Doctor Mama

I love co-pays. Don't you? It's just so much fun to wake up in the morning and think to myself, "I wonder how many co-pays I can pay today?" And then I call the doctor's office to see if they can work us in just so I can pay my co-pay. I'm kidding. Joking. Ha ha, funny funny. Co-pays really are a blessing in that I don't have to pay the entire doctor's bill, but it still is a hefty little chunk of money that I would rather spend on ice cream, or donuts, or shoes, or something important like that. There have even been a couple of times I've refused to go to the doctor just because they were going to charge me a co-pay. Like when Eli needed his stitches taken out. Most doctor's offices take stitches out free of charge, since you already had to pay to get them put in. But not my doctor's office. They like to charge for that service. So I enlisted Grandpa Nurse to take them out - it took all of five minutes and Eli was very happy to even get a sucker out of the deal. He still remembers that. And then there was the time the doctor wanted me to bring Seth in 3 months from then to weigh him to make sure he was gaining enough weight. Note that the doctor was not going to see him; it was merely an appointment to walk to their scale, plunk Seth down, and see how much he weighed. That's it. You better believe they wanted their co-pay. I decided my scale at home works the same as the doctor's office scale.
But when the kids are really sick, I'm willing to do whatever it takes for them to get some help. Like today, when little Eli was wheezing so much and coughing his head off (not literally, Mom). The nebulizer just wasn't doing the trick, and there wasn't anything else I could do. I was on the phone to the nurse and into the doctor's office in less than 45 minutes. We were supposed to be worked into the schedule and the front desk lady told me we might have to wait 2 hours before we could be seen. But she didn't know she was talking to a Mama bear. Heh, heh. And we were talking to the actual doctor in 15 minutes. Score for the Mommy bear!
Now we have some prescription medicine for Eli to help with his asthma, and we have an inhaler that we can use whenever we're out and about (so we don't have to lug the big nebulizer around in the backpack). His asthma attack was most likely triggered by a cold. Savannah has a cold, too, and actually lost her voice today. For a talker, that's a hard thing to lose. But she made the best of it, and croaked out all kinds of stories today. I even caught her trying to sing to her Polly Pockets. Somehow, my explanation of not talking to help her voice get better didn't connect. Maybe I'm the one with no voice...

I pray that in all respects we may prosper and be in good health, just as our soul prospers (3 John 2).