of the disgusting medical variety. (Told in a very, very long entry.)

This is so gross.

Friday morning I woke up with yet another case of mastitis (breast infection). After eight-plus years of nursing without a break, I still get this pretty often. My mom brought back a great homeopathic remedy from England that usually works really well to cure it, but this time, things got bad quickly.

I hurt all over, and my head felt like it would explode. I had a fever and chills and felt sick to my stomach. Of course, this was the day of the boys’ school Halloween parade and class parties. Lexy had a note sent home that said the kids could not wear their costumes until just before the parade, so I sent both the boys to school with their costumes in a bag. John drops Lex off in the morning on his way to work, bless him, and I take Nate at 11:25. When I took Nate to class, all the other kids had on their costumes. We didn’t have time to change him, so his teacher said that I could come back at 12:45 before the parade to help him get dressed. One other girl came in regular clothes, too. I felt really bad for Nate.

Back home, I fed the girls and took a shower to get some hot water on my breast. It was completly red and horrid looking. I decided to express some milk to relieve some of the discomfort. And (this is the gross part) along with the milk, there was pus. I nearly threw up, but I hadn’t been able to eat or drink anything, so I didn’t. It was so disgusting. It was also pink with blood.

After I got dressed, I just had time to get the girls into their costumes and out the door to go help Nate change. I brought along the egg eyeballs I made the night before for the parties. Take a hard boiled egg, cut it around the middle, and remove the yolk. Then fill the space with cream cheese, top with a green olive with a pimento, and you have egg eyeballs. Totally icky. But good, I’ve heard. I couldn’t bring myself to try any. When I left the house with all the stuff and the costumed girls (Sophie was a bat, Willow a jester) I brought my cell phone, thinking in my addled fever mind that I’d have a chance to call for an appointment at the urgent care.

Of course, I didn’t. When we got to the school, Nate’s class was at recess. He was sitting alone, on the far side of the playground. He saw me and came running with a grin on his face. His teacher said that there’d been lots of drama from him about the costume. I can imagine. I got him changed, and we went to Lexy’s class to drop off some egg eyeballs and a necklace that went with his hippy costume. He declared that Sophie was not allowed in his class, which was fine, since I was worrying about spending equal time at the class parties.

The parade began with the kindergarteners, the class next door to Nate’s going first. Sophie, however, being the brave spirit that she is, charged to the head of the line to follow the principal, who was dressed like a witch. I had to push Willow in the stoller to keep up with her (there are 400 kids at the school, and I didn’t want to lose her), so I hardly got to see Nate and Lexy. The whole time she marched at the front of the line saying, “I following da witch!”

When the parade was finally over, we went to the class party, where Sophie demanded candy. She had her costume on, and she wanted candy, damnit! She finally got a sucker or something near the end of the day, but there was a lot of crying and refusing of beautiful leaf shaped sugar cookies first. When it was finally time to go at 2:45, I was ready to lay down in the road. I was in bad shape. The boys didn’t want to leave school because the fifth graders had made a haunted house they wanted to see. I told them I just couldn’t stay, and we made it home by 3.

I was so relieved to see John’s car in the driveway. I got the kids inside, and he said that he’d take them with him to pick up his friend M, and let me rest. The girls fell asleep, and I tried to get an appointment at urgent care, but no luck. They suggested I go to the emergency room. I cried and went to bed. I have public assistance type medical care, and the only place I can go is the county hospital. By the time I finish this story, it will be clear why I was crying at the thought of the er.

John came back with the boys and M, and they woke up the girls and went to the pumpkin patch and came back and carved pumpkins and had a pizza delivered, all while I stayed in bed. This is such an uncommon thing, me being in bed all afternoon. I was so spacy, though.

Finally, I called my mom and asked her to take me to the hospital. My fever was 102.3 and I knew I couldn’t wait until Monday to be seen. So, she came and drove me to the emergency room. We got to the hospital at 8 pm, and I told my mom that I didn’t expect to be seen before midnight. She didn’t believe me and thought I’d be home by then. Heh. Then mom went to my house so John could drop off M and come to the hospital. Everyone chipped in and cleaned up the messy house.

When I checked in they took my vitals and gave me some tylenol. I sat and waited for a couple of hours for John to come. About midnight I told him to go home so my mom could go sleep at her house, and that I would call her to come pick me up when I was done. It’s good we did that. I wasn’t called back until, drum roll please, 4 am. Eight hours of a hard chair, and chills, and disgruntled people, some of whom were less than mentally stable. And this was a calm, uncrowded night. The worst part was the movie that was on the tv from 2 until 4. Let me see if I can find it on google. Here it is. It was one of the dumbest, most violent movies I’ve ever seen. And, you know, I’d looked at all the halloween decorations after six hours so I found myself watching in spite of my horror.

So, they took me back at 4 and got a look at my breast. Yup, they said, you need some antibiotics. I told the doctor about the pus, but he didn’t see any and couldn’t feel an abcess, and decided that I just had mastitis. He said, maybe what you saw was milk tinged with blood. I said, that no, what I saw was certainly pus. He said that was unusual, which I guess means he didn’t believe me. Whatever.

I called my mom and got home by 5:30 or so. I ate for the first time since thursday night, a piece of bread with peanut butter and some almonds, and took a shower. This time there wasn’t any pus, so I got some clean pj’s on and went to bed at 6:15. The kids had me up by 8. Grrrrr. My mom came over at 9 and John went to work. Then my mom took Nate to get my prescription filled. They came back with beautiful flowers, medicine, new electric toothbrushes for the boys and hairbands, clips and ponytail holders for Sophie, oatmeal, soup, tea, shower gel, bath salts, diswashing soap, a card for the kids to send my Grandmother for Thanksgiving, and another card with a baby on it that looks like Willow. Then Nate and Sophie went to the car wash with their Granny. Sophie left her hair decorations on the front seat, and they disappeared. Nate was really upset, because he had picked them out for her. They have such a love-hate relationship.

John came home briefly to eat lunch, then left to do a birthday party. He came home a couple of hours later and took over so I could sleep, which I did off and on all day. I’m feeling more human, but I just took a shower and, icky, icky, there was lots more gick coming out. I think this means that I have a breast abcess, not just mastitis, but I guess since it’s draining I don’t need to worry. It’s just a little worrysome, since an abcess can require surgery.

K. I’m exhausted.