A Love Letter to the Medical Community

You won't see this often from me.  I'm not a fan of the whole white coat deity thing.  I prefer to stay healthy and treat things naturally.  I'd much rather avoid the doctor if at all possible (hence the whole homebirth with midwives thing).

That being said, I completely recognize that there are things beyond the scope of the more natural healing (for instance, the child who got stuck during the first planned homebirth which necessitated a transfer to the hospital and a necessary c-section).

After the youngest was sick for a full week (and the rest all eventually followed, including the herder of the goat rodeo), I realized this was one of those times.

Problem is, it would be impossible to make 5 doctor appointments at once plus it would cost a fortune (my 2 youngest have never been seen by our family doctor and would therefore cost us $150 each just for them to walk in the door, not counting whatever it would cost for the rest of us).  And, with the husband having a new job comes new insurance.  Unfortunately, with new insurance does not always come new cards necessary for using the aforementioned new insurance.

Luckily, the magical mystical cards appeared on Friday.  Unluckily, it was Friday aka You Have Absolutely No Chance Of Seeing The Doctor Today Day.

Saturday comes and we're all still sick.  E. seems to be worse than ever.  So I decide that, after Shabbat, we'll all go to the closest urgent care.  That happened today and all is right with the world.

So, now, without further ado, I present my love letter to the medical community.

Dear Medical Community,

I love you.  I might even go so far as to say I "heart" you and I, as a grown woman, don't "heart" many things.

I admit, I'm not generally your biggest fan.  Your practices often baffle me.  You do things that studies have established are not helpful yet you ignore methods used for generations which are shown to work quite well.  I will, however, admit that there are things for which you are very useful.  Strep is one of those such things.

Today, I paraded the goat rodeo in to the urgent care lobby in all of our germy glory and the office manager's eyes stayed firmly in their sockets.   I was surprised when they didn't bulge out upon our arrival.  When she handed me all 15 forms to fill out (no, I'm not kidding), she even apologized.


Nurse cranky pants, I could have done without you.  I get that weights and blood pressure probably isn't the most exciting thing to be doing on Sunday morning, but there really was no excuse for being quite so rude.  My kids were awesome during all that, by the way, thanks for not noticing.  You were miserable and a bit of a pest.  Thankfully, our time with you was brief.  Here's hoping your day improved.  P.S. If you ever come across that big biker dude nurse who used to work here, tell him, I say, "Hi."  That guy rocked.

Doctor Buffy made up for Nurse Cranky Pants.  She walked into the room and introduced herself not as, "Doctor ....," but simply as "Buffy."  I hope I was able to hide my initial surprise that people outside Joss Whedon's imagination actually name their children such things.  Doctor Vampire Slayer, you were wonderful!  You commented constantly on how well-behaved the kids were and how cute they were (you get bonus points for that).  When you found out I was nursing (which YOU asked.  I didn't have to bring it up.  Thanks for that), you made certain any prescription was safe.  I could have made that easier for you if my copy of Dr. Hale's "Medication and Mothers Milk" hadn't gone for a walk somewhere.  Sorry about that.

While the Volde-Mart pharmacist was useless, you, Walgreens pharmacist, win the gold star award today.  You had the same initial issue as Useless at Volde-Mart, but you, Walgreens pharmacist, went above and beyond to solve it.  It took you ten minutes to sort through what the Death Eater seemed to believe would involve at least two full games of Monopoly worth of time to figure out.  We were able to pick up our prescriptions soon after and only pay a whopping $5 each for the ever-loving elixir of hope.  Thank you, Walgreens pharmacist.  I just about love you right now.  It took everything in my power to resist the urge to kiss you, but, as a friend pointed out, we all have strep, so you probably appreciate a thumbs up from a distance instead.

Now, we've all started on our medication and we're all starting to feel much better.  We can, once again, peek our heads out from behind this curtain of illness go out into the wide wide world.  Oh happy day!  We can leave our home without fear of infecting our dear friends (or hope of infecting our mortal enemies).  I wish that we didn't need to rely on such medications, but we are ever-so-grateful that they are there with their magical powers.


From the bottom of my happy little heart (and unscratchy throat), I thank you.

