The Splinter Saga

Keith got a splinter in his foot Monday morning - he was running around with his brother, we have hardwood floors... you see where I'm going with this? Anyways, Ed managed to get a HUGE chunk out of his foot Monday, and we could see that there was a little sliver left in his foot, but Keith was downright hysterical and it was pretty deep, so we thought we'd give it a little while. Had his soak his foot in Epsom salts, put some Neosporin on it... we did this a couple of times Monday, and then a couple of times Tuesday before school. Tuesday he goes to school, and the nurse called me to tell me his foot looked horrible and was infected. Um, oops. Before you give me the bad mom award, please know I have 1. a foot hangup and 2. a splinter hangup so I was trying not to look too closely at his foot. Ed and Keith were in charge of putting Neosporin on it. She suggested we take him in to the pediatrician. I call, get him an appointment that afternoon, and take him in. Oh, I forgot to mention, I don't currently have any insurance. I *could* COBRA our old insurance, but it's $1000 a month, so I'm hoping I don't have to. I have until 3/5 to decide though. Back to the story. I call my brother and beg him to take Henry for me, because the thought of taking all three kids to the pediatrician for an infected foot which you KNOW she's going to poke at was not on the top of my to do list. Oh, did I mention this was all happening in the middle of that snowstorm? Yeah. Adam was kind enought to agree to watch Henry, so I took him over there and then got Keith to the doctors. Sure enough, his foot was infected. Sure enough, she wanted to look at it. Key word there - LOOK. Not TOUCH, LOOK. Keith was NOT having it. He flipped out, screaming and crying and carrying on, the doctor was looking at me like *I* could reason with him, I'm trying to console a crying Caroline and convince Keith that SHE WAS NOT GOING TO TOUCH THE FOOT. Didn't work. So the doctor gave up, said put him on some antibiotics and come back on Thursday. At least she didn't tell me to take him to the ER where they had restraints, right? Because if she had I think I would have had a breakdown. So I pay them (cough cough seventy dollars cough cough) and load 2 out of 3 kids into the car and go get Henry. Take them all home, dump them off with Ed, and go to the pharmacy. I give the pharmacist the prescription and she says "is your insurance info the same?" and I said "no, actually, I don't have any. Can you get me the generic please?" Twenty minutes later, my debit card is smoking from the $89.99 charge at the pharmacy for a GENERIC ANTIBIOTIC. Yeah. Fast forward to today. We go back to the doctors, with all the kids this time. And Ed, because the doctor asked for two parents to be there to hold Keith down when she tried to get the rest of the splinter out. So we get in the room, I give Caroline to the receptionist, and the doctor gets the tweezers out. And, again, all hell breaks loose. The nurse comes in and gets Henry, because Keith is screaming and Henry is crying and did I mention all hell was breaking loose? Funniest part was Keith calmed down enough to catch his breath and said "Are you going to get my splinter?" when the doctor was halfway done digging around in his foot. I guess it didn't hurt as bad as he was letting on! So she pulls out about six little tiny splinters, puts the tweezers down, and looks at his foot again. Says "I really think there's more in there, squeezes it a little, and a ONE INCH SPLINTER comes out of his foot!!!! NO WONDER IT WAS INFECTED!!!! So now, all is well in the land of Keith's foot. He's got antibiotics in his system, neosporin on his foot, and no more splinters. His mom is broke, but I think it was money well spent!