The Bad Day Saga

So it all started on Sunday night, Joel and Holly took a long long nap and woke up around 6:00 Holly was a little cranky when she woke up, but it was all good. We decided we were in a lazy mood and by 7:00 ordered Pizza. It arrived about a quarter to 8:00 and we started eating. The sometime in the next 20 minutes Joel headed to the bathroom.

Holly had been stalking my pizza for a while so I was grateful for the break when she followed Joel. When he was finished he was shutting the door to keep her out of the bathroom and she was pushing against the door. He heard a whine and felt a little resistance, and thought she was annoyed that he was trying to keep her out of the bathroom, and simply pushing the door, but then we heard the scream, and realized her finger was pinched in the door jam.

I jumped up from the floor and ran and picked her up. She was howling, and her finger looked squashed and I started to freak. Joel ran to get ice and we immediately tried to put it on her finger. He finger looked sort of deformed and pinched and she wasn't moving it and she was still screaming so we decided to go to the emergency room.

The problem... The car seat was upstairs and in pieces because we had washed it the night before. I started to gather my stuff, insurance card, cell phone, keys and Joel desperately tried to get the car seat together. First I called her pediatrician's cell phone and she didn't answer. Then I called the office to get the on call doctor and left a message saying we were heading to the ER. I wasn't sure if I should go to Children's or Alta Bates, but I decided to head to children.

We were in the car off and driving and I finally called the insurance company advice nurse to find out if I needed some kind of authorization before going to the hospital. But we arrived before the picked up the line, so we pulled into the 5 minute parking and went into triage. Holly was still crying, I would say it was less then a howl, but it was quite a cry still, and then the waiting began. The triage nurse took our names and a two sentence description of our problem and then sent us to the waiting room.

It was so hard to calm Holly down because she couldn't use her hand so she couldn't entertain herself, she couldn't play, and she just didn't want to do anything but hold her arm up in the air. I changed her and I gave her a bottle, and those soothed her a bit, and she wanted to get down to walk around, but that didn't really make her happy either, because she was just miserable and in pain.

By now it was a quarter after 9:00 and the triage nurse called us back. She handed me the phone and it was my Doctor. She said that most likely Holly's finger was not broken, and that rather then spending hours in the ER we should go home, give Holly some pain meds, and come see her in the morning, if the finger was bad we could get a scheduled Xray the next day rather then waiting all night for one. and at most they would only tape holly's finger to the next one or splint it. But to verify with the triage nurse to see what she thought.

The triage nurse wasn't allowed to tell us to go home, but told me the wait would be several hours and that based on looking at Holly's finger's she thought I should follow my doctor's advice. So we left. We told the Doctor to call in the meds to the Walgreen's on telegraph but when we arrived at around 9:30 they were already closed, even though they used to be 24 hours, and the triage nurse said now they are open till midnight. I guess its midnight on weekdays and 9:00 on Sunday.

So I called my Doctor's cell phone and this time she picked up. I explained the situation, and there was a sign saying the nearest 24 hour Pharmacy was in Alameda, so I gave her the number to do the call in and wrote down the address. She wanted Holly to take some baby Tylenol with Codeine to stop the pain, in her words, it will hurt like a hornet, and make sure she sleeps through the night, since we had already been giving her Motrin for her molars coming in and she was waking up every night, she wanted her to have something stronger so she would get rest.

We realized that we didn't have the GPS, so we ran home to pick it up, grab a pacifier, and some yogurt juice to give Holly when we had the medicine. By now it was almost 10:00 and Holly had been crying for almost 90 minutes. She started to feel exhausted and fall asleep in a whimper and a whine. Since she now had her pacifier she was soothed and she was able to relax some. We had given her a plastic cup to play with a chew on, and she decided to use it to hold with her right hand and prop up her hurt left hand on it, so it would stay elevated. She had kept her hand elevated and not used it for anything for the entire 90 minutes and I am sure was getting tired. it is amazing though, the instinct to keep it up and secured.

By the time we arrived at Walgreen's she was asleep, and I went to the drive through to get the prescription. By now it was almost 11:00 and as a treat, Joel ran in to get half and half for morning coffee and some ice cream for when we got home. Mommy needed a bit of a break and a treat for her recovery of this trauma.

We got home and carried Holly up in the car seat and hoped she would stay asleep long enough for me to get my barrings, but she woke up before I had a chance to eat my ice cream. So I picked her up, we made some yogurt juice bottle with the Tylenol and codeine and we laid in bed and she drank her bottle. by midnight she was asleep.

Around 1:00 Joel finished washing bottles and had taken a shower and decided to transfer Holly to her crib. She was knocked out and didn't even stir, nor had we heard any coughing, so we were glad she was getting a little rest.

