Tuesday, July 1, 2008

A Stitch in Time...Leads to Wet Floors

We spent most of this past weekend out in the back yard having a great time. Michael worked on his never ending wall, and the kids and I were planting flowers pilfered (with permission) from Nana Biggio's yard...But obviously, someone felt our weekend needed to end with a "Bang"!

As we were picking up to head in the house Sunday evening, Paul (my baby - 8 years old) headed up the side (stone) stairway to shut off the hose. He was on his way back down, when lo and behold, he tripped over the hose, and proceeded to go head first into the corner of one of the stones! He let out a blood curdling scream, I turned around, snatched him up, and ran for the house and Michael...

Cut to the chase...4 hours in the ER and 3 stitches on the right side of his forehead later, we were back at home. I ended up stopping to get McDonald's on the way home - there was no way I could think about putting together a meal after that. Weird thing was that Paul kept complaining that his food "tasted funny" - even the water he was drinking. I kind of chalked it up to another of Paul's little (lovable) idiosyncracies...

So now, it's Tuesday and I'm in the office trying to concentrate at work, but daydreaming about my upcoming 4 day weekend for the 4th of July...My cell phone rings...it's Paul..."Mom, I think I'm sick." What do you mean, Paul - what do you feel like? "My face is all red and I have funny spots on it."

Paul, can you please carry the phone up to Christopher (the oldest - 15 years old) and stay with him so he can look at you and let me know what's going on? Sure thing!

Christopher, can you please take a look at Paul's face and let me know what you see? "Mom, he looks like Two-Face from Batman, one side of his face is normal, and the other looks like he was mauled by a bear!"

Oh yeah, I can stay calm after hearing that! I can nonchalantly pack up my things and let folks know that I have to head home immediately because my baby boy looks like Two-Face!

So that's just what I did. I was able to get a little more info out of Christopher - It seemed like Paul was having some kind of allergic reaction - maybe to his stitches. But I'd never heard of such a thing, and it's already been two days since he got them, I'd have expected something to have happened before now...But...wait a minute... was that why he was saying things tasted funny?? Had I ignored a sign of an allergic reaction 48 hours earlier?

I decided to wait and not call the pediatrician until I could witness the symptoms myself, and yes, something was definitely going on - his right eye was swollen and purple, and what looks like hives were all over only the right side of his face! Time to make the phone call! "Bring him right in" I was told.

Of course, it's a posse of us heading over to the doctor's office. One thing I must say about my kids, one of them is sick, everyone gets concerned and wants to be with them (of course, when they're all well, they're trying to kill each other). Abby opted to stay home this time, as she had the pleasure of coming with me for the ER adventure on Sunday. So, it was Christopher, Meredith, Paul and I heading for Medford.

All ended well - it was not an allergic reaction. He was diagnosed with "some type of skin infection secondary to the cut on his forehead". I guess in layman's terms there was something nasty on the rock that has caused my baby to have red bumps all over one side of his face. 7 days of antibiotics will cure it and he'll be good as new. Still didn't explain the funny tasting symptom, though - the doc checked for Strep just to be sure, but it was negative. Guess maybe it really was just another one of Paul's little quirks. :)

So we're back at home. No sense going back to the office. I'll work from home for the rest of the day. And maybe I'll catch up on some laundry. I answer emails, and call into a couple of meetings. I have some things that need to be bleached, so I throw them in the kitchen sink with some bleach and start running the water. It will take a little while to fill, so I go back and check my email again - want to make sure I'm accessible. My phone rings. I'm chatting away with Cass from the office and IM Christopher (who is upstairs) to come down and get some money to pick up the lunch I had ordered from down the street).

Next thing I know all heck breaks lose. Christopher comes running outside - "Mom, were you filling up the kitchen sink and forgot about it??" Oh my God. There is 2-3 inches of water all over my kitchen! My hardwood floors are under water! Now all five of us (me, Christopher, Abigail, Meredith and Paul) are scrambling around the house grabbing every towel in sight! I scream, "Not the clean ones! Only dirty towels! I have too much laundry to do already!" Not a problem (not sure if that's a good thing or not), as we were still able to come up with about 20 dirty bath towels to soak up most of the water!

Catastrophe averted - I start picking up the soaked towels and Meredith heads back downstairs to play. "Mommy, theres water leaking from the lights in the playroom." Just Ducky! Don't turn on the lights, baby, it should stop shortly now that we have the water cleaned up up here. Which it did, thank goodness.

So back to a few more meetings before I can call it a day - and a lot more laundry to get done tonight! Lord, when is that 4 day weekend gonna get here?!

Heidi
xoxo

If I couldn't laugh about it, I swear I'd be living in a padded cell somewhere :)

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