north pole express

For months, we had been excited about going on the North Pole Express to visit Santa. This was going to be in lieu of our annual show at Casa Mañana, so Brooke knew it was a family day!  Sadly, she came down with something the week before.  She was running a low grade fever, had no appetite, and was so tired.  I gave her Motrin for her fever, and she would be fine for a few hours, but the fever always came back.  She didn't have any other symptoms, so I wasn't sure what was going on.  I was seriously praying that she would recover quickly because I didn't want her to miss out on a fun event. The night before the event, I came to the realization that she may have another UTI.  It was the only thing that made sense.  When I had called the doctor earlier in the week, they mentioned that a virus was going around that gave kids a fever for 5 days.  I had accepted that as a cause, but the more I thought about it, the more I noticed similarities to her last UTI.  We decided to play it by ear, and see how she was doing in the morning.  

Thankfully, she was doing okay, so we decided to continue with our plans.  It was a rainy and cold day, but  the kids were cozy because they were supposed to wear their pajamas on the train :)

We boarded the train...

Wrote letters to Santa...

Had a visit from Mrs. Claus, who handed out silver bells to each child...

Sang Christmas carols together, and watched (fake) snow fall outside the windows.  The whole thing lasted 15-20 minutes I think.

When we arrived at the North Pole, we exited the train and were COVERED in snow!  It was fun, but when I realized that the snow was made out of soap, I was a little upset since it was running my suede shoes :/

We then entered a big room where they had a Christmas Show and a visit from Santa. Following the show, they gave us cups of "ice cold snow milk", and we jumped in line to take pictures with Santa.  Brooke was going downhill, and was super pale again.  I wasn't excited about waiting in a long line with Brooke in that state, but thankfully it was pretty quick.  Brooke wouldn't look at the camera, and I didn't even care because she felt like poop.  I got a picture of Colby with Santa, and we were on our way.

The next stop was a late breakfast at Waffle Way. Auntie Mel Mel are prepared with activities for the kids, and it was nice to finish off our morning together.

On the way home, I felt like we needed to take Brooke to Urgent Care.  I was certain that she had a UTI, and I didn't want to wait until Monday to start antibiotics.  I was kicking myself for not thinking of it on Friday so that I could have avoided the Urgent Care fee!  You snooze, you lose, I guess.  So, $75 and almost two hours later, we finally saw the doctor.  She was super rude to me, and basically made me feel like an idiot for using the term "lethargic" to describe Brooke's lack of energy.  I asked that they also check for strep while we were there, and the test came back negative  The rapid test for the UTI came back positive, so they put her on antibiotics right away. They sent the urine culture to the lab, and told me that they would have the results in 3-4 days.  Based on what was growing, they would call me back only if we needed to change antibiotics.

It was so hard to see her feeling miserable!  We went home and just took it easy for the rest of the day.

After 5 days, I called back just to make sure that we were using the correct antibiotics.  She seemed to be doing much better, but my gut instincts told me to call anyway.  The nurse said that they didn't have the results yet, which was weird, but she assured me that they would call me back as soon as they were in.  Well, they never called me back, and life got busy, so I continued giving her the medication for all 10 days. I called them again because I wanted to get the culture results to take with me when I went to her pediatrician for the repeat culture (to make sure the infection cleared).  After waiting forever, this nurse told me that the culture actually came back negative, as in, SHE DIDN"T ACTUALLY HAVE A UTI!  I was livid!  I had just given my daughter antibiotics for 10 days, for absolutely no reason.  When I questioned why I didn't receive a call back, she told me that "they didn't have the leisure of calling back on negative test results." and that "it wasn't their procedure to call back on negative results."  That made zero sense to me, so I kept asking questions.  Why would they not call me back if she didn't need medicine?  The nurse then said, "Honestly Mom, it's not that big of a deal."  I WAS TICKED!  I told her that it was a big deal, and that I would never bring my daughter there again after being treated that way. After I hung up, I called back and asked to speak to the office manager.  She listened to my story, then said that she would follow up with the medical staff and call me back.  A week went by, and I had to follow up again.  She said she had a family emergency, which is why she hadn't gotten back to me, but that they should have called me with the negative results.  The procedure is to not call if the rapid test is negative, and the culture is negative.  Since Brooke's rapid test was positive, and then the culture was negative, they should have called me.  She apologized for the way the nurse treated me, and assured me that she was coached on the correct way to handle situations.  I was still upset, but at least felt justified for questioning what the nurse was saying to me.

That night, as I was recapping everything to Kevin, he suggested that I ask for my money back.  That had crossed my mind, and so the next day, I called the office manager back.  She agreed to refund me the $75 since they hadn't followed protocol, and then I felt slightly better. It still doesn't explain why she had that fever and felt so awful, but I guess it was just a virus. And I worried myself for nothing since I was a little downhearted about ANOTHER UTI after putting her on antibiotics for a month during the summer!