This past week was February vacation for the girls. This is generally a vacation when families either go south for a little sun or spend their free time enjoying the snow by skiing or sledding.
We did neither.
The vacation started on Saturday, February 18th. The girls were patient as Gene and I did work on our kitchen we are in the process of re-doing. The girls were good because they knew we had a week full of fun activities planned for them, playdates, sleepovers, a trip to the art museum, and an out of town guest were all on the agenda. So they watched as we sanded, primed and painted with nary a complaint. On Sunday morning Hannah woke up and said she wasn't feeling very well. I felt her head and sure enough she had a fever. She told me that she also felt like she was wheezing. When I went to get her asthma inhaler I realized it was expired so I called the Dr. to see if she could re-new the prescription.
"We'll have to see her." the nurse told me.
"Really?" I said, dreading the inconvience of a trip to the dr.
So, I bundled her up and took her to the Dr. We saw a Nurse Practitioner who told us that Hannah was not wheezing but that she had croup. She saw no need to renew the asthma inhaler since this would do her croup no good. I was suspicious of her decision but she was the medical expert.
On Monday Hannah's fever spiked. She was burning up and was having a hard time breathing.
By Tuesday morning I called the Dr. again and said, "She is still very, very sick and I really think she is wheezing." They agreed to see her again.
One playdate missed. One sleepover missed.
This time we were lucky enough to see Hannah's pediatrician who took one look at her and said "What a sick girl!" She listened to her and said, "She sure is wheezing a lot." I told her about my visit on Sunday to which she said, "With Hannah's history of asthma you should have put her on an inhaler anyway." Well, duh. She gave me the coveted prescription for abuterol and off we went.
On Wednesday she was still very sick. Trip to art museum cancelled. Out of town guest postponed.
On Wednesday afternoon Hannah really gave me a scare with her coughing and wheezing. Even on the asthma medication her wheezing was not improving and her fever was not abating, in fact it was reaching as high as 103. I called the Dr. again and they said to bring her in again but it was late evening and she was so sick I decided to wait until morning. That night I had her sleep with me, Gene was the lucky one who got the couch and I do mean he was lucky. Sleeping with Hannah that night was not a fun or restful experience. She coughed, she wheezed, she took quick shallow breaths, she burned like a little oven. (Note: at this point I wasn't feeling so hot myself, actually I was feeling super hot - I was sick too now)
Out of town guest completely cancelled.
Thursday morning the Dr. called us. "How is she doing?" they asked. "We're coming in" I said.
Luckily, Sophie, who had been mildly sick the week before and was feeling fine was lucky enough to have some activities early in the week that she could still go to when I was taking Hannah to the dr. but on Thursday she would have to join us.
When we got to the Pediatricians we could clearly see that this was not a healthy time in the area. The waiting room was full of kids with spots and dots, coughing and crouping, wilting and drooping. We had walked into a life size petri dish.
We waited amongst the infinite strains of viruses and bacteria for our turn. Finally we were called in to an exam room where we waited some more. The dr. came in and took one listen to Hannah and asked, "Has she been on abuterol?" "Yes." "Well, it's not working." the dr. astutely informed us. The three of us looked at her and uniformly thought 'well, duh.' The dr. then said she thought Hannah may have pneumonia so she sent us for an x-ray (across the hall from the ped. office) where we waited with a crew of folks who surely did have pneumonia so if we didn't have it before it was now a certainty. Meanwhile, Hannah was wilting and her fever was spiking again. I had a headache and Sophie was getting restless (read: being difficult).
After Hannah had her x-ray we went back to the pediatrician's office to find the results and to have Hannah poked and prodded some more. The x-ray didn't show pneumonia but the Dr. wasn't sure that it wasn't "hidden". She debated and debated but decided to give Hannah antibiotics anyway because she was sure that she could hear the pneumonia. So, after 2 1/2 hours in the dr.'s office with one very sick child and one very bored child we had to go to the pharmacy and wait some more. We also had to go to the grocery store since we had very little food in the house since it was hard for me to get out with a child who was so sick, but since we were out anyway.....
We got home and ate a very late lunch and then the three of us all retreated to separate corners of the house with our collective fevers, headaches and boredom. After a couple hours of isolation I was talking to Gene on the phone and when he asked how Hannah was feeling since the dr. visit and the antibiotics and I had to answer "I have no idea I haven't seen her in a couple of hours." "Where is she?" he asked with some concern. "Somewhere in the house I guess." I wearily replied. He came home shortly after this conversation.
