In sickness & in hell

Hell. No better way to describe an emergency room triage after midnight. Hell. On. Earth. It has to be one of the saddest places on the planet.

Being the paranoid mamma I try hard not to be, I couldn't help but drag my daughter to emergency tonight after day 4 of ongoing fever/cough/congestion. Yes, I was told it was a virus & the fever could last up to three days... Well, 24 hours above & beyond were enough for me to grab our coats, a bottle of juice, some storybooks & hot-foot it to the hospital at 11:30pm.

...But first, I had to scrape snow off the car... It's October. This is unnatural. But I digress...

Everyone looks forlorn in the triage. Even the Jonas-Brothers-lookalike-greeter tried hard to look cheerful & welcoming but fell quite short of the mark. Some are truly desperate, while others attempt a sickly expression in the hopes they'll be looked after sooner than later.

My baby was a trouper, though. She even stood super-still during X-rays. It helped that I turned it into a game of "Freeze". When her "special pictures" were done, the technician gave her a an old, curled up sticker. I've never seen a kid so excited about a kitty in a field of daffodils, circa 1976.

So pneumonia was ruled out (thankfully!!!), but bronchitis is no walk in the park. She's doing okay, though. Worst part about all of this? Coming home to find my little boy coughing the same cough & running a temperature.

Here we go again....