1 in 4 women

Have you seen the commercial for Clear Blue Easy Pregnancy Test? The one that says, "Did you know that 1 in 4 women can misread a traditional pregnancy test result?"

I searched for a video clip of the commercial, but couldn't find anything. But I did find it written their website here. In case you haven't seen the commercial and think I'm making this up.

That statistic surprised me. I think, "1 in 4 women can deny a pregnancy test" is more accurate.

You Just Know

You just know it's not going to be a good day when you start the day packing lunch for your child to take to school. He wants chicken nuggets with barbecue sauce. And when you take the barbecue sauce from the fridge you discover that the lid was not screwed on. How do you discover this? When you grab it by the lid. Your feet suddenly feel cool and moist. And not in a good way. You look down and see that your socks and the kitchen floor are now a deep reddish brown color. You just know this is not a good way to start the day.

I'm Still Here

I know some of you may have been wondering where I've been lately. And I'm guessing some of you may not have noticed that I was gone. And I'm sure still more are wondering who is Cookie anyway?

Would you believe I'm just being mysterious?

I didn't think so.

Today was my final exam in my Japanese class. I still have a presentation next week (that I haven't started preparing for) but soon I'll have more free time. I should have been studying yesterday, but my 6 year old had other plans. He vomited in his bed and slept in it all night. I walked into his room yesterday morning to a bed full of chunks. How can you vomit and not continue sleeping??? There was also a pile of bloody tissues next to his bed. He told me that the vomit was boogers. He had a bloody nose and thought that had caused the vomit. Poor kid. I had already taken him to the pediatrician last week and we already had a follow-up appointment scheduled for this morning. So he stayed home sick yesterday and the pediatrician gave him the OK to go back to school today. Tomorrow we have an appointment with the allergist. A 3 hour appointment.

The other thing that has been taking up my time is that I joined a gym. I've become a workout junkie. Or rather a workout junkie wannabe. My biggest complaint about the gym is that there is a McDonald's across the parking lot from the gym. So after burning 200 calories on the treadmill, I can reward myself with a thousand calorie milkshake. A vicious cycle.

Spring is in the Air

And so is the pollen.

The flowers on the trees are blooming, it's 60 degrees outside (just had to rub it in a little for my east coast Eskimos friends) and my 6 year old can't stop rubbing his eyes.

I mentioned last week that we had a trip to the urgent care. Yes, I took him to urgent care for his allergies. It's more of a clinic than urgent care. Anyway, I had to. The school nurse said he had pink eye.

I took my son at 7pm to the urgent care clinic. We waited for half an hour. Then a lady wearing shorts came in the room. Shorts, in February. And high heels. So high that she wobbled when she walked. And the high heeled shoes had ankle straps. She had grey hair pulled back in a pony tail. Oh, and she was wearing a white lab coat. Yes, the short-wearing, wobbling lady was the doctor.

I explained that my son has seasonal allergies and that the school nurse thought he had pink eye.

She looked at his eye and said she couldn't tell if it was allergies or pink eye, but the eye was definitely red and swollen.

Her solution? She told me to wait until the morning. If he can't open his eye because it's all crusted over, then he has pink eye. If not, he has allergies. $50 please.

Not so fast! "So what should I do if he has pink eye?"

"Oh, here's a prescription for eye drops."

"And what do I do if it's not pink eye?"

"Then he has allergies." I could here the duh tone in her voice.

"Well, the nurse won't let him back to school with red eyes."

"Ok, here's a note saying he can go back to school."

"Thanks, but is there anything else I can do for his red eyes. He's already taking Claritin and it doesn't seem to be working."

"Ok, here's another prescription for eye drops for allergies. Now $50 please."

So I left that clinic not knowing anymore than I did when I walked in. But I did have prescriptions and a note! That night I filled the prescription for the allergy eye drops, because that's what I thought was the problem.

The next morning, his eyes were still red, but not crusty. I gave him the drops and he went to school. That was almost a week ago.

This morning his eyes were hurting so bad that he woke up crying. So I thought maybe I should take him back to the doctor. Well, his normal pediatrician, not the short-wearing, high-heel-wearing, wobbly lady. But after talking with my husband we thought it might be worth just trying the other prescription that we already had.

I dropped the prescription off at the pharmacy this morning. When I picked it up the pharmacist explained how to use the ear drops. I interrupted her. "Isn't it for his eyes?" I asked. The pharmacist went in the back and I could hear some arguing. She came out and apologized for the error. Then told me that they didn't have the eye drops in stock. She called two other pharmacies for me. No place had the eye drops in stock. So she was going to order them and they would be there tomorrow.

2 hours later the pharmacy called. The lady told me that that medication doesn't actually come in eye drops. It's only available in ear drops. This only strengthens my confidence in the clinic "doctor." The pharmacist told me that she had already called the doctor's office and left a message. I thanked her. What a wonderful pharmacy I have.

I immediately called the clinic. The receptionist was very slow. She asked me four times what date my son was in the office. She took the information and said she would get back to me. She never did.

How many more weeks until winter??