Holy moly I didn't blog in an entire week. WOOT WOOT! Yay for a boring dosing week!!!!
We had to shuffle up Coby's dosing schedule a bit in the summer, but all went well. He gets home from camp about 4:30, and jumps into the shower. We then have to wait 45 minutes to dose him so he's been dosing about an hour later than he did during the school year, but thank G-d it basically has been going smoothly.
Sure he's a bit congested these days, but that's what you get when it's only 72 degrees outside and you really want to go swimming with camp anyway in a non-heated pool! Just hope it's minimal enough that he can continue to up-dose.
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| in the camp pool |
While Coby was not given any new freedoms since two up-doses ago, I was given a gift from OIT... a sense of peace.
Last year I was a nervous wreck sending Coby off to camp. Yes it is a nut free camp, but he would be riding on a school bus every single day. (to the two trips each week plus to the swim club the other three days). While he self carries his epipen, water activities made me nervous because---
He has to take off that epibelt and give it to his counselor.
What if the counselor forgets it on the hot bus (which would kill the epi)
What if the counselor leaves it in direct sunlight (can kill the epi)
What if the counselor with Coby's epi-belt is somewhere not near Coby and Coby has a reaction?
What if the counselor forgets the epi-belt at the swim club and Coby is epi-less...
One of last year's trips that brought me the hugest anxiety was when he went to a waterpark. We even bought a water-proof 'purse' for the epi-belt that we thought would enable Coby to wear the epi-belt in the water but when we did our preliminary research, the water-park told us he would NOT be able to wear anything in the water--- it could get caught on the slides and Coby could end up with a serious injury. They suggested that he leave his epipen in the locker.
THE HOT LOCKER?! (remember if it needs to be kept room temperature, extreme heats can kill the meds)
AINT HAPPENING.
So his counselor would have his epi-belt while Coby was in the water...
BUT
It's a freakin' waterpark and kids were all over the place- some in the pool, some in the splashdown area, some in the lazy river, others on slides--- the counselor would not be able to be
near Coby at all times.
And true while the kids would not be eating while going down the lazy river, they had eaten lunch shortly before the water-park, what if Coby were to have a delayed reaction to something that was inadvertently cross-contaminated
what if Coby swallowed some water and had a reaction from that.
"HUH" you may ask.
"WATER?"
Yep. Crazy weird, but kids have had reactions in public pools from getting water in their mouth.... because other kids get water in their mouth. It happens. So if someone had eaten peanut butter even 4 hours earlier and got some pool water in their mouth and spit it back out, (which most do since they don't swallow pool water), the friggin' contaminated pool water could cause a reaction.
So yeah, I was a hot mess during that particular trip last year.
That same trip was two days ago and I barely felt any nerves about it!!!!
To be fair, my mind was sort of on other things that morning since we sent Mikey off to his wilderness camp that morning and I had a bit of anxiety about that (while it is his favorite place in the world, 5 of the past 6 summers one of my kids ended up with a serious injury or illness at that place so it is quite a bit nerve-wracking for me to send them there.
To be fair, it is an AMAZING experience. Josh and Mikey loved it. Building shelter, making fires, navigating by the stars, living in the wilderness. Cultivating friendships like no others. Building unbreakable bonds. Team building exercises. Watching out for one another. It was an unbelievable experience for them. It changed them. They became independent and resourceful and responsible and it had such positive and lasting effects on them that they could never have received anywhere else... but as a parent, getting through that month knowing your kid is out in the wilderness- is scary! Even when all does go as well as can be expected, they encounter snakes and bears and ARGH....)
1. Josh year one- kids were hoisting huge logs to build shelters and such. Rope snapped, big heavy log came falling towards the ground... and on to Josh. His shoulder and arm got pretty messed up. Trip to hospital. He was unable to carry his heavy backpack or participate in the 3 day hike he had so been looking forward to. I didn't get any pictures of that injury (shocker) since I wasn't there, but here's a pic from that year. (In future years I do have some pix of injuries because other kids sent me pix)
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| pretty |
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| great timing Josh... |
on a hike |
| Why yes, that is a bear going through their stuff (and they were taught what to do if they were to come upon a black or brown bear) |
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| pretty |
3. Year three- besides his more major injury he also ended up breaking his finger the day before leaving to camp and no orthopedists were available so we had to take him to the hospital for x-rays and to be splinted up) Again great timing... On the very last day of camp Josh had intense stomach pains and couldn't move or walk (he had to be carried to the infirmary). They could not in good faith put him on a two hour bus ride home and instead rushed him to the hospital. He needed a few hours of meds and fluids. Apparently going from Tisha B'av to a multi day hike just a few hours after the fast ended and not re-hydrating enough can do that to a person....
