Hitting the Road .... Soon

Wow. It is hard to believe that I haven't even posted in a week. Time really does get away from you some days. Between doctor visits, both kids with snotty colds, decorating for Christmas, doing that last minute running around for our upcoming trip, baking, house arrangements, etc before you know, a week has gone by.

Things are great in the Whittingham household. Masyn is doing fabulous; you wouldn't even know that she was as sick as she was. Her little body has responded very well to the antibiotics and hopefully in two weeks she will have her VCUG done. Of course, because Murphy's Law always prevails, the first initial appointment was booked when we will be away in DC, despite my request for it not to be so. The pediatrician has encouraged us to go on our trip and thankfully so, as our circumstances do not qualify for a refund should we have not been able to go. We of course could have taken a credit but it would have been to the tune of $600 .... which is basically 1/3 of our initial cost. So, our oh so very kind pediatrician is making arrangements for Masyn to get her test done right when we come back. A part of me is really looking forward to this test to determine whether or not Masyn has VUR as it has been bugging me royally in the back of my mind as to how she got so sick. And interestingly, when sharing our story to people who have been asking about Masyn, we have met three other families that have gone through almost the identical experience that we did; high fever resulting in seizures, severe UTI infection, kidney infection and bacteria in the blood. All three ended up having VUR and two of the three outgrew the reflux by the age of 2. The third child needed minor surgery to help correct the situation. And ... being the cyber geek that I am, I am very comfortable with going into this test and all of the possible outcomes that it could bring. For me, knowledge is power. My hubby jokes that I am likely every doctors nightmare as I always head into appointments with my head filled with information and questions. My sister jokingly calls me Dr. Allie, but I would like to think that the doctors are happy to have me (or my children) as a patient as I am able to understand what they are explaining to me and I can ask informative, well thought out questions. Every one knows that there is so much information to be had out on the Internet and that sometimes, you have to take that information with a grain of salt per. Anyways, enough on that.

We are heading on our first real family trip in what my son calls it: Five Sleeps. It is funny really as my hubby is already losing sleep over the travelling. If he could pull the plug on the trip right now, he would. He has never really travelled with the kids before so the whole thought of flying with them, dealing with layovers and then living at someone else's house for just over a week is enough to give him serious indigestion and vivid nightmares. And as many of you Mommies out there can attest to, the thought of travelling with the kids and your hubby seems like a breezy, easy dream. I mean, there is an extra pair of hands, extra means of entertainment, I will actually be able to get a warmish meal into me or even get to go pee all by myself in a stall. Sigh .... such luxuries really. I fully plan on journalizing every aspect of this trip as I just know that hubby will have at least one meltdown before we get to our final destination, Kaelen will have figured out how to climb the airplane walls before our first layover and Masyn, well she will likely crap herself silly upon our preboarding call to get out of Calgary. It will be great for humour down the road and yes ... okay ... for me in the moment.

So I am off now. Posting and visiting your sites will be continue to be sporadic for the next two weeks as I am not too sure if I will have computer access in DC. In the mean time, I will leave you with a picture of Masyn, who I forgot to mention is back to being my happy baby. Happy baby as in the ONLY time that she cries is when she is hungry. Seriously. Oh how I missed her and am incredibly happy to have my happy, smiling and giggle baby back. It was a very long and frustrating two and a half months of guessing what was wrong and wondering what the heck happened.