I have a free ticket - Stenn is free until December 7th - Stenn MUST meet childhood best friend Jennifer and family before THEN! Sooo - here we go! Then I say to myself - "Hey it would be great to visit Emilia & Carrie and family in Portland for a day! I'll take the train! - Then get a call from Deanne (who also lives in Seattle) and says "forget the train- I'm drivin'!" Sooo it all started out relatively normal . . .
The plane ride there was quite easy but Stenn was NOT acting like himself. Basically he was very cranky and had a BAD stomach ache (if you get my drift?)! I was disappointed because Jennifer and family were not able to see the true sweet spirit that Stenn is! But we made it work (WITHOUT ANY SLEEP)
Christie and Bruce - Jennifer's parents. Their home overlooks Lake Washington - So beautful!
Jennifer's apartment - giving Stenn a ride!
The flowers at Pike's Place Market - AMAZING!
And then of course - the beloved fall foliage!!
Stenn's first city bus ride!
Jennifer's Great Aunt (who I have know sine I was 12) lives on Queen Anne Hill - This is her view.
Such a wonderful time with Jennifer and family - they adjusted well around Stenn's "off-ness" - sooo happy they were able to meet!
On Sunday afternoon Deanne picked us up with her precious daughter Kate. And we were off ....
A half hour outside of Portland - The gas coming out of Stenn could have wilted all the flowers in Pike's Place Market! So we pull over - no poop - just rash - a small rash at that...
And by Monday morning - it looked like this!
Obviously I was a mess! The rash did not bother Stenn - But IT BOTHERED ME! On Emilia's request we went to the most AMAZING Emergency Room on the planet! St. Vincent's hospital has their OWN Children's Emergency Ward!
The Dr. basically said - well I don't even remember what he said because I was basically out of my body - however he was not overly alarmed and gave him a three day dose of the steroid decadron. By that night it was almost gone!
The next morning before we were leaving Charlie and Stenn snuggled by the fire right after they woke up (There's that "cheeese" smile - bless his little heart).
And more beloved fall foliage . . .
So we got home Tuesday - Stenn had more stomach issues. 2:15 Wednesday morning - a blow out again and THE RASH WAS BACK! Off to the pediatrician Wednesday morning. Dr. says it is Erythema Multi-forming. Basically his immune system went on overdrive and this was the way it manifested itself as it was trying to drive out whatever stomach virus he had!
The rash ended up going away on it's own Thursday night. All was happy in the Woods household as we were watching the traditional "Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and THEN - Oh yes there is MORE - Stenn was happily walking toward me as he tripped on his blankie two feet away from the coffee table and BOUNCED - yes - BOUNCED off the corner of the coffee table and then flew back and landed flat on his back. It all happened in a nano-second. When I went down to grab him the blood was SPEWING and SPURTING like 12 inches into the air from his chin!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING??? I was home alone - by the time my mom and Patrick got there they both thought a stitches were unnecessary. I disagreed. But in all honesty - I hadn't slept in SIX DAYS and I could not IMAGINE schlepping down to the inner-city ER late at night - I HAD NOTHING LEFT . . . (is that terrible?)
Our friend Joe came to the rescue with steri-strips - but unfortunately they did not stick longer than an hour because of the ooze and blood. The next morning I took jack to school and all the moms and the teacher about passed out when they saw Stenn and said "You must take him to the doctor now!" Sooooo off we went again. Stictches can only be done within six hours of incident (just in case any of you didn't know that) - so they glued down the steri-strips and all is healing!
Now who's ready for Halloween????
longest week of my parenting life
1 comment:
I cannot believe that rash!!!! that is the craziest thing I have ever seen. I would have FREAKED out!!! Especially because you weren't home and couldn't see your normal doctor. Oh man, that would have been tough. Great job getting that last trip in though. So fun to see old friends!!!
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