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Written at the ER...I'm typing this post on my phone in a dimly lit hospital room, my 19 month old asleep in my arms. SpongeBob is on mute on the wall-mounted TV, not nearly as entertaining as those Madagascar penguin fellows on before him. My right shoulder is soaked with baby drool. We're in the ER because this is where the pediatrician said we needed to go, the pediatrician I took my son to because of the 103 temperature that hit him today at daycare. It might be pneumonia, she said. Or swine flu, yep, that's still around, even if it's not front page news anymore. But don't be scared, she said. Very treatable, she said. Several times.

So now we're here at the ER, have been here all afternoon. Flu, pig or otherwise, has been ruled out. They took an X-ray of my boy's chest to see how his lungs are doing, easily the freakiest and most traumatic procedure I've ever allowed the medical establishment to perform on either of my kids. For the uninitiated, the child is placed into a device not unlike a baby bouncer where their legs go out the bottom. But there is no bouncing in this contraption. In fact, there's no movement at all. That's sort of the idea. The top half of the baby's body is held still by two pieces of molded plastic that are brought together around their torso with their hands raised above their heads. Aside from their face, legs, and fingers, the kid cannot move. And the parent gets to watch from the comfort of the control booth while the kid screams his head off. It may have sounded like baby gibberish to anyone else, but I clearly heard the words "forsaken" and "betrayal." *---* So now it's today and the ER visit was yesterday. I'm working from home today since the baby is stll a no-go for daycare. The work comes in quick bursts, anytime the little dude is distracted enough to let me sit down and focus for a few minutes. Same with writing this post, so my apologies. For a child who slept all of 19 minutes last night, he's remarkably untired and, at present, happy. It is as if the fever imbued him with the power to never need sleep, a power that I could only imagine useful in a limited set of circumstances, like avoiding Freddy Krueger. As a mere mortal however, I have no such powers, so I'm dragging. My mood is for shit, and the backs of my eyes have that heavy achy feeling. None of which is conducive to writing. Again, my apologies. As it turns out, my child has neither flu nor pneumonia. He merely has "something viral." It merely has to "run its course." So of course that's fantastic. I just wish it hadn't involved an afternoon in the ER to determine that ever-so-conclusive conclusion. I'm resisting the urge to be pissed at the pediatrician for sending me for a seemingly unnecessary visit and costing me who knows how much...better safe than sorry and all that basic wisdom. Perhaps this fulfills our ER quota for the year, so we won't have to come back for a while. Here's hoping.