It Started with a Seed...

This week we bought pumpkin seeds.

Pumpkins Seeds are dreadful.

I thought they would be a healthy snack.

Connor asks me if he can give Carlee one.

I say yes.  

Five minutes later we have the exact same chocking incident as last time.

Connor screams “Carlee can’t breath, she is chocking!”  

Darren steps in and I check out.  

I start yelling at Connor to be quiet and to just put up the seeds!

I am no help.

Darren pounds Carlee's back and she throws up a small handful of pumpkin seeds.

We tell a distraught Connor it is going to be ok, it wasn’t his fault.  

She just snuck a few seeds while I wasn’t watching.

The next day at 

2:00pm:
I pick Carlee up for a requested hearing test and possible language assessment.

There is a lot of talking from Carlee, 

but I don’t understand much of what is being said.

There are not many consonant sounds.  

I ‘anna ash (I wanna wash).  I ooo (I go).

Maybe it is age appropriate.

Maybe it isn’t.

Maybe I’ve taken over 40 hours of language training this year and I’m HYPERsensitive.

Maybe she needs early intervention.

Maybe she needs time.

I tell all of this to Dr. T.  (again).

She is given a 15 minute hearing test.  For 15 minutes she has to sit quietly, not move, and not talk.

She does it.

(Obviously she is like her father.)

3:00pm:  Her wheezing is so loud, the hearing machine doesn’t work properly.

She retakes and passes.

She remains as still as a mouse.

I’m not convinced something isn’t wrong.

I ask Dr. T. to check for fluids.

He asks me what Darren thinks.

He thinks I am overreacting, but

I am always right.  

I have an instinct when something is off with my children.

Dr. T. is married with children.  

He says he understands the rule- mom is right.

I explain it always seems she has a cold.

They check.

She has a bit of fluid in one ear.

Dr. T. checks her wheezing, and suddenly he becomes very concerned that her wheezing is coming from one side.

He asks if she has been throwing up.

I say only once because she got chocked on pumpkin seeds.

I feel a disapproving look coming.

I think to myself at least it wasn’t beer.

Dr. T. really becomes concerned and says wheezing from one side can be a sign of pneumonia or aspiration- possibly a pumpkin seed is lodged.

4:00pm:  We go to the hospital to get chest x-rays.  
She soaks a pair of pants, lucky this time I have an extra pair.

Mrs. E. meets me to help find where I need to go (she is a special lady).

I give Carlee half of my leftover hamburger from lunch (I have pumpkin seeds in my bag but I decide against giving those out).

On the cold, hard x-ray table the woman looks at my baby and tells her to ‘breath in and out slowly’.

(!?!) ummmmmm.

She is two.

She doesn’t know what you are talking about.  Can we make it a game?  Can she scream BOOOOOO!

I tell Carlee to scream BOOOOOO!  

She looks at me like this:

I tell her to blow the machine away.

She puckers her little lips and blows very weakly, while the woman manipulates her body.  

Sit up, lay down, turn around, hold your hands up, and do the hockey pokey and turn yourself about.

The woman gives up.  

She does what she can.

She walks out.

Carlee screams BOOOOOO! and blows hard.

5:30pm: 

Back to Dr. T’s office to wait out results.

Carlee has been going for three and a half hours.

She has had three dum dums and no dinner.  

She is tired but still sitting nicely with a Woman’s Day magazine.

6:30:  We head home, when Darren passes me with Connor on the side seat.  

He stops me and tells me the hospital called and they want MORE x-rays.

ASAP  (my cell phone is dead of course)

We turn around and head back.

My 24 hour tights gave out three hours ago.

I feel so bad for Carlee.

I give Carlee a beef jerky and water.

7:00pm:

To take X-rays this time, she has to cry really hard.

I leave her alone with two strange technicians.

She doesn’t cry.

I give her the sacred paci and take it away.

She doesn’t cry.

We hold her arms up and won’t let her move them.

She doesn’t cry.

The nurse says she is too stubborn.

She really is stubborn.

7:15pm:

I have an idea.

I take her red shoes off and throw them in the trash.

She screams bloody murder.

don't touch my shoes

We wait in the waiting room.  

A woman wearing a mask, gets very close to Carlee and begins to talk and touch her.

I very boldly ask the lady if she is sick.  She says yes.  I say, then please do NOT touch or get in this chid’s face.  She catches viruses easily and I would NOT like for her to be sick.

The woman moves while shooting me a few looks.

I don’t give a flip.

I haven’t had dinner either.

8:00pm:

The X-rays are digitally sent to a technician in w/salem.

They call back and say they don’t see anything concerning, but if her wheezing doesn’t get any better in a week we have to go to a pulmonary specialist.

8:30pm:

I am so stressed.

My kids need me.

My students need me.

My paperwork needs me.

My house needs me.

My dinner needs me.

I am having a panicky moment.

Carlee says ‘ I ant eeds.’

No you can’t have seeds.

I realized we didn’t even addresses her language, 

all because of dreadful pumpkin seeds.

I'm OUTTA here!!