Of course

This is looooong.  So Daniel is away on "business" yet again until Friday and naturally one of my little cherubs has decided to go and get sick.  It figures it would happen the day Daniel and my Mother-in-law who was visiting both leave.  To add to the mix did you know yesterday the high temp here was 16 degrees?  And when I set out to take my feverish child to the minor emergency clinic my car said it was 9.  Yes as in 9 whole degrees outside.  Oh yea- the roads are still covered with a nice crunchy layer of snow on all the side streets and it was dark.  Let's start from the beginning...

Yesterday morning as everyone was getting ready to leave Kate was complaining of a sore neck.  We all figured she had slept funny and sent her on her way.  She was a little grumpy but didn't feel hot and no one called me during the day so I figured we were in the clear.  I picked her up and went to get a drink from McDonalds and she ask me if she could close her eyes because the sun was hurting them.  By the time we got home she was half asleep and in a bad mood.  She had dance last night and when I tried to help her get her tights on I noticed she felt hot.  Turns out she had a 103.3 fever.  At this point it's almost 4:30, Aidan was screaming because he needed a nap, and my mind is racing with the possibility that my kid had meningitis.  A quick search on the internet confirmed that yes those symptoms could be signs of meningitis.  She wasn't complaining of anything else so I put a call into the pediatricians office before it closed.  I left a message for the nurse who called me back and basically said she didn't want to tell me to wait but that it was up to me.  I could take her to the minor emergency clinic that closed at 6, the ER, or wait.  I took the minor emergency route.

A mere hour later we left with a diagnosis of a sinus infection.  The neck pain was swollen lymph nodes.  He gave us a prescription for an antibiotic and we headed off to Walgreens to get it filled.  They call our name, I head up and get my total... $56.00.  I said, "Are you serious?"  'Yes."  First if all our insurance has a plan so we never pay more then $25.00 for even a brand name drug.  But if there's something else that can treat the issue that's available in a generic they prefer you try that first.  Second he Dr. said what he was writing it for was available in a generic.  They tried to more or less tell me not all drugs have a generic.  Yes.  That all drugs have a generic name. Yes.  I know.  My husband works for one of these drug companies and surprise I'm not stupid.  My response..."She has  sinus infection.  It's not like she has some weird infection or something."  The lady behind the counter was not amused with me.  I decided not to take it and headed off to take charge of the situation.

I ended up having to have the on-call pediatrician paged.  She called me back, got it all straightened out, decided she wasn't sure Kate even had a sinus infection but that she was comfortable with her taking an antibiotic, dissed Walgreens ( I concur), changed the prescription, and had them get it ready right away, paid my $7.00 and we headed home.  We survived the night, Kate seems better today- no fever, neck feels better, and Aidan is napping right now.  Unfortunately the Fresh Beat band is on TV and those kids make me crazy.  It's going to be a long day.  So Daniel I hope you're enjoying Chicago and  your expensive snacks and dinners.  I better get a keychain with the Sears Tower on it for this.  :-)