ANOTHER trip to the ER

I really need to read the story of the boy who cried wolf to Rachel. It seems I am always taking her to the doctor or the ER for something that turns out to be absolutely NOTHING. About 6 weeks ago we were in there for strep throat, which she really did have, and which really did need to be treated, so that was fair. And then, just before Matilda was born she went in for a neck injury, and then there was the time when we were in VA that we spent 10 hours at the ER chasing rabbits down holes.

But today, Rachel received an injury to her back (I'm not really going into details about how she injured it, let's just say there was some sibling rivalry going on...), which made her sooooo miserable that I took her to the ER. We had the same gracious, patient and respectful doctor that we had for the strep business. I want to take a moment to say thank you Dr. Robinson, for not treating me like a) an over-protective, hysterical mother, or b) a mother with Munchaussen-by-Proxy syndrome. Especially because I am friends with your wife...

OK, back to Rachel and her mortal injury. So, she got hurt and lay suffering and sobbing on her bed until I found her there. I called Ben home (he was at his office, working on his birthday, poor man). We hemmed and hawed, trying to decide what to do. I called the doctor on call, and of course he suggested that we take her in for an X-ray. So I did. By the time we got there, she was already acting much better, no longer leaning on me and limping pitifully. Something about the emergency room intrigues Rachel enough that she starts acting like a totally healthy person the moment she is installed behind a curtain, but by that time it's too late, we're in the system, bound for a deductible-breaking series of tests and procedures. Luckily, this time the doctor was sensible enough to suggest that we forego the X-ray. However, he was concerned enough that her kidneys might have taken some serious punishment, so he wanted to rule out anything there. Good thinking! Thankfully, she was fine and we were on our way home within an hour, even after waiting for a full U/A. Ahhhh, small towns are great!

Tomorrow is another day, and it will be interesting to see how many times Rachel calls me from school. Rachel's teacher is on maternity leave and they have a substitute teacher, a butterball of a boy, fresh out of Ed School. Fresh out. Fresh, fresh, fresh out. So fresh that he is being eaten alive by Rachel's class of 28, which includes 16 boys, plus Declan who counts as three so that actually adds up to a total of about 19 boys and 11 girls, all eager to use that phone in the room. I think Rachel has called me 36 times in the last 2 weeks, and I have spoken with a few other class moms who are also receiving an unusual number of calls. This evening I sent an email to the teacher saying that unless she needed to call for a hearse, Rachel was NOT to use the phone tomorrow! We'll see how well that works...