The one where Captain America goes to the ER sporting blue hair

If you'll remember from previous posts, Captain America is my husband. It's new. I'll forget about it soon enough, don't worry.

Friday after work Captain America took Ella with him to get a hair cut. Ella is cute, and Captain America will do darn near anything she asks of him (must get her to start in on "you should buy Mommy diamonds for your anniversary"). Furthermore, his hair person is kind of a trouble maker. Between the two of them they convinced him to have his hair sprayed blue in the front. Because, you see, we weren't going anywhere. So Ella and Daddy had matching blue bangs. How fun.

Flash forward.

Around 6:45 Ella starts clutching her side and screaming and crying and carrying on. We run through the usual suspects (do you have to go potty? are you hungry? are you thirsty?), but this is a different and definite pain. After about an hour, we're pretty sure we're stuck taking her to the ER (Lake Wobegon has no urgent care).

Our hospital/clinic is adding on, so getting to the ER itself was a little like tracking down someone on the Sopranos. Had to go in one side, walk clear across to the other side, and go to a closed door with no windows, then press the yellow button. At which point the staff we had walked past when we came in all peeked down the hall to see that, sure enough, someone was waiting. We waited in front of mystery door for a minute or two, causing Captain America to mutter, "I'm glad my arm isn't severed." Indeed. The door opens to Cutie Petutie Nurse. She gets us through the obligatories while Dr. New is on the other side of the curtain talking to Grandma about her 800th UTI. "Any blood in the urine?" "Not yet, that's why I came when I did. I know the symptoms." They need thicker curtains. Or, maybe walls.

Once Dr. New came over to our curtain, we established that his daughter may well be in Ella's kindergarten class in a few weeks. I mostly liked Dr. New, but will get to that later. And please keep in mind, Captain America has blue hair.

Dr. New gives Ella the run through, and I must say, I appreciate his thoroughness. At one point he says, "Does anyone in your family have Cystic Fibrosis, or {insert other weird disease name here}?" Uh, NO. Exam goes on. He settles on pulled ligament or onset of shingles. If no angry red rash appears, pulled ligament. Phew. "The reason I asked about the Cystic Fibrosis and {other disease name} is that sometimes with those the internal organs will be flipped, so appendicitis pain would be on the left instead of the right." Bravo, Dr. New. Again, impressed with the thoroughness. But DUDE. You must include that explanation DIRECTLY following the question. Anyway, I liked him. And I like my small town, where your kids are in school together. Like when Ella got stung by a bee at preschool, and Dr. Mom checked it out when she picked up her daughter.

ANYWAY.

So off we go, with a very expensive lollipop and ibuprofen/tylenol dosage chart, to pick up Natalie from Grandma & Grandpa's. Ella is still unable to walk, and needs her legs pulled up to her. We sit down for a few minutes to regale them with our story, and not 20 minutes later, Ella stands up on the couch, steps to the coffee table, leaps off and runs to the other room. Well. I guess she's fine then.

So that's how we spent Friday night. Blue hair and all. I am so sorry to report there are no photos. I really wanted to, but felt it more appropriate to focus on the screaming child.