This morning started like any other morning.

Greg woke up at 4:30am and drove Hanna and Ellie to an early swim practice while I lay quietly trying not to hear the crunching of cereal over the crunching of my new night guard. I almost yelled, “Does anyone ever sleep around here?” But they had already loaded the car and were easing down the driveway so I rolled over onto the four pillows I had confiscated from Greg’s side and thought better about chasing them down the street with a “Shhhhhhhh!!!!!” sign.

I had to wake Chloe up early so we could pick up her sisters from practice, attend a parent meeting and get everyone to school on time.

Chloe and I worked in tandem to get ready. I packed lunches and school bags, filled water bottles, showered, ate breakfast. Chloe opened her sock drawer and yelled something about all of the socks in her drawer belonging to Ellie and why do I always put other people’s stuff in her drawers and how while she was studying the continents at school last week, she learned people in Kenya eat rocks instead of food.

Into my bathroom to brush the three grains of oatmeal I managed to consume out of my teeth, Chloe walked in and lifted up her shirt while groaning about how she wanted to wear something else.

I told her she could wear a top hat and tails if she wanted but we were running behind and had to hurry.

When she lifted her shirt, I noticed a black marker or black paint dot just below her armpit and asked her if she’d been colouring (or experimenting with waterproof mascara again or “I heart Mom” tattoos). She said she hadn’t.

I had her take a step closer worried she might have developed a dark mole. Nope.

She brushed at the mark and nothing happened and then squealed, “Ooooooh, it’s a spider!!! Get it off!” but it wouldn’t come off. It squirmed around while she swung at it so I leaned in with my pinky finger and scratched it off of her.

Weird.

I crunched it in a piece of toilet paper, flushed it and then Googled, “What does a tick look like” before we flew out the door.

The ticks in the images are not for the squeamish. Almost none were wearing top hats and tails. I made my screen small before I hit enter on the photo search because I was afraid there was going to be a full, 8x 10 glossy head shot of one of these awful creatures so I kept it tiny until I knew I could zoom out at my own pace.

Yep. Tick. Gross.

So, sigh, pick up sisters, parent meeting, walk-in clinic. That sounds about right.

I got to the clinic at 7:55am. It opened at 9am. Hmmmm.

I changed plans and drove to the school thinking I could ask a teacher to take a look at the mark my pinky left in Chloe’s skin and maybe they could finally make that call to Children’s Services with a reason this time!

One of the teachers happens to also be a nurse and she was a tremendous help. She suggested I call Public Health (I did based on her advice. Not open yet) and that Chloe would possibly require a preventative dose of something so Lyme Disease wasn’t a risk.

I stopped in at the clinic after my morning swim (because I’m selfish), placed Chloe’s health card on the counter and said, “Please give me the anti-venom.”

The nurse looked confused. I was tired from a lot of flip turns and maybe transfer from the tick had gotten under my finger nail and the juice was making its way to my brain.

She said in order to be able to do anything, I had to have Chloe with me. Can’t we just treat this thing like a tick bite and give me the drugs? Apparently we can’t. I am curious though if that was the first time she’d been asked for anti-venom.

Back to the school I went to pick up Chloe who had told her teacher and anyone who would listen that she was being picked up to go to the Vet Clinic. Close enough.

The Doctor at the clinic was fair in her assessment. I believe the words she used included; “a gross over-reaction” and “paranoia.”

We left without any drugs.

If Chloe starts eating rocks, I’ll know who to blame.