Guilt Trip Friday

Anna has had a callous-thing on her thumb for awhile now. I asked the pediatrician about it at her 15 month appointment and she said that it was either a blister from thumb sucking or that it's a wart--either way, she wasn't concerned. Over the weekend, I noticed a big, juicy white head had formed on the callous. A day or so later, it began to look very irritated and infected. I took her in for an appointment yesterday morning at 8:45am with her pediatrician. Thinking that we'd be heading over there, getting an Rx for antibiotics and then scooting right back home--probably even in time for our usual trip to the park at about 9:30am--I just grabbed her water cup, threw it in my purse and off we went to the pediatrician's office. Well, as I suspected, we ended up with a couple of Rx's for antibiotics, but the doctor also wanted a dermatologist to have a look-see as well and as soon as possible. She called around and got us an immediate appointment with a dermatologist across town. So, we ran to the car and off we went. Unfortunately, this wasn't an actual appointment, but more of a, "we'll 'work you in'" type-of-thing, which we didn't realize until we had gotten there. We were shuffled from waiting room (not kid-friendly waiting rooms, mind you. Newsweek magazines and CNN on the tv does not a happy child make) to non-kid-proofed exam rooms (Um, biohazard trashcans, razor blades and syringes all within toddler reach. Not fun...not fun for Mama, at least.) for the next 2.5 hours (yes, 2.5 hours).

Poor Anna was such a trooper. She didn't truly melt down until about the last 30 min of waiting. By then, I'd already let her take everything out of my purse--including all of the contents of my wallet--and pilfer through it; play with my almost-dead cell phone--she downloaded all sorts of applications on it and possibly called an old boyfriend (kidding); and we had sung every song that we know at least 5 times. She was exhausted, crying and asking for milk and I felt like the dumbest parent alive for not having brought any other provisions at all.

After finally seeing the dermatologist, who only confirmed that it was probably a blister and that what our pediatrician prescribed was just the ticket (nice, goodbye 2.5 hours of my life), we bolted from the office and found a food court in the building that sold milk. My child normally only drinks her milk heated and from a bottle, but yesterday, she was so desperate, she drank (and spilled much of it) directly from the ice cold Borden's bottle.

As a result of our day from hell yesterday, I've been sort of spoiling my girl today. We've set up camp on our ottoman in the family room, with lots of comfy, squishy pillows and she's been watching tv and eating junk food. All of this because I panicked about her thumb and had images of gangrene and amputation in my head. Like Kevin said, "Yeah, it would suck if her turkey in Kindergarten was head-less"--referring to the hand-print turkey that you make in elementary school.