dr apparently didn't know what was wrong with me. Even when I asked him if the pain could be coming from my ovaries, he said no, the pain was in the wrong place!
Turns out, that Dr needs to brush up on his female anatomy.
Over the next night and in the morning I was in excruciating pain. I was in tears at one point. I don't even remember labour being as bad as that, although I'm sure it was, just not as constant. At least labour pain came and went in waves, giving me relief in the intermittent off periods. Anyhow, DH took the kids to a friend's place to be taken to school from there, and he took me to the hospital.
At first, when I hobbled into the triage area if the ER, it looked quite empty and I thanked the heavens. However, not two minutes later, the ambulances started rolling in. And we all know that of course they take priority. An hour or more later I was dying. I was whimpering and writhing in that stupid plastic chair, trying to find the most comfortable position. I really was about thirty seconds from saying "to hell with it," and laying down on the disgusting floor.
Finally, the angels of mercy looked upon me and they granted me entrance to the place with beds. The wonderful, heavenly beds. No other bed has ever been more comfortable, more wonderful.
And yes, I know it was a gurney.
From that point on I was given something called Toridol (sp?) via IV, and then taken for a CT scan. Then I was given a most wonderful blend of morphine and gravol. Ah, sweet heaven.
After a nap that I was rudely awakened from by the Dr, (how dare he!) I was told my kidneys were fine and that I did indeed have cysts on my ovaries, the right sided one being larger and therefore causing pain.
Ok, they really shouldn't talk to you when you've only just woke up in a gravol/morphine induced stupor. It's really hard to focus! Thank god DH was there to take all the info in.
So I was sent home with a paper explaining the results (in medical jargon, and I actually ended up googling much of it to try and decode and decipher it) and told to make an appointment with my family doctor within the next few days so he/she could send me for an ultrasound within the next two weeks. Hah!! Obviously the man didn't have any idea of how hard it is to get appts in this town!
So we shall see what happens next… For now I have a lovely bottle of Tylenol + codeine.