Some Days Are Just Like That

   Last night I realized I needed to take two of my children to a walk in clinic in the morning. Here where I live it is hard to get into a family doctor. You often can't get in for an appointment for multiple weeks. So we have walk in clinics and you can walk in whenever you need to without an appointment. So I got out my children's medical cards and set my alarm. The clinic I wanted to go to opened at 8am and I planned to be the first one there. As the night progressed and then morning came it ended up that all four children needed an appointment. I was woken at 6:30am by my frantic oldest who though I'd slept in and missed my chance to get to the clinic. NOPE I was supposed to sleep for another thirty minutes. So up I was. The baby needed to nurse and I needed to shower anyway and I did while he cried and yelled in the bathroom. Then I awakened the last two children who were very reluctant to wake up and tried to get everyone to get dressed and get them breakfast.
  By 7:40 we were on the road. As we were heading out the door I took a moment to assess everyone. My oldest boy had so much food stuck in his teeth he looked like they'd never been brushed in his lifetime and he was wearing stained and threadbare jogging pants because he has issues with any clothes that are not completely worn out and soft. He WAS wearing shoes though which was a plus because my youngest had no shoes at all as they were lost on the weekend. My six year old could only wear one shoe because she had hurt her ankle so badly (on Monday during gymnastics) so she had one gold sparkly shoe and one bare foot. My oldest was in her slightly dirty school uniform. I was wearing muddy gum boots and work out pants because it was pouring rain. We got to the clinic, staked out our place at the front of the line and flooded in when the doors opened. The receptionist was NOT welcoming when she saw my troop. I had to carry my six year old and my oldest was carrying the baby. When the doctor came in the baby greeted him by passing gas very loudly which set us all laughing ridiculously hard. We were just a tad stressed. Now I had seen this doctor last week AND the week before with various children for strep throat so he knew my face. He was so kind. He looked up the babies' nose as the baby screamed bloody murder, bandaged my oldest child's strained wrist, treated the massive wart on my ten year old's thumb and wrote out an x ray requisition for my six year old. We managed to not take too long and I avoided eye contact with all the others waiting as we once again trooped out ~ me wrangling my six year old onto my hip and my oldest holding the two year old. I had to get more prescriptions filled and an x ray and get the oldest to school.
  By the time I got home I was shaking from just trying to keep it all together. I decided to bath everyone since my six year old was probably going to get a cast on her foot and then try to find them clean clothes. So I did that and by the time everyone was eating their second breakfast the phone rang and it was the doctors office telling me to go get the cast put on. I found a pair of winter boots for the two year old and got him in the car, then went and got my six year old into the car. I packed a back pack with some emergency supplies and made sure the ten year old had shoes and we headed to the emergency room at our local hospital. We found a free place to park a good walk away from the hospital. It was pouring rain. I put my six year old in our old umbrella stroller (the only one I have) and tried to get my two year old to hold my hand as I wrestled with the tiny wheels of the stroller. We got to the emergency and started the tedious task of signing in. It took a decent amount of time and I tried to remember our newer address while making sure the two year old didn't hit anyone with the stroller and also carrying the six year old to the various chairs through the sign in process. Oh my word!!!!!! I felt like committing myself to the psych ward right then and there. I was sweating trying to keep up with everyone.
  We then waited for a couple hours and thankfully there was a TV they were able to zone into. Then we went into the emergency area and I set off an alarm with my massive back pack. That was precious. Then we waited again as I tried to tell stories and not bother the large very unimpressed lady that was stuck in the same area as us. The two year old was getting squirly and asking very loudly to go home and the six year old was using the stroller like a wheel chair and I was getting to the point of not knowing what to do when a charming doctor came in, promptly told me she was not getting casted just splinted, did the job, and we were headed through the rain back to our van ~ during this jaunt the two year old stepped in dog poo and narrowly missed stepping on a dead rat. I was about done.
  I came home and devoured disgusting granola bars and turned on screens for everyone.
Now my husband has finally come home after being gone for about twelve or thirteen hours and I am going for a drive. I am sick of us being sick. I am sick of the rain. I am sick of feeling like I am doing everything wrong and that is why they are sick. I just need a brain break!
Thanks for reading
xo