the anatomy of the week.

what a week! what a week! what a week!

generally a week is comprised of 7 days - it's also has a beginning and an end. have you ever been stuck in a week where you can't remember the beginning and there seems to be no end in sight? where a day feels like a week and the week ends up taking up the energy you have stored for a month?!

we had one of those around here.

it started (if i can remember right) like all winter weeks - sniffle, sniffle, cough, cough, running in the house, laughing, fun, dribble, dribble, cough. being cooped up with no where to go when outside it's minus 18. typical winter day in these parts. a cold is being generously passed around to one member and then another creating a long symphony of coughing that seems to go on forever. again typical.

then it happens. a call from school. the child is sick and has to be picked up. i think to myself "by what?  a dog sled?!" i have no way to get her - my car is at the train station and i can't walk there with 4 kids in tow in this weather. i get on the phone tree to call my other mom's and no one is around! this isn't happening! finally after much negotiating she gets home (thanks to her lovely teacher) only to add another sound into our symphony of coughs - crying and screaming.

she is freaking out that her ear hurts and it's "leaking" - and i do as any mother does, tylenol and bed. she tends to be like me on the pain richter scale - leaning more to dramatic and less to calm. we are new to ear aches - this is our first one - so i took it as a freak-out to a new sensation and part of being sick. my colds have a tendency to travel into my ear and hurt when i swallow so i thought it was happening here. not the case. we spent a sleepless night feeding tylenol at the exact appropriate time just when the screams were getting defining so then a lapse of 2 1/2 hours sleep may be achieved. this went on all night.

thankfully the next morning i had 4 kids arrive before 7am like clockwork, one more at 8am and the last one left at 6pm. so all in all a relaxing day - say what??!! i decided to go against all protocol and give the kids an early bath as i was on a kick to "clean" this cold out - bathed, new sheets and all bedding, new pj's. that's when i saw it. the leaking she had been talking about. the brown substance circling the opening of the ear. this is not good. i have no idea why at this point but anything that dark there is not good. a decision was made. to children's hospital we went.

the wait wasn't long (45 minute car ride though - crying the whole way) to get into the reception area. on our way in they weighed aydan and listened to her chest. as we walked to the waiting room she looked up at me with concerned eyes and asked "mom - is my heart still beating?" my heart melted. that could give you an indication how new all this is to us.

again not a long wait to hear that she had an ear infection and it went pop. so it was all validated. i felt horrible. i had on an occasion or two gotten a tinsy bit mad at her and said it couldn't really be that bad. it was. we now have ear drops and antibiotics (after another hassle - even though this province has free medical care it still has MANY issues with it and it's avalibility to the public!) and after one day she was a horse of a different colour. she get's to go to school tomorrow. yay!

then coop said his ear hurt....are you kidding me??!!!