Surgery Results and a Bathroom Crisis

Newsletter 2018-10-07

Hold It

Mae has a harmless bump on her eyelid that won’t go away, so her pediatrician sent her to see an ophthalmologist. And that’s all the backstory you need for this long and convoluted tale about the bathroom.

As with all my adventures, I wasn’t alone. In addition to Mae, I had Lucy and Waffle with me (Betsy was at school). We sat in the waiting room at the ophthalmologist’s office for about twenty minutes, despite being the first appointment of the day. Then the ophthalmologist called us back to the exam room. He took one look at Mae’s eye and said he couldn't do anything for us—another morning well-spent—but he promised to refer us to someone who could help. Then he left the room for what seemed like forever to figure out where to send us. That’s the reaction we get from most people. They’ll go above and beyond to make sure we’re somebody else’s problem.

As we waited, Waffle announced she had to go potty. She was in underwear, so this was a crisis. At her current age, the time she …