Look ahead?

Someone once said that the way you spend your New Year's Eve is indicitive of the way you'll spend the coming year. I certainly hope not.

The little one did in fact go to the doctor's yesterday. She clearly had whatever it was her brother has been battling. Dad took Logan last week (Friday actually to be sure he got in before the holiday).

When they walked in the door he said this, "Doctor said his right ear is a little red and that she heard some crackling when she listened to his chest. He's got 10 days of this pink stuff."

I frowned. "Did she say what it was exactly?"

He shuffled from foot to foot, "Well not exactly."

"Does he have to go back for a re-check?" I asked.

"Why?"

I shook my head. Clearly the lesson learned is never to send Daddy to the doctor appointments alone without a list of questions he's to ask. "They also have you come in for a re-check if the ear is infected," I explained to him. "I'll call the office to set something up in a few days."

I didn't have to call, as it turns out, because I was there yesterday with Meg. I gave the doctor the low-down. Her nose has been runny and a slight cough for roughly a week. Both have gotten worse. Her brother was in on Friday for the same thing and sent home with antibiotics for ear infection and crackling lungs. The doctor looked at Meg. She listened.

"The ear is a little red and she does have some slight chest congestion," she nodded in agreement. She talked about more meds and started writting on the little blue slip of paper I'd bring to the pharmacy.

"Does she need to come back for a re-check on the ear?" I asked. "I know we've done that for ear infections before."

The doctor nodded. I asked about Logan's ear too. She nodded. Then she looked up and said "The red ear does mean it's a mild ear infection. The chest congestion, well I'd call that the start of walking pneumonia. We definently want a recheck on the chest in 10 days."

What?!

"So the crackling? Is that what my son had too?" I asked her, almost thankful Dad had forgotten to ask last week. She nodded, "He needs to come back in 10 days from start of his meds too."

And so we'll spend New Year's getting ready for follow-up visits for two children with the onset of walking pneumonia.

That in itself won't be bad assuming they respond properly to the antibiotics. It's also my uncle. The call came this morning, he's slipping from semi-coma into deep coma. He can't eat or drink. Because he's on hospice care there is no feeding tube or saline drip. This is it. It's a matter of weeks, if not days. We could spend our New Year's at a funeral. It's not a surprise. We've known it's coming. And frankly, the way his health has been, his in ability to communicate or care for himself, to walk or to eat on his own, to clean himself or use a bathroom alone - this is for the best, but it won't be easy.