Adventures in Camping and Other Things

I hardly ever blog anymore. I need to do it more because I'm realizing that I share so much information on Facebook about all the interesting (to me, anyway) things the kids do/say and then it's just...gone. And this blog is supposed to be for them. Goodness knows I'm not writing them down anywhere else these days. Anyway, I was reflecting on this weekend this morning and wanted to write it down.

Parker had a positive strep test last Thursday and got antibiotics. He got two doses that day and seemed to be on the mend. I even posted pictures that day of him and his siblings having a water balloon fight that afternoon. He woke up on Friday, though, unable to swallow. It was a little scary. His mouth was hanging open, he wouldn't move his head or mouth at all, he couldn't even swallow his own spit, it was just hanging out of his mouth. I took him back to the doctor, assuming they would give him an antibiotic shot. Hunter had to have that once for a terrible ear infection, it's very painful and you have to wait in the doctor's office (screaming child in hand) for 20 minutes to make sure they're not going to have a bad reaction to it, but it gets the job done. Instead, they sent us from there to the Children's Hospital due to possible "Peri-tonsilar abscess", whatever that means.

**An aside: I have been letting Hunter stay home alone for short periods of time since she's almost 11. I let her stay home while I went to the doctor and wasn't able to go home to pick her up.

We spent four hours in the ER. That hospital is WONDERFUL, by the way (Scottish Rite). We had to wait in the same waiting room where I stood the night Lonnie died asking doctors and nurses where they took my sister. (That's where they took her boys from the accident and we all went there.) But we didn't have to wait in there for long.

*Aside: They gave the boys BLUE GATORADE (which has modified food starch in it) and TWO artificially colored Popsicles each. The boys were THRILLED beyond measure. They said things like, "This is delicious!" "Our mom NEVER lets us have these!" I, on the other hand, developed an eye twitch just watching them. As far as the food starch goes (which is code for "gluten", which Parker is intolerant to), let's just say it's a good thing he was doped up this weekend.

They gave him heavy doses of antibiotics and pain killers to see if they could get a look at what was going on in there and see if it would respond to treatment. If it was indeed an abscess, he would be having surgery that day.

We watched 3 movies: Mulan, Fly Me To The Moon, and part of Tinkerbell.

Meanwhile, we were supposed to be leaving for the church camping trip at 1pm. We were going to swim with our friends in the morning, who were also going to be taking care of Bella (Hunter's guinea pig). We were mostly ready for the trip, but not completely, and I still had things I needed from the grocery store.

Brent left work to go home with Hunter. The boys and I left the hospital at 4:15. The hospital that's in Atlanta. On a Friday. On the radio they said that a cattle trailer had turned over on the highway just north of our exit (30+ miles outside the city). So it was the bad kind of traffic. A parking lot. While I sat there, I was thinking about what that means. Poor cows! They must have been so scared! How did they get them out? Did they wander away? They would have to get people to come in and handle the cows, someone to come and get the trailer upright. There's no way that the cows went willingly into another trailer.

Sheesh.

I had to get off at several exits before mine and snake around to my area. It was 6:30 when I pulled into the pharmacy to get Parker's medications where they said, "Hold on, let me check to see if we have these." I told the boys, "Start praying that they have these medicines." And they started praying.

**Aside: What a couple of troopers the boys were, by the way! Parker was so sick he couldn't really help it, but Carter was such a trooper. At the very end of the day he said, "I'm really getting sick of Parker, Mom." But he was just tired and being honest.

CVS had the meds but they wouldn't be ready until 7. We went home, threw the camping stuff into the van and were back at CVS at 7:05.

Parker had to go back to the doctor at 9am to make sure that the antibiotics and steroids were going to do the trick, so the new plan was for us to all go together to the camp site (so much of this part of the drama could be avoided if Brent had a car that I could drive, his is standard transmission.), get it set up, then Parker and I would drive back home, sleep in our own beds (which I thought would be better for Parker anyway, since he was still really under the weather), go to the appointment on Saturday, stop at the store to get the rest of the stuff we needed, stop back home to gather Nico (our dog), take care of Bella, and head back.

However...

Remember about the cattle trailer? Well, it wasn't cleared up by 7:15 when we left CVS. The highway was a parking lot. We decided to go up an exit (about a 10 minute drive) which would be north of the accident, and get on there. Forty-five minutes later...we were getting on the highway at that exit. The park where we were camping with our friends is only about 45 minutes from our house. We were pulling in right before 10. Usually, state parks lock the gates around 10 and no one can get in or out unless it's an emergency. And that would require banging on the door of the old people who run the place (aka "camp hosts") to get them to unlock it. I pulled up to that gate to leave to go back home t 10:10.

*sigh*

We were locked in. And unprepared. We left the dog at home alone overnight (which we've never done before), uncrated. I had pulled out Parker's and my stuff (pillows, blankie's, etc.)and left them at home. I had my cell phone, but the battery was dead and my charger was at home. I wasn't thrilled about the prospect of Parker sleeping on the ground in a tent that night, but what can you do? At least I had his medications. I would have woken up the old folks if I didn't have them.

Neither one of us slept very well. I set the alarm on Brent's blackberry to be able to wake up in the middle of the night to give him his medicine and I set it to wake me up at 6:30, but we were both already awake at both times. The park opens at 7, we got home, got dressed, took care of the pets (Nico was hiding b/c he pooped and peed in the boys room, but it wasn't his fault), and were at the doctor's office at 8:55. We were there for 2 hours. (The waiting and driving in this adventure are enough to drive a person to drink.)The doctor was pleased with the progress he made overnight. She was worried about us taking him on a camping trip. She told me to "watch him near fire and water" and "don't let him go off on his own with the other kids".

Um, ok. She obviously doesn't know me very well. I'm just naturally neurotic about both those things and wouldn't dream of letting him go off with anyone.

I was already nervous about the fire. He is always up in it, poking at it with sticks and whatnot. He had to take Loretab for the pain, which made him very loopy and stumbly. ugh.

We went to the store, gathered up Nico, made sure Bella was set up until Sunday, and made it back to camp by about 2ish.

*Aside: Can I just talk about how wonderful our church family is? When we got there at 10pm Friday night they were waiting for us, two guys were there to help Brent get the tent set up, someone fed them breakfast while I was gone with Parker the next day, they were in the process of feeding them lunch when I got back, someone paid for Hunter to be able to go swimming with them since I'm the one with the cash, and EVERYONE was concerned about Parker and wanted to check up on him.

I wouldn't have missed that for the world. Although, I must admit that if my husband hadn't been heart-set on going Friday night (we paid for two nights, we're going for two nights, damn-it!), I would have chucked it Friday night and gone after Parker's appointment on Saturday.

We had a fantastic time. I think there were 13 families on the trip. Hunter got to hang around with her buddies, the boys messed around in the woods. There was a really nice swimming pool. I've never been to a camping park with a swimming pool.

Anyway, Parker is getting better and better. He doesn't have to take the Loretab anymore and we just have to be diligent with the steroids and antibiotics and watch him for a relapse for this week. He seems pretty good though.

I need a nap just from writing this.

PS: I only took one picture of our camping trip and it's of Hunter and her buddies. I would have posted it on here, but I can't find my camera. I'm sure it's here somewhere. Probably packed away with the camping stuff.

*sigh*