Be prepared

Getting farther away from the trauma of the weekend, I can begin to see the humor in certain situations. First, I didn't pack any bags to go to the ER. Figured we'd be there a couple of hours and back home in time to catch the news at 10. The girl threw up once in the middle of her breathing treatments and I happened to have her sitting in my lap at the time. I was soaked and the nurse brought me some scrubs to put on. After the morning shift change, the new nurse came in to check on her new charge and looked at me funny and asked- do you work here?

My mother became quite jumpy sometime in the middle of the night at the ER. They were pushing new meds on the girl to get her lungs to open back up and every time they suggested something else, my mom would pounce. What is that? Why are you doing that? Her reputation got around because when the fellow came in to talk to us, he was shaking a bit and stumbling over his words.

When I got back home Saturday morning after being awake for 30 hours straight, I wanted nothing more than to get clean and go to sleep. I found out that yes, you can fall asleep in a bath tub.

Before my daughter was discharged, the hospital provided asthma education. Just to make sure I was paying attention, there was a pop quiz at the end. I can only presume I passed as they let us take her home.