Thanksgiving (American style) was a let down this year when we skipped out on turkey dinner as miss Rylie was still feeling under the weather, with her 3-4 days of fever, and had slept nearly 4 hours that afternoon. We opted to stay home and not share her germs. Whatever germs those were….Later, we made up for missing dinner by going for a nice family sunset walk near the beach.
Our only plans for shopping on black friday consisted of hitting up the Surf Ride 3 blocks away. At 7:30am we grabbed the babies (Rylie and AJ in their PJ’s), and jumped in the car, expecting to wait a few minutes in line until it opened at 8. Turns out there were already about 100 people in line, so the discount we were hoping for we were too late for.
So, onward on the 101 to the next surf shop Sun Diego. They weren’t open yet, and hadn’t advertised their deals, so we popped into Starbucks to wait for them to open. Sneakily, they opened an hour earlier than the regular hours, so we got in early when it was still quiet and found a few good items.
The plan was to head home after this, but miss Rylie zonked out in the car almost immediately. So, there’s only one thing to do… you drive. We went all the way to Del Mar and back, and along the way stopped at Patagonia, and Hansens board shop. We ended up finding a few Christmas gift items which was a nice bonus.
The temperature goes from about 11 degrees in the morning to about 24 in the early afternoon. Quite the wide range, and you’d better plan your wardrobe and your labrador’s day around it. Four hours after we’d left the house, expecting to be an hour, Rylie was now stripped down naked, wearing the last packed diaper. Poor Nixon hated his life as we’d left the thermostat on furnace instead of cool. Luckily, it wasn’t too warm in there yet. Oopsie. We were hungry and spent after leaving unprepared, but finally, it was time for a long siesta and some lunch.
At this point in the afternoon, Rylie’s 4 days of fever with no source was starting to raise concern, and after some great unhappiness on her part, we decided it was time to investigate. We took her to the paediatric urgent care center in Oceanside (because it has physician’s from the Children’s Hospital in San Diego attending). It’s only open evenings, so waiting another 24 hours didn’t seem like a favourable option with her current crankiness.
Unfortunately for Rylie, her paranoid nurse mom’s mind was like an unattended expresso machine, brewing up all kinds of scary and irrational baby prodromes after raking through last weeks’ history of events to determine a likely cause for such things. Was it that she choked and inhaled a cup full of bath water? She spent too much time in the hot tub? She got a cold from me from the stupid gym? She ate too much dirty sand? She drank from Nixon’s water bowl again? She swallowed her metal hair bow? On, and on, and on. But, no. She just had a fever, and I knew this.
But, by this point, my mind was just a mess. An irrational mess that could only be sopped up with a prescription for “peace of mind” written by a physician after hearing my elaborate tale over a screaming toddler having her space invaded by a stranger. Well, at least he agreed with me, that the fingers pointed in the same direction when it came to investigation, and I basically knew what it all came down to was a urine test, with the dreaded catheter. My poor baby.
The wait had been about 2.5 hours, and after looking into our other options (none open) and checking on our insurance, we spent the time in the parking lot, trying to settle her irate screaming and thrashing, and doing a nap’n’drive to jamba juice for some substinence. While her actions gave cause for concern, it seemed the little bean just wanted to go home to bed.
Thankfully, it the urine was negative, and all signs now pointed to “just a viral illness” and we were home in bed by 10pm (4.5 hours in total. sigh) and about $1000 poorer. Or, so we estimate, as we haven’t seen the bill yet.Thank goodness for our insurance, which we discovered will run out in 4 days if we don’t call and extend it. Thank you to the gods of good timing.
The next day, her fever seemed less, her appetite improved, she seemed in better spirits, and low and behold a lovely rash appeared. A viral rash, no less. One that would have been slightly more welcomed about 24 hours ago to save us the hassle of going on our little medi-adventure.
In sum, it was an expensive black friday, and it wasn’t even from the shopping!
