mother nature meets murphy

Murphy's law, that is. Yesterday, a crazy storm blew into town. Tomorrow, the day we are supposedly driving to Anchorage, another one is scheduled to arrive. Rain. High winds (122 mph gusts were clocked near Anchorage). Car-swallowing puddles. Nothing but fun for the whole family, for sure.

Meanwhile, the saga of Thea's latest setback continues. On Wednesday morning, she woke up at 4:30 a.m. with a big blowout. At 5 a.m. she had another. We got up. At 7:30 she went back to sleep, and I did too - but by 9 a.m. we were both up and the tummy troubles continued. So I called the hospital to see if those test results were in, because we really hadn't fed her anything too out of the ordinary - pork, rice, chicken, peas - I did feed her some banana, which we haven't done much of because she hasn't seemed too into it. So maybe that was it. I don't know. But I really wanted to find out if the test results revealed anything new.

The hospital said they were done and had been sent to the medical clinic. I called the clinic to see how I could get the results. They said they weren't there. I told them the hospital said they had been sent. The said they weren't there. I asked if this limbo-problem happened often. The nurse offered no ideas.

Now, you know, it's one thing to have a frustrating time with the medical profession, but when your child is suffering, it rachets everything up a notch. So I called back to the hospital - oh, they just aren't looking in the right place, said the lab tech. I will call them for you, she said. I called back to the clinic a couple hours later, only to be told there was only one result in and no one knew what it was meant.

At this point I basically gave up. I took her in this morning for a check-up, and asked if I could find out what the one result was. The nurse, who hadn't looked at Thea's chart and didn't even know she had allergies, said the lab tech was delayed and wasn't here yet and so I couldn't get them. Then, about 20 minutes after I got to work an hour late on the busiest day in the world, they called and said actually, all the results were in - they had been in the file. And they had all come back negative.

So now I have to research more about what that means, because as far as I heard, that just means she's not at risk for the throat-closing kind of allergic reaction. that doesn't mean these foods won't upset her stomach and give her the runs.

Good news is Thea is doing much better today - eating normally and pooping normally, too. So who knows. It's so frustrating. Maybe she had a bug. Maybe it was bananas. Maybe she shouldn't have dipped her corn cake in the dog water bowl. Who on earth knows. So we just muddle on.

But I must say, I'm far more understanding in the shortcomings of science than I am in the shortcomings of medical professionals.