A Long Day

Yesterday was one of those looooooong days that felt like it would never end. For starters, Sabra had twisted her ankle the night before while jumping on a neighbor's tramp, so she couldn't put weight on her right swollen ankle. In a nutshell, this was our day:

* Wake up, don't let Sabra have any medicine for her hurt ankle, get her dressed, kids off to school, me dressed, and we leave for Primary Children's.

* On the drive in (in the rain/snow), call the hospital to check in with outpatient services, call the insurance company to see if they'll approve anyone X-raying or looking at Sabra's ankle at Primary Children's while we're there.

* They won't. Call our own pediatrician & make appt. for 3:00 (hopefully we'll be done by then) to see Sabra's ankle on the way home from Primary's. Call again to have them order an X-ray at Lakeview in Bountiful before we see the pediatrician.

* Get lost on the way to Primary Children's. (Honestly, getting lost is so much a part of my life, you'd think I'd learn someday and just leave 30 minutes earlier than I need.) Call outpatient services to have them help me figure out where I am in relation to where I need to be. Luckily nobody seemed as stressed as I was at my late arrival.

* Carry my 6-yr. old (whimpering every time I jostled her ankle) into hospital, to Medical Imaging. Check in. Talk to 4 different people about procedure; teach Sabra about procedure, especially IV.

* Watch sleeping Sabra go into MRI. The easy part: wait & read while she has her MRI (the first 30 min.), then sleeps it off for the next 1.5 hrs.

* Wake her up, change her into clean clothes & bedclothes because she's wet the bed having slept so soundly. Don't they ever think of the fact that after pumping 800 cc's of fluids into her body in 2 hours, she'll have to go?

* Feed a woozy but happy Sabra a red slushie. Her first set of words: "Did I do just great, Mom?" and then, "I want to see my pictures."

* Radiologist walks by and tells me that her MRI results came back normal.

* A concerned nurse finds a wagon for me. Pull Sabra out to the car in a wagon, load her in, return the wagon, and we're off. Sabra's starving. Call Sean at Lakeview and ask if there's any way he can arrange some chocolate milk and a warm blanket upon arrival. We're running late. No time for that hamburger that she wants.

* Arrive at Lakeview (carry her in), check her in with Outpatient services & X-ray, help a still-woozy Sabra drink her milk & eat some crackers. Get the X-ray, carry Sabra to the pediatrician's office outside the hospital.

* Pediatrician checks her out. Sean brings X-rays over. Diagnosis: a bad sprain that wouldn't have felt half so bad today if she'd had any medicine for it. Call kids to make sure they made it home from school OK.

* Sean carries her out to the car. Buy that hamburger on the way home.

* At home: carry her in, give her medicine. Take Jamison to baseball practice.

* Come back home, pick up Tristan, take him to soccer practice.

* Back at home, start a batch of laundry. Sabra wet her pants trying to get herself into the bathroom, falling down and then unable to make it in time. Raleigh trying to help but not quite knowing the best thing to do.

* Pick up Tristan. Pick up Jamison.

* Dinner: eggs & bacon on paper plates.

* Sean goes to scouts. Everyone baths, Sean comes home & takes Tristan to a neighbor's house to cut out his Pine Wood derby car. All kids in bed. (Whew!) Do some ironing that has needed to be done for weeks.

* Finally, this day is over.