DorrieDorrie

Over the River and Through the… oh, nevermind1

Last Thursday was going to be a big day. We were going to head up to Lebanon early in the morning for appointments with: an endocrinologist, an otolaryngolist, an audologist, an eye surgeon, and just for good measure, Dr. Optimist as well. We figured, if we were going to all the effort to move Dorrie all the way back to Lebanon, we may as well get as much done as possible.

It should come as no surprise that Dorrie made her own plans for the day, which involved, as most of her plans do, throwing up. Mom was inside getting her ready to go while I moved the essential-but-not-needed-at-that-moment equipment — emergency oxygen and suction machine — out to the car. When I got back inside, she was mopping up Dorrie after she urped in her chair. Once Dorrie settled down again, we moved her and the rest of her equipment — regular oxygen, pulse oximeter, and various sundry baby items like diapers, wipes, bulb syringe, etc. — out to the car as well. We even made it out onto the highway and through the first toll booth before Dorrie urped again, and we had to pull over to help her recover. And then, her accomplice — the pulse oximeter battery — contributed its part to the plan by running low, with an hour’s drive still to go. Between all of these, plus a late start because the hospital could not say for sure whether or not we would have a bed for the night (they would need to keep Dorrie overnight for observation since she would be sedated for her audiology exam — only they did not tell us this until the night before), we finally decided the big pilgrimage to Lebanon simply was not going to happen, and we turned around and went home again. Almost all of the appointments need to be rescheduled of course, but hopefully she’ll be behaving a little better by then — and we’ll have a new pulse ox battery.

Posted by dad, under hospital crack, moving forward... or not, our little witch