Two sides to every story....

I spent last night in the ER with my grown up baby girl. She started on a regiment to help cure the bacterial overgrowth they have determined is in her belly making her sick.

Yesterday was her first day on the pills and after each dose she felt like crap.

She is taking 18 pills in all per day.

Too much medicine for a little 4ft 11inch,  90 pound spitfire.

Last night she took her last dose of the day, sometime around 1:30 am she came to tell me that she was having difficulty breathing.

After some back and forth, she saying she didn't want to go to the ER and me saying "maybe we should"...we layed on the couch and I rubbed her tiny feet and tried to calm her.

I wondered if it were her asthma, and asked her to take a couple of puffs of her inhaler.

I didn't want to scare her, but breathing issues can get serious fast...

When the inhaler didn't appear to be helping, she agreed that we should go to the ER.

Once we got to the hospital they got her into triage pretty quickly.

More proof that breathing issues are not to be played with.

She ended up needing some Benadryl and a steroid shot.

While we waited, there was moaning coming from the next small room.

Those ER privacy curtains do nothing but hide bare butts, everything else is fair game in the ER.

The moaning was starting to worry both of us.

It was loud and painful just to hear.

We couldn't understand why no one was responding, why no one went rushing in when she yelled "I can't breath...why doesn't anyone believe me?"

The moaning continued.

Suddenly I remembered Daddio and I once being at the ER and being placed next to a woman who was also moaning and hollering and threatening and whatever else she could do to gather the attention of the doctors and nurses.

Daddio, who was being seen for a respiratory ailment insisted that the nurses take care of the woman first.

The nurse poo-poo'd Daddio, telling him that the woman was a prescription drug addict who came to the ER at least once a month.

The nurse didn't care at all that she was blasting this woman's business, and frankly, I was glad that she did, cause it was a concern that her cries were going unanswered, and that explanation helped us to understand why.

While we waited for Googie's meds we overheard one of the doctors say to another "how are we ever gonna know if she is ever in any real pain?"...

Ahhhh, now I understood.

The nurse came and gave Goog a shot and the Benadryl, then left us alone to allow the drugs to do their job.

Soon Googie's breathing was up to par and she was released.

On the way out of the ER I said what I usually say "Praise you Lord, thank you".

Later at home, I gave my kid the once over, a big kiss and a hug and went to my own bed to get a bit of sleep before I had to get up and ready to leave for work.

Laying there, unable to sleep, I played our ER visit over and over in my head, thinking how thankful I was for the blessings of medicine.

I thought too of the mother of the moaner we heard in the ER and how they are not so much a blessing for her child.

I was so sad, I almost cried.