Not-so-urgent care

Parenthood is filled with milestones. Some are celebratory, others ... well, not so much.
We reached one of those this morning when we bundled up Elise and headed to urgent care for the first time.
Yeah, home for a mere six days and already we were looking for help -- the kind that wields stethoscopes and dispenses drugs.
No reason to be too alarmed, though; it was nothing serious, but it sure was icky.
The other day we noticed a little gunk forming in Elise's left eye. Oh, that is a typical blocked tear duct, right? That's what we thought.
That's also what a nurse at the hospital suggested when I brought it up during a follow-up call Saturday. (How about this for irony: the hospital tries to gently nudge you out the door as soon as mom can walk and baby is eating, but then hospital nurses call repeatedly once you are home to make sure everything is OK.)
When we went to bed last night, Elise's eye had more gunk in it. She lacked the other symptoms of a cold or infection. Her temperature was normal. Her eye was not swollen. She was eating.
But by early this morning it looked as though her eye had been slimed, a la Ghostbusters. It was sealed shut. She looked bad and appeared a bit lethargic. A nurse suggested we get her in to see a pediatrician today.
It's Sunday. Clinics are not open. Our only option? Urgent care.
Turns out, of course, that was the only option for throngs of other ill folks, young and old. We waited an hour to see the doctor, spending that time in a clinic lobby that might as well be called the Cough Factory. We wondered whether Elise would leave the clinic sicker than she was when we arrived.
Anyway, long story short: The goop in her eye is from an infection, which we suspected, and now we have the pleasure of applying an ointment to the base of her eye. She squirms during diaper changes, so imagine her response when you try to "create a well at the base of her eye and apply 1 cm of ointment."
Not fun, but after one application her eye does not look any worse than it did this morning.
I'll spare you photos of her progress.