'tis the season and blasts from the past

Mikey is the main star of this entry.... but since it ties into OIT (because everything nowadays ties into OIT) I am blogging.

Coby, as I wrote in my last post is fighting off another cold. He sounds so stuffy & is blowing his nose a lot and we had to double up on his flozane. "Please stay in his nose and don't progress to coughing" has been our mantra when a cold is involved because as long as it does just that he should be okay to continue dosing.
Coby getting sick these days is very scary. One's body begins fighting off the illness and is already contagious 24 hours before the signs are truly there. If we dose Coby when his body is already fighting off something else it greatly increases his risk of a serious reaction when dosing. If we know he is sick or gets a fever we'd have to skip doses or downdose and possibly end up back-tracking who knows how many weeks.

Before going to anyone's house or having people over at ours we tell them to PLEASE tell us if anyone is sick or has a bad cold because we'd have to pass if somebody does because we just can't risk Coby. During OIT his little body is working so hard fighting off his allergen that it becomes more difficult to fight off other things at the same time, and if he gets sick, the cycle begins...

The last couple of doses I heard him cough a couple of times and my heart just about froze but thankfully that was it and nothing else happened. But it is scary since I KNOW he is past the point that can cause anaphylaxis so each dose is really scary- his body is working miracles- so we need to keep his environment as safe as possible.

....but if somebody in your own family gets sick, obviously you aren't going to kick 'em out (LOVE YOU MEEKERS!!!) so we got to do our best to keep Coby separated.

Shabbos afternoon Mikey started feeling crummy as if he was getting a bad cold- his voice went very low and right after shabbos we realized he had fever so he was sent to his room (with love). I proceeded to lysol every spot he touched- from door knobs to flushers to light switches to the couch, and told him to text us with anything he may need (and he did from food to drink to tissues to bags). He was in good enough spirits and even played several songs on his keyboard and did some exercise on his pull up bar (until I realized what he was doing and yelled at him, 'are you cuckoo? stop it!'). Each time he went to the bathroom I relysoled all areas since Coby uses the same bathroom. Mikey has a big room and has his laptop and music and movies and homework and studying and bed and all he needs there, so he is set.

"Mikey, stay in your room except when you have to go to the bathroom"
"Coby, stay away from Mikey's room."
"By the way Mikey, you are NOT allowed to fast tomorrow." 

At 4 in the morning I was woken by banging on my wall (our bedroom shares a wall with Mikey's). I ran into his room and he was literally struggling to breathe.
He gasped to me, "I think I'm having an anaphylactic reaction."
"Mikey, you haven't eaten anything in 8 hours plus you have no food allergies (that we know of though anyone can develop any at anytime)

The noises he was making was reminiscent to the times his environmental allergies had attacked him in the past and he needed several breathing treatments. But at 4AM on a sunday morning in January, he was inside and it's not allergy season. Mikey had outgrown his asthma several years ago too.
I had him pull out expired 'poofers' and he tried inhaling the meds but it wasn't working. I was pretty sure we were about to go to the hospital so I woke up Yitz and said, 'we need to call an ambulance or you need to take him into the hospital- he can't wait until 9AM for dr to open.'

Yitz said, 'let's run the shower and see if the steamed bathroom helps."
I thought that was dumb.
"That's for croup. Only little ones get croup. He outgrew that at least 10 years ago!"
"Let's just try it. If it doesn't work, I'll take him- but the roads are so icy and I had 3 hours of sleep so let's just try this first."
Thankfully it worked!!!! (WTG Yitz!) Mikey stayed in the bathroom for an hour and felt clear enough to go back to sleep.

I was wondering if I'd be able to fall asleep at that point since I was then worried both about Mikey and about Josh who must have been on his way to the airport to catch his flights to Miami and then to Nicaragua at that point. Miraculously I did fall back asleep! How do I know?

Because lucky me had a nightmare about Coby updosing.

