Thank You, Telehealth!

– Hi everyone. Is me, Seth. I realize Nate get some accolades the other day over silly dance and funny-face pictures. But just in case you is thinking Nate the only one with future in entertainment business, last night I decide spontaneously to act out pivotal scene from Exorcist movie. 

I decide 'dis after I go to bed for full dramatic effect during "light turning on" moment.

Judging from look on Mommy's face she find my performance both horrifying and believable. I give myself five stars.

– And now I give you a little smile so you know I is OK after rough night. Mommy still look a little traumatized though. 

•   •   •   •   •

Mommy note: After supper last night, Seth had a few blotchy patches around his neck and chest. I was a little concerned that he was having an allergic reaction to something he'd just eaten, but Seth – being of the fair skin and no stranger to unprovoked blotching – seemed OK otherwise (no swelling or trouble breathing for example). I decided to keep an eye on it and an hour later as I was getting him ready for bed I could see that although the blotchiness had faded some it was still there. Just to be on the safe side, I gave him a small dose of Children's Benadryl (2 ml.) and put him to bed shortly after.

30 minutes later I heard him crying, which isn't totally unusual. Seth often has a hard time settling into a deep sleep in the first hour or two after bedtime. I walked into the nursery expecting a baby that needed a little cuddle and some soothing. Instead I was met with a scene pretty much like Seth described at the top of this post.

It was one of those moments when you just have to stop, take a breath and try to form what you hope will be the best plan of attack. All I could think for the first second or two was, "where do I even start?".

Seriously, it was epic.

I'm pleased to say that my Mommy-powers kicked into high gear immediately following that thought and I had Seth tidied up, dressed in fresh pajamas and back asleep in a clean bed in under half an hour. Somewhere in there, I also made sure to check if he still had any redness and took his temperature as well. I felt surprisingly calm, cool and collected the entire time – unlike the time I most definitely lost my cool (not to mention precious Mommy cred!) by mostly falling apart during the infamous Toe Tragedy. I got my Mommy stripes back and then some.

Until after it was over of course – then (and only then) did I panic a little. Which brings me to the title of this post.

Thank you, Telehealth!

Telehealth is a free phone-in service available in Ontario that allows you to speak directly with a registered nurse for non-emergency situations. Not only that, but when you call you have the option of remaining on hold OR leaving your name and number and a nurse will call you back (I chose the latter). The service operator will even let you know approximately when that will be (in our case it was 30 minutes) so you aren't left waiting and wondering.

But wait, there's more!

If you're really lucky like I was you will get a call back from Nurse Veronica. She was not only very thorough with asking questions, but took the time to listen and respond thoughtfully to my answers. She was personable and reassuring and ended up putting my nervous-Mommy mind at ease a great deal. She even had a sense of humor.

In the end, she felt it was probably the Benadryl that upset Seth's tummy although she assured me that I did the right thing in giving it to him in the first place given the blotchy redness after supper. And then we joked a bit about the gross flavor of Children's Benadryl (bubble gum) and how that could make anyone feel worse because... what an odd choice of flavor. And even though she said it probably wasn't necessary, I still checked in on Seth every 20-30 minutes after I got off the phone and until I went to bed just in case. 

Because I'm a Mommy and that's how we roll.

And it turned out Seth was just fine and you would never have known anything out of the ordinary happened by the time we got up this morning. He was his usual self all day and even had the shenanigans to show for it.

- L.