Poor Sabrina has had a terrible, rotten, no-good, very bad, horrendously awful time since Thursday. Yes, so bad that I couldn't just paraphrase the book title. We know that of course the rottenness on Thursday was being removed from her home and coming to live with a stranger. She was up all night coughing and then I dragged her from bed to go to school. (If I had more parental experience, we might not have gone to school. But since she was removed from school rather than home, I was nervous that if she didn't "get back on the horse" right away, there might be bigger problems down the line.) We got lost on the way to school, but that was part of my own no good very bad day on Friday. Anyway, Sabrina went to the nurse and had a fever, so I then went back to school to pick her up. And that's how things went from bad to worse.
I'll interject here about my day Friday. I had a very concise to-do list: Tar-jay for some clothes for Sabrina, groceries, laundry, making baked ziti for the potluck that I was supposed to go to--even if we didn't go, I felt an obligation to make the food--and a trip to the library to pick up some books and DVDs before picking Sabrina up at school and rushing home to get ready for Shabbat. So I dropped Sabrina off at school and went straight to Target. By the time I got there, I had three voice mails: 2 from folks at The Agency--the placement supervisor and Sabrina's worker--and 1 from my mom who very sweetly wanted to ask some questions so that the house would be ready for a 4 year old on Thanksgiving. I called all of them back and got more information about Sabrina's situation.
Tar-jay does not seem to sell kid's school uniform clothes after the school year has started; too bad for kids who have a growth spurt or who move into the area, I suppose. They also don't sell skirts for little girls. Jeans, cords, leggings, and some totally inappropriate dresses. That was it. Grumble. (I was just trying to get a small assortment of clothes, so I decided one pair of sparkle jeans would be sufficient.)
The grocery store was successful.
As I pulled out of the parking lot of the grocery store, my phone rang. It was MY worker, who I had totally forgotten about so when she introduced herself I couldn't place her. We chatted while I drove (shhh, don't tell anyone, especially not George who I lectured the other day about similar unsafe behavior) and pretty much as soon I got off the phone with her, the phone rang again. It was the nurse at Sabrina's school telling me that Sabrina had a fever and I needed to pick her up. Okay, I said. I have perishable items in my car so I need to take them home and then drive to the other side of the city, but I will be there as soon as possible. That's when the call-waiting beeped. It was Sabrina's worker making plans to meet me at school with clothes for Sabrina.
So, back to Sabrina's bad day. It turns out that Sabrina has asthma; no one bothered to say anything about this before or, you know, make sure that her inhalers got to me. So a fever plus asthma in a world of swine flu = a trip to urgent care. A friend of mine is a pediatrician (actually I tried calling her at 7:30 in the morning on Friday to get advice on what to do about Sabrina's cough, but she didn't answer--she was driving and is more responsible than I am) and happened to be at the clinic! She listened to Sabrina's breathing and didn't even make us wait. This is because her breathing was So. Bad. Let me tell you, I learned a lot about asthma yesterday.
Two nebulizer treatments later we were sent to the ER for a chest x-ray and another treatment. At this point I'm very glad that I stopped at a donut place near Tar-jay for donuts (not specifically kosher, but really they must be) and coffee, because that was the last food I ate. And at 9 pm, we finally are able to leave the hospital. Eight hours. Without anything to read or otherwise keep ourselves occupied. They had ONE age appropriate book for Sabrina. And it took over a half hour to find 4 crayons and some pictures to color.
And then today she had to take medicine three different times, and it was "nasty." (Having just taken some adult cough syrup myself, I understand this sentiment completely.)
What a rough few days for her. Hopefully tomorrow won't be so bad (meds only twice!) and fingers are crossed for her that Monday she goes to a relative.
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