Never again....

Remember that time I ended my last post with "next week is going to be fun"? I think I spoke too soon.

Today was super crazy and rough. I didn't like it one bit. It started off at 1:05pm when I checked my phone in the locker room post work out and had 2 voicemails from Mercy. She was freaking out about getting in touch with me because she had to pick up W from school early because she threw up at school twice and she needed me to call her tutor to tell her W wouldn't be coming in today. I somehow knew the last name of her tutor and I looked her up on my blackberry and left her a voicemail. I assured her I would pick up M from school since I was in the neighborhood thinking I would be getting W in an hour, and I said I would take her to her tutor's. This all happened. It was nice because instead of needing to be at school at 2, I didn't need to be there until 3. I spent an hour in the Barnes and Noble cafe across the street drinking a skinny cinnamon dolce latte and reading my book.


This was the end of the relaxation.

I picked up M and took her to her tutor's, no problems. We get home and W is sleeping on the couch in the library, poor little thing. M was being sweet and made a card for her because she felt bad she was sick. Mercy was asking me if I knew anything about what to do for her stomach. She apparently threw up in the hall at their house too. She couldn't keep anything down. I told Mercy she should sip ginger ale and eat saltine crackers. Mercy left to go get these things and I sat in a chair next to W making sure she didn't get sick again. M was really asking for attention and I felt bad I couldn't give it to her but I needed to be by W and M was being too loud.

W woke up not too long after and looked so sick. I felt so bad for her. She looked feverish and hot. Her body was so limp and she looked so sad in the eyes. She could hardy move her head and she was barely speaking. I was really concerned. We took her temperature and she had a fever of 101.5. I called her doctor to ask what I should do and he said I needed to take her to the ER immediately. I thought that was a bit harsh but I guess when children have fevers they escalate more quickly and it can be really dangerous if it keeps rising. Mercy is freaking out and I'm trying to keep her calm and telling her she's going to be fine, we just need to call her parents to get the insurance information. They left me with no insurance cards or information but I didn't even think I would need them. Their mom is in Japan and her dad is in Florida and it was impossible to reach either of them. I tried all 4 of the numbers I was given for the two of them and they all went straight to voicemail. One of them was a Japanese number and I needed M to listen to the voicemail and translate for me. I left them 4 voicemails asking me to call me back as soon as possible because I needed this information before I could take her to the ER.

It was so sad seeing W cry because she didn't want to go to the ER and she wanted Mercy to take her. Mercy wanted me to take her and for her to stay hone with M. Mercy was legitimately freaking out. I was keeping very calm throughout this whole thing and had a clear head about it all but Mercy was making me nervous. Mr. U called back shortly after and said he didn't want me to take her to the ER yet. He told me to give her lots of gatorade and put a Japanese cold patch on her forehead. He said to check back in with him in half an hour to see if the fever went down. In the meantime, her fever was rising and I was getting more nervous about keeping her at home. I got all the information for the ER and was prepared to just take her but I couldn't go against the dad's wishes.

I gave W a little bit of gatorade and some children's motrin to try to bring the fever down.

Then the mom called and said she called the doctor's and that they were expecting us to come in. I got W up and not more than 2 minutes later she threw up all over the floor. I felt so bad for her. She looked pathetic and weak. I thought for sure she had the flu. All the while, M is asking what she should do about her homework and her bath and her dinner and I had to tell her tonight was different and we couldn't go by our normal routine. I told M to just read in her bedroom. I was trying not to ignore her but this was not about her. I was worried about W and Mercy was just panicking.

W and I got in a cab and went to the doctor's office. It was pretty empty yet we waited for what felt like an eternity. She layed down against my body and I could feel the heat radiating off of her. Her neck was so sweaty and I was trying to keep her comfortable and happy. There's something heart-wrenching about a child in pain and not being able to help them. I just wanted to wrap her up in my arms and heal her.

When we got into the office they took her temperature and it had gone up to 102. Shit. Then the doctor gave her a liquid medicine to stop the vomiting and she kept that down.
Then she poured a little bit of coke into a dixie cup and we waited for the bubbles to go away. I was instructed to give her 1 CC of the coke every 30 seconds out of one of those injection thingies. We literally counted 30 seconds every time and I could see her cheering up with every sip of coke. She was so happy to be getting coke and I don't know if it was mental or not but she already looked so much better. Her energy came back and she did a total turn around. She was back to her normal self, going through my purse to find things to play with.

All the while, I was getting e-mails from the mom with her insurance information and asking me to call her with all updates. Mind you, this is all from her Japanese number and I'm not about to call that number from my cell phone. I was e-mailing her on my blackberry and calling the dad to give him the updates and calling Mercy to let her know she was OK so she could stop worrying. All day and night I was making and returning calls to and from her parents with updates. I told her mom I would stay at their house tonight which made Mercy very happy. The doctor said it's not the flu which I was really surprised about. We left the doctor's at 7:30 which is W's bedtime and we went to the pharmacy around the corner to get coke at the doctor's orders and infant tylenol just in case her fever did go back up.

She gave us quite a scare but then she was OK. I ate dinner at their house which Mercy left out for me because she knew I would be starving. Sweet, sweet woman. Then I tucked the girls in and went home to get my stuff, only to come back.

So here I am, in my pj's on a large blow-up air mattress in their library. This feel so strange. I never thought I would find myself in this position.

I have to pat myself on the back and say I think I did a pretty good job of acting like her mother today when I'm only the nanny. It was a good glimpse into the future of parenthood. It was scary but thank goodness she's OK.

M is excited to see me in my pj's. It's like one big slumber party.