4/29:
I guess just some bullet points. When I first moved back to my home town, my daughters Kainat* & Amaya* were just 7 years & 4 months old, respectively. Shortly after Amaya had her first birthday, she fell into a coma. It is my belief this was as a result of adverse reactions to her one year vaccinations, the massive incompetence of her pediatrician, Dr. Dimwit* & an at-the-time undiscovered set of intense seasonal allergies.
She recovered amazingly (this whole episode is a series of stories on its own), we chose a new doctor & life went on.
*Names have been changed for privacy. Except the doctor's. That's probably her real name.
5/29:
"Listen, my friends are having a 4th of July party tonight. I'd like you to come." He paused & the air crackled with expectation.
Involuntarily, I found myself asking, "What time?"
His reply was adorable, "Anytime. Now. The whole day. Whenever you want. I don't care. I just really want to see you." Something inside me went all slushy. Something outside me went a bit slushy as well...*blush except no, because I never blush*
The Mean Me took over. I replied brusquely, "Yeah, well, I dunno. I already have plans for today - another party - so I doubt it. Maybe another time." Yeah, another time that had been before July, dingbat...
BOOM! The sky exploded into a cacophony of color & sound & Lucian virtually teleported from my side to the living room. Once safely behind the bodyguard of glass, his eyes lit up with as much light as the night sky. I stood on the porch, laughing with a friend when a woman approached us, half-heartedly apologizing for her late arrival. My friend cocked her head to the side while extending her hand in greeting. "I recognize you but I can't place you. What's your name?"
What came from her mouth turned my blood to pure ice. Then this monster turned to offer me her hand. I recoiled as if it had been the claw of the Lord of Hell himself. It was that wretched pediatrician who almost killed my daughter. I looked at her in utter disgust; the last firework was clearing in the air.
"Let's go kids! We are off to another party!"
JULY 06 The Snow Melts...Because It's July. Duh.
Before I move into this chapter, you might have a question or two regarding what I meant when I said, "that wretched pediatrician who almost killed my daughter..."
I touched on the topic briefly in the 4/29/17 My Snow Globe Life entry, but didn't elaborate & I won't much more here other than to say shortly after Amaya had her first birthday (& corresponding vaccines), she grew very ill, ejecting everything possible from either end. Despite the moronic advice from her asinine pediatrician ("keep her home & hydrate her." How the actual fuck was I supposed to do that with her barfing & shitting everywhere? Run a Gatorade drip? Soak her in saline? Hold her by an ankle in the River Styx??), I chose instead to use my damn common sense, the medical knowledge passed on to me from my wise Nurse Mama & my Tummy Voice & took my baby straight to the ER.
That twerp pediatrician said I was "overreacting" because I had "the new mommy jitters" (asshole, did you notice my 7 year old daughter? No? I'm as new a mommy as you are gifted a doctor, twaddlehead...) but she "humored" me & ran some tests. That fucklebrained shit-in-skull should have at LEAST run a damn IV as well because when the tests came back, lo & behold, my kid was crashing & needed IV fluids STAT but her veins were starting to collapse. What a surprise, Forrest Gump, you never cease to amaze. Now, eat a box of chocolates & run off the Western coast. Clearly new mommy jitters. OOooOOo.
They rushed us from our little podunk country hospital to the City Hospital by ambulance but when we arrived, my little girl was already in a coma & they weren't even able to successfully get an IV line under her clavicle. (Mercifully, it didn't end up being needed, but still. I wouldn't trust that neurologically fecal pediatrician with my gerbils. & they're all dead.) Horrifying & heartbreaking long story short*, after ten days, she fully recovered (although I never will)** without any long term consequences whatsoever.
Moving on, yes?