On Friday Hannah woke up feeling a lot better. Yeah!! Normally, we would have stayed home and had her get her strength back but we were all so bored and pent up I decided we should do something "fun". I told the girls they could choose the "fun" thing. the movies? bowling? out to lunch? The kids chose, and I'm not kidding, Barnes and Noble. True Geeks! We went up to Nashua and spent a good hour perusing the children's department. With books in hand and smiles on their faces I decided to push their limits and do a couple of my own errands while in Nashua. A quick stop in Home Depot to look at countertops, at JCPenny to look at Drapes and finally to Jordan's furniture to get swatches for our new couches that would be delivered by the end of March beginning of April.
Imagine my surprise when they told me that the couches would be delivered on Thursday. You mean next Thursday I asked?? Yes, the 2nd. Is that okay?
Let me think. We are in the middle of a kitchen renovation project, Hannah is still recovering, and we need to prime and paint the family room before the new couch arrives.
"Sure, next Thursday is fine." I say in a stupor.
I grab the girls and we run out of the store. On the way home I call Gene at work.
"I'm going to Benjamin Moore's. We need paint. Couch is coming Thursday."
"Next Thursday?" Gene asks.
"Yep." I say. "Guess what we are doing this weekend?"
I don't hear an answer but I do hear a groan.
Meanwhile through the rearview mirror I can see that Hannah is wilting.
We go into the paint store. I buy the primer and a bunch of paint samples. Hannah sits in a chair and stares into space while Sophie picks the loudest, most obnoxious paint chips to possibly paint her room with. Think of colors named things like "razzle dazzle pink" and you'll get a scary mental image.
We get home. Hannah's temp is over 100 again. I give her some advil, sit her in front of the TV and start moving furniture and priming the TV room. I even throw a couch out. Gene picks up a Pizza on the way home and we spend the next 24 hours moving furniture, priming and eventually painting. I must say the room looks really good. Sometime around 6:00 Saturday night with the room finally painted we remembered we had two children. Hannah's temp was still hovering around 100 and Sophie was transfixed by Cary Grant in "North by Northwest". But, who wouldn't be?
A friend of mine called Saturday night and asked us if we would like to go swimming with them at the Radisson pool on Sunday morning. They had a family membership. "Sure!" I exclaimed.
"We should do something fun for them." But, with Hannah's temp still at 100 I was wondering if she would be able to go.
Sunday morning, the last day of February vacation, Hannah finally woke up completely fever free. Hooray! The girls were so excited to go swimming that they had their towels, suits and goggles packed before I had poured my morning coffee, which is exactly 30 seconds after I get out of bed. We waited until, 9:45 the appointed hour to meet our friends. It was a long wait.
The kids were so excited to finally have some "kid fun". We got to the pool and the kids excitedly changed into their suits and ran out to the pool deck. They jumped right into the deep end not even thinking twice about whether or not they remembered how to swim (which they luckily did). They were so happy. This was their moment. This was their vacation.
Now, if you like cheery stories about children getting the happiness they deserve you should stop reading the story here and forever think that the kids finally had their moment of glory.
But, if you want to know the truth and you are familiar with and enjoy Lemony Snicket type endings then by all means read on.
First I must tell you that I am not making this up.
Not thirty seconds after jumping in the pool and being absolutely delighted things took a sudden turn for the worse. A lady in a managerial type outfit walked into the pool area and started yelling "Everyone out of the pool!" Everyone, adults and children alike, looked at her in a stunned silence, "really?"
"Everyone out!" she repeated.
Slowly, everyone emerged from the water shivering and confused.
We wrapped towels around the kids as a bunch of Radisson employees conferred with each other. After a few minutes they turned to the pool deck full of hopeful faces and said, "The pool will be closed for an hour!"
What! You've got to be kidding. Since their was absolutely nothing else to do at the hotel but swim it didn't seem like we had a lot of options. Especially if we didn't want to stand around dripping wet for an hour.
"Maybe we can try again next Sunday" our hostess suggested. This pretty left us with just one option - leaving.
So, we retreated back to the locker room where we had been just moments before and pulled of wet bathing suits and pulled on courderoys and turtlenecks and sweaters and socks and coats and hats and mittens. The kids didn't even make a fuss or cry. Sadly, it all made sense.
As we soggily drudged through the parking lot to our frozen car Sophie summed it up.
"Well, that was a bummer" she said.
As we quietly drove home I looked at the dashboard and realized that we had been gone from the house for an hour. It had taken us an hour to have a 30 second swim.
Fun has eluded us this vacation. With a DI meeting this afternoon Hannah has precious few hours left to do anything that would be good material for the "what I did over vacation" essay that she will surely have to write tomorrow.
Of course, this is a girl whose favorite authors include Roald Dahl, Lemony Snicket, JK Rowling, and other writers who prefer rain to rainbows. So, maybe she has just the fodder she needs for that essay.
So, Hannah's horrible vacation turns into the excellent erudite essay.
That being said, let's just hope that her April vacation is so fun and happy that she finds herself with nothing to write about!
