Taking Ellie to the doctor
Yesterday I took Ellie to get her blood tested. That meant first a visit to our family doctor. As usual, there was a bit of a wait, with Ellie and I together in one of the rooms for about 30 minutes.
Sitting quietly with Ellie gave me a chance to see her the way a lot of people probably see her. Being 2, she was of course interested in everything in the room from the tongue depressors to the chair with the stirrups on it, and I watched her explore. I was wondering whether inside her skin she might have blood that clots too easily, like her mother. For those moments she struck me as frail, and fair, and delicate, like an animated (perfect) porcelain doll.
Thirty minutes is a long time to wait when you are 2 though, and soon I had my own daughter back. She demanded to get into all of the drawers and touch the sterile supplies. She wanted to leave and get her "gramma" from the lobby. She wanted to do everything but wait, and she let me know in no quiet way. Now that's my Ellie. Red in the face, insistent, and stomping her feet in protest. Luckily her dad has a quiet stubbornness too, or she might really get out of hand.
We finally met with the doctor and ordered our blood draws, which were actually done over at the hospital. The lab people there were terrific. Ellie was a bit short on sleep (which is partially responsible for her impatience) and was antsy. They quickly produced a little white bear and asked her if she wanted to hug it. We were taken to a sort of large closet for the draw while the techs checked over the order. No one wants to take blood twice from a toddler because they took too little, but they don't want to take too much either.
The closet was full of little vials with different colored caps. Many of them were blue, which is clearly Ellie's favorite color right now, so she was quite content checking them over. The rubber strap that they use to make the blood vessels pop out on your arm was also blue, which she noticed too. She asked them, "I take that home?"
The draw itself was textbook perfect. Ellie sat in my lap, and I held her legs between my knees and her left arm in mine. One tech held her right arm against the table and the blue strap went around. She never saw it coming of course, but she has good veins like both her parents, so it was easy. There was a single stick with an impossibly thin needle and then about a minute of drawing. I think Ellie was stunned more that someone would intentionally hurt her than by the hurt itself.
It was over pretty fast, and I wanted a quick distraction, so I asked her if she wanted to play with frogs upstairs. In the emergency room there is a really terrific play table filled with plastic frogs and lizards that you move around by holding magnets under the table. When Linda was originally in ER for her stroke, Ellie and I played at making the frogs kiss to pass time.
After we did some frog kisses and played with the "snakes" (lizards) we transitioned to Java Co. and Ellie shared some coffee with me. We also had some chocolate orange cheesecake which I can gladly recommend. It was wonderful.
I don't know how long it will take to get the results. I hope they are negative of course. I don't know what will be the course of action if she is positive. I guess we'll have to see what experts have to say in that event. For now we're just waiting.
Yesterday I took Ellie to get her blood tested. That meant first a visit to our family doctor. As usual, there was a bit of a wait, with Ellie and I together in one of the rooms for about 30 minutes.
Sitting quietly with Ellie gave me a chance to see her the way a lot of people probably see her. Being 2, she was of course interested in everything in the room from the tongue depressors to the chair with the stirrups on it, and I watched her explore. I was wondering whether inside her skin she might have blood that clots too easily, like her mother. For those moments she struck me as frail, and fair, and delicate, like an animated (perfect) porcelain doll.
Thirty minutes is a long time to wait when you are 2 though, and soon I had my own daughter back. She demanded to get into all of the drawers and touch the sterile supplies. She wanted to leave and get her "gramma" from the lobby. She wanted to do everything but wait, and she let me know in no quiet way. Now that's my Ellie. Red in the face, insistent, and stomping her feet in protest. Luckily her dad has a quiet stubbornness too, or she might really get out of hand.
We finally met with the doctor and ordered our blood draws, which were actually done over at the hospital. The lab people there were terrific. Ellie was a bit short on sleep (which is partially responsible for her impatience) and was antsy. They quickly produced a little white bear and asked her if she wanted to hug it. We were taken to a sort of large closet for the draw while the techs checked over the order. No one wants to take blood twice from a toddler because they took too little, but they don't want to take too much either.
The closet was full of little vials with different colored caps. Many of them were blue, which is clearly Ellie's favorite color right now, so she was quite content checking them over. The rubber strap that they use to make the blood vessels pop out on your arm was also blue, which she noticed too. She asked them, "I take that home?"
The draw itself was textbook perfect. Ellie sat in my lap, and I held her legs between my knees and her left arm in mine. One tech held her right arm against the table and the blue strap went around. She never saw it coming of course, but she has good veins like both her parents, so it was easy. There was a single stick with an impossibly thin needle and then about a minute of drawing. I think Ellie was stunned more that someone would intentionally hurt her than by the hurt itself.
It was over pretty fast, and I wanted a quick distraction, so I asked her if she wanted to play with frogs upstairs. In the emergency room there is a really terrific play table filled with plastic frogs and lizards that you move around by holding magnets under the table. When Linda was originally in ER for her stroke, Ellie and I played at making the frogs kiss to pass time.
After we did some frog kisses and played with the "snakes" (lizards) we transitioned to Java Co. and Ellie shared some coffee with me. We also had some chocolate orange cheesecake which I can gladly recommend. It was wonderful.
I don't know how long it will take to get the results. I hope they are negative of course. I don't know what will be the course of action if she is positive. I guess we'll have to see what experts have to say in that event. For now we're just waiting.
<< Home