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| broken finger.... where he lived when not hiking... |
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| ready for the 3 day hike |
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| pretty |
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| last day of camp instead of coming home |
4. Year four- his more minor injury that summer was when he was trying to scale a cliff with a slackline and fell off and tripped and hurt his elbow...
Let me just add a few pictures of the funner parts of that summer.
Okay---- and now on to the scariest thing that ever happened to us in regards to Josh.... They were on a 7 day bushwack through the forest. Josh heard a snap and froze. A huge log from a tree had snapped and came crashing down and fell on Josh. Josh passed out. When he came to, he thought he was okay and continued hiking but his body started doing weird things like going from boiling hot to freezing cold to trembling to feeling like electric shocks were going through him. (Apparently his body was going into shock.)
There was no cell service to call for help.
Kids took turns carrying him (one of the counselors was an EMT). They set up camp for the night keeping watch on Josh and waking him through the night to make sure he's 'okay'. He couldn't get up to even pee. Apparently he was filling up entire water bottles with pee every little bit of time (which is a bad sign.)
The next morning some kids continued hiking to try to get help. They found a house. No one was in it, so they broke in to use the land-line and called 911. An ambulance came!!! (BUT NOT FOR JOSH)--- apparently when the ambulance got to the nearest clearing there was some other hurt person there that they thought was Josh and they brought that person to the hospital. Meanwhile the other boys who remained by the campsite with Josh kept a fire going to send up smoke signals. A helicopter saw the smoke and tried to land.... but there was no clearing to land.
PARATROOPERS JUMPED OUT OF THE HELICOPTER TO JOSH. Their plan was to attach a stretcher to the helicopter and their plan was to have the helicopter fly that stretcher and medevac Josh on that stretcher to a hospital. BUT THERE WASNT ENOUGH CLEARANCE for the stretcher to get down or up...
The paratroopers, who were apparently all muscle men and the kids spent the next TWENTY FOUR hours walking Josh lying on that stretcher through the forest. When they finally made it to the ambulance, they were so far from a hospital that it took the ambulance another hour and a half to get to the hospital.
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| paratroopers off the helicopter |
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| IV inserted and Josh on stretcher for 24 hour trek out of the forest |
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| Thank G-d they finally made it to a clearance where they could put the stretcher on the above seen truck and drive the last few miles to the ambulance |
Needless to say Josh said birkat hagomel. Twice.
5. Josh's year 5 & Mikey's first year as a camper. Josh's first year as a counselor--- and NOTHING HAPPENED!!!!!! Perhaps our streak has finally been broken?!
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| 3 day hike! |
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| Aw counselor and camper. |
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| I'm on top of the world! |
year 6. Mikey's second year as a camper and Josh's second year as a counselor. We had thought the big 'to do' that year was when we learned that during their 10 day hike they met upon a mad man that was chasing them with knives. But no, that was not 'all'. Mikey decided to get lyme disease and needed about 30 doctor appointments over the next month. The lyme got into his nerves and muscles and pulled his shoulder out of the socket (this took nearly 10 months to fix itself)- he needed nerve tests and a lot of PT. He also developed a heart murmur and needed to see a cardiologist. He would have dizzy spells and fall over when his legs couldn't hold him up. He would lose his vision for a few seconds at a time where everything would turn spotty or black. But for the funner times that summer:
7. And now it is year 7. Josh's first year not going. We pre-treated all Mikey's clothes to hopefully help keep ticks away, but yeah, you could say I'm a bit nervous...
SOOOOOO--- back to Coby---- as this is his blog--- maybe all the above circling in the back of my mind as we sent Mikey off back to that camp, kept me distracted about the fact that Coby was at that water park without as easy access to his epipen as he usually has.
Maybe the fact that Josh is Coby's division head and could keep an extra (partial) eye on him gave me some peace.
Coby is sooooooooooooo much safer than he ever before has been.
And so I was able to chill and he had a blast!
And THAT my friends, is why we OIT.
This was the first time I myself really began to feel the pay-off of OIT. And that is priceless.
Anyway we have an up-dose appointment that begins in under an hour so I gotta get off this thing and start getting ready...
He is going up to 6 peanuts!!!!
We are getting sooooo close to our end goal.
This is unreal!
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