Double Trouble

A Trip To E.R.

"Sorry."

I left their room and basically ran to the bathroom. If something was wrong with Bryce, I wanted to be able to get him to the hospital as soon as possible.

I couldn't find the thermometer so I had to run back to my parent's room to see if they had one in their bathroom.

My mom heard me open the door because she sat up in bed immediately.

"What's his temperature?"

"I don't know. I couldn't find the thermometer in my bathroom so I was going to try to find one in yours."

"It should be in the third drawer from the left."

"Ok."

I went into their bathroom and it was exactly where mom said it would be. She was always so organized and knew where everything was at all times.

I ran back to the twin's room and picked Bryce up and took his temperature.

It was 102.0.

I gently laid Bryce in his crib and ran back to my parent's room.

I was completely out of breath from running to and from opposite ends of the house.

"What is it?" mom asked.

I huffed, "102."

She started getting out of bed, "Well, we better take him to the emergency room. The twins just had their check-ups didn't they? Did the doctor say anything about Bryce being sick?"

"Uhm..." I was so tired and stressed out about Bryce that I was having a hard time remembering. "I think she said something about Bryce having fluid in his ear and that it could possibly cause an ear infection."

"Ear infection. That's probably it. You had them all the time as a baby. You even had to get tubes to try to help them."

"Ok, well, are you going to wake dad up or should we go without him?"

"I'll wake him up. If we have to be up at 1 in the morning, so should your dad."

"Do you think I should call John?"

"That's up to you."

"Alright. I'll just text him and let him know what's going on. I'd feel bad to wake him up."

I walked back to the twin's room and got Amberley into the car seat and downstairs then ran back to get Bryce. When I picked him up, I noticed that there was a light yellow liquid coming out of his ear. This made me freak out even more than I already was so I started yelling for my mom.

"Mom? Come here quick!"

She ran in with a toothbrush in her mouth and her jeans only half-way on.

She distracted me from why I was actually calling her, "Why are you getting dressed? It's not like you have to look good for the doctor."

She shrugged her shoulders then reached down to fully put her jeans on then continued to brush her teeth, "What did you call me for?"

"Oh, Bryce has this weird liquid running out of his ear. What's going on?"

She thought for a second and calmly said, "He probably has a ruptured eardrum."

"What? We need to get to the hospital now. Is dad up?"

"Yes, he's out in the car waiting for us."

"Well I'm going to get Bryce in his car seat and then I'm going out to the car. You need to hurry."

I was pushing my mom to get ready harder than I ever had before.

I got Bryce in the car seat and took him out to the car and saw that dad had brought Amberley out when he came out.

"Thanks for bringing Amberley out."

"No problem, honey. How's Bryce doing?"

"I don't know. Mom thinks he ruptured an ear drum because he has fluid coming out of it."

"Uh-oh. Where is your mom?"

"She's inside brushing her teeth."

He chuckled, "Your mother is the only one I know who will brush her teeth at 1 in the morning to go to the E.R."

"I know."

Mom finally managed to make it out to the car and dad drove us to the E.R.

Unfortunately for us, the E.R. was very busy. There was a middle aged man with a bloody bandage wrapped around his hand, there was another man around the age of 20 who was wheezing really badly, there was a girl with a really swollen lip and cheek, and then there was us.

We waited forever. And I'm not joking when I say forever. We were waiting for almost 2 hours.

Bryce cried almost the whole time we were waiting and so that made time go even slower.

When we were finally called back, we had to wait 10 more minutes for the doctor to show up.

"I'm sorry about the wait, how can I help you?"

"Uhm, my baby possibly has a ruptured ear drum. He has been crying all night and then just a few hours ago, a light yellow fluid started coming out of his ears."

"Ok, have you recently had his ears checked?"

"Yeah, just a few days ago. His doctor mentioned that he had a little bit of fluid in his ear that could possibly turn into an ear infection."

"Ok, well let me look into his ear," he said, "Yep, sure enough. He has an ear infection and ruptured ear drum. I'm going to put him on an antibiotic and he should get better in a few days."

The doctor gave us the prescription for the antibiotic and then we left.

On our way to the pharmacy, I noticed that Bryce was sleeping, holding his hands on his chest. He was peaceful.