Murphy’s Law

We’ve had a hell of a week around here.

I started a new job at the University this week – one that requires meetings and one-on-ones with my boss and visits to buildings on campus, along with a class I am taking on Wednesday nights (as part of my job). I am super excited about this new position and was fired up to start.

I’ll back up here and talk about Carson’s poop. It isn’t the point of the story but it’s relevant. Carson didn’t poop much last week. He pooped Sunday night (reluctantly) so we started him on Miralax. Then he spent four days moaning and not pooping so we upped his Miralax dose and he finally pooped (and pooped and pooped) on Thursday. And a little on Saturday and a little on Sunday. No other symptoms, no fever, nothing, so we sent him to school on Monday. Back to my first day of work.

Not three hours into my first day of work, I received a call from daycare that Carson had been having loose poops every 45-ish minutes all morning and had blown through three pairs of underwear. They said he was acting fine but that we might have to come get him. I was just headed to a meeting with the person who is training me for my new job, and I frantically tried to track Rick down by work phone, cell phone, email and text – letting him know to be on alert because he may have to go get Carson.

Thirty minutes later, daycare called again – Carson had to go home. I ended up calling Rick’s boss to find Rick – who picked Carson up and brought him home for the day. All Monday & Tuesday we tried to get Carson to drink pedialyte or gatorade or SOMETHING and keep him from eating cheese (since we didn’t want him all bound up again and back to not pooping). Rick stayed home with him on Tuesday morning but took him to school around lunch time where he proceeded to have a good day (and no yucky poops!). Both kids ate a great dinner on Tuesday night and we all went to bed early.

Wednesday morning Mallory woke up and said her neck hurt. I asked if it hurt inside when she talked or swallowed, or outside like she slept on it funny. She said the inside hurt so I gave her some Tylenol and Rick put her on the bus.

I was just wrapping up another meeting with the guy who is training me when I got an email form Mallory’s teacher that she was complaining of her chest and neck hurting again. I called Rick and asked him to call the doctors office to see if they wanted to test her for strep (my sister’s kids all had it this past weekend…). In the meantime, Mallory’s teacher wrote back again and said she was still participating and would be fine but she wanted us to know what was going on. I finished up my day and started what is my crazy Wednesday routine: I have class at 4p at the U on Wednesdays, the kids have swim class on Wednesdays at 4.30p, and what is supposed to happen is that I get out of work at 3p, pick up Carson at daycare, get Mallory off the bus at 3.36p, race back to campus and hand the kids off to Rick (who takes them to swim class) and then I slide into my seat at (hopefully) 3.59p.

But what really happened today was that I picked Carson up at 3.10p and he was moaning and grumpy – so I called Rick and said he might want to waive off swim class since both kids were “off”, and we talked about how the kids have had these mild illness symptoms but nothing super serious (like a fever or vomiting or being super lethargic) and how hard it was to figure out what to do.

Carson & I get to the bus stop and as the bus pulls up and the door opens, I noticed a grown-up crouched by the front seat where Mallory sits, and then I heard Mallory crying and carrying on. My first thought was “if she’s acting like this because her throat hurts – OMG!” and then the bus driver mouthed the words “she threw up” and I ran to the bus door. The grown-up (another kid’s mom from an earlier bus stop?) helped her down the stairs (THANK YOU GROWN-UP!!!) and I got Mallory to the car. I called Rick real quick and told him to hustle home (remember – I am supposed to be back on campus in 20 minutes…). I got Mallory out of her coat and puked-on boots and into the van, where I peeled off her puked on shirt and puked on pants, and she rode the one block home in her carseat wearing only her orange underpants. :-(

She got straight in the shower and into her pajamas, Rick got home and I left. While I was in class, Rick reported that she fell asleep on the couch reading a book and had tolerated pedialyte.

I got home tonight in time to say good night to both kids and she seems *totally* fine, but we put a puke bucket next to her bed. I told her that if she woke up thinking she had to throw up, that she should throw up and THEN call for us, not wake up and start running while she puked down the hallway.

The doctor’s office wants to see her in the morning so Rick & I are trying to figure out who will stay home with her. The guy who is training me asked me today if my kids issues were all just horrible timing or if my other job was a lot more flexible. Neat, huh?