Just one of those days...Part II

(This post is a continuation of the post "Just one of those days." To catch the entire comical feel for this day please read "Just one of those days" post first for the beginning of this comedy scene)

Monday, I thought I had been through it by 10:00 a.m. when I posted, but to leave out the rest of this comical day would just be a shame!

You heard how hard it was for us to come upon diapers Monday morning, well as the day unfolds it turns out downright ridiculous!

Where we left off: David bought a pack of three pullups, enough to tide us over until we could get a big pack at the grocery store and we put Lucy in bed.

A few hours later, Dave and I had split up to accomplish two errands before Lucy's follow up visit to the Doctor in Seoul. My task was to go buy the diapers. I knew where the diapers were located in the grocery store, although David had always bought them in the past, I was confident I wouldn't have any problems on my own. I found some really cheap store brand diapers, $7.20 for 72 diapers which now I can't recall American prices, but it seemed like a steal. With no time to head for home, I met up with Dave and we toted the large pack of diapers with us on the Subway as we rode into Seoul.

At the Doctor's they said Lucy seemed to be doing well, but wanted to do another stool culture. We cruised around our favorite hospital waiting for Lucy to go and then after a few hours brought in the diaper.

As I changed her into one of her new diapers, it was as if all of Korea had just played some big joke on me! The diapers didn't have any way to be fastened. Yup! No sticky tabs! Just a totally normal diaper without tabs. Okay...you can use pads without wings, but how can you use diapers without sticky tabs? Do you just tote around your own tape or use a diaper cover or what? Well, whatever it is you are supposed to do, we didn't have the means, so I just put the diaper on her and tried to roll it around her pants so it wouldn't fall off.

How can you screw up buying diapers? I don't know, but I did. Well, as cheap as we are, we actually wanted to try to use the diapers, so after the long Subway ride home carrying Lucy in this flimsy diaper arrangement, we bought one more pack of pullups to put over these strange diaper inserts, thinking we could keep using the same pullup on the outside for a while.

It was pretty difficult to align the two diapers properly, but we managed to put one double decker diaper on. I wasn't a fan, but decided once again we could wait until the next morning before heading to the grocery store to right this wrong.

As chance would have it, just when we left the Doctor's office and travelled all the way home (1 and 1/2 hour Subway ride plus a taxi to and from the Sub stop), Lucy started vomitting again, after no signs of illness (other than diaharrea) for 4 days. After lots of tears and a little too much vomitting, especially given her recent bout with Salmonella, we headed to the hospital at 10:30 p.m. I knew she was okay at the time, but really wanted to prevent her getting dehydrated again and since we couldn't find any pedialyte in Korea or anything, the next best option was an I.V. Oh joy rapture now (that one was for you girls, you know who you are)!

After arriving at the hospital, Lucy started running around and saying in her most chipper voice to all the ER staff "hi," little wave and then again "hi." She just magically stopped vomitting and got all her energy back the moment we got to the hospital, so I am sure the hospital staff thought we were a little nutty! Anyway, not really wanting to sleep in the hospital we decided to give Lucy an hour and see if she continued to act fine.

She ran around, just happy go lucky for about a half hour and then wanted to nurse. I figured it would be a good test to see if she vomitted again after nursing, but much to my surprise while nursing it came out the other end instead, and her make shift diaper didn't really do the trick. The funny thing is the way I was holding her in my lap, the (we'll just call it a mess and spare you the details) mess Lucy made came out the side of her diaper and went right under my bottom on the chair I was sitting. So the back of my pants just looked like I had a serious accident and when Dave saw it he asked me if I was okay, and gave a somewhat doubtful expression as I tried to explain how Lucy had gotten her poo onto my bum (I guess it did really look like I was trying to blame an accident on my child. I seriously had more on myself than she did, but really guys, it was Lucy).

And so the diaper episode continues. As I began to change my dear little child, I realized due to the volume of the explosion, the diaper liner and the pull up were in need of replacement. I searched the diaper bag and pulled out one of my liners and then continued to search, all the while becoming more frantic as I did not see another pull up. Finally after pouring the entire contents of the backpack onto the bench, I admitted to myself that I had not put the other two pull ups into the diaper bag. Among other things, I also forgot a spare change of clothes for Lucy and therefore even with a diaper liner, I had absolutely no way to keep it around my child.