Of course I did.

I dreamed it was time for another updose and Coby had an anaphylactic reaction- his entire body morphed and was covered with horrific looking hives- his entire skin looked raw and burned and was dark purple. Nurses came running in insisting we needed to epipen him right away. I was saying, "this can't be happening." Even the doctor made an appearance despite it not being his day to be in that particular office. I was cradling my child running through the hallway to the room for him to be hooked up to all the IVs.

Then I woke up.

I probably had that dream because:

-Mikey thought his labored breathing was anaphylaxis

-me being terrified of Coby getting sick which can lead to anaphylaxis when dosing 

- Coby getting sick and needing to downdose and lose all the progress we made

As Yitz took Mikey to the doctor I stalked American Airlines to track Josh's flight.

I hate flying. Ever since 9-11 I'm sooooo nervous about flying (in fact it took me 13 years to reluctantly and 'medicated'ly to get back on a domestic flight after 9-11) and when a loved one is flying I feel sick.

When I saw Josh's flight got delayed by 76 minutes and his flight to Nicaragua was supposed to leave just twenty minutes after his delayed flight was supposed to land, I had a whole other anxiety on top of that.

taking a rest on a conveyor belt at Ben Gurion
when their flight was cancelled

It kind of reminded me about the time in Josh's year to Israel. He was flying to Poland but his Polish flight got cancelled (yeah I know there's a Polish joke in there since it was a Polish airline). I was panicked about the kids stuck at the airport and what would become of their trip; since there was no way to reschedule their 5 day trip to Poland. The kids ended up sleeping on the airport floor and took a flight 14 hours later to Germany- being stuck in Germany overnight (Christmas eve to boot) before flying El-Al to Poland.

Frankfurt airport in Germany

Lublin airport in Poland

In Poland hoping their flight back to Israel wouldn't be cancelled.

So this morning I watched Josh's flight's status switch from 'in air' to 'landed' while watching the other flight's status of 'on time' hoping it would change to 'delayed' (it didn't). After it said 'landed', I took a moment to exhale about the first leg of the trip having gone safely and then began yelling at the screen, "run kids run!!!!" (hoping nobody bothered to check any luggage since there'd be no time to wait for their luggage at the baggage claim).

I pictured a group of dozens of kids running through that airport hoping somehow they'd make the flight that had already began boarding before their first flight had even landed! And hoping that the kids who were fasting (like Josh) didn't get too winded and tired and thirsty and continued through this fast day easily.

Josh texted me when he was on board the second plane, 'hi we made it to our 2nd flight with just moments to spare' .When I asked him 'what about kids with checked luggage' (Josh did not check any), he said there was no time for kids to claim their checked luggage, but the airline was arranging transfer. "Kay taking off now bye." Literally- MOMENTS! I exhaled that the group made it to their connecting flight before beginning to worry about the safety of leg 2.

When THAT flight status  finally switched to landed- I really exhaled until I reminded myself, 'oh goodness I hope he's safe in Nicaragua.'

What me? Stressed?!

Yitz and Mikey meanwhile had gotten back from the doctor who told Yitz she was shocked we didn't end up in the emergency room last night. (I am telling you though, we were soooooo close!) Yitz told her if that steam room didn't work we were about to head in. (She said she understood since the roads were really awful last night!) Well, Yitz was going to head in with Mikey and I was going to stay behind with Coby because I can't expose Coby to more germs! And then my 'mom guilt' started attacking me about 'how can you abandon Mikey?' as I started picturing Mikey being admitted to the hospital and needing an oxygen tent and how could I leave him there without me. Aaaack- my crazed mind worries just never end....

