My son Michael (10) has a virus (or flu) that is really wiping him out. It is so hard to watch that spunky kid layed flat out with listlessness and fever. Last night, his fever spiked again, to 103. This has been going on for three days, and I started to get really worried. I normally don't panic over fever, but something about the way he looked (puffy, glassy eyed) really concerned me. I decided to take him to the Urgent Care. I've been told over and over by my Doctor not to go to the ER unless we had chest pain, or gushing blood. We went to the closest Urgent Care, with a prominently displayed "Open 24 hours" sign, and it was closed. I checked my Garmin to see where the next closest one was-- called it, closed. I called the next one on the list, closed. It was 9:30 on a Sunday night. Is it me, or does that defeat the purpose of an "Urgent Care" center????? We ended up at the ER, fortunately my sister the Nurse was on duty, so we didn't have to wait 9 hours to be told that there was nothing they could do for him. I got a detailed lecture on alternating tylenol and Motrin to control the fever (child number 3 Doc, got that one down....) and was told to watch for unusual symptoms (like glassy eyes, and listlessness), and to take him home and make him comfortable. Not knowing when to take action and when to hunker down and ride it out it very disconcerting for me. :(
I am helping to prepare a baby shower for a young woman at our church. She is young, just 22. Thinking about her, and what the future may hold for her and her little family, got me to thinking about life at 22. Much has changed for me since I was 22. That was really a difficult time. I didn't realize at the time that it was difficult. I had graduated from college, was having a post college, pre-real life, super good time. I was bar tending, partying, picking up and traveling to far away places to party some more. I didn't really have much in the way of financial responsibility yet, and my parents were living in Egypt-- leaving me in charge of the house and my younger sister. It was an "out all night, sleep all day", kind of life. To be honest, I was setting a pretty poor example for my sister, who at the time was working full-time at a nursing home, and was far more responsible than I was. Looking back at that time, and even later, till about age 25, it make...
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