We were both amped up with Adrenalin, but it was dissipating fast. Joel went to bed, but I was antsy and needed to unwind. I read blog post, and posted my submission to I Heart Faces, and generally read email and face book posts, when I realized it was almost 5:00 am. So off to bed I went.

Holly was awake by 9:00. The night before I called and left Katie a voice mail cancelling our morning therapy session, first I thought Holly's hand would still be sore, and I wasn't sure she would be awake in time. Joel said she was pretty groggy, until about 9:30.

I woke up at around 10:00 and called the doctor to get an appointment. They asked that I go in to the Orinda office at 10:45, so I was up and running and out the door, with Joel's help by 10:30. I dropped him off and then not 5 minutes later I was sitting on the side of the road with a flat tire. It was 11:00 before the woman at triple A had a clear understanding of where I was, I was in the parking lot at Point Emery, which is a road with no street name, off of frontage road. Once she finally knew where to tell them to go, it only took about twenty minutes, and then another twenty or so to change the tire, so by a quarter to 12:00, we were off to Big O Tire to get the tire fixed, and I had called the Doctor to reschedule for the afternoon.

My spare was bald and my flat had a nail, so I authorized two new tires at the price tag of around 180$ but to my surprise, they were able to repair the nail tire, and said I didn't need to replace the spare, it was good for a spare, so it ended up being 25$ Holly was cute but frustrating. She was sick of being in the stroller, after sitting in the car seat and wanted to walk around. I let her and she was fine int he waiting room, but she somehow has learned to run, and enjoyed trying to run to the front door and then out into the parking lot, and off to the street.

Of course I was by her side, made sure she was safe, and stopped her before she got to the street, but she saw the medium with grass and wanted to go and play. She saw the "edge" on the sidewalk and wanted to sit and climb down, and didn't understand why Mommy wouldn't let her go. I would pick her up and carry her inside, and in about 7 seconds flat she was at the door looking back for me, and ready to run out again. About a quarter to 1:00 we picked up Joel with our repaired tires and headed home. he made me some lunch and I laid down with holly to give her a bottle and try and get her to nap. She refused and wanted to be up and playing.

So around a quarter to 2:00 we dropped Joel off to work, and headed to the Doctor. She fell asleep in the car. I let her sleep as long as I could, and transferred her in the car seat to the stroller and into the office, but they were ready to see us right away so i had to wake her after a 45 minute nap.

The Doctor said her finger was fine. It of course hurt, and was swollen and black and blue and she might loose her nail, but she did not need an Xray, and after a night's rest it wasn't looking as squished and deformed as the night before. Then I asked about her cough. The Doctor checked her ears and her chest and her nose, and said she was not sick, it was indeed allergies and there is little I can do. She suggested giving her 1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon of Dimatap or Children's Benadryl each night before bed. She said that if I am just giving it to her once a day, I can give it to her indefinitely, and I may have to, as long as it is allergy season. Of course checking all the normals, dust, allergens, pollen, and making sure we have eliminated them all.

Since out well visit was in a week and we covered our issues pretty fast, she decided to do the check up now and save us another visit and co-pay. Everyone was so excited to see Holly and several of the nurses stopped by to see her, the doctor was so impressed with her strength, and her agility and her walking and social mood! In the end, at around 3:00 she had to get her shots, this was unexpected, and she was very unhappy about it.

After I soothed her with some more yogurt juice, and decided to head to our play date and see how she would hold up. She was cranky to be confined to the car seat again and fussing. But we arrived at 4:00 and she was eager and excited to play.

Squished finger, band aids from her shots, and cranky as all get out, she was happy as a peach to see the other babies at Chloe's and played and played. We stayed until about 6:30 and then went to get Daddy. She fell asleep, exhausted and I think the trauma from the last day finally hit her. She slept until almost 8:00 while we ran errands, went to the pharmacy to get her allergy medications, and to Trader Joe's to get some new baby snacks and supplies. She woke up in pain, cranky, fussy, and grumpy. She ate and wanted to sit and lay on Momma's lap until about 9:00 we had watched several baby Einstein episodes. She was pitiful.

Finally she was ready to play, but it was a empty effort, she was cranky and by 10:00 crying and ready for sleep. So we dosed her bottle and laid down with her, she woke up twice, and was sleeping restlessly until about 11:00 when the meds kicked in. Joel headed off to bed at midnight, transferring her, and she was sound asleep.

Hopefully our Saga is over, and tomorrow will be a brighter day. What is amazing, is through it all, she is such a happy baby underneath, she tries to keep a smile on her face, and stay enthusiastic when possible, it is amazing.