My children are not normal

We walked into the exam room and the nurse practioner (Mary) assumed we were there for flu shots. Afterall, two healthy-looking boys who are bouncing around like maniacs because they've been forced to spend the last hour waiting their turn and listening to every Hoops & Yoyo card in CVS can't be sick. Can they? Well, I don't know. The jury is still out on that one. Results due today. So why then were we at the Minute Clinic on Monday night?

The short answer is because my children are not normal. The long answer follows.

I was driving home from work on Monday evening and replaying the morning's and weekend's events in my mind. Those events included the normal myriad hockey and soccer events (as you would expect). However, also included was a very late night vomiting incident from Keeper Boy on Saturday (he made it to the bathroom) and a right-before-it's-time-to-leave-for-school-just-ate-yogurt-and-drank-milk-for-breakfast vomiting explosion from J-Mav on Monday morning (he did not make it to the bathroom... at least the sofa is leather). Both were once and done. Neither had any symptoms other than the vomiting -- not even an upset stomach.

Either incident on its own could be rationalized and explained away. For instance, Keeper Boy had eaten greasy food twice on Saturday between all of his activities... way more greasy food than he's used to. And sometimes yogurt on an empty stomach is not a good thing.

But as I said before, my children are not normal. And as I was driving home on Monday night, I had an "oh my Lord" epiphany.

You see, both boys have had strep throat many times... Keeper Boy more than J-Mav, but they've both had it. They NEVER have the "normal" symptoms. Neither has ever had the tell-tale white spots in the throat. A slight sore throat, maybe; but no spots. Neither usually has a fever. Neither usually feels sick in any way. J-Mav just acts lethargic. But they have almost always thrown up. And usually it's a once and done situation. That's like our warning flag to take them to the doctor. Usually we are greeted with doubt. "But he has no symptoms of strep throat." I have always insisted on the test and every time it has come back positive. Every time. Sometimes the quick strep wasn't positive, but the one that was sent out to the lab was positive the next day. But always positive. The last time I took them for strep tests was the last week of school this past June. J-Mav's quick strep was positive right away. Keeper Boy's (two days later) had to be sent out to come up positive. They both ended up on antibiotics for the end of school and a little bit beyond. And you'd never have known that either of them was sick!

So that's how we ended up in the Minute Clinic on Monday night with two boys who couldn't have appeared further from sick. I got a call yesterday afternoon that the lab hadn't shown up on Monday night to pick up the day's samples, so they didn't go until Tuesday morning. I expect that if anything grew, I'll get a call at some point this morning. But I'm actually HOPING this time I'm wrong. Given our history with strep, though, we figured it was better to be safe than sorry. My kids just aren't normal.