The Moment When You Tell the Emergency Room Doctor “Wait, there's More”

East Coast Trip

Maddie

Kier

Cora

Laura 15

While our trip to the Emergency room in Phoenix was certainly the most dramatic, it wasn't our only vacation that was interrupted by a visit to the emergency room.

Our trip to the East Coast started out benignly enough. We even brought our 15 year old niece, Laura, with us for this adventure. The impetus for the trip was to celebrate Joel's half sister Kelly's birthday. The family was meeting in Fredricksburg Virginia for a weekend of birthday festivities.

The trip to Virginia was without a hitch. We picked Laura up in Greeley, made a quick stop in Pioneer Village in Nebraska, then we head to Illinois for the night. Everyone dipped their toes in the Mississippi River and admired the River Paddle-boat. The next day we finished the trip to Virginia. We ended up flying high which meant a steep and bumpy decent, which subsequently meant some upset tummies. But over all, it was an uneventful trip considering the distance we covered in two days.

We enjoyed spending time with family, celebrating Kelly, eating yummy food and taking in the rich Civil War history of Fredricksburg.

We even managed to meet my brother, Brandon, in Washington DC for a day of Capital City Culture. We made our requisite trip to the National Zoo where we, as usual, failed to see the Pandas. Unfortunately, the weekend we were there happened to be the peak of Cherry Blossom season. While this meant that Washington DC was at the height of its beauty, it also meant that there were people everywhere! In fact I think this is the trip that Joel declared in no uncertain terms that he would never walk the National Mall again.

From Washington DC, we headed to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. We love living history museums. In fact one year the kids and I volunteered at our local prairie living history museum. We spent several days that summer wearing way too many layers of clothes. The girls and I sweated in the kitchen helping cook stew and cookies in the gigantic cast iron wood burning stove, while Kier in turn sweated as the blacksmith's apprentice, pumping the big bellows to keep the fire hot enough to bend metal. ---And we loved every minute of it. All of which is to say, that Williamsburg, the undisputed queen of living history museums, was our kind of place!

It seems to me that there was a swimming pool in the hotel we stayed at that night, and I believe that was most likely the source of the crud that afflicted Maddie the next day.

Whatever the cause, the next day Maddie woke up with her eyes glued shut with eye discharge. Ugg! We used a clean wet washcloth to wipe it away (my apologies to the housecleaning staff), and continued on our way down to the pan handle of Florida.

Maddie's eye continued to weep green gunk throughout the day. It was the worst eye infection I have ever seen! At one point Maddie wiped the discharge from her eye and then turned to her cousin Laura to ask if she got it all. Laura's face contorted in a look of horror.

We were staying with Joel's Aunt and Uncle in Florida, and they had arrived at the little municipal airport in time to watch us land. They even videoed the landing (and the go around)which was fun because they also caught the commentary which proved that the go around looked as exciting as it felt. The trees along the sides of the runway causes the winds to tumble right as we were about 20 feet above the runway. Joel quickly pushed the throttle forward and we did a quick “go- around”. Then we had a few seconds conference as to what to do next. In addition to the paved runway, the airport had a grass runway that was in a more favorable orientation to the winds. The problem was, the club has a “get permission before landing on a grass runway” policy. In the end we decided the club would prefer a grass landing to a folded up airplane.

The second attempt-- this time onto the grass runway-- was smooth and pillow soft. In fact it was so pillow soft that Joel was afraid we might get stuck in the spongy Florida grass!

By this time, Maddie not only had a goopy eye infection, but she was also reporting an ear ache as well. We asked Joel's family about near-by emergency rooms. They didn't recommend the nearest hospital but it was quiet a bit closer then the next nearest one. We figured it was pretty clear what the problem was, surely any old doctor could diagnose a little conjunctivitis. Turns out, this was a bad call!

For one thing, it took forever! At one point I went to ask the front desk when we could expect to be seen and was told it could be awhile because the emergency room doctor was across the street at a different medical center. Ummm, what? The emergency room didn't have a doctor in the building???

Once we did finally see the doctor, he stood in the doorway, about 15 feet away from Maddie, and from there diagnosed her with an eye infection. And then he started to walk away! Wait! I called out, I think you should check her ears too (and maybe her throat, and heart and lungs like a normal doctor-- but I decided not to push it). In the doctor's defense, I will admit that you could have been in the next town and still seen that Maddie had an eye infection!

In the end she was given a prescription for antibiotics to treat an eye infection and an ear infection. The good news was that once she started on the antibiotic she cleared up quickly and was ready to hit the beach the next day. The next day we made the mistake of applying spray sunscreen on the windy beach and it all blew away leaving everyone (and Maddie in particular) with horrible sunburns, but at least that didn't require an emergency room visit. And we learn that emergency room recommendation are best taken to heart!