I get Lucian, Amaya & her friend in the car after saying a very quick goodbye to the hosts & call Halsten to check if it's ok to arrive at such a late time to the gathering. I don't understand how it's possible to contain a giggle in one's voice while speaking, but he manages to do it without sounding like a complete doofus. He makes it abundantly clear I could arrive at 4:52 AM & it would be fine. I don't make any attempt to hide my giggle.
It takes about a half hour & as soon as we get there, the three kids bolt as he's giving me airplane-esque directions on where to park my mommymobile on the side of this abandoned parkway in the middle of ch-ch-ch-ch-ah-ah-ah-ah Hicksville where his friends live. When I step out of the van, he takes my hand to lead me up their seventytween mile long horror movie dark driveway, & I find it incredibly sweet. Who holds hands these days? When we get to the end, there are a bunch of parked cars & he leads me to his. He doesn't let go of my hand & I don't pull my hand away. It's crazy how it feels so natural, as if...well, as if we have always held hands.
At one point, he leans up against the car & puts his arms around me & it is so outrageously presumptuous & yet, I am shocked by how I respond: I feel completely at ease & comfortable. More than that, I feel like I belong there. I snuggle in just as my daughter & her friend find us.
She rolls her eyes. "Ugh. Gross." They both look at each other & laugh before running away, back into the darkness of The Bates Yard.
I step away from him & we start talking again. He is absentmindedly drawing little patterns on my bare arm while we talk about our childhood, realizing not only did we attend the same elementary school, we had the same sixth grade teacher. As he starts to tell me an anecdote about himself, he suddenly gasps & hacks. I look at him in alarm.
"I...just..ate..a bug!"
"Oh, no! I...uh...do you want some gum?" I offer, in a mini-panic. He nods, continuing to gasp. I can still see myself in this shocking, appalling gesture. Realizing I have no pockets in the maxi dress I'm wearing & not able to retract the offer, I take the gum from my own mouth & shove it in his!
After a moment's recovery, where I stand, in horror, wide-eyed, he looks at me with a raised eyebrow & smirk. I don't really know what to say & make a feeble, pathetic attempt at humor. "Well, that was romantic..."
"Yes," he agrees, "it was." & then he kisses me.
** My "epiphany," as it were, is this: if that doctor hasn't almost murdered my baby girl, where would I be with my Beloved?
I guess just some bullet points. When I first moved back to my home town, my daughters Kainat* & Amaya* were just 7 years & 4 months old, respectively. Shortly after Amaya had her first birthday, she fell into a coma. It is my belief this was as a result of adverse reactions to her one year vaccinations, the massive incompetence of her pediatrician, Dr. Dimwit* & an at-the-time undiscovered set of intense seasonal allergies.
She recovered amazingly (this whole episode is a series of stories on its own), we chose a new doctor & life went on.
*Names have been changed for privacy. Except the doctor's. That's probably her real name.
5/29:
"Listen, my friends are having a 4th of July party tonight. I'd like you to come." He paused & the air crackled with expectation.
Involuntarily, I found myself asking, "What time?"
His reply was adorable, "Anytime. Now. The whole day. Whenever you want. I don't care. I just really want to see you." Something inside me went all slushy. Something outside me went a bit slushy as well...*blush except no, because I never blush*
The Mean Me took over. I replied brusquely, "Yeah, well, I dunno. I already have plans for today - another party - so I doubt it. Maybe another time." Yeah, another time that had been before July, dingbat...
__________________
What came from her mouth turned my blood to pure ice. Then this monster turned to offer me her hand. I recoiled as if it had been the claw of the Lord of Hell himself. It was that wretched pediatrician who almost killed my daughter. I looked at her in utter disgust; the last firework was clearing in the air.
"Let's go kids! We are off to another party!"
JULY 06 The Snow Melts...Because It's July. Duh.
Before I move into this chapter, you might have a question or two regarding what I meant when I said, "that wretched pediatrician who almost killed my daughter..."
