Urgent Care

Wow, what a day. I guess it could have been worse as I was hardly peed on, but boy, was it rough to see my kid cry as hard and as much as she did.

Let me back up.

Riley didn't sleep the best last night, but this happens from time to time so it wasn't really alarming. However, once she got up she vacillated between fine and total break down. We credited this behavior to her sleep last night, but a part of me worried that it was more especially since she refused to go to the bathroom. Mornings are rushed as we all try to get out the door to work and daycare so we, admittedly, might not have been as attentive to what was happening as we should have been. 

We all piled in the car and I turned to my husband and said "I wonder if she has a urinary track infection?". He thought I was making a big jump, but I'd like to think as a woman I have a little better insight into this. We dropped Riley off at daycare, went to work, and with no surprise to me, we got the call from our daycare provider pretty much right away that she thought Riley had a UTI. 

I love my husband, but he has an especially hard time seeing his little girl in pain and it causes a little bit of a breakdown for him. He called me to arrange the doctor appointment, but the appointment wasn't early enough for him so I found urgent care information, but he didn't want to wait an hour to take her in so he decided he would take her to the hospital. We might have snapped at each other during this process - both simply trying to help, but stressed by the discomfort our child was clearly in. 

All the while I was at work trying to decide what to do. I was car-less and any bus I would grab would take at least an hour before I could get home.

Husband called after he left the house with Riley as she had calmed down and now he wasn't sure he should go to the ER. I suggested he pick me and that we go to urgent care together. After all, I was having some mommy guilt for shipping her off to daycare in the first place when I suspected it might be something more than lack of sleep. 

Urgent care went about as well as it could. We were there for about three hours - much of the time trying to get a urine sample from Riley. She refused to go to the bathroom as I am sure it was painful. We were trying to avoid her having to get a catheter, but it felt like we were spending so much time trying to make her do something she really didn't want to do. 

While we were waiting for the doctor Riley started to freak out, asking to go home. So hard to explain to an almost 3 year old why we have to wait, why she needs to try and potty - she just didn't get it. I don't blame her for wanting to be in the safety of her home. So during the freak out Jesse walked her down the hall and out into the waiting room hoping she would calm down while I was going to fill the doctor in. Turns out that while in the waiting room Riley peed all over herself and on Jesse. This, of course, set her off even more. I am sure it was uncomfortable for her, but she was also likely embarrassed.

Urgent care actually decided it would be better for us to see a pediatrician at the clinic (which was in the same building). We moved over there and tried some more to get Riley to pee. Since she had just gone we had to fill her up again, so to speak. She didn't want to drink water, but we convinced her that water would make her feel better. For the remainder of the day she has been diligent about drinking water and would turn to us after taking a sip and proclaim "it makes me feel better" while rubbing her tummy. I wonder if we can ride this buy in wave and convince her that vegetables will also make her feel better?

In the end we had to try to catheter. It was after I left the room to have my own potty break and Riley broke down when I left. When I returned we decided we needed to get something done as waiting for her to go on her own just wasn't going to happen anytime soon. As one of the nurses was trying to insert the catheter, Riley started peeing all over both nurses that were in the room (glad I don't have that job), but through all that we were able to get a sample. Turns out she does have an infection, but not a UTI. Basically, we were told that all that could help were ibuprofen and multiple sitz baths. Luckily, kiddo likes baths since we've given her three since this afternoon. 

Now it was time to head home, but her pants and underwear were unwearable. We happened to have back up undies with us, but no other clothes. Today was pretty frigid out so we had to find something to bundle her up in. Turns out my sweater was a perfect solution.

Sick sweater pants

She's been good since we got home. Good mood, stellar nap, lots of cuddles and smiles... and hopefully she continues to get even better tomorrow. And hopefully, her mom and dad get it together sooner the next time something like this happens.