"Daddy, the doctor sucked my blood!"

That was the statement Ella proclaimed to Steve as he walked in the door. It was said with much as much whine as the glass that is sitting right next to me. Even though vampires are all the rage right now, we do not have one as a doctor. Today we were a triple threat at the doctor's office. Today I embarked on a the train headed for Motherhood hell and once we were on, there was no getting off folks. It was a ride that I do not wish to ever board again. This is how the day started.

Ella has been sick since Sunday. High fever, body aches, headache, no appetite, diarrhea, and very sleepy. I took her to the doctor Monday and she had a swollen gland but it wasn't that big (yet) and they tested her for flu, and it came back negative. Virus they said...go home, ride it out. The past two days she would wake up fever free but it would come back by 10am. So today was day four of fever that knocks her out. Claire woke up today with her eyes crusted, red, and she was sensitive to the light. All symptoms of pink eye. As the morning progressed she looked fine and I wasn't sure she really had pink eye. Rosalie has been a giant booger mess for a week and half. Totally crusted over with green snot. But she has had no fevers, not too much fussiness, and she sleeps like crap anyway so who's to tell if that was a change or not. Ella starts to fall down the tubes again and now her voice has changed and she is complaining about a sore throat, I decide to call the doctor and make an appointment for her. At this point, I think she has strep. Then I think, well I might as well get all three girls to get looked at. Maybe Claire does have pink eye and maybe Rosalie can't get her boogers gone because she has an ear infection. Rather than continuing to go back and forth, let's just do it all at once.

Ella gets checked out. Strep comes back negative and they tested for flu again...and that was negative. They tell me Mono is going around for her age group. They want to send me downstairs to get blood work done so they can rule out mono and also find out what her white blood cell count is. The blood draw will also help tell us if it is a viral or bacterial illness. More on this later...
Claire goes next. Her eyes don't look weird anymore but when you pull down her lids, she is pretty red. Doc says beginnings of pink eye. She got some drops.
NEXT! Rosalie the booger queen. She has what the doc calls the equivalent to a baby sinus infection only with out the sinuses. (you don't get sinuses until you are about Ella's age or older). She has fluid in one of her ears as well. Not infected yet. The doctor said she was brewing the perfect storm for an ear infection. Her nasal cavity was very red and infected though so she is on antibiotics.
Back to Ella. Ella is miserable at this point. She was crying because all she wanted to do was go lay down. Claire is bouncing off the walls because, well because that is what Claire does. Rosalie is crying because she wants to be nursed and take a nap. We go downstairs and wait for 25 minutes to get Ella's blood work done. Ella is freaking out. She doesn't ever stop crying. Rosalie is still crying and Claire is still bouncing off the walls. I am sweating and crying on the inside. One woman felt sorry for me but she was behind me in line so she was no help. Had she been in front of me, she would have traded spots with us. (thank you nice lady). Rosalie finally passes out in her seat and then it's our turn. I have to hold Ella down while Claire terrorizes Rosalie three feet in front of me. I have to remind (and by remind I mean yell at Claire) to not leave my site while I am holding Ella down. The whole thing is done in five minutes. We leave the building and the three girls are crying. Claire is starved, Ella is in pain, and Rosalie is pissed at the world. *breath*

I fly to CVS and go to the drive thru to get our Rx's for Claire and Rose. I practically beg the pharmacist to get me some tampons because I only had two in my house and well, that lovely problem started today. It isn't customary for them to get you items other than your Rx's but she took pity on me. Thank you CVS lady. There was no way I was dragging those kids into CVS after enduring an hour and half at the doctor's office.

I blew $20 bucks at Mac Donalds for the three of us (I got milk shakes...that busted the bank there) but I would have spent $50 if that was what would make our situation better. The milk shakes did the trick. *phew!*

Everyone vegged at home and I got to work. I washed coats, hats, gloves, sheets, comforters, towels...and the rest of the laundry. The doctor called and it turned out that Ella did not have mono and that she did have a bacterial infection. I said it has to be her glands. This happened to her last December and she looked like Popeye. So now Ella is on an antibiotic and hopefully will be feeling better soon. She was a mess tonight. There was lots of crying, lots of pain in her throat, and other places in her body where your lymph nodes are, and she was one miserable little lady. She was asleep in her bed at 6:20. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for her. She will be missing school all week. They do have Friday and Monday off anyway so with weekends...Ella is almost getting a whole extra Christmas break. She wants to go back to school so bad. Poor little girl.

The motherhood train has crashed and burned and I am currently putting out the fire with some wine. ahhh, that's nice. But I will take all three kids sick at the same time over a month long illness fest like we had in November where one kid would get sick, then better then the next one would get sick....and repeat. Tomorrow will be a better day. When you are in Hell, you can only go up from here!!!