I Need a Vacation

Oh, that's right, we just got back. Somehow this panicky-oh-crap-I-have-a-lot-to-do-this-week feeling doesn't make me feel all rested and relaxed! Go figure. I will try to be postive now and tell you all about Hawaii.

Hawaii is lovely. It has pretty beaches, yummy food, great shopping, nice people and a friendly aloha spirit. I would like to live there, I think. But I would not want to live in a hotel room the whole time because they lose their charm when you're not looking. And I would need to exercise more because all that eating can make your pants a little more snug. All kidding aside, we had an awesome time. Jeff had to work a lot - no early days, no surprise days off and in true military style, actually one surprise day on - but it was still fun. Of course it was great to see my family and to hang out with them in such a pretty locale and there are some good pictures that will appear on the flickr stream sometime soon.

Positive blog over. Here's what I really want to tell you about....our adventure in the ER! That's right everyone, we decided no tour of Oahu could be complete without checking out the Tripler Army Hospital emergency room. You see, Wyatt came down with a cold the day before we left Okinawa and was a bubbling fountain of snot during our trip. That wasn't a huge deal until he also developed chest congestion and a fever. And the fever kept getting worse instead of better. And we had to fly back to Japan, so....we called the peds clinic who referred us to a doc on call who said, "I think you ought to bring him in. Do you know how to get to the Tripler ER?" Mind you, this all went down on our last day there so instead of spending our last night doing final shopping, eating and packing, we spent 6 hours with a whole bunch of really sick people in an Army hospital. Fun! But let me tell you, that hospital's perched on the side of a mountain and has sweeping views of Oahu's southern coast. I mean, at least we could see Diamond Head from the waiting room.

After looking in his ears and throat and taking a urine sample to rule out a UTI (yes, they put a catheter in my poor, sweet, BRAVE baby boy), they decided that Wyatt has sinusitus. They also decided he should have amoxicillin. Okay, great. Let's get the meds and get on outta here! Ummmmm, not so fast.

Man-Nurse: So, this is amoxicillin and most kids have a reaction to this so you should expect him to have a reaction.
Us: what kind of reaction?
M-N: Well, some kids go into anaphylactic shock. You know, the throat swells shut, they have trouble breathing, that kind of thing. If that happens, you need to bring him back right away.
Us: Right. We're getting on a flight in the morning to go back to Japan, so that's not good.
M-N: Well, you'd just need to have him seen. He'd be okay.
Us: Yeah. It's a long flight and we're leaving in the morning so we won't be near medical care for oh, say 24 hours....
M-N: Well he might not have that kind of reaction. A lot of kids just get a big splotchy rash (gesturing big splotches on his arms) that you can treat with benadryl. So you could just go ahead and give it to him and then just give him some benadryl.
Us: Hmmmmm. But we're leaving in, like, 10 hours so.....
M-N: Oh, he'll probably be fine. I mean, you could just give him the first dose tonight and see if anything happens. If he's going to have a really bad reaction, he'll have it after the first dose. The splotches usually take a couple of days. So if I were you, I'd just give it to him and then give him a whole bunch of benadryl to knock him out on the flight.
Me: I have to tell you, you're giving me about this much confidence right now (said while making a big fat zero with my hand).
M-N: Really? No! He'll probably be fine. You just have to mix this powder with water and then give him his first dose tonight.
Me: Does that need to be refrigerated? Because we're flying to Japan tomorrow and won't have a refrigerator...
M-N: Nah. You'll just want to shake it up because it gets kind of thick.
Jeff: So, you think if we give it to him tonight, we'll know whether he's going to have a severe reaction and if he doesn't, we should keep giving it to him but expect him to get a rash?
M-N: Yeah. And if he gets the rash, just follow-up with your doctor in Japan.
Me: And you're sure it doesn't have to be refrigerated? Because I think my nephews have had to take that and they've kept it in the refrigerator...
M-N: (turns the container over in his hand and reads the label) Oh, yeah. It does say to refrigerate it. So you'll need to refrigerate it after you mix it.
Jeff: But we'll be traveling for almost 24 hours...
M-N: Yeah....you might just want to wait until you get home to start giving it to him.

That was 6 hours well-spent, don't you think? Needless to say, we have not started the amoxicillin yet and Wyatt will be seeing our favorite pediatrician here (she's back!) in a couple of hours for a second opinion. The cold I can handle, the coughing until gagging and throwing up (like he did at dinner two nights in a row, breakfast two mornings in a row, 10 minutes after taking off from Honolulu yesterday, in his crib this morning after his 5 a.m. bottle and after breakfast today) is wearing me out. And also, Millie's tail looks like it might explode so we're attempting to get her to a vet today, too. Welcome home!