Goodbye 2009

Good riddance.

The last week of the year was 2009's way of throwing one last flying elbow into our chests.

NuclearHeadNelly got up to 105.8 degrees on Tuesday.  We took her in to urgent care to see if they knew what was wrong and could help her in any way.  Of course, when we get her there, her temp had dropped to 97.  There's nothing for them to do for a kid that isn't presenting any symptoms, so we just took her home.

The next day, she was back up past 105 again.  We took her to see her regular doctor who promptly sent us on our way to the children's hospital for some blood work.  Whew! Action!! Action is my favorite.

Because our kid is stubborn -- her name even means "spirit of battle" and she earned it in the womb -- she somehow willed her veins not to dispense blood.  It took 4 arm pokes for them to even find a vein, then 3 nurses had to hold her in position while they forced the vein to give up the goods.  Even then, it took over an hour for them to get 2 small vials of blood from her.

She hated being there with a passion.  She cried to go home.  Even when her temperature dropped to 95 degrees, then leaped back up to 104.5, she was begging to go.  This, of course, lead to a hunger strike, which added to the misery of the hospital experience, because now she's also starving.

Two days of being in the hospital, 2 coloring books and a yellow balloon later, she's fine and back home.  I'm just sore that 2009 decided to kick us in the nuts this one last time before giving it up.

Here's hoping that 2010 is a year of good health.