Sam's Spots, First Birthday, Vacation & It is Tri Time

This post is really long because we have been really busy since my last post. I'll work this through in chrono order.....

First, on Saturday, 6/12 we were supposed to have Sam's first birthday party with my side of the family in conjunction with my niece's 2nd birthday. We were going to go out of town and go to the zoo. Turned out the weather was horrible, half of the family couldn't make it and we cancelled our reservations. My sister and her family came to our house. My dad picked up the cakes my aunt had made and we had the party at our house. Then we went to the zoo. The party was great - Sam got great gifts and the cake was awesome!

On Friday, 6/18 daycare called me at work at 8:10 saying Sam had spots all over her body and I needed to pick her up. We had noticed a slight red spot on her cheek that morning but nothing alarming. I made a doctor appointment for 9:10am and went to pick her up. Her normal ped was on vacation so we saw a different doctor and one that I don't care much for. He said she had hives and must have either been exposed to something she is allergic to (either food, detergent, etc., etc or it could be caused by a virus of some sort. She did have a runny nose and kind of a barky cough since Wednesday night. She had no fever and seemed happy and he said her ears looked good - that was odd - her ears have never looked good. He said she wasn't contagious and she could go back to day care so I took her back. That night Travis left to go to his parent's house (4 hours away) and my mom came over to stay with Sam and I for the weekend. Sam was also scheduled to get tubes in her ears on Monday (6/21).

Saturday morning Sam still had spots and had a bit more on her cheeks. As the day went on they were spreading. The doctor had said they may cover most of her body before they went away and she was proving him to be right. I was still scratching my head wondering what could be causing this. Finally, I decided to strip her down and let her run around in her diaper to see if maybe the laundry detergent had a role to play. I hadn't changed the brand but you never know - maybe they tweaked the formula. The only other thing I could think of is that she had some pretty good cradle cap and on Thursday night I rubbed a generous amount of baby oil on her head and then scrubbed off the flakes when we gave her a bath. Maybe sitting in that caused some sort of allergic reaction. She also had an egg on Thursday, but she had eaten an egg before and didn't have any issues. Then I made the mistake of googling "allergy to baby oil" and read some really horrific stories about children ingesting baby oil and dying a slow death by suffocating. Don't google it.....it almost made me sick to my stomach. Then I started wondering if the same could be happening to her. Her cough was getting a little worse....why did I put that much oil on her head.....why did I let her sit in the bathtub in the water I used to wash it off....could it be....I would never forgive myself. It is amazing how far you let your thinking take you when you don't know what is going on.

Saturday around 6:30pm I put her in her highchair for dinner. She was eating fine, as always and humming the whole time (she is a noisy eater but it is sooooo cute). Then I looked at her fingers and they looked blue. Then I looked at her toes and they looked blue. She wasn't having any trouble breathing but why was she turning blue. I asked my mom, who is an LPN, what she thought. She thought they were blue. That was it we were going to the emergency room. I wasn't a total wreck but I wasn't calm either. On the way to the hospital I called the ask a nurse line to get directions to the children's hospital. The nurse I talked to convinced me to pull over and do an assessment before taking her to the ER. She walked me through a bunch of things and said that her hands and toes being blue was probably related to her being cold - could be by the time we had gotten her into her car seat they were normal looking again. We had the AC in the house set at 74 degrees. The nurse said as long as her mouth and lip area were not turning blue she was getting enough oxygen. She also walked me through the hives and said they sounded normal. I could give her Benedryl (which was something the Dr. had told me on Friday and I had been doing). She wanted me to skip the ER but to take her to a walk in clinic. It was 7:40 and the clinic closed at 8pm. We needed to be there in 10 minutes to be seen. She would call and tell them we were coming. We got there about ten minutes before 8pm and we sat for 45 minutes to see the doctor. In the last 5 minutes we were sitting in the waiting room her right foot started swelling. It was almost twice the normal size, was red and hot. Now I started to get really concerned. It was bothering her too. She didn't want you to touch it and she was getting fussy. What in the world was wrong with my baby!

The doctor came in and took one look at her foot and her hives and said "You are going downtown". He listened to her lungs and said they sounded fine but that the hives were not your normal hives and the foot swelling was a concern. She also had developed a low grade fever. He wanted her to be seen by a pediatric doctor right away. He said he would call and tell them we were coming then he walked us to the front desk. Along the way, he asked his nurse to call the hospital and tell them we were on our way. He then told the front desk lady he would not charge us for the visit - it should be documented as triage. Now I was more scared.

