Trapped! At the Parking Garage

We're back from our weekend getaway and I'll write about that tomorrow (I also have some fun pics!) but today I'm going to write about Teddy.

We were having a pretty decent trip, but on Saturday, when we went out for ice cream, Teddy said he wasn't feeling well. He didn't seem too bad the rest of the day and perked up a little after some Tylenol.

At about 1:30 a.m. he came into our room crying and said he had the most terrible headache ever and that it was so bad he couldn't sleep. He was also burning up with fever.

So we gave him more Tylenol and pretty much stayed up all night with him feeling his forehead.

In the morning he seemed better, but when we went out to breakfast he relapsed and the fever and headache came back. I was anxious to get him home so we did a quick clean-up and hightailed it back.

But then he seemed fine--acting normally and eating. Then, suddenly, it came back again and I decided to take him to the emergency room worrying that it could be meningitis or something.

Ultimately, the doctors decided he has some kind of virus--potentially viral meningitis, but they didn't want to do the spinal tap because they felt it was more risky than it was worth. So they sent us home and said to give him Motrin, etc. and take him to the pediatrician today.

He slept all night (is still sleeping now) and he seems cool, so maybe the worst is over.

Here's the part about the parking lot:

So we valet parked the car when we got to the ER but, by the time we were done, the valet guy was gone and they sent a security guard out with our car keys.

I was expecting the guy to just give us the keys and tell us where the car was, but he pulls up in one of those security vans with the flashing lights and told us to get in. There was also an old lady who needed her car so she got in too and the guy started driving us up and down through this gigantic parking garage--he had no idea where the cars were.

I can't even begin to explain what a nightmare this was! I was worried enough about Teddy and here we were at 11:30 at night driving around in a garage. Up and down, up and down--no sign of the cars. I kept saying that our car should be on the lowest possible level because we got to the hospital late and the garage must have been pretty empty at the time. But the old lady said she had arrived much earlier in the day and her car must be on the roof. So the guy would drive all the way up to the roof and down again--over and over but we still weren't finding the cars.

I kept asking him if there was a lower level to look on and he kept saying "no" but then he started pressing the "panic button" on the old lady's key and we could hear her car horn.

Turns out, there was a lower level, a "valet" section, no less, and the cars were parked right next to each other. So we get in the cars, relieved to finally be done with the security van and try to make our way to the exit.

I followed the exit signs and ended up at one of those mechanical arms--but it wouldn't open. So that led to more driving up and down--but the only way out was through the useless mechanical arm.

I met up with the old lady again who was on her cell phone the whole time, giving the blow by blow to her husband who was apparently in some other section of the garage in a different car.

Finally, we had to park the cars again and walk through the garage, take an elevator back to the hospital and walk to the main entrance.

We found the security guy laughing on the phone and the old lady was like "You abandoned us in the garage! We can't get out."

So out he comes again in the stupid van and met us by the mechanical arm (it was kind of funny because the old lady's husband was standing there trying to push the arm up). Turns out he had a special remote which was the only way to open the thing in the first place and we were finally free!

At least poor Teddy has a great attitude--even though he felt so sick he said "It was cool riding around in that car with the lights flashing."