The Adventure Begins! (Sort of)

So the morning of our big Disney trip arrived with Shannon screaming at 5:00 a.m.: "Mummy, Daddy, I feel SIIIIICCCCKKKK!!"

I pulled her into bed with me, and within half an hour she threw-up.  Not a big puke, just a little puke ball (I know, I know, here I go talking about bodily functions again!).

When I brought her downstairs at 7:00 I gave her some Gravol and that seemed to perk her up.

After finally WAKING the boys up at 7:45, we broke the news to them that we were going to Disney.

As an aside: we kept the whole trip a secret until the morning we were going to leave.  (and let me tell you - it was no small feat keeping things on the down low.  Chris and I developed our own code-language to talk about trip-related things when the kids were around.  These 10, 8, 5 and 4 year olds are clever you know!).

Anyhow.  Their reaction was somewhat subdued, but they were excited nonetheless.


Except for Shannon.  Poor thing just could not rally.  I kept thinking to myself, "no problem, she just has a stomach bug.  Note to self, pack extra plastic bags for the plane ride."

At some point in the morning Shannon mentioned that her thumb hurt.  I didn't think much of it, as I was too focused on getting everything set for the trip, and on how to bring a sick kid on the plane.

Half an hour before we were about to leave for the airport, I decided to give Shannon some Advil so she would survive the trip. I took her outside to get some fresh air, and snuggled with her on my lap.  That's when I noticed her thumb.

This thumb was red.  And incredibly swollen.  In fact, her whole hand was swollen.  I pulled up the sleeve of her hoodie and that's when I noticed the red streaks up her arm.

Now our Doctor has always told us not to worry about infections in cuts, unless you see red streaks coming out from the cut.  That's a sure sign that the infection has traveled into the blood stream which is very dangerous.

I said to Chris: "Um Chris?  You need to look at this."

He took one look at her hand and said, "We need to go to emerg."

I called our Pediatrician and they were able to get us in right away.  At this point I thought the Doctor would write us a prescription, and then we could continue on our trip.

The Doctor took one look at Shannon's hand and said: "She needs to be admitted right away. She has a blood infection, and she needs intravenous medication now."

I'm not going to lie.  When I left the Doctor's office I was crying.  All this planning.  All the excitement.  And now my poor girl had to go to the hospital.  I decided then and there that Chris would take the other three kids to Florida, and Shannon and I would go to the hospital.

...........to be continued...................