You know how I was raving about the weekend starting off great? Well, it didn’t go as great as it started, but we had no choice but to roll with it. Ben and I decided to celebrate June 8, which marks the 11 year anniversary of Ben asking me to be his girlfriend, by taking the girls to the same restaurant he took me to 11 years ago…
It all started kind of bumpy because as we were going there, my stomach started hurting, and then really hurting some more. I turned to Ben and said, “I think I have to go bathroom.” I must confess, I have public bathroom phobia and if I have to go #2, I’d rather drive all the way back home to do my business. I considered asking Ben to drive me home and just forget about going to the beach, but we had reservations, and the girls were excited about the beach, so Ben said he would find me a nice hotel to do my business. I reluctantly agreed. Now, not only was I nervous about the business I had to do (in a public bathroom!), but I was wearing a 1 piece bathing suit under my shorts and top, so it would take a little bit more work than normal to get to my business. Oy! I turned to him and said, “People go #2 in public bathrooms all the time right?” He said, “Duh. Don’t think about it.” I was pretty much wincing from pain the whole drive until he found me that nice hotel (and I was getting scared I wasn’t going to make it!). Thankfully, it was really nice (and pretty dead), so I went in and did my business (oh that bathroom smelled strong of wonderful air freshener and it made this mama’s heart and mind happy) and I totally waited to come out of my stall when no one else was in the bathroom. I got back in the car, my stomach ache was gone, and I was ready for a yummy breakfast buffet.
We get to breakfast, my tummy starts hurting again. Ugh. I was so frustrated. I just wanted eat waffles and sausage to my heart’s content, but my tummy was preventing that. I ate slowly and tried not to think about it and prayed hard for it to go away. I was able to eat a decent amount, but then something happened that took the focus away from my stomach…
True and Brave were pretty much done eating, but they wanted some breakfast muffins, so I took them to get some. Brave’s was obviously blueberry and we assumed True’s was the same, because well, if it had nuts, wouldn’t it be labeled considering it is a food that a lot of people are highly allergic to? That’s where the restaurant failed and True took a bite and said, “Mommy, there’s nuts in here.” I grab it, sure enough there is. Ben runs out and goes to the nearest pharmacy to get her benedryl, I’m trying to get her to eat and drink to see if it will help lessen the itchiness, but nothing’s really helping. Ben gets back with the medicine, by this time she says her throat hurts, she takes the medicine, but then she starts crying saying it’s hurting more, so we go ahead and make the call to 911 from the restaurant. They come, check True, administer more medicine, and then they whisk Ben and her away. The restaurant takes care of the bill for us, which I’m glad they did because that was not smart for a food establishment to have unlabeled muffins with nuts, and the rest of the girls and I head over to the hospital. Thankfully, everything turns out fine and they administer True a few more medications, but after a little bit of observation, she’s released. Oh, we’re so thankful for health insurance and that True was okay! And my stomach ache never came back after that ordeal!
We go to get her more prescriptions, which included 2 epipens, and they tell us it’s going to take 20 minutes. It ends up taking an hour! Four kids cooped up for an hour, by this time starving for lunch, we were all pretty cranky. We get back on the road to go home, grab quick lunch on the road (yup, fast food!), and at about 4 in the afternoon we were finally home again. We had planned to be home by noon!
Later that evening, we have the girls ready for bed and they’re having their quiet reading time and Soulie comes downstairs to show us her ouchy on her hand. Ben and I both look at it and are I like, “WTH?!” She had clusters of blisters on her hand and her body! Ben takes her to urgent care, doc says it’s a viral infection, sends them home with cream, and oh me oh my what a June 8th!
So much for our plans for a romantic evening to relax together and maybe get romantic. We were both spent and we just wanted to go to bed.
