Psychotic From Sleep Deprivation

We went next door to K-mart, where they only had crappy kinds of pads so I had to stop by Family Dollar on the way home, since it’s the only other store in the city and I didn’t want to go to Dollar General again for the third time that day. Needless to say, it felt like forever before we got home. Mario actually beat us home that time.

I was tired as hell, and then a little disappointed because John left with his friend and didn’t even eat the food or cake (that he MADE me make him) that I worked so hard on :(. He ate it the next day though, after he got back, so he was forgiven.

Eenan felt fine the next day, so he went to school. Jaylen, on the other hand, still felt really lethargic, didn’t want to eat a thing (hadn’t really eaten well since the day before in the afternoon) because of how bad his throat hurt, and had a fever of 102°. We took Jaylen to the doctor first thing that morning after Eenan left to school.

I had to go through all these calls and stuff since he’d already seen his primary doctor this month, all while poor Jaylen slept on the bench and Mario held Alaethia. The office had to get some kind of permission to allow their new doctor (Alaethia’s primary) to see him that day, or else we’d get charged full price for the doctor’s visits the boys had already had earlier during the week, which would have easily been at least $300.

They told me there was a lot of Strep Throat and Herpangina going around. Most of the kids they’d been seeing recently have had Strep or Herpangina. As soon as the nurse practioner, Edith, saw Jaylen she said, “Oh! He’s even got the Scarletina bumps. I can tell you right now he’s probably got Strep.”

I had honestly not noticed the bumps at all until that very moment. They were tiny and fine little bumps, almost like goosebumps. They’re called Scarletina, or Scarlet Fever, and very common with Strep. Edith prescribed some antibiotics and Mortin and sent us off. She said he should feel better in 24 hours.

We went to leave his prescription at H-E-B, then went straight to pick up Mario’s paycheck. Elda called as we were entering Palmview to let us know she’d already picked up Brandon, so we didn’t have to pick him up after school. I had a nagging feeling we should have just picked up Eenan early, too, to avoid having to rush to get him at 3:30, but thought, ‘Nah,’ so we just kept going. I’m not kidding you, not even 5 seconds later I get a call on my cell from the nurse that Eenan was in her office with a temperature of 101. I frantically called everyone–Jorge, Sonia, and Elda–to see who could pick him up for me until we got there. The nurse gave him some Tylenol with my permission and Elda went for him.

On the way back home we stopped by H-E-B to pick up Jaylen’s prescription and then Dollar General to get soups and Gatorade. Poor Jaylen kept mumbling, “I just wanna feel better…” I felt so bad for him :(.

The first thing we did when we got home was give him some warm soup and Gatorade. He took his medicine and felt so much better while eating his chicken and stars soup. It was such a relief to see him eat something, finally.

To be continued….