02.17.05 - Life Update

Late Tuesday night, Caitlin had her 4th occurrence of sudden onset laryngeal stridor - almost a year to the day since her last occurrence. If you’ve ever witnessed this, you already know it’s terrifying. As per usual, she was playing and having a good time all night at family night and showing no signs of illness. She had finished a course of antibiotics for Streptococcus about a week ago. I drove her to the hospital which was about 4-5 minutes from our house knowing as I did it that I would likely get admonished by the ER staff when I got there for not calling an ambulance. My logic was that I could get to the hospital before the ambulance could even get to us.

As expected, we ran through the treatment cycle that I’ve observed on 4 separate occasions. Emergency rooms are the goofiest, most disconnected places I’ve ever witnessed. We answered the same questions for every nurse and doctor that came in to see Caitlin. None of them, apparently, consult each other on anything. Eventually she was transferred to the children’s ward at Littleton Hospital with a very pointed nod from the attending physician that she would be transported by AMBULANCE. At least that was the extent of my beat down on this occasion.

They let her out at noon on Wednesday and she spent the day sleeping. Cher took her in to the Pediatrician’s office this morning and she checked out fine. They, like the hospital crew, seem to think this is something she’ll grow out of soon - not very comforting. So I’m thinking to spend the time and money to take her to a respiratory specialist and maybe an allergist to see if we can discover what’s really going on.

I ended up missing my literature class on both Monday and Wednesday this week so, based on English department policy, I cannot miss another day this semester and still get an A. Monday was due to Mackenzie’s Valentine’s day party and Wednesday I was trying to sleep after Tuesday night’s ordeal. Cher and I’s date night was quiet. We went to Outback and the steak was wonderful although it’s messing with me today. We rented Office Space, which Cher hadn’t yet seen and Sky Captian and the World of Tomorrow. Both were amusing. I might write a review of SCATWOT in the coming days if I have time.

I’ve got two exams today – one in microeconomics and the other in psychology. I have no idea what to expect from the economics exam. It’s in about 40 minutes. The professor said that the tests are written based on the lecture. I attended every lecture and took good notes so hopefully I’ll be fine. The psychology exam is based of a practice test for which I have all the questions so that should work out ok too. I’m not very nervous but I need to do well on these so I’m a bit anxious.

RCS