Last Friday started out great. CDF was having her book party in the evening, I was going to “babysit” MDF in the back bedroom, and so on.
Then around 8:00 PM, CDF got sick and started throwing up. She made it through the last bit of the party and then we tried to get her to bed. Soon she started saying she was getting dehydrated and needed to go to the hospital. At first I didn’t think she was that serious, but then I decided it would be better not to find out. By this time MDF was up, crying, so I hurried to get all of us ready and into the van. By 10:00 PM it was COLD outside.
So we took off. She was feeling groggy and like she was ready to faint. This started worrying me and I tried to keep her awake by talking to her. She also started saying she wouldn’t make it to the Emergency Room and we should try the Ogden fire station. Looking back that wasn’t necessary. We had plenty of time to get to the hospital, and even if she had fainted, she still wouldn’t have been in any danger.
Nobody was at the fire station, nor the emergency med clinic (8am-8pm only!). So we finally arrived at Cape Fear Hospital. Even for the shape she was in, CDF was ready to go and got out of the van on her own. I tried to tell her to wait, but she didn’t hear me. I thought she was going to wait at the end of the van so I got MDF out of her seat. Apparently CDF was not going to wait, but was too woozy to make it on her own. I found her lying on the pavement at the end of the van. I told her to get up, helped her stand, and we staggered toward the emergency room doors. A lady saw us coming and got the nurse to bring a wheelchair. That was the last MDF and I saw of CDF for the next 3 hours.
After signing in, I sat with MDF in the waiting room. Between going up and down the hall, watching Nick at Night on TV, and sitting for a while to play with her stuffed dog, I managed to occupy her while the hours dragged by. She kept asking for Mommy and I tried to tell her Mommy was in another room getting medicine, but I’m not sure how much it helped.
After a while the waiting room got hot and we went back out to the van to get the bottled water there. A lady who was waiting to be seen (an allergic reaction I think) got a kick out of how well MDF could drink out of the bottle.
Finally around 1:00 AM I asked one of the receptionists how CDF was doing and she let us go back. She was doing okay, cold but okay. The doctor hadn’t given a diagnosis and so we didn’t know what was going to happen next. Eventually MDF and I went back to the waiting room.
After watching more TV, watching a guy with a stab wound come in (he was only wrestling with his buddy), MDF finally went to sleep in my arms. I managed to get her to lay on my jacket and covered her with her jacket on a double seat in the back of the waiting room. So she slept for a few hours.
Finally I dosed off at 3:00 AM, after a couple of mind numbing hours of Rosanne, Fresh Prince, and Murphy Brown reruns on TV, and I slept maybe an hour.
At about 4:30 AM the nurse came and got me again and said that CDF was getting dressed and we would be released soon. It took a little while longer, but we finally made it out.
When we got home, I got them settled, and since CDF was still feeling sick, I went back out to get the prescription filled so she’d have something to keep her from throwing up again. It was quarter to six when I got back so I was about ready to stay up for the rest of the day, but instead I lay down and we slept for a couple of hours until MDF woke, ready for breakfast.
Then I got sick Sunday morning, but it wasn’t as bad as for CDF, and I was back up by that afternoon. I still took Monday off to rest up though.