What shall we do with the drunken sailor?

I noticed that I ended my blog yesterday in mid-sentence. That's because I was very tired. I don't even remember writing that partial sentence.

Why was I tired? Well, for one thing I guess I was fighting off a cold because I woke up this morning with one.

For another thing, I was writing the blog from Urgent Care. We had to take my daughter to Urgent Care because she caught some kind of viral thing and her asthma kicked in. After three nebulizer treatments at our house without any success, we decided to take her to Urgent Care.

I hate asthma. I have asthma, but I haven't had a full on attack in years. My daughter was having a full on attack and she was terrified. She was also very hyper from the medicine. It's not a good combination.

"I need medicine!" She yelled at me.

"I don't look happy!" She cried.

It was awful.

Thankfully, the good nurses and doctors at Urgent Care accepted her right away and rushed her into a room where they gave her a double dose of albuterol and some other medicine we don't have at home. Then they gave her steroids.

She was breathing much better afterward. And if she wasn't hyper before, well, this did it for sure.

While we waited for her prescription of a new inhaler and more steroids, my daughter danced in circles singing, "The pharmacy! The pharmacy! Oh, I love the pharmacy!"

I should have waited to blog about how children can change subjects on you quickly until after last night. Today was a whirlwind of changing subjects.

ME: You have to stay home from preschool today.

HER: NOOOOO!! I'll never see my friend Emily again! Can I do a craft?

ME: What would you like to do?

HER: I want to color a picture. No, I want to make Christmas decorations. I want some juice.

Perhaps putting scissors in the hands of a child on steroids and asthma medicine is a bad idea.

HER: I'm hungry.

ME: Would you like something to eat.

HER: No. Not now. I'm busy. Can I watch 'The Incredibles'?

ME: Okay, I'll be waayyy over here in case you need me. Please put the scissors down.


Another thing I noticed with this round of medicine is that she walks a little crooked. Kind of like a drunken sailor who's trying really hard not to show he's been drinking.

I asked her if she was okay, but she just sang a song about ocean animals in return and asked where the glitter was.

I think this is payback. My mother tells stories about me with asthma when I was little. Apparently after a hefty shot of adrenaline, I told one doctor I had six brothers and sisters. Then I proceeded to recite their names. I gave them names like "Mary Margaret".

Another time after a shot of adrenaline, I dragged my toy box into my mother's bedroom at 2am and said, "play."

When I was two years old, I had to be hospitalized for asthma. While in the hospital, I was so full of adrenaline that I pulled down the oxygen tent the doctors had put up over my bed and stomped on it like a gorilla.

It's going to take me a week to clean all of this up.

And I have 2 more days of this at least.