Saturday, December 19, 2009

Over the hills and thru the woods, puking all the way...


Well, that's how this story begins. This has been the week of Dear Husband's major back surgery and what a week it's been. This will be a trilogy blog entry since there are several stories to tell.

We chose a doctor from Napa. The closest hospital, to our home, that the surgery could be done at, was St. Helena Hospital. We had to go over to the hospital on Thursday for a pre-op appointment to make sure Dear Husband was healthy enough to go under the knife. An EKG, blood tests, urine test, etc. were planned. We decided to take Pirate with us, since we didn't have childcare for him. We traveled over Mark West Springs Rd and Pirate began to complain about being hot. Ah oh! He has a history of getting carsick, so panic began. We did all we could to prevent the vomit. We made it down the hill and onto Hwy 29, headed toward St. Helena. I, of course, opened my big mouth and said, "whew.. he didn't puke. That was a close call" Not 30 seconds after the statement came out of my mouth, Pirate puked and puked all over himself, the car seat, and the back of the driver's seat. It was 8:30 in the morning. We had no change of clothes or towels. (I know, we should know better. Shame on us)

After trying to clean Pirate's face with a baby wipe on the shoulder of the road, while commute traffic whizzing by... we headed on. We knew that Pirate couldn't enter the actual hospital since the H1N1 issue is going on. No children under the age of 16 allowed in the hospital. We were told that Pirate could come to the Pre-Admissions Office though. We arrived and parked the car. We took Pirate's shirt off and put on his sweatshirt that avoided to the puke. Into the building we go with our smelly little boy, who was being such a BIG BOY! (we were so proud of him) I had Dear Husband go up to the 3rd floor, just to be sure Pirate was still invited. Nope! We rec'd miss information. Him and I had to sit in the waiting room chairs at the entrance of the hospital while Dear Husband went ahead with his appointment.

What was I going to do to entertain a 2-year old covered in vomit for an hour? I pulled out my secret 'bag of tricks'... aka 'my purse' and started letting Pirate play with anything that occupied him. Our hour wait for Dear Husband flew by and before I knew it, Dear Husband was coming down in the elevator to meet up with us.

I must have had my guardian angel sitting on my shoulder or my little Pirate turned into an angel for an hour. Whatever it was, I am eternally grateful.

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