I reported the serious tragedy to my first mate, and Dave was off for the second time that day, with lightning speed, on a quest for diapers. And now that it was about 11:50 p.m. and the grocery stores clothes at midnight, it was truly a race against time. He raced to the opening of the grocery store and raced to the closing of the grocery store this diaperly disastrous Monday. Of course, I never doubted my trackstar, but I still had to contain a diaperless child full of energy (in public might I add).

But there is always mercy...and always something to be grateful for. There was one other baby in the emergency room, just Lucy's size. I don't know how they sensed my need, what with my nudy child and all, but they handed me a diaper and our hearts communicated, although I couldn't find the words in Korean to accurately express my deep gratitude. I put the diaper on, with no pants to cover it, only socks and shoes.

As she began to wander the hospital dressed in this attire, I felt an overwhelming spirit come over me, speaking of the importance to never judge another, and especially a mother. How true the saying "You could love anyone once you knew their story" and so we might as well love them without knowing the story and assume they have a good heart, realizing that insurmountable circumstances may have lead them to their current state. I am sure many a Mom would have looked at my daughter running around in public, with a dirty shirt, a diaper, no pants, socks and shoes and thought I was unqualified for the great responsibility of parenting, but at that moment I'll be the first to say that given the circumstances I was doing an outstanding job. I mean talk about tough, I didn't even cry once through this experience (okay well, I broke down a little later that night after inserting the IV and taking her for x-rays and making me leave the room). And so I was reminded of this important gospel principal to love one another and give no thought to how things may appear and am grateful for my reinvigorated perspective.

Just then, Dave sprinted through the automatic hospital doors, my hero, with a glorious pack of real diapers. I never knew how glorious diapers could look, but really in the right circumstance a pack of normal diapers can fill your complete soul with nothing other than joy! At some points in his life, Dave was a hero because he had superman like capabilites to jump higher and sprint faster than 99.999999999999% of the people in this world, but tonight he was a brave, optimistic (yep, he was still laughing and making jokes) worn out father, loving husband hero and to me he is grand and these are his real superman like capabilities.

And by now you are wondering if this post ever ends and I know it is long, but it is 4:30 a.m. and I just can't sleep, so I might as well write the night away and you can choose if you want to keep reading, but if you have read this far I know you will finish because, although you are tired of reading (yes, even regardless of my talented writing abitities) you are wondering if our Monday ever ends. And yes it ends and I will make it as short as my descriptive and detailed writing style can allow.

The whole day with the diaper thing was really comical and other than my moody awakening, we were really laughing a great deal of the day (I mean I honestly feel like we were living in a sit com), but from here on out the comedy ends. Just wanted to warn you about the not so sunny next paragraph and mood shift (I really wish I could keep the funny phrases coming, but I just can't think of any other way to describe the next somber hour).

The doctor saw Lucy's diaper explosion of all explosions (I guess he couldn't look away as I cleaned up the puddle of mess on the floor, not to mention my own pants) and recommended that even with her cheery disposition she should be admitted because her little mess looked like bile, which meant her digestive system had completely stopped digesting anything. (This diaper did look and smell different than anything I have ever seen). So it was our choice and we willingly let them stick our little girl four times trying to get the IV in and then they shipped her in for X-rays and only let Dave come, so I cried outside as I listened to my scared daughter cry behind the doors. We entered our room and it was nothing near as nice as the first hospital we stayed at (which I wasn't very grateful for at the time, but now I am). 7 beds, all of them full, except one, Lucy's. Completely unsafe shaky railing, two feet away from another sick baby on either side, no curtains, hacking babies, signs on the end of the beds that say pneumonia, small cot for Dave, without even enough room to pull it out and sleep next to me and Lucy's rickety bed.

There was nothing left to do, but say a humble family prayer in whispered tones and then curl up in our little bed listening to the snoring and wheezing around us and hope this was just a dream.

So the last two Mondays we were admitted to hospital and I am hoping this next Monday will prove to be the third times the charm and Lucy will be cured. I will continue to explain our weeks adventures in future posts, but on behalf of my weary brain and yours, I will take a break and say...to be continued...