Grateful ... with a maze of comedy

What a day! In the big scheme of life - this one worked out super duper well and I am not taking the worry and stress I had for half of my day lightly. Fear is real. Worry is real. No matter the person, it is a real emotion. And while I try not to play into either of those - I am just a normal chick that can play into both. I'm human.

My son has been complaining for over four weeks of his right leg hurting. Knee pain. Leg pain. Ankle pain. Some days were worse than others, but it was consistent. The pediatrician that we loved when our children were newborns, and throughout the majority of their life, retired. Leaving us in amazing hands with the doc that took her place a few years ago. The kids enjoy this new doctor's personality, and I appreciate her frankness and education.

During our last visit with our prior doc, she filled us with a rattled off list of what to look for in the years to come. Some tips, and things to watch for - more in the fashion of a sweet friend wanting to make sure everything was in order before she left. I really appreciated her insight as she just rattled them off - and the one that has always stuck was; if growing pains don't leave throughout the day, and become constant pain, call the doctor.

Long story shortened to just the fun stuff ... after a serious discussion with our current doc today, blood work, and a series of xrays, our follow-up phone call was all good news. So Thankful!

After a little spell of nausea and weakness after his blood draw, two apple juices and crackers later, we were headed over the skybridge from the doctor's office to the hospital to Medical Imaging. My kiddos and I pass this skybridge every time we go to the doc, and they have always wanted to venture to the "other side".

We did today, and let's hope we never have to go back.

Talk about a complete maze! The nurse at the doctor's office showed me the map on the backside of the form I was to hand the xray technician. Although not very detailed, it looked simple. Go over the skybridge, take a Left, enter East Elevator, and go to the fourth floor. Simple.

Cross the skybridge, there is no left. We continue. Still no left, we are actually going right. Finally there is a left in the hallway, but no elevator. We keep walking. We keep turning. Eventually we find a set of elevators, but they are labeled Northwest. Kinda the opposite of East.

A tall man in blue scrubs finds me looking in circles and offers to help. He walks us further into the depths of the hospital floor to a set of elevators, pushes the button and says, "Just hit number 4 and you'll be there."

Easy.

Doors open and we are amongst rows of beds and curtain separations. My son does not want to exit the elevator, but I know we can't stay in the elevator regardless if it doesn't look right. We need to find more help.

Nice lady in blue scrubs finds us upon exiting and I show her my paper. She says that I have the correct floor, but that we entered through the backside. She walks us through more hallways until we finally reach the front desk of Medical Imaging.

When we leave, the nurse shows us to the elevator.  The door closes, and we have buttons with options of floors higher than 4 ... or floors 1 and 2.  We entered the hospital on floor 3. There is no choice of a floor 3.

I know if we went to floor 1, we'd be street level, and I knew we needed to be above street level to get back to the skybridge. I figure that the two buildings connected by the skybridge probably just had a different numbering system; so I pushed 2.

We exit the elevator on floor 2 to find ourselves in another mess of hallways. A nice man in a suit with a hospital ID tag asked us if we needed help. Yes, yes we do. I am just looking for the skybridge to N Tower.  He starts to explain to go to Level 1 and then turn .... he couldn't remember which way to turn ... so he said, "Just follow me. I'm going to Level 1".  Back into the elevator we go.

Upon exiting this time, we see the skybridge sign and I was good to go. Winding my way left, right, straight -following the signs - we found our way to our skybridge. Finally.

I am so grateful that every one was so eager to help the confused mother with her son bandaged on both arms from his earlier blood draw (I know, two arms to get the veins to work!). There was no way I would have found my location to, nor from!

I am glad we had that comedy added into our day to help out the situation of a boy that didn't feel good after his morning doctor's visit, and a momma's fear and worry inside.