Another trip to the ER....

What a morning. This morning I went to put Audrey's shoes and socks on her feet so we could get out the door, and I discovered that her toes were just covered in blisters. At first I thought it was just because her shoes were too small or that the new orthotics were irritating her feet, but then I noticed that the blisters were on the top of her feet as well. So I started looking around at the rest of her, and noticed that she had several on her hands, as well. She just had her last Remicade infusion last Saturday Jan 10, and so I thought it might have been a delayed reaction to that. So first I called the RTU, and they had never heard of a reaction like that. So they told me to page the rheumy on call, which I did. It wasn't a reaction he had ever heard of either, but told us to head up to the ER so someone could take a look at her. One thing about Primary's ER - I've learned that they are usually pretty slow on Saturday mornings, so I was hoping we wouldn't be stuck there forever. The docs come in, took a good look at her, and decided to page the rheumy on call because she's immune suppressed. He comes in and takes a look, looks in her mouth, and sees little blisters in her mouth, as well. Guess what she has? Hand foot and mouth disease, a virus that's spread by saliva, snot or stool. The three s's. We have no idea how she picked it up, but she has so many blisters and such large ones because she is immune suppressed. Seriously - I counted 20 blisters just on her feet alone. And there are some that are still coming out. So she's out of school for I don't know how long. Luckily my mom isn't working right now, so she's going to be watching Audrey because I don't think she'll be able to go back to day care either. I'm so hoping she's over this before the 29th!

As for me, I've been having a difficult time. Despite sticking to plan, and punishing myself every time I reach for the candy jar, I'm having a rough go of it weight wise. I am re-evaluating my diet, and realizing that I'm eating basically the same thing every day, and so I think my body is very used to it. I also realized that I'm not getting enough protein - if I'm lucky I'm getting one good serving of protein, because I'm sure that my lunch meat doesn't have any. So I think I'm going to change things up a bit and try eating a different breakfast and some more protein. So we'll see how that works. And you ask how am I punishing myself everytime I reach for the candy jar? Every time I have a piece of candy, I have to run a flight of stairs. I figure that's enough of a deterrent because I hate stairs, but if I do fall and have a piece of candy, at least I'm working on getting some of the calories from it off.

Bryce is doing pretty good. Sometimes I wish he would just be quiet. We're still having a bit of a rough time with him getting dressed in the mornings - he just fights us tooth and nail. His speech is coming along really well, and we are starting to focus on pre-kindergarten skills in his OT sessions. I'm really concerned about his writing abilities, or lack thereof. I think we've decided that he is definitely left handed.

Gene is doing okay. We're actually really frustrated because we were told he was hired for full-time at the care center he's working at, and we're lucky if we are getting 2 eight hour shifts a week. So he is looking for another job, and has had some interesting leads, so we'll see where those pan out. In the meantime, he's working stuff for staffing agencies so we can pay the mortgage and our bills.

Well, I think that's about it for now. I hope it doesn't take Audrey long to get over this.....