I Should Have Stayed In Bed Today

Let me start off by saying that this little girl was the highlight of the day on Tuesday, and the title aptly applies to the events of January 25, 2011.

I had not taken the time the night before to get everything set for Layne and my trip to SLC for several doctors' appointments, so I was a bit paranoid to begin with. I slept from about 12:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m., then started getting everything set for the trip by 5:30 a.m. That is, I THOUGHT that I had everything set.

We left the house around 6:30, on our way up Spanish Fork Canyon. Layne still has a hard time holding a sippy cup on her own, so as I was trying to help her drink while I drove, she became frustrated and started screaming. For safety reasons, I finally decided to just let her figure things out on her own, then popped in my headphones to listen to some music in the hopes that I would drowned out the crying. Ten minutes past the only gas station in the canyon, I noticed that my out of low fuel sign had come on. I thought to myself, "If I turn around, I'll miss the first appointment at Primary Children's and have to reschedule." I reasoned that I could make it to Spanish Fork with what was left in the tank before I'd run out, thus getting to the appointment on time.

I almost did too. If you are familiar with the canyon at all, you know that just before you reach it's mouth where Spanish Fork lies, you come across several windmills used to produce energy. About two turns in the road short of the windmill, I felt the cruise control shut off and the car start to gradually shut down. I was blessed to make it to a safe place at the side of the road, then called Jared in the hopes his aunt and uncle in Spanish Fork could be reached. No such luck as they are in California this week, but within a couple of minutes, a Utah County Sheriff's vehicle pulled up behind me. Upon my explanation, the saint of a man gladly offered to drive to the gas station about seven miles ahead and buy a small gas tank with a couple gallons of gas. Before you go thinking, "Kendra's an idiot," keep in mind I already told myself that, AND keep in mind that that morning, Layne had started to show signs of RSV, the illness that hospitalized her for 9 days last January. I was pretty worried about her health plus the three other apointments at her various specialists that day, and the last thing that went through my head was to stop and fill up before leaving for Salt Lake.

I couldn't thank the officer more, and he followed me to the gas station to make sure that I was okay before smiling and waving me on my way, which we did ... half an hour behind schedule, but still alright since I'd left early to begin with.

We hit a snowstorm in south Provo, coupled with miles of I-15 traffic due to construction. By the time I reached I-215, it was already time for Layne's first appointment, and when we came to Foothill Blv., traffic had come to a standstill. Accidents where happening everywhere because of the thick, wet snow. We reached Primary Children's and made it to the ENT department for our first appointment to find that every other person had been caught in the snowstorm too. They sent us up to audiology where Layne's tubes where seen as functioning. She failed another four hearing tests, and her hearing loss on the left side has been labeled as moderate to severe, the right side labeled as moderate. Nothing new. That's when they announced that Layne would not be fitted for hearing aided there, but in some outpatient facility, with a cost of around $3,000 that insurance will not cover. Awesome.

Back to the ENT department, where I waited for about an hour for the doctor to tell me the same thing. He noticed her sickness, to which I asked if she could be swabbed to see if it was RSV due to her history and my concerns. He agreed, sent the nurses in, and they had me hold Layne down while they shoved a giant Q-tip up her nostrils.

When we left the building, we found six inches of wet snow atop our car and the roads, with more falling. Layne's next appointment was in Murray at her pediatric opthamologist for her vision concerns. As we were driving down the hill just west of the U of U campus, all the snow from the top of the car slid forward, immobilizing the windshield wipers. As I tried to get the snow cleared, driving down the icy hill, my windshield wiping fluid decided to go off. Perfect time for them to still work. The liquid iced over, and since I couldn't clear it with the wipers, I did my best to see out the side window. Good thing everyone was traveling about 5 miles an hour. The two side mirrors were covered with snow at this point too, so I unrolled the window and cleared off what I could with my hand. Prayer works ... at least desperate prayer, because just as I was reaching the no-visibility point, the wipers broke free of their snow-prison, and cleared the view. Layne chose to sleep through this for about ten minutes, which she decided would be a sufficient nap for the day. (I just sighed)

By the time I was about to reach Rocky Mountain Eye Care for Layne's next appointment, Primary Children's called and informed me that they had used the wrong swab for the RSV culture and that I could either come back to redue the test, or go to a different facility.

Really?

I didn't say it to her on the phone, but in my mind I'm thinking, "Yeah, I'd love to pay another copay and go to yet another hospital today. Thanks for the opportunity. Kimball's appointment for ear infection yesterday plus Layne's three today just aren't enough."

Yeah, I wasn't too impressed.

