Friday, January 30, 2009

Segments from the Waiting Room

I made an unscheduled trip to Urgent Care yesterday with the girls and it was such a.. well.. task we'll say! Here are some tidbits from our 1 1/2 hour visit.. yes that is right!

After finally finding a parking spot, (too far away for me) I pull out Bekah's seat and wrap a warm blanket over it and had to practically pull my bundled Leah across the parking lot to get out of the -4 below weather. Brrr! (Why are toddlers so slow in cold weather?)

I walk inside and try to hold on to Leah's hand and set Bekah's seat down. She is heavy! I realize I forgot to call ahead, so I had to completely check-in, which took a lot longer at the desk. Leah was getting anxious, so I got her to "talk" to Bekah, who was awake and so smiley!

I scan the area for a relatively people-free place to sit down. There is none. It is crowded! I then sit down near the middle of one room in the only 2 open chairs they had. My choice is met with screams/tantrums from Leah.. "I want to watch my show!" she screams. They had "Scooby Doo" on in the next room over.. the one crowded with coughing sick people and lots of little kids playing everywhere. For the sake of my somewhat-seeming lack of parental control, I ask her to say "please" and then we move over to the room, sitting on the very end seat next to the door.

She starts sitting in her chair, watching her show very nicely, as I get Bekah out of her seat and try to avoid the stares from parents about my child's previous tantrum. The people next to me stare at me. Their little 1 year old boy comes and starts playing with Bekah's toys on her carseat. I'm not sure how to respond, and look to his grandmother, who doesn't notice him. I figure it's fine, I'll just leave it. Make sure to disinfect everything when I get home. Then he coughs, I jump and the grandmother finally notices and collects her grandson, much to my relief. So now the toys are out of play.

Finally we are called in to the triage nurse, and then the doctor. We ended up waiting in the exam room for about 15 minutes, which is a lifetime for a toddler, and now a rather-fussy Bekah. I hand her a wooden "popsicle stick" from the Drs exam tray. This buys me some extra "happy" time. But not much, so I play "The color game" with Leah, one of her favorite things. I ask "What color is... " and pick an object in the room. Great learning activity, plus keeps her mind off things.

Finally, we are all set to go after seeing the Dr and getting a prescription for Leah's ear infection! The wait at the next-door pharmacy is nothing compared to the waiting room, as there is only one nice lady in the seating area. I get the girls ready to go, and Bekah smiles at her from her carseat. This is when I love having kids. :) And we collect our medicine and go. What a day!!!

1 comment:

Kristin said...

Wow, I can totally picture the entire scene based on your descriptions because I have been in exactly that same situation before!