Crappin

We are at the hospital. Rilee has been sick for a week on and off maybe longer. I've had a nasty bout with a stomach ailment. Nothing but water comes out if anything at all. My intestines are in knots that crease and tighten on top of each other. Cramps, nightsweats, a passing chill and nausea are my constant companions. Did I say nothing but water is excreted from my body?

At one point, I told myself that food sickness & diarrhea were going to be a realistic evil. I thought we'd suffer a few times going into this adventure. Now it's every single day and the minute I decide to pretend it doesn't exist, to operate in spite of it, has only made what was bad worse. Eat whatever the hell you want has been my Bourdain like motto. It has been a recipe for disaster.

Sibte the financial advisor sat me down and said I need to inspect the nails yes, fingernails of my staff. I'm thinking over all the meals I've eaten. I may never ever eat again.

Elaine the nurse listens with a sympathetic ear. Her lovely British accent has a calming effect on me. She has now decided to send us to the hospital. She hands me a lime green sticky in the shape of an apple with a name and a time. She speaks with facilities so that a driver can take us.

Leaving school in Pakistan to go to the doctor is an exercise. It's not like we want to go to Disneyland. Just to the doctor. We don't want to excrete water from our behinds. Auub has the misfortune of being our caretakers. He parks outside of Shifa hospital. Rilee and I try to maintain our composure, but just going there, meaning the car ride makes us both queasy.
Following behind a seven foot man in light blue pajama pants and a free flowing shirt is tedious in the repressive heat & humidity. We walked half a block and I want to collapse.
We stay behind Auub like two baby ducklings. Rilee and I hold hands. He protects us from oncoming traffic and we do our best to stay with him. He's probably 50 years old, but daddy long legs strides once or twice and we take 2.5 little steps to his one.
The hospital is full. There are people swarming everywhere. Rilee and I stand out in our t-shirts and jeans, but I don't care. Too sick to care. Auub is patient with us. We go through reception...we see more people. Old, young, frail some unfortunately disfigured, some with wounds, some coughing. We circle around looking for a place to sit. Unfortunately, there are people far worse off than us, so I give them our seats. Auub circles around and says "Two together, you sit." We sit.

We see the doctor and the nurse. They weigh us and take our blood pressure. We hear a man throwing a fit at the front counter. He's yelling appointment in English. The rest is in
Urdu, but everyone stops to witness an adult temper tantrum. Even his sandals are unbuckled.

The doctor wears western clothes and has thick glasses . He speaks fluent English. He asks what happened. I explain to him that I've never been sick with this kind of illness. No illness other than the birth of a child has taken me out for a week.
He examines our tummies and asks more questions. He thinks we have food poisoning. We will have blood drawn, stool samples, and medicine. Auub makes a mad dash for the pharmacy line while Rilee and I collapse into the lab line. In two blinks of an eye Auub the magical creature is back.

He gets yelled at and told to leave, but he never leaves us. The lab tech double gloves and sticks the needle in. I say ow, it's a mean little pinching sensation. Auub laughs, but in a friendly way. It's over.

Rilee isn't as lucky. The lab tech misses her vein and once again she's jabbed. Tears roll down her cheek. Auub pats her head and for the first time Rilee is actual tough. The lab tech probes the needle in to my daughters arm. I'm watching her flinch.

Shortly after this we are shuttled back to school. Back in my office, there is a mound of paperwork to do, papers to grade, and then I notice my iphone alarm going off. Crap. What must I do now?

I pack up my stuff to head to sports event software training with Kashif, Junaid, and Kai. My girls burst in about half an hour in to the training. Realizing Rilee is dehydrated and sick we go home. My stomach grumbles and it seems to me, if eating were optional I'd pick that option.
On the way out, I stop by an office of a colleague having problems with our drive folders. I check his permissions and see they are all wrong. Tomorrow, I tell him the kids want to go home.
The day, which started off grim has been in a word "crappin". In adventure? Yes. A fairy tale with magical sprites and unicorns? No. It will continue because tomorrow is a new day my friend. A whole new day.