What a Vacation

Well, I haven't posted in weeks, I realize. We've been busy in a weird sort of way. Last week our family went to Corolla, NC, with my parents and my sister and brother-in-law. It was fun! However the week leading up to the vacation until now has been littered with crazy illnesses and weird medical problems.

Did you know....

• Pain in your gut on the left side can resemble gall bladder symptoms? (But after an ultrasound, it was temporarily ruled out... of course, the pain has also subsided so who knows.... that was me and I don't have time to run around to various tests for a pain that all-but-went away... so we'll see if it reoccurs.)


• Of any virus that gives an occasional weird bumpy and red rash on the face that comes and goes and brings along a fever of 103.9? It did not look like Fifth's Disease... the bumps were small, scattered and came and went all around the face and neck. It was diagnosed as coxsackie, or hand-foot-and-mouth-disease, but I have some doubt. (see the next question... this was Tommy)


• Such a virus can spread to an older sister, who was diagnosed with coxsackie back at age 3? (Yep, that was Reagan... and we thought she'd be fine since she already had it... thus why we question whether it was coxsackie at all.)


• That coxsackie (or whatever virus it was) can actually be transmitted to adults!? Yep, only no rash. Instead, it manifested itself as a horrible achy chills-and-fever virus in my parents. Fevers, chills, skin that hurts, achiness, sore throat, and in the case of my dad, bronchitis resulted. OK... we have no idea if this is related, but it's certainly fishy that Tommy and Reagan had something weird and then my mom and dad got something a little different, but weird nonetheless. Maybe we've found yet another new childhood illness to add to the list of new viruses that we learn about each day.


• That despite taking Miralax daily and regularly, a child with a tendency for severe constipation can get backed-up all over again? (TMI, I know... but we are revisiting this again with my daughter... today is cleanout day.)


• That you should KEEP baby gates up around exercise equipment even if your 3-year-old has never shown interest in them before? Yep. We removed the baby corral gate from the treadmill recently since it takes up so much space in the rec room. We always fold up the machine and pull out the key so no one can use the machine when the adults are away. Of course, we didn't realize that our 3 year old son would come over to the machine while I was on it and put his hand on the belt. He must have been curious, but instead of picking his hand up again, his little hand slid under the machine and got caught. (No, I didn't realize he was anywhere close enough to do this.) Anyway, poor little guy now has a bandaged hand with several "brushburns". To say the least, we will not be using the machine again while any child is remotely close by.


• That it only takes 5 minutes to glue in an orthodontic appliance? My oldest has stayed fairly healthy all this time (yay!), but went in yesterday for his new orthodontic appliance, a fixed "retainer" to help spread open the jaw and teeth. He was so nervous about how long it would take, worried about keeping his mouth open for so long. But, we were all amazed and happy to see that the glue "took" in just 30 seconds! The entire visit was about 5 minutes long. Whew. He's adjusting well, too, since it's not a lot bigger than the last retainer. In 3 weeks, he may begin the reverse-pull facemask to correct his underbite. None of us are looking forward to that. :0(

Thank goodness for health insurance!