I drove down to State Street to hit the one fast-food place that's in the area, Taco Time, and ordered a soft taco and an empanada (I don't recommend the empanada). I pulled up to this same Taco Bell several months earlier, right before Layne was admitted to the hospital for her eye infection. Just as I pulled up, my nose decided to start massively bleeding. After three attempts to order, the attendant explained that I needed to pull up to the window to order as he could not understand me. He found out why ... visually. As I'm holding a blood-soaked napkin up to my nose, he took one look at me, then turned and ran. About a minute later, a latino woman appeared to take my order and offered me a stack on napkins 6 inches high. I was pretty sure that I had left a lasting impression on the employees, but the same man who ran from me five months previously didn't show any signs of terror. Maybe he didn't recognize me without a tissue.

I ate in the car at the parking lot of the eye doctor, while helping Layne with her sippy cup at the same time. Before the appointment, I called Jared and he looked up some instacare facilities for me in the area at which I planned on going to to have the RSV swab redone. The appointment went well. Bless Dr. Peterson. He's such a nice and caring doctor.

We made our way south to the North Orem IHC Instacare Center, where I was instructed that they were NOT a lab, and that I would have to go to a hospital for the test to be completed. The bonus of our stop there was that the receptionist explained that if I just called Primary Children's and had them send the order to the other lab that I should not have to pay another copay.

I know what you're thinking. Can't Kendra speed this story up ... trust me, this is more for my mental health than anything else, and no, I can't. We ended up parking on the third level of the parking terrace at Utah Valley Regional, then walked down, in the blizzard, to the Outpatient Lab, a completely separate building from the hospital itself. There we waited for another 45 minutes to register, only to be told that we then needed to go to the main part of the hospital and register a second time with the main admitting desk.

What? Do I look like a masochist to you?

After we arrived at the admitting desk, the receptionist there told me that they'd call a RT to come and do a suctioning on Layne. Uh, no, we don't know if she has RSV yet. She just needs to be swabbed.

That's when a 78 year-old-woman chose to sit down in the seat right by me and announced that she was older and needed to be helped before us, because she was more in need. And yes, I do know that she was 78 as she made a point of telling all in her hearing range that such was the case. That was one instance where I could have beaten an elderly person.

We waited ... and waited ... and waited some more, until the normally patient and calm demeanor of Kendra snapped. I started pacing behind the admitting desk until one of the five (I counted) ladies manning the two desks finally said, "Oh, are you still waiting for RT to come and suction your daughter?"

My response? "It's a swab. And yes, I'm still waiting."

Some slightly off-her-rocker but very nice RT therapist finally came out and asked me if I was the mother waiting for her child to be suctioned. Whatever. Just do it.

I again had the priviledge of holding Layne down, this time with a tiny tube shoved up her nose, so that it could be suctioned into a tube to be sent away for the RSV test. Apparently, the ENT doctor at Primary's had decided to do a more extensive test than the norm.

I asked if I could wait and get the results then, in order to avoid driving all the way back to Huntington, two hours to the south, in case she needed to be observed or admitted later on the next day. I was thrilled to learn that Utah Valley does not give results to the parents directly, only to the ordering doctor, who's office happened to be closing for the day before the results would be known. I asked if I could sign a release of information form so that I could get them myself. Their response?

"Well .... normally we THINK you could, but the lady who's in charge of that is not in today, so you can't."

Layne was having a good time chewing on the Luke Skywalker figure that I'd packed along for her to play with (her personal favorite) during all of this. Don't ask me how many times it dropped on the floor. I really don't want to know. It kept her somewhat happy.

They promised me that if I just waited there in the front lobby for another hour or so that they'd do their best to get me the results.

So we did. After about fifteen minutes or so, the RT head came out to tell me that the lab informed them that the doctor had ordered such an extensive viral test that it would be a couple of days before the results would be back.

Thanks. I think I'll be able to tell if she needs medicinal care in a couple of days myself.

I didn't say that to him. He was very nice. I was too. I apologized for all the confusion, then told him I hoped that I wouldn't have to see him again anytime soon. He laughed and wished us the best.

We headed back outside in the snow to the third floor of the parking terrace. It has a large opening in the middle of it, making it impossible to walk straight across the parking lot to your car. I found that out the hard way.

After I checked to make sure that there was plenty of gas in the tank for the drive home, we took off ... and didn't look back.

After a icy drive through the canyon to our home, I found all well. Jared and the three other kids were happy to see us. We ate dinner. I vented. We watch a rerun. We ate cheesecake. We went to bed. I just shouldn't have gotten out to begin with.