Paging McSteamy...Dr. McSteamy...

Today I was planning on writing about Thanksgiving. I woke up feeling all warm and fuzzy...figuring I have a lot to be thankful for. Four cool kids, a good-looking canine. A belly full of sweet, sweet turkey. A job that pays me to think about little beyond my own existance, which suits me just fine. A Chester who I will see next weekend. Who I hear is planning on pampering me quite nicely, thank you. Great friends, a nice family...pretty lucky.

But then Callum woke up this morning with chest pains. Before all of you caring mothers out there take in a collective gasp of horror – he’s fine. Just fine – a bit bruised from bloody football (and yes, that’s how I see it now...bloody football) but otherwise in tact. And do you want to know how long it took me to find out my son was fine? Six. Long. Hours.

We went to the hospital as soon as I dropped the rest of the brood off. I was thinking we might be there for three hours or so. And I’ll admit it – I don’t mind the hospital. I like the enforced closeness it presses on me and whichever one of the boys is injured. I know – sick and deluded. But there you have it. And I wasn’t too worried about Cal. So I figured, hey. I’m sort of tired this morning. I can escape the dishes, the laundry and making my bed for a few hours whilst proving myself to be an excellent mother to boot.

At first it was kind of fun. Cal has inherited my strange obsession with people watching so we bonded in the emergency room. Watched that guy come in and use the hand sanitizer as hair gel. Tried not to look at the young couple sitting across from us alternating between manic French kissing and texting. Discreetly moved away from the lady with the little girl who was vomiting loudly into a big pink bowl beside us.

We passed the time watching the staff closely, hoping to sense some sort of Grey’s Anatomy-esque sexual tension and/or drama. Would the triage nurse blush furiously and look away when the handsome Paramedic leaned down to talk to her? Would we notice a certain something in the way the doctor took Cal’s chart from the nurse? Would one of them suddenly contract a little known wasting disease and faint in the hallway, causing general uproar and drama? Would one of the doctors turn out to be the long lost love I’d never known I had?

Nope. Nothing. After about hour two of people watching, we got bored. Our doctor was just a nice, normal woman. She and the nurse seemed pretty dispassionate about each other. They closed our curtain. Nothing to see here.

We started re-enacting some favourite episodes of The Office. (American version...we’re so sick of everyone saying the British version is better. Just because they have British accents...) Cal told me about some funny stuff he had been watching on Youtube, causing me to marvel at how much time he actually spends on the computer. We went quiet for a bit, eavesdropping on patients in the next rooms.

About hour four we started getting hungry. Neither of us thought to eat breakfast and Cal was due for an ultrasound so food was out of the question. We were the sort of hungry when all you want to talk about is food. When you start reminiscing, saying things like ‘Remember that beef stew you made? And those biscuits? Those were the best.’ And planning out what you’ll eat once you get home.

By hour five we started thinking about making a run for it. I started to feel claustrophobic, felt like I was never going to be let out. We listened to everyone’s footsteps as they passed our curtain and got to know who was wearing which shoes. (Note to the woman in the high heels who paced back in forth outside our curtain at ten second intervals...I loathe you.) Cal tried using hypnosis on the doctor to force her to come back and see us, but I guess his powers don’t work so well through walls.

Finally...hour six. When I’ve just realized I was supposed to meet a friend for coffee around hour three. The doctor comes back in and tells us he’s fine. Smiles indulgently and tells us we can go and I seriously don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so beautiful as her in that very moment. I loved her. We can’t get out of there fast enough. We feel like we’ve just been let out of prison early. The world is our oyster. We can do whatever we want.

We came home and ate eggs. Way to take the bull by the horns.
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