A Family Tradition

On my side of the family, we normally only go to the hospital when we are on vacation. Linda had her appendix out on Christmas day when she was 11. I had the worst UTI in my life while in Canada on tour with my theater group (socialized medicine is awesome) and Linda's husband spent a great deal of time in Moroccan hospitals when they took a long adventure holiday there.

So now Athena joins the fold. If you want all the details in a minute-by-minute account, you can read his blog (if you have the password). But the long and the short of it is this:

Took Athena to the hospital today (day after Thanksgiving) in Santa Rosa, California because of a fever and frequent vomiting. Expected them to give her some pain medicine for her headache, replenish her fluids, and provide an antibiotic for general purposes.

We did get all of the above eventually, but we also had blood drawn, a cat scan, and finally a spinal tap. We were there all day. This is not exactly how I planned our stay in Sonoma.

However, this experience was actually very good overall. Athena got to rest without being pestered by her brother. We discovered some of the best customer service I've ever seen in a hospital setting. And I was reminded of just how beautiful, smart, and wonderful my daughter is. She handled the whole ordeal amazingly well... and I'm not the only one saying that. The staff commented on it as well. She was so charming that the person who was charged with drawing her blood couldn't do it... she stalled until the IV person arrived and had her do it.

Do I want to live this day again? Nope. But Athena is on her way to getting better, she already feels MUCH perkier, and I got to spend a whole day with my sister. Every cloud has a silver lining.