Hospitals

Last night was not a good night. Grace woke up about 3am and would not stop whimpering, crying, and screaming. She was in such a state that she was seemingly finding it difficult to get enough air into her lungs. This is VERY unlike her - she normally calms down within a few minutes, and normally just whimpers if she's upset or in pain. To be honest, it scared the living daylights out of us. Without trying to be one of "those crazy annoying parents" (mentioned in an earlier post) we decided that we needed to get her into the hospital post haste to make sure there wasn't something bad going on.

We drove Schumacher-speed into Taree hospital, with Grace seemingly even more upset most of the way there, until she stopped screaming about 15 minutes into the 20 minute trip. She was still obviously very upset, but at least she had stopped screaming. At this point, we wondered whether we should turn around and go back, but decided to get her checked out (right decision, as she started screaming again soon after). We saw a particularly disinterested-looking doctor, who looked in ears, eyes, throat, and used his magic thermometer and stethoscope, and said there was nothing major wrong, and that she had an ear infection (probably bought on from the head cold she has had the last few days), gave us some antibiotics, and sent us on our way. Although she yelled most of the time we were at the hospital, Grace finally fell asleep on the (decidedly slower) trip back to Manning Point. I am not quite sure who was more relieved - her or us. I reckon it was us, but it's not a competition...

Thankfully, Grace seems fine this morning - apart from basically climbing into her cot by herself an hour before her normal morning nap time (previously unheard of behaviour), you would never know about last night's adventures. And who said being a parent was boring?

On another note, for those who think GPS in-car navigation units are an expensive toy, think again. Picture this - you're in Manning Point, needing to get medical help in a real hurry. You think there's probably a hospital in Taree, but you don't know - there'd definitely be one in Port Macquarie, but that's another 40 minutes up the road. Do you go to Taree and drive around looking for a street sign, in the hope that they have a hospital??  Do you call someone and ask?? (Oh that's right - you don't have any mobile reception, and the local payphones only work when it hasn't rained for over a week - no kidding). 4 clicks on our GPS, and it lists the 5 closest hospitals - you choose the closest one that has an after hours emergency, and it navigates you to the doorstep, and even estimates your travel time, and what time you'll get there. Absolutely brilliant. We use it extensively on our trip for more mundane things, like working out, for example, how many kilometres and the likely travel time between Brisbane and Rainbow Beach, and having it warn us about upcoming speed cameras - not critically important things, but it makes life oh so much easier. Sometimes though, like last night, it really does come through for you, and makes you think "what would I do without it?". Tomtom nav units ROCK.