Sick Days

Like most new mom's I call and go to the pediatrician, a lot. I never did think I got my money's worth when it came to my health insurance and had thought about canceling it several times when I was just covering myself. Now with Molly I am definitely getting my money's worth. I think it might be different if my mother was around to tell me that I don't need to go to the doctor because Molly's birthmark looks pinker today, than it did yesterday or that one hand looks bigger than the other or even that it is okay if she didn't poop at the same time she did the other day. I think mom's/grandma's can stop a lot of that unnecessary calling and harassing. Maybe the health insurance industry should look into that, really it would cost less to pay my mom for three months to stay at home with me that it would to pay all the doctor visits I did in the first three months of Molly's life.

When Molly was about four months old she started shaking. Her whole body would tense up and she would shake. Sometimes she would stop for a few seconds just to do it again. I of course called the doctor. I was working part-time and would work only on the days that Raymond was at home so of course she could get Molly in on the day I was at work.

Raymond the ever so loving papi took Molly to the doctor. Molly did this shaking episode while in the examination room and the doctor scheduled an appointment for us to see a neurologist that same afternoon. The doctor thought that she was having seizures. When Raymond called me, I ran out the door and meet them at the hospital. I know that I was sick with a feeling that something was wrong, I am tearing up just thinking about how I felt that day I was driving to the hospital. You can imagine, you have those same kinds of thoughts.

The neurologist hooked up a bunch of wires to my girl's head so that they could see what was happening in her brain and on the table she had the same shaking episode. I was happy that they could see it so they could witness what she was doing so we could get this fixed. After the doctor examined and looked at the EKG, he came to the determination that my girl, my precious baby girl has a temper. A TEMPER.

Apparently she was upset about something, learned that she could tense and shake her little body and get a reaction from me. How fun is this! I think my mom could have saved the health insurance a little bit of money on this one.

Now Molly is in day care. At first she went three days a week, now she goes 8-12 Monday through Friday but it does not matter the amount of time she is there because it is just enough time for her to pick up a toy, lick on it and get sick. At least one a month I have to call in sick. I am very lucky in that Raymond has a weird schedule and that he shares the calling in sick schedule, one day he will use sick time and then the next day I will. But I still feel that insecurity that everyone at work is looking at me and thinking that I call in sick too much. Maybe you don't know this feeling because you are the one giving the look and I ask you to please be kind, they might be a new mommy too and are running to the neurologist as we speak.