Happy New Year!!!!!!!! (Part 1)

Let me start by saying I have started a spin-off blog, I thought you might like this.... This spin-off blog is just going to have email forwards that I receive (and want to share). This way, I won't have to forward emails... people can just read them on my blog. So send me any non-virus forwards you have. If I like them, I'll post them. I'm not sure how often I'll update that blog. It won't be more than once a day... it might not even be that often. Anyway, hope you enjoy it.

Well, it's a new year and a new decade. I've been taking care of a sick Mary Ruth for most of the past week. Now I'm sick (unrelated to what's MR had). Speaking of Mary Ruth, we had to take her to the ER last Saturday night/Sunday morning (at 2 am). We took her to the MUSC Children's ER because they're the best. This was her second visit there. Since her first visit, they've moved where they are in the building. I like the changes. Anyway, we were there for about 3 - 3.5 hours and they looked at her, asked us a bunch of questions, and got a urine sample from her. After all of that, they couldn't figure out what was wrong... so they said it was probably a stomach virus and we should keep an eye on her and keep giving her meds to keep her fever down. They also said they would keep an eye on her urine sample over the next few days and let us know if anything showed up. They then asked Mary Ruth if she liked Barbies. I figured they were just going to give her a sticker or something. Nope, they brought out 3 brand new Barbie dolls and let her pick one. I thought that was great.

What I didn't think was great was the issue they had/have with her name. As many of you know, her name is Mary Ruth. That is her legal first name. Not First Name: Mary, Middle Name: Ruth... it's First Name: Mary Ruth, with no legal middle name. It seems their system can't handle a blank space in the first name field. Fine, so enter it MaryRuth. I say this because when someone calls and asks me about Mary, it honestly takes me a minute to figure out who they are talking about. So the nurse comes in and is asking about Mary. Jennifer says something to Mary Ruth (using her name) and the nurse catches on and uses her correct name. That was great. At one point, two nurses had to come in to clean out her ears (long story). They did this by shooting water into her ears. If you've never had this done, let me tell you it hurts. It hurts real bad. So MR is screaming and trying to move away (because she ain't stupid) and one of the nurses (not the one I just talked about) is talking to her trying to calm her down. She keeps saying Mary. So Jennifer does what she did before and starts talking to MR calling her Mary Ruth (thinking the nurse would get the hint). She didn't. I'm sure for most people it's not a big thing... but to me it is. So I walked over and punched the nurse in the face and said in a very nice, but loud, voice HER NAME IS MARY RUTH! Haha... just kidding, I didn't do that. I did get mad though. Of course, them giving her a Barbie before we left made up for it.

So we went home not really knowing what's wrong with MR. A year ago, this wouldn't have been a huge deal. Now, however, we have a little baby at home. We didn't want to risk Susie getting sick, so I kept Mary Ruth back in our room where we stayed in bed and watched dvds. Her fever never went away. But other than when her fever was real high, she was ok. We spent most of our time watching cartoons (Transformers, GI Joe, & Scooby Doo) and college football (Music City Bowl). It wasn't an easy job... but I did it without complaint. I did it for Mary Ruth.

But wait... the story isn't over yet. Two days ago I got a call from MUSC telling me that something had shown up in the urine sample and they now knew what was wrong with her. So they called in some medicine for her and now Mary Ruth is on the road to recovery. If you ever has a child that has to go to the hospital, I highly recommend the MUSC Children's Hospital.