So Bizarre.....

Here's Sam's mouth today......not blistering, not red, but it definitely has a raised, greyish "rash" of some sort. His cheeks are no longer red, the fever is gone as is the runny nose, and his lips are no longer swollen and almost back to their normal colour. He is much happier today and has eaten with no problems. His hands and his feet are clear and normal.....this does NOT look like Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease.

Looks like it may be back to the doctor tomorrow because his tongue has become heavily populated with that strange rash.

Sigh.

Man, I would KILL for a dull moment......

Because in my world, dull moments just don't exist. They are kinda like a full night of uninterupted sleep....just not happening.

My latest non-dull moment happened around 8am this morning as I was just waking up at Karen and Mike's house. It started with the familiar ring of my phone alerting me that I had just received a text message. So, I got myself out of bed and looked for my phone and when I found it here is some of what it said,

"..........so I guess you probably have the Health Cards, right? Sam's complaining of a sore tongue.........."

Now I love and trust my husband with every ounce of my soul and I know that he can handle any "Kid Situation" that comes up. But my Mometer went off and I knew that I was going to be needed at home. I just knew it. I arrived at home just in time to see Sam attempt to eat some lunch. It didn't go well......he screamed out, he cried and he cringed....I looked at his face and his lips were red and swollen, his cheeks were turning pink, his nose was running a bit....but his tongue looked perfectly normal. The only problem was that HE didn't feel normal at all! So I dragged my ass (and his) out in the -25 degree temperatures to head to the local walk-in clinic. When we got there we were informed that it would be at least and hour and a half before the doctor would see us. So, we waited. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. FINALLY- an hour and a half after we walked through the door, we were seen. Dr. Blakfjlajdflaskjdfldkfja looked in Sam's mouth and said it was normal. He looked at his lips and said, "They are a bit red but otherwise normal." ........um........ok. So I told him that this was not actually "normal" for Sam. So he gave me a cream. He said, "Zis iz a cream for coodsowes" I said, "Oh? Coldsores? What is it called? He doesn't have any coldsores?" So he shows me the 'script and it says CORTISONE. And then he says, "I'll poot him alzo dis andibiodics in case he 'as an infedctijon"

OK. So we go home and my Nurse's Brain is telling me that this doesn't sound right but I try a little of the cream. And, of course, Sam licks it within seconds and gets the cream on his already sore, sore, sore tongue. All hell broke loose. Now he's SCREAMING and CRYING and DROOLING and BESIDE HIMSELF. His cheeks were a scarlett red and he couldn't get a grip! So, Eric and I packed him into the van and drove him to emergency at the hospital. There, the triage nurses looked at him and decided to really fast-track him (a swollen mouth is the golden ticket into the ER apparently!) He was triaged, registered and seen by a doctor within 40 minutes! It turns out he may have the early stages of Hand, Foot and Mouth disease, a viral infection. He has no sores anywhere yet, but the doc said it would likely happen in the near future. In the meantime, he said, "Absolutely stop administering the cream." and he gave us a prescription for some Xylicaine which freezes his little mouth.

And now, he is happily playing with Kristen and not in pain....but still a pain in the ass.

I'm worried about my dad.....

He is a very strong, healthy 65 year-old man. He's a farmer so he's always on the go and I can't even keep up with him when we go out biking!

But he's having some tummy troubles.

My mom took him to emergency on Monday morning because his stomach really hurt. It must have been pretty bad because he doesn't go to the hospital for nothing. I've actually seen him GLUE his finger back on after some farm accident practically ripped it right off. I kid you not. So, it must be really bad if he goes to get a doctor's opinion. (Did I mention that my parents just got a family doctor this summer after their regular doc moved away 10 years ago?)

So, he goes to the emergency room and they hook him up to leads because he complains of chest pains. (Now, I've always told him that if he doesn't want to wait around in emerg.; he has to talk chest pain....guess he listened!) His heart is fine, his pulse is quick, and the doctor prescribes Gravol and Prevacid for a Hyatus Hernia.

Turns out this doctor is a bit of a quack who is solely responsible for Karen's dad's stroke.

So here we are 3 days later, my dad is still laid up on the couch not feeling much better and experiencing bleeding with his stools ("It's not a little blood, Joanne....it's profusely bleeding") I told him about Karen's experience with this particular doctor and also tell him that he may need to go back to emergency if he doesn't improve tomorrow. I strongly suggested going to Owen Sound hospital because they actually staff an internist.

I hope he starts to feel better by then....but today I realized that my big, strong, healthy, wise dad is only human. He is just as vulnerable to sickness and disease as the rest of us. It's a frightening thought.

I'm thinking about Karen losing Merv. And as I put myself in her shoes, I realize how badly I want to take them off......