I called Travis even though mom thought I should wait. No one answered the phone. He didn't answer his cell. Now I was getting upset. I left a message on his parents home phone and he called me back about 10 minutes later. He would be headed home right away. When we got to the hospital they said they had heard we were coming. Everyone who looked at her foot cringed. We saw the triage nurse right away and then she sent us to the waiting room. The ER wasn't too busy but we weren't the only ones waiting. Less than 5 minutes later they were taking us to a room. Other people were still waiting, what was going on????? All of my fears were eased about 30 seconds after the doctor walked in the room. She said Sam had "hives on steroids" and that we should continue to give her Benedryl & Motrin. When we asked about the foot swelling she sensed our concern and went to get the attending physician. Oh and she had a really bad ear infection. Remember what I said about not liking the doctor she saw on Friday....how is it that he missed that.

The attending physician came in and put us at ease immediately. She said Sam had Erythema Multiforme which is basically hives on steroids. The lesions develop into what looks like a target and the inside starts out flesh colored then often turns purple/blue like a bruise. She said the foot swelling is normal with this and that her hands may swell as well. She said her son had the same thing about 5 years ago when he was 2 years old. She brought in a picture and sure enough he looked exactly like Sam. She said that as long as she didn't act sick she was fine and it would go away gradually. It may take 6 weeks for it to be totally gone. What a big sigh of relief I breathed then. Thank you God! And mom was right I probably should have waited to call Travis.

The lesions got worse and on Sunday night she looked bruised all over but by Monday morning she looked a log better. She got the ear tubes put in on Monday morning and did really well. The doctors there were great. She was quite cranky in the recovery room but by noon she was pretty much normal just a little tired. Fluid/pus drained from her ears for a little over a week and it was pretty disgusting but now they look great and she is talking like crazy. It has been so funny to watch her. It seems like she can hear sounds for the first time. She has been looking around like crazy - the other day we were walking through the store and she kept looking up in the air to see where the music over the speakers was coming from.

Then we went on vacation. It started with a few days at Travis' parents house and a small birthday party for Sam. Then we went to Colorado with Travis' sister, her hubby and their 9 month old. We left for CO at 4am in order to let the monkeys sleep for most of the 8 hour drive. They did great. While in CO we spent 2 days in Colorado Springs. We hiked a few trails. The first day was good but the second day not so much. Sam had a minor melt down about half way into a 7 mile hike and we had to take her out of the pack and put her in the Baby Bjorn. She calmed down and we were able to finish the hike. We went swimming every day (Sam loves swimming) and the only minor problem we had was that Sam decided not to sleep through the night. She was in a crib provided by the hotel and woke up both nights and would not calm down until she got into bed with us. Of course then I couldn't sleep because she had never ever slept with us. It was fine but I was still nervous the whole time.

We spent Tuesday night with Travis' sister and her family in Aurora.

We spent Wednesday - Friday in Estes Park. That place was awesome. We hiked some really cool trails, found a really cool little shop to eat at and in the end wished we would have spent the entire week there. Next year I think we will....there are so many more trails we could have explored.

On Saturday morning we headed home. We left Denver at 7am mountain time and rolled into the drive way at home around 9pm CST. It was a long day. Sam did great until about 2 hours from home when she started crying almost non stop. Finally, we rearranged all of the stuff and I sat in the back seat with her. A few minutes later after I couldn't really get her to calm down I tried to shift her around a bit because she didn't look very comfortable and saw stuff leak out of her diaper. Wow, what a mess. No wonder she wasn't a happy camper. We pulled over, pulled her out and changed her, removed her soiled pants and the top padding of the car seat - ick! The last hour and a half of the ride home was good though.

Regarding Sam turning one.....we can't believe it! She is such a little miracle. I think I have posted on our troubles getting pregnant, in essence giving up and deciding to adopt only to be blessed with this beautiful baby girl of our own. We love her so much as I know most parents do but it is really beyond words. Sam, if you read this someday, you really are the apple of our eyes and you are so loved. I hope you grow up always knowing this and that you can share this amazing experience with your own children some day. We look forward to spending the rest of our lives with you!

As for training, I didn't do any formal tri training for a week solid but spent a lot of time hiking & in the pool with Sam. I need to hit it pretty hard this week and my first tri of the season is on Sunday. I'll post more hopefully later this week. Until then, happy training & parenting.