But anyhow--- strep test negative. Flu test negative. (we all DID get the flu shot but apparently people are getting the flu despite having gotten the shot). Lungs sounded clear! So not pneumonia! (probably--- after all, my boys had pneumonia in the past even when their lungs sounded clear)  Pheeew! She said Mikey has upper respiratory infection with some similarities to croup which is why the steam room worked! I was shocked since it is VERY rare for anyone over the age of ten to even get croup at all. Usually it's reserved for pre-schoolers. But my kids can be anomalies. (aka Josh diagnosed with scarlet fever at his 3 year old well check up, Mikey with bronchitis at his 3 year old check up- both Josh & baby Coby getting swine flu, Pneumonias even with clear sounding lungs, Josh having hepatitis immunity in his blood despite never having had it which stunned the doctors and redid the blood test thinking it HAD to be a mistake, but it wasn't etc etc etc.) So guess it all goes with the territory. He also had her look at Mikey's winged shoulder blade which was a result of lyme disease getting into his nerves and she agreed that while it is better than it was it still isn't 100% recuperated.

And back to the present- Mikey was insisting that he HAD to get to school tomorrow because he has tests and finals later in the week and he will miss material and reviews he needs to know. The doctor said once he has no fever and feels well enough he can go back and gave us prescriptions for his nebulizer.

Mikey slept away the afternoon and woke up with fever despite the ibuprofen in his system. We informed him, "obviously no way you are going to school tomorrow."

And we reminded him that this time last year he missed the ENTIRE WEEK of school leading into finals because this was the week we went on our Disney Cruise and he still managed acing every single final! (We had to go before regular Yeshiva break in order to include Josh since his college break would be over before Yeshiva break would begin) We reassured Mikey he'd be okay once again! (I then told Yitz 'see he's missing school this week anyway- it always pays to go on a Disney cruise! Because school will be missed anyway at the same exact time' haha.....)

Castaway Cay January 2016

 Another funny "Disney" story. When Coby was 7 months old I really wanted to go to Disney (what else is new) and Yitz said we'd have to skip Disney that year because Coby was so small and I wasn't working since I was staying home with Coby and Disney is expensive. We dressed Coby up to greet Yitz when he came home from work begging Yitz to take us to Disney---- didn't work. :(

Take me to Disney!

Pretty please take us to Disney!

Instead, over that Yeshiva break, we did some small day trips including ice-skating which ended up with a 'trip' and a 'slip', a ride in an ambulance, a few hours in the hospital and stitches. I told Yitz, 'you see one way or another we were going to end up spending money over winter vacation- it may as well have been to Disneyworld!' 

1-09

And omg, as I found this picture I just noticed now that Mikey was wearing one of his 'surprise shirts.' A year earlier we had the boys close their eyes (just before the school bus came) insisting they weren't wearing the proper shirts to go to school and we slipped shirts on to them that said, 'our parents surprised us today and took us to disneyworld- aren't they the best?' and we took them to Disney right then and there. See it was bashert that we should have gone to Disney in '09 too!

close up view of their shirts when they got them minutes before going 1-08

But anyway where was I, oh yes- Mikey sick. Contagious. Hoping to get back to school by Tuesday. We shall see. Has fever again. Sounds awful (but that part can last a week), just nebulized. And NEEDING to keep Coby from catching it. 

Coby is already congested and fighting off a regular cold.

Coby is now dosing an amount that is beyond the point that can cause anaphylaxis.

We cannot afford Coby to get 'real' sick (beyond a simple cold) because it can cause a horrible reaction when dosing and/or cause him to backwards dose and lose G-d knows how many of the weeks we already progressed through.

So.... here's praying that Mikey has an easier night than last night and we don't have any more close calls regarding the hospital. 

And praying that he does get over this quickly so he can get back to school like he so wants to. (I am NOT being facetious here- he IS begging to go to school and me, the parent is saying "NO!" How's that for a teen/parent role reversal!)

Here's praying that Josh has a fun, incredible and SAFE trip to Nicaragua (and safe flight back in one week's time)

And here's praying that our little warrior stays as healthy as possible and does NOT get the sickies so he can continue in his courageous fight against the enemy!