It's just like labor pain

Ah, the emergency room. I have visited very few times in my life - thankfully - and our children (hear me knocking on wood LOUDLY) have escaped the repeated visits that often come with childhood accidents.

Hubby...well...he's an ER master. Sprained ankle. Pneumonia. Asthma attack. Kidney stone.

He's a do-it-yourself kind of ER guy, too. He often drives himself. Doesn't feel the need for anyone to be by his side while he's waiting. Always seems to feel like a million bucks right after he's checked in and the pain meds kick in - but who doesn't?

This morning at 4:30 a.m. while he was apologizing for waking me up, he announced he was in incredible pain and was driving to the ER. My thought was: pain + driving = bad idea.  I offered repeatedly to call for an ambulance but he said no. Having two children sleeping soundly doesn't exactly lend itself to offering to drive him there - although the hospital is less than a mile away so even a drive and dump at the door would have had me missing for less than 5 mins (NO, I would NEVER leave my children alone! On purpose, that is...)

As he described his ailments I thought, kidney stones or appendicitis. And after walking him to the door to wish him luck on his drive to the ER, I quietly did a search online and, once again, earned my WebMD medical degree.

I lay awake waiting for the call that he arrived safely...or that he was being sent home...or admitted....any call at all. And sure enough that came a little after 5 a.m. There was an IV, pain meds and he was just going to wait for the Dr. I rolled over after we hung up and pretended I went back to sleep - didn't happen. The WebMD site had me second guessing my diagnosis so I tossed and turned.

By the time I was able to get to the hospital after dropping the kids off at school and touching base with the awesome support network we have there, they were whisking him away for a cat scan. Sure enough it was a  kidney stone that would now float around in his bladder until it decided to come out. The kinda hot nice male nurse explained what was going on and offered his brilliant analogy so I could better understand the situation....

"When the stone is passing through your kidney, it is similar to labor pains."

I was going to offer up, "Well then hubby has 39 more hours of kidney stones to go, because I was in labor for 42 hours with my first child...."

But then I quickly decided it really wasn't about me, now was it...so I nodded and bit my tongue...for once. The nice thing about this ER visit is our hospital just unveiled like a 10 trillion dollar ER renovation (ok, not 10 trillion dollars) so we got to check it out. Very nice. Just missing Diet Coke in the vending machine - so I'll be taking that up with the staff next time we visit.  Which I'm hoping won't be until at least 2014.

Everyone take your place...

The first full day back to school is exciting....for the dog.

You see, he and I have had this amazing routine for years now - it started in 2007 when I started working from home - I wait for the kids to leave the house (I'll admit - I don't do mornings so hubby is the one rushing the kids around and out the door) and then I saunter downstairs and head over to his dog crate in my office, all covered with his dark sheet so he isn't disturbed by the sunlight, and let him out.

He runs to the back door ready to chase a squirrel and do his duty and then back inside for his breakfast and some conversation.  It usually sounds like this:

"Hey Bubba (although his name is Coach). Good morning. You hungry?"

He never responds.

I'll grab a quick bite, turn on the radio, sometimes rarely shower and turn on the computer to check the day's events.  He curls up right behind or next to my office chair and away we go. Routine. For hours. There are conference calls, trips to the fridge for Diet Coke refills, barking at the UPS or Postal trucks (him, not me) and lots and lots of email.

This past school year things changed a little -  there was bus duty thrown into the mix at 2:10 p.m. That usually involved barking on his behalf as I left the house to walk down the end of our street. This year, there will be trips to the school as the bus ride home is off the list.  I'm sure that will evoke the same barking that the bus exit did.

So you see, for years now at the start of the school year there is this return of "normal" for the dog. This celebration dance I'm doing right now is not for me...it's totally for him. I'm so happy his routine is back! He's not getting any younger, ya know.