Let me tell you about traveling with Jack.
HE LOVES IT!
Jack could sit in the car and ride for hours and hours and never get bored or complain or want to stop…….He is delighted by the “spinnings” on the cars. (wheels) He see squares everywhere. (fences and bridges). When the wipers come on it brings a paroxysms of unadulterated joy.
Now. Let me tell you about traveling with Jack.
It requires an immense amount of planning and list making. Meals made ahead of time. Baby monitors, sleep machines, toys, dvds, medication. Special blanket and airplane pillow.
Scoping out the hotel room to look for dangers.
And so it was with this in mind we proceeded to Oakland Children’s Hospital for our appointments– oh! and please bear in mind, that OCH is a good six hours away and requires all sorts of planning for my dear husband and I to get away ourselves. AND making that all work with the doctors and clinics we need to see once we get there
Did I mention the word logistics?
Rightio, then.
We planned to leave right after work on Wednesday.
Clay had the car loaded and ready to roll.
All systems go, 3, 2, 1………
AND WE’RE OFF!
True to form, Jack had a blast.
I was able to get some handwork done, and Clay was ever the stalwart driver.
We made good time and arrived at the hotel knowing we had an early rise to get to OCH in the morning to be sedated for the MRI.
Except…..
That’s NOT what happened.
Upon arrival at the hotel, Jack became grumpy.
Once in the room, he climbed up on the bed and asked for blanket and pillow.
While changing his pants and clothes we realized:
FEVER.
Not just warm, but HOT. Baked potato hot. Had it been a cartoon, you would have seen the waves of heat coming off him.
Not good. Not good at all.
This was a game changer. You can’t go in to be sedated for an MRI if you have a fever.
Fevers like this can trigger seizures (even in “regular” kids).
No time to think about anything, but get the fever down.
Strip him down. Acetaminophen. Cool rags.
Soon, he was comfortable enough to sleep. I crawled in bed next to him.
He snuggled in, grabbed one of my braids, sighed, and fell to sleep.
HE slept well. ME? Not so much. Clay? Not really at all.
Waking brought a round of phone calls, rescheduling and trying to get another game plan going.
They scheduled us for the next morning, providing he could go 24 hours without a fever.
Jack seemed to be on the upswing…..but….who can say for sure……OK. we’ll try that.
The next day Jack was moving slow, but in good spirits. Only slightly warm. We ventured out for a drive.
By early afternoon we were back to fever (not as high, acetaminophen doing the trick)
and the next days appointment cancelled as well.
So the bright side?
Lots of lounging on a big bed with fluffy pillows.
Naps.
Showers with unlimited hot water.
AND no household chores pressing in on us making us feel like we needed to get SOMETHING done.
SO back to the drawing board.
We are looking at trying to plan the next round of appointments around ANOTHER set of appointments that needs to be done in April.
Good Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we can get it ALL scheduled for our spring break.
Here’s hoping!
you don't know Jack 