Sincerely,
Me

For Sale

Photo by julia.picturetaker via Flickr.

For Sale:

Hurry and scoop up your 1300+ square feet of happiness.

Beautiful home in a nice neighborhood. It's not Edmond. It's not Norman. But hey, it's nice enough. Excellent home for a young family.

Corner lot means a large yard with plenty of room for children to play. Great for entertaining on summer evenings. This yard has been home to pools, swing sets, barbecues, parties, slides, handstand competitions, and bike races. Its potential is limit-less. This enchanted outdoor area possesses the magical powers which helped not one, but two children learn to ride without training wheels. Try your luck and see what magic this yard holds for YOU.

This back yard is famous. It was featured both on CNN and Washington College Magazine. CNN featured this yard (via a photograph taken in it) on the front page of their website as part of their "Coming Home" special report in honor of Memorial Day 2006. The yard was featured in a different photograph published in the Spring 2004 Washington College Magazine. No other yard in Oklahoma can claim these honors.

Formal dining room where countless family dinners have been eaten and an endless stream of crafts have been created.

1 bathroom which may seem like enough when that family is just a gleam in your eye, but will quickly become a bit of a nuisance. It's only a slight one, though. Because, as the last inhabitants and their four children have proven, it can be done and no one is going to explode RIGHT THIS MINUTE no matter how much the little ones may bounce up and down when it's already occupied.

Spacious playroom, fabulous for impromptu dance parties. Carpeting throughout this area to best cushion children and their attempts at gymnastics. In this room, you'll find the memory of three babies' first steps. This is the room where the military wife alone with only her twin babies first learned of the war in Iraq. As an added (happier) bonus, the walls of this room still contain the laughter of that same wife when she lost her ever-loving mind and decided to try hula hooping on the Wii Fit at 9 months pregnant.

Off the playroom is, what should have been the master bedroom, but instead is currently a huge office.  Are you a writer?  Then this office is calling your name.  This office is where one of the former inhabitants wrote a number of published parenting articles along with her first novel and where the other inhabitant wrote a constant stream of critically acclaimed screen plays and graphic novels for which he won some local fame.  If the writing bug alludes you, this office could still serve you well.  Do you need a home office?  Well, here ya go.  Do you just like the sound of referring to, "My office?"  Then this house has you covered.  

The front door opens to a Great Room with gorgeous hardwood floors. This makes an excellent formal living room as you can keep kids' toys (and messes) relegated to the back playroom. The layout of this fabulous home allows you to convince your friends and random people determined to sell you things (like Sonic cards, cookies, and/or Jesus) that you are actually a far better housekeeper than you might actually be.

The Great Room also opens to the kitchen. Storage space in this kitchen was doubled in 2003 with the addition of extra cabinets and counters. You will never be without a place to store food or kitchen containers in here. This kitchen boasts a breakfast nook. If you use it as such, the current owners request that you send pictures because that's what they always intended to do, but never did. High cabinets means you'll always have a place to hide snacks from the children (or your short spouse).

All major kitchen appliances are included. With your purchase, you'll receive a fridge, oven and dish washer. All of which, have been meticulously scrubbed and cleaned every year for Pesach. 

Just off the kitchen is a small laundry room. More than comfortably fits a washer and dryer and either a deep freeze or large utility shelf. The last owners had a freezer. Current owners have a large metal utility shelf. See how creative you can be with the space. Can you top their ideas? Do you want to put up a rock climbing wall? Snap this beauty up and install the most beautiful climbing wall you've ever seen.

4 bedrooms filled to the brim with memories. In the master bedroom, a baby was born. In one of the front bedrooms, a baby boy took his first steps. In the other front bedroom, twin girls spent many nights reading the Harry Potter series, saying prayers for their daddy while he was deployed and writing letters to friends. The large back bedroom works well as either a master bedroom or an office (see above). Its proximity to the playroom allows for easy surveillance of the children playing in there. It's distance from the rest of the house allows for peace and quiet even when children are arguing with each other elsewhere (i.e. in their bedrooms over who wears the blue sweater or in the kitchen over who gets to eat the last of the Cheerios).

Make an appointment today to see this dazzling jewel of a home.

"Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts."--Oliver Wendell Holmes