I touched on the topic briefly in the 4/29/17 My Snow Globe Life entry, but didn't elaborate & I won't much more here other than to say shortly after Amaya had her first birthday (& corresponding vaccines), she grew very ill, ejecting everything possible from either end. Despite the moronic advice from her asinine pediatrician ("keep her home & hydrate her." How the actual fuck was I supposed to do that with her barfing & shitting everywhere? Run a Gatorade drip? Soak her in saline? Hold her by an ankle in the River Styx??), I chose instead to use my damn common sense, the medical knowledge passed on to me from my wise Nurse Mama & my Tummy Voice & took my baby straight to the ER.
That twerp pediatrician said I was "overreacting" because I had "the new mommy jitters" (asshole, did you notice my 7 year old daughter? No? I'm as new a mommy as you are gifted a doctor, twaddlehead...) but she "humored" me & ran some tests. That fucklebrained shit-in-skull should have at LEAST run a damn IV as well because when the tests came back, lo & behold, my kid was crashing & needed IV fluids STAT but her veins were starting to collapse. What a surprise, Forrest Gump, you never cease to amaze. Now, eat a box of chocolates & run off the Western coast. Clearly new mommy jitters. OOooOOo.
They rushed us from our little podunk country hospital to the City Hospital by ambulance but when we arrived, my little girl was already in a coma & they weren't even able to successfully get an IV line under her clavicle. (Mercifully, it didn't end up being needed, but still. I wouldn't trust that neurologically fecal pediatrician with my gerbils. & they're all dead.) Horrifying & heartbreaking long story short*, after ten days, she fully recovered (although I never will)** without any long term consequences whatsoever.
Moving on, yes?
I get Lucian, Amaya & her friend in the car after saying a very quick goodbye to the hosts & call Halsten to check if it's ok to arrive at such a late time to the gathering. I don't understand how it's possible to contain a giggle in one's voice while speaking, but he manages to do it without sounding like a complete doofus. He makes it abundantly clear I could arrive at 4:52 AM & it would be fine. I don't make any attempt to hide my giggle.
It takes about a half hour & as soon as we get there, the three kids bolt as he's giving me airplane-esque directions on where to park my mommymobile on the side of this abandoned parkway in the middle of ch-ch-ch-ch-ah-ah-ah-ah Hicksville where his friends live. When I step out of the van, he takes my hand to lead me up their seventytween mile long horror movie dark driveway, & I find it incredibly sweet. Who holds hands these days? When we get to the end, there are a bunch of parked cars & he leads me to his. He doesn't let go of my hand & I don't pull my hand away. It's crazy how it feels so natural, as if...well, as if we have always held hands.
At one point, he leans up against the car & puts his arms around me & it is so outrageously presumptuous & yet, I am shocked by how I respond: I feel completely at ease & comfortable. More than that, I feel like I belong there. I snuggle in just as my daughter & her friend find us.
She rolls her eyes. "Ugh. Gross." They both look at each other & laugh before running away, back into the darkness of The Bates Yard.
I step away from him & we start talking again. He is absentmindedly drawing little patterns on my bare arm while we talk about our childhood, realizing not only did we attend the same elementary school, we had the same sixth grade teacher. As he starts to tell me an anecdote about himself, he suddenly gasps & hacks. I look at him in alarm.
"I...just..ate..a bug!"
"Oh, no! I...uh...do you want some gum?" I offer, in a mini-panic. He nods, continuing to gasp. I can still see myself in this shocking, appalling gesture. Realizing I have no pockets in the maxi dress I'm wearing & not able to retract the offer, I take the gum from my own mouth & shove it in his!
After a moment's recovery, where I stand, in horror, wide-eyed, he looks at me with a raised eyebrow & smirk. I don't really know what to say & make a feeble, pathetic attempt at humor. "Well, that was romantic..."
"Yes," he agrees, "it was." & then he kisses me.
** My "epiphany," as it were, is this: if that doctor hasn't almost murdered my baby girl, where would I be with my Beloved?