"I should have said thank you"

Well when Holdy's neck ended up stiff yesterday morning (4th day of high fever, no eating, lotsa sleeping) we freaked a bit and headed for the doctor. It was day 4 and meningitis was on our minds. With the flu like symptoms we weren't allowed in the doctor's office. We had to wait in the parking lot and be ushered in the back door. Everyone was wearing masks and we had to too. She ordered a blood and urine test. Took him home, he was so sad. Nothing worse than a kid with a candy treat (poor guy had a mongo needle stuck in his arm) and he doesn't want to eat it :( Got home and had a homelearning mother's meeting. Out I go for a fun evening with the gals. Was talking about Holdy's doctor visit and they started talking about symptoms of meningitis, and YIKES! there were some he had I hadn't mentioned to the doctor. I called Don, he was just recovering from a minor heart attack as Holdy had said to him "I'm having trouble breathing.." but what he actually said was "I'm having trouble drinking...", and I start telling him the symptoms on the phone, he googles and I zoom home. We take Holdy to the ER at midnight. Did I mention my brother-in-law is a ER Doc? He was working in Vancouver and I happen to have a direct line (cell phone) so I called him first. He called the ER here (he's worked here) and paved the way for us. Lucky for us it was dead at the ER and the head nurse lives down the road, her daughters picked strawberries for us and she has 1/2 pig on order, the doctor had picked strawberries, knew my sister (also a doctor) and I had been lined up to dog sit for her a couple of years ago. Old homey night at the ER. IT was very comforting, and of course halfway to the ER Holdy starts joking around. We almost turned around. Unluckily he had another mondo needle stuck in the other arm - and a toy from the toy chest, an xray (OK THIS was his absolute HIGHLIGHT and the radiologist showed him all his parts!!!!), a urine test (took an hour poor kid) and we got home at 3:30 am. When we got home and finally snuggled into bed he said to us "I should have said thank you for the present" so sweet. Now I'm stuffing up and gotta head fulla cotton....goin' to bed.......zzzzzzzzz