and we waited and waited and waited, and then laughed and laughed and laughed...

E has come down with gastroenterits and it was nasty. He was leaking heavily at both ends and lost quite a bit of blood as well. Faint and miserable, my mom and I spent the whole Sunday afternoon and evening waiting for him to be seen at the hospital.

Hours and hours.
Waiting and waiting.
from 3pm to almost midnight - and that was even before he was seen by a doctor...

which was at about 11:55pm.

Americans rant about our health care system, but to tell you the truth, I've seen horror stories - last night was no exception. There was one young woman, who was horking up a lung and then her shoes to match, she was turning green, then yellow, and she had still not even been seen by a doctor. It was only when her mother got angry and caught her daughter fainting in the bathroom did they decide to pick up the pace. I hope for her sake she got the help that she needed.


But the nurses, (which were many) as well as doctors, lounged around the computer terminals. I would occasionally catch a glimpse at one nurse checking her messages on facebook. Later, the others were trying to figure out how to get a tiled background on the desktop.

Meanwhile, this poor boy is shooting out at both ends, in serious pain and exhaustion.

My mom even told me that when she brought her co-worker in the fall, when the woman was having a minor heart attack, they waited for three hours. Not until my mom raised a fuss and said: "This woman is about to collapse!" did they pick up the pace.

So had it not been for my aggressive ball busting at the nurse's station, he would not have been seen until today. One of the nurses even admitted to "forgetting about his chart" at one point.

mother f'-rers

funny. I'm turning into my mom. How many times she ball busted when I was bleeding internally and on the verge of complete collapse.

I guess it's the Slavic blood.

so we spent the day at home - on his birthday too - of all days.
Last year, we spent the weekend in New York - at 20 degrees Celsius, people walked around with t-shirts and flip-flops.

those were the days

but I made him laugh and it was wonderful to hear him laugh again. We watched re-runs of Frasier, and King of Queens. He really needed the time off to rest and slowly try to take in some liquids. I also got him Our Dumb World by the writers of The Onion. It was priceless to hear him laugh so hard.

and we laughed and laughed - hopefully pushing out the virus

E's sister fired up the panic alarm, (which she does oh so well) taking note that this thing is highly contagious. I'm popping those vitamin C's like they are candy, crossing my fingers that I'm not next on the virus express train to the toilet.

I'm still feeling crappy tho - sluggish and weak. Can't seem to shake off this nasty nasty nasty cold that's been hanging on for 45 days now.

So as the fog silently tiptoes past my window, I'll be heading off to bed.

Tomorrow - head shrinker. I doubt he will have nothing new to say - no quick answers to my medication that seems not to be working anymore, and no easy or fast fixes in the horizon either.

time to get a second opinion