Yet another fun filled day at clinic

Thursday, I took Drew to clinic. Scratch that- I took Drew, Brice, Isaiah, Alexandria, Sydney and Bree to clinic. Now clinic is indeed, more than set up to accomodate kids (a whole post on our awesome, amazing clinic is comming soon) but when you have so many little ones, even this poses a problem. And the problem is my inability to be in all places at once, to make sure that Sydney is sticking to the toys that are appropriate to her and NOT dumping puzzle pieces (she was) and that the twins are not pulling out DVD's and CD ROMS out from all over the place (they were).
The cause for the clinic visit was this time, due to Drew's coughing up blood and possible sinus infection. With Drew, his platelets seem to view all illness as an excuss to drop lower, lower, and lower still. The day was insane as I knew it would be. Albert had parent teacher conferences and was thus totally unable to provide any assistance or relief.
We woke up at 8:30. Called clinic at 8:40 when I discovered that Drew was indeed still coughing up the bloody mucus. Discusting I know. Try as I might to word Drew's symptoms in a way that might buy us more time to watch at home, Dr. Rob said he needed to come in....darn the luck.
The next hour was spent in a whirl of feeding babies. Changing babies. Dressing babies. Nursing youngest baby. Packing a bag...lets see...diapers for 4, three sippy cups, wallet, wipes, car keys, water for me...lunch for all of us...okay should be good. Phone call to neighbor to see if Jackson can get off the bus at her house afer as I know from experience that I will not be home by then. Phone call to elementary school to tell them Brice will be absent. Phone call to bus garage to tell them Brice will be absent. Phone call to clinic to tell them we are leaving NOW but will probably still be late. Begin loading car. Strap five kids into van. Drew is immensly helpful with this. Get ready to back out of driveway and realize I forgot my tea in the fridge. Jump out and grab it. Hop back in van and get on the road. Brice has un-buckled himself. Pull over and yell at him. Go to bank to get out twenty bucks in case we need something. Get on interstate. Have mini panic attack because I forgot to pack stroller. Drew reassures me that he had indeed remembered and had packed it earlier while I was getting the bag ready. I knew I raised a great kid..who will be a FABULOUS husband. Drive for an hour mostly peacefully but occasionally punctuated by Sydney's random screaming when she squirms or gets uncomfortable in her seat, or by Brice making his usual round of complaints..."The twins are touching me"...."Alexandria's hair is touching me" This last one made me giggle. Drew complains that he needs to cough up mucus and what should he do about it....well...son....swallow it till we get to clinic. The windows in our van are broken. Don't know what else to tell him.
Get to clinic. Unpack quad stroller. Unpack all the little ones. Stop Brice from running out into traffic about 6 times. Push through the lobby quickly and with my eyes focused downward so as to ward off the usual comments/questions/concerns from onlookers. Debi, I know you know what I mean. Almost get closed in elevator as I try to push the quad stroller in while wrangling Brice to stay with us.
At clinic, the kids are released from the confines of the stroller and are free to roam. This is both a blessing and a curse. They are happy but they are busy. I've already warned the staff.
Dr. Rob looks Drew over and orders labs and writes a script for an antibiotic to cover him for a sinus infection. An hour later counts come back...33. Not horrible and under other circumstances we may have just come back in a few days and seen where he was then, but since Drew is already sick, we know that his counts will go nowhere but down from here so Dr. Rob decides to treat him. This means 6 hours of IVIG. You have got to be kidding me. When Dr. Rob delivers this news, I tell him and several others that there is not enough Zoloft in the universe that will get me thru this day. I then repeat this statement to myself several more times. It becomes a mantra.
Babies are running everywhere. Sydney is running with sissors. Twins and Sydney are taking apart puzzle after puzzle..mixing up the pieces. I am taking them away and putting them back together. Isaiah shoves tiny toy plates and cups from the pretend kitchen set into the tunnels in the sensory wall and blocks it up. Jamie fixes it. Jamie also threatens kids with their lives if they make a mess and don't clean it up since she'd spent the whole previous day cleaning and organizing the activity room. She gives Brice and the twins giant foam easter eggs to decorate. She takes out a package of stickers...brand new and lays them out neatly, explaining to the kids that they may use the stickers to decorate the eggs. Brice, in a whirl of activity that defies explanation, plucks off every single sticker and amasses them ALL on his egg...in one giant sticker heap and then proudly calls out "DONE!" Alexandria looks on deflatedly as now there are no stickers for her to use. I quickly decide that this is the end of the Easter project.
Throughout the day, kids run in and out of the activity room. Overall they are actually well behaved as Dr. Rob reminds me. It's just the sheer number of them. We get to visit with Jill. That's always nice. She and Drew play a game of scrabble. We also see our old friend Jamal and are sad to learn from his Grandma that he has relapsed and will need a second bone marrow transplant. Damn Leukemia. We are praying for him.
The day drags on and on. Long after everyone else is gone, we are still there. Well us and poor nurse Gina who is scheduled to leave for Las Vegas the next day and still hasn't packed yet. We sit, we stand, we lie. Nurse Gina sits with us. We watch the kids play. I dress the girls up in dress up tutu's and think of Tuesday. Alexandria is in her glory wearing them. Sydney looks hilariously out of place (think Marla Hooch in "A Leauge of Their Own). It's jut not her personality. I make the kids clean up fifty thousand times. Finally Drew is finished.
When we finally pull back in our driveway...it's a quarter till eight. At night. We are exhausted. Albert has dinner ready, thank God. We eat. We put kids to bed. We sleep.
Those long days at clinic are rough. Taking all the kids is rougher. We made it.
We will need to go again soon. Brandon is due for counts. His is a visit that mentally I like putting off. He seems to be doing so well, that if he really, secretely isn't...I sort of don't want to know. Yes, I know I can't do that, but that's what part of me feels like. So next week, I'll call to schedule him. Maybe we'll bring him late in the week or early the next one. He likes to go on Mondays but secretly I think it's just because he know's that those are called "Munchie Monday's" at clinic and mean that lunch is catered by a local resteraunt. Can't blame him, but can't always indulge it either. Not suprisingly, Monday's are busy (apparently all the other kids like Munchie Mondays too) and plus it would be greedy to always book our appointment then just for free lunch!
As I said, there will be a whole post on our beloved clinic comming soon. Stay tunned...