Friday 12 July
The Texans have a saying “bigger than Texas”. They have street art around the city of a capital B and G, so that tourists can themselves be the “I” in the middle, photo opportunity being that I am bigger than Texas. The little boys think that is “sick”. I just think we are sicker, literally!
Belle had another bad night, vomiting this morning every time we tried to give her medication for her fever (including vomiting once in the hotel lobby on the way to breakfast – yuk), and while Ross is feeling better than yesterday, he is still limping with some pain. So our first tourist destination for today is a doctors’ clinic 😦
I was up doing laundry until 1am – the dryer here is free, but there is only one so it is hard to access. While waiting for it to finish, I googled urgent care clinics in Dallas and found an ER room with paediatric care. So off we went to get both Ross and Belle seen to. It was very nice, and all staff were lovely. The reception area looked like that of the laser surgery centres in Sydney, so I knew it would be pricey!! The kids had access to a variety of snacks and a bar fridge full of water, juice and soft drinks, and hot chocolate. Once we were admitted and had paid the fee, I told them to eat, drink and be merry in the waiting room…and get my money’s worth! 😉
The doctor confirmed that Ross had torn his calf muscle, but does not believe he has any clots or DVT. He humoured the cybercondriac in me though by sharing the symptoms of DVT to watch for, which made Ross roll his eyes but will be applied by me on the flight home. Ross is allowed to fly tomorrow only if his pain does not get any worse. (My concern knowing Ross is he won’t admit to it if it does…) The doctor also showed me ways to check for appendicitis in children as he confirmed Belle has a virus. Her temperature was 102 degrees F, which I could tell by the nurse’s face was high and knew by touching her myself, but I have no idea what that translates to in degrees Celcius. They gave her nausea medication so we could give her Panadol and Nurofen and she would keep it down, but the bad news is her virus is contagious. Interestingly, they had not heard of Panadol or Nurofen, but luckily I had packed them to give her so could show them. Now it is my turn to feel ill – the visit there cost me $700!!!!!!!!!
While out and about we decided to do something for the sake of the other kids, so drove out to Arlington to see the Rangers Baseball Stadium and Cowboys Stadium. We had intended to tour the latter as it gave you on-field access, but access to the field was not possible today, so at a cost of $17.50 each and with two miles of walking involved, we decided to give it a miss. We left Ross and the girls in the car while the boys and I visited the entrance area and pro shop.
From there we drove on to Fort Worth, where the boys saw and requested Five Guys Burgers and Fries for lunch. I had just finished telling Belle she could not have McDonalds for lunch because it wasn’t healthy for her, so was caught in an inconsistent parenting moment! I have offered her Maccas when she is feeling better… We then moved on to the Fort Worth Stockyards which looked like a good place to explore (and they do cattle drives down the street at 11am and 4pm each day), but it was only 2pm and Belle was sick again, so we thought we should just call it a day! My only other plan for today had been to take the kids out to a ghost town I had read about, but it didn’t exist on the car navigation system and was over 80 miles away, so it will have to wait for another holiday.
While Ross and the little kids rested, the older kids and I watched The Biggest Loser Australia finale from last May, and now they are all in the pool while Ross and Belle rest in the room.
Our blessings have been super easy to count here – everyone we have come across has been lovely and helpful, from the hotel staff to the parking lady who saved us $10 last night, to the reassurance of the doctor today. He didn’t even roll his eyes at me for cyber diagnosing first which I suspect our normal GP does… 😉 We were moved from the third floor to ground floor before we needed it, and moved to a suite so we could be together which makes looking after the sick and healthy so much easier!! I am also thankful this didn’t happen while we had the RV, so I didn’t have to drive it! And it probably doesn’t hurt to slow down the pace we have been keeping. Ross also has another week off work when we get home, so should be able to recover properly before he has to get back into the swing of things. And my diary is up to date as at 6pm rather than the following 1am 😉

Photos include the boys at Cowboys Stadium; my five guys at Five Guys for lunch; and the freebies Ross made sure he picked up at the doctors clinic 😉