Doctors, Ear Tubes, and Pharmacies, Oh My! Doctors, Ear Tubes and Pharmacies, Oh My!

Well today was an interesting one. It started with rain, and then some more rain. Not that I mind really. Seeing a day or two of rain now and then is refreshing to me. It can't be sunshine everyday, right? When we first moved to Florida, it rained literally everyday. For three.months.straight. Yeah that was a little discouraging, to move to the "sunshine state" and see rain everyday. Now we've come into this drought like phase, the grass is all dead and the rain is nice.Maybe these things are normal. I don't know, I'm the new kid in town ;) The fog, I could do without. Except that since I look out the window and can't even see across the street, I at least know that I am not being spied on by the landlord at her temporary residence :)
So anyhow, son had an appointment today to check his ears. He has had fluid in his ears since birth. The right ear finally cleared up, but the left has not.
Another underlying issue that we've had is his speech. He says a fair amount of words, but not a lot. Enunciation is a big problem too. So I was hoping to find out that the speech is related to the fluid (which in a way he said it is), and by curing the fluid, we will help the speech and %&*ZAP!*&%- problem solved.

Not so much.

They want me to take him to a speech therapist in conjunction with this. It makes me feel like a really bad mom, like maybe I didn't work with him enough, or that it was something that I have done. I know that this probably isn't true, but still, mama feels bad about it all.

For the time being, we are to schedule the speech therapy consult, which I will begrudgingly do tomorrow. Then he is to report back in 4 weeks. If the fluid isn't gone, then he is already booked for the OR that following week for tubes. Bah. They said his tonsils seemed larger than normal for his age, and that he seemed dry in the throat and congested? Yeah, lots of stuff goes on that I am apparently not aware of, as I had not noticed any of this and I am very attentive to detail. So he's on Nasonex as well. We'll call that Pharmacy Trip #1 of the day. The nice people at the pharmacy were kind enough to fill my prescription for his Nasonex while I sat in the drive thru, so that, as she said, "You don't have to bring the baby back out into the cold". Pretty nice of her I must say--did I mention it was almost 60 degrees? A cold spell compared to normal, but hardly worth cowering in the house for. Oh how I love the FL attitude to cold weather. They are buried in snow right now in WV ;) 60 degrees this time of year is fabulous! Though I do agree with the locals- there are even times here when it's 70 and it feels COLD.

Anyhow, on to other things. We'll call this part of my day "Stupid Urethra, Part II". I'm sure you aren't particuarly interested in these details, but again I feel the need to share :) This raging urinary tract infection that bombarded me out of nowhere, is NOT getting better. In fact, it's getting worse. I finally caved today and called the doctor back and asked if I can be switched to something else. I am not a doctor person, but this was so necessary.

The doctor called me back and was super nice. He was more than willing to call in the prescription, but was also concerned as to why the infection wasn't going away (I have no clue!). So he suggested before I start the new antibiotic, to come in and do another urine sample so that they can send it off to make sure that it isn't something else. This proved to be a bit inconvenient for me. You see, as a mother it often becomes part of our nature to give, or give up. So I suffered through one extra day last week of the UTI, so that I could multi-task. Rather than risk husband having to take off work, or me being stuck in a waiting room forever (though I must say that we have NEVER encountered a wait time in FL like we have in WV), I waited until Thurs to go to the doctor. Husband kept son with him at daughters gymnastics. I was able to go to the doctor, drop off my prescription, and get a few groceries while waiting, all in one. But, this also means that the office is not near here, and so I began my 25min drive in 5:00 traffic to pee in a cup. Did I mention that I'm taking OTC AZO pills, so my pee actually resembles orange koolaid? Yeah, that was interesting to turn in as my sample.

So mission accomplished on that one, and after I went by there I headed to Publix. Why? Because we went to the grocery store last night, which ALWAYS means that I will forget some things. I always refer to this as "2nd (or 3rd) grocery store trip for the week". Got my missing items, plus a few unnecessary things, and headed for Pharmacy Trip #2 of the day.

I was feeling rather dumb about going back to the same CVS, less than 4 hours later and picking up another prescription. The pharmacist was nice and turns out she moved here from WV too. I tell you, I have yet to met many people that are actually FL natives. In fact, I don't think I've met any?? It amazes me how many people are familiar with the hole in the wall town that we came from when we mention it, and how many people from here travel to WV. Apparently it's this great place to visit. Yeah, I'm not getting it either.

Anyhow, I ramble on. The pharmacist was nice and turns out she moved here from where we used to live. Small world! I left the pharmacy and felt pathetic for a moment in time- I think it's pretty sad when I get joy out of a simple conversation in the pharmacy drive thru line. I really need to make some friends around here and get some adult interaction before I go nuts. Yes, it's on my faux-resolutions list. I'm getting there. Baby steps. :)

Then that leads me to Pharmacy Trip #3 for the day, which entailed me going directly across the street to Walgreens to pick up a prescription for husband's blood pressure medicine.( Hopefully when he loses his weight again, he can go off of those things). So yeah. In just 4 short hours, I was at the pharmacy 3 times. It's been a day! I rewarded myself with some Smartfood popcorn- no it's not that great for you and it's beyond addictive. But I had to have it. And a drumstick- no not the chicken, the ice cream drum stick. You know, the far-too-many-calories chocolate and ice cream with nuts? Love it.

Hey don't knock me for piggin out. I've been pretty well behaved lately since husband is on a diet. Darn him for losing weight so fast too. Anyhow, I felt bad if I ate it in front of him, so I snuck my ice cream cone after I shooed him off to bed.

Don't smirk. You all do it too. ;)