YIKES!

So I hinted a couple of days ago a little something about Lyme's disease. Well...The Gooch has got it, or at least he's being treated for it. We went camping in Upper New York State on Victoria day weekend, and when we got home on Monday night we noticed a red bite on the Gooch's tummy, but I thought it was a mosquito bite and dediced to wait to see what would happen. Fast forward three days later and his little "innocent" bite is now the shape of a bull's eye or target about an inch in diameter. Internet here I come! Now, normally I'm not one to believe everything that's on the Net, but I kinda knew what I was looking for, and the Net seemed to prove to me that our little Goochie has somehow gotten bitten by a deer tick and now appeared to have the typical bull's eye rash associated with it. I called my pediatrician, and in we went to see her. We were put in isolation...not that Lyme's disease is contagious, but ya never know---after all I was diagnosing my son based on some pictures I had seen on some skin/rash website. Our pediatrician was a little leery to say that it was indeed Lyme's disease cause The Gooch didn't have the flu like symptoms to go with my story...hmmm, I wasn't convinced, but I thought I'd give it one more day.

Woke up in the morning and found THIS in my little guy's tummy:


Yup, I was SURE it was Lyme's, so back we went to the pediatrician's...and back we went into isolation...

She still wasn't convinced, but wanted a second opinion from a dermatologist. Sure. No Problem. NOT! There was not one dematologist on the West Island who cold see my guy until OCTOBER!!!! Say what? THIS IS AN EMERGENCY PEOPLE! But I digress...

We ended up in the emergency department of the Montreal Children's Hospital (great place by the way---and it has NOTHING to do with the fact that I work there!) I had worked the night before, so keep in mind that I was a little giddy and WAAAYYYYY overtired from a 12 hour shift, but everyone was awesome and very understanding, and after three and a half hours of seeing every specialty under the sun, voila! he'll be treated for Lyme's disease. No duh. So we started a three week course of Amoxil. The Gooch was a trooper and he took his meds VOLUNTARILY, God love him!

And then, six days later, THIS happened...




I have to admit, that even though I'm a nurse and suspected an allergic reaction to the Amoxil, I was still FREAKED OUT! So, off to the pediatrician's office again, but this time with a different rash, still the same isolation room (they really gotta change up the books in that room cause we must have read them a dozen times each...)

So, we changed the antibiotic to Ceftin and headed back down to New York and some more camping with the ticks (but we had some DEET with us this time!) We tried to give The Gooch the new med and he vomited EVERYWHERE! Add this to the fact that our poor little trooper now has big time diarrhea from the Amoxil... We never did get a dose of that med into him, and the poor guy vomited a couple more times after that as well.

Oh, and his rash got WORSE before it got better:



Well, we came home on Sunday night, very tired, and on Monday we changed his med once again, and this time it seems to be working (except that we have to bribe The Gooch with M&M's with every dose...smalll price to pay I'd say)

And THAT'S what's been going on with me!

Bad blogger!...bad,bad blogger!

Okay, so I've been kinda neglecting my blog, and it's not like there hasn't been anything happening to blog about... For example, did you know that Lyme disease has nothing to do with citrus fruit of ANY type? Stay tuned...

Grieving is hard...especially long distance...

I found out yesterday that my Uncle Art, who has been suffering with heart disease for several years, has passed away peacefully in hospital in BC. It 's incredibly difficult to hear that a great man has now moved on to better things, but I am even more saddened by the fact that I can't be there to celebrate his life with my aunt and cousins... I wish them the best and send big hugs and kisses. My family have had a very emotional past couple of months, and the only thing that brings me comfort is that the ones we love and now mourn are in a better place, a place without pain or suffering.

God bless...

Happy Birthday...

In loving memory, Happy Birthday...

Some more challenge stuff

I think this contest may be coming to a close, and I've already got enough points to participate, but I decided to do two more LOs for it anyway...

March On-Line Crop

I participated in the Scraptivity online crop, and managed to get six layouts done, despite having to run around for easter egg hunts and suppers (by the way, thanks for all of that...it made a lot less work for me!) Here's what I completed this long weekend...
A quick thanks to scrapmomof2 for the lift!






And also the ribbon challenge for week 10 (a little late, but c'est la vie...) It was my attempt to get a "nice" photo of my two hooligans for easter...didn't really work out as well as I had hoped!

ABCDEFG I've been tagged by Tanya B!

Alrighty, I was tagged by Tanya in some form of alphabet answer format, so here goes...

A- Attached or single: Very happily attached

B- Best Friend: Is it cheesy to say Steve?

C- Cake or Pie: Cake (especially if it's chocolate...or cheesecake...or spice cake...or angel food cake...alright, pretty much ANY cake...oh, and pie, but only apple...or pecan...or chocolate cream...or any Rockaberry pie...)

D- Day of Choice: Saturday

E- Essential Item in your purse: purse? I still carry a diaper bag for crying out loud, so I guess my essential item would be diapers and wipes (technically that's two items, but you can't have one without the other! Well, I guess you could but it would be MESSY!)

F-Favorite type of music: really love the Beatles, but will listen to anything, except heavy metal and country

G- Gummy Bears or Worms: gummy bears...do you know that if you lick the back of a gummy bear it will stick to a car window? I'll now take the time to apologize to anyone in Kingston who may have woken up to find their car windows and rearview mirrors decorated with tiny rainbow coloured gummy bears...

H- Hometown: Pierrefonds

I- Indulgence(s): red wine, chocolate and pedicures (well, not at the same time, but man, that would be one awesome esthetician!)

J- January or July: July

K- Kids: 2

L - Last movie: last movie I saw in the theater was Enchanted with Ella, otherwise I saw some rather thrilling Baby Einstein movies this week (real suspenseful stuff, had me on the edge of my seat the whole 30 minutes!)

M- Marriage Date: October 12, 2002

N- Number of Siblings: 1 younger sister

O- Oranges or Apples: apples

P- Phobias or Fears: SPIDERS and VERMIN like mice and rats!

Q- Quote(s): "If you build it, they will come"...okay, that's not really a quote I live by, but I was stumped and it's the first thing that came to mind...

R- Reason To Smile: my family

S- Season: Autumn

T- Tag: nope, not gonna do it!

U- Unknown Fact About Me: My parents almost named me Heidi...Yodelei-hee-hoo!

V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: CARNIVORE!

W- Worst Habit: I bite the inside of my cheeks and lips...

X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: Ultrasound

Y- Your Favorite Food: pizza

Z- Zodiac: Pisces

Well, there ya have it, a few more tidbits about me from A to Z!