Catching Up

OK, so this is wayyyyyyy overdue. I apologize for not blogging in so long, but things have been a little crazy.

When we last left Our Hero, we were about to embark on our trip to Disney World, via an overnight stay in Cocoa Beach. Our expectations were high. Too high. Things kinda went south (no pun intended) in a hurry. The short version: Greg spent most of our vacation in an Orlando hospital.

We drove straight through to the beach and stayed there Saturday night. (We stopped in Memphis for dinner Friday night & ate at the Neely's -- I had BBQ spaghetti & highly recommend it!) This was 3/21. Thank God for Eric -- he did a lot of driving and did a great job. The beach there was not too great. The sand wasn't the nice, white sand that we're used to in Daytona and the Gulf. And the wind was terrible! Gale force off the Atlantic. But, that's the chance you take when you go to the beach in March, and we made the most of it. Built sand castles, collected shells & even went into the water a little (it was pretty cold!).

Sunday we went to Orlando & checked in at Disney. If I were writing this in real time, I'd have a lot more detail, but as its so long after the fact, I'll just give you the highlights. Met up with Sadie, Skibby & Don & had a great dinner Sunday night, and our Pirate-themed room was pretty fun. Monday morning we had our character breakfast and hung around the Magic Kingdom. Greg left after breakfast to find a place to get his lab values checked. He went to a local hospital, only to find out the Orders sent from St. Louis had never been signed by a doctor. So, it took all day to get that straightened out. Later that day, he got a call that he needed plateletes, so he went back to the hospital. That's when the real fun began. They wouldn't give him the plateletes without admitting him for a MINIMUM of 23 hours. No guarantee as to when they would actually let him go. We spent a couple of hours trying to get that straightened out (even calling Barnes & having the doctor there call the Florida doc to try to get them to give him his stuff outpatient) all to no avail. So, Greg left AMA.

Tuesday, he wakes up & feels really tired. He sent us on to the parks and said he would try to get someone else to give him his plateletes. We figured at that point he probably needed red blood cells, too. He finally found one place that would give him his stuff outpatient -- in two weeks IF he brought them all of his medical records!

He spent the rest of Tuesday sleeping. That should have been a clue, but I was being Cleopatra, Queen of Denial at that point. It wasn't until Wednesday a.m. that I figured I'd better take his temp. True to form, he was at 103 +. I took him to a local hospital & sent the boys on to the parks. Luckily, Greg's sister had scoped out local hospitals beforehand, and I had a borrowed Garmin. I took him to an MD Anderson Cancer Center in Orlando (at least we learned SOMETHING from the KC disaster). He was really a sick puppy at that point. His fever was still 103+, and he was septic -- meaning he was spilling infectious stuff into his bloodstream -- really serious.

To make a long story short, I basically had a nervous breakdown on Wednesday, but I got better. So did Greg. By Thursday evening he was A LOT better, and we salvaged our vacation as best we could for the boys. Skibby, Don & Sadie were there until Saturday, which was a huge help. We never did get an official diagnosis out of the infectious disease guys -- one doctor said pneumonia & another said GI. (The pneumonia guy had the hairiest knuckles I've ever seen. The GI guy I was calling "Dr. Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love" -- he was gorgeous!) But, he did get excellent care & said that this is the first hospital he's been in (and there have been plenty!) outside of Barnes in St. Louis where they "get it." The hardest part was getting him discharged. It wasn't until the following Tuesday evening. We drove straight home (not the smartest thing we ever did) and got home late Wednesday. So, for all his efforts, Greg got a total of 4 hours in the Magic Kingdom, and that was it.

Did I mention Matthew got carsick on the way home? Twice? (Note to self: when a kid throws up once, do not, repeat, DO NOT go to the nearest McDonald's & fill him back up again -- especially with orange soda & a shamrock shake.). It was not pretty.

Special thanks to Eric for being the most fantastic big brother in the whole world. He took Matthew on all the 'mountains' -- Space, Splash & Big Thunder. Matthew loved them all -- even if we did have to fudge the height requirements a little.

Eric also reached a milestone on this trip. Not only did he drive his parents home from their Florida vacation, he also drove his dad home from the hospital.

I'll write more later. We got home Wednesday, went to work Thursday & went to St. Louis Friday. I'll post in a day or two with what happened there.

Thanks to all!

Love,

The Weary Travellers

P.S. I'm going to write a Michelin Guide to hospitals. I already have a good start.

P.P.S. However this may not be easy, as I'm never going anywhere again.