Then, Sunday night ends with the Spurs getting killed by the Heat in game 2, so there went that. And this morning we wake up and Soul’s blisters have spread, so we take her in to see the pediatrician and it turns out our big baby has shingles! We’re glad we have an answer to what she has, but so sad that she has to go through this, and nervous and praying the other kids don’t get it. What a busy weekend indeed!
11 years ago we became boyfriend girlfriend and 11 years later we’re still crazy about each other, but we just got a whole lot more crazy going on in our lives than just both being the 2 college students we once were. This weekend was filled with tummy aches (business in a public bathroom), ambulance rides, viral infections, and the Spurs losing, but hey! Ben and I love each other a whole lot, so it’s still all good. God is good! I’m glad I get to do all this craziness with him. I’m just hoping that next weekend will be a little bit more low key.
So, how was your weekend?
imperfect plans, but wonderful story. you are so genuine on your blog, i love it! so needed on mom blogs!!!
Just wanted you to know I am praying for your family, praying Soul heals quickly and praying calmness over your home. Oh, and I totally can’t do my business in a public restroom either! Of course, I literally can’t do it anywhere but home.
My! What an eventful day! Glad True is okay and I’ll be praying for Soul… shingles can be very painful! She seems awfully young to have had them already, did your brood have chicken pox a couple of years ago… seems like you may have mentioned it?
Oh, I wonder if Soul got HFMD, (Hand Foot and Mouth Disease aka Coxsackievirus virus), an annoying and very common toddler virus (sounds worse than it is) but as common as roseola. Sorry your anniversary wasn’t as planned but happy 11 years to you guys! Even though this isn’t your wedding anniversary, “For Better Or for Worse” definitely still applies. 🙂
They thought it might be that at first, but then she had no symptoms. This morning they got a second doctor to come in and then they took out this big book and where all her blisters appear seems to follow a nerve that runs across her back to her hand, so that’s when they were finally able to diagnose her with shingles. I’d rather have shingles because only contact with the fluid inside the blisters make it contagious, so she’s wearing sweaters and a sock on her hand!
Oh sheesh. I haven’t had shingles (or chicken pox for that matter) but I heard they are painful. Hopefully since she’s little it’s not as painful, the same way chicken pox isn’t as troublesome as a kid as it is getting it as an adult. Hope the next coming days are better!
WOW! Shingles on a little girl? Did she have chicken pox? Because usually chicken pox causes Shingles in adulthood. That is a crazy crazy crazy day! I have three kids and thankfully have not had a crazy day like that yet! God Bless you!
As someone with nut allergies, I never ever eat baked goods or deserts anywhere – it’s just not worth the risk. There’s just too much chance of nuts falling off one muffin onto another, or cookies being mislabelled, or who knows what. I don’t even eat ice cream unless its soft-serve from a machine – think of the ice cream scoops going from maple walnut to other flavours! When I was a kid, there was way less awareness of allergies, the assumption was pretty much that since it was my allergy it was my problem, so I learned to be super careful. It can be kind of a drag, but it’s the only way to be truly safe, and better safe than sorry!
I totally agree…we are super careful with our boys. There is a lot of unlabeled and mislabeled food in this world. IF we’re confident in the establishment we’ll ask…but sometimes we just assume that it’s dangerous and use avoidance as our main tactic.
Rubyellen – we carry epipens for our boys. Be sure to learn about them, heat restrictions (don’t leave them in the glove box of the car) and x-rays (shouldn’t go through the standard airport security) etc. You want the medicine to be ready should you need them. We’ve been so lucky to have never needed to administer one, but we treat them like gold. I also always carry chewable antihistamines for the times when there is a mild reaction. They aren’t messy like liquid and will dissolve on the tongue even if it is difficult/painful to swallow.
awww that looks like laguna beach hospital (i used to work there). I hope your little girl is doing fine!!! Keep that Epipen close by at all times!!
Craziness!! FYI: I almost never go #2 in public bathrooms either! You’re not alone there!! Hope your girls are ok now:)
Gah, food allergies! It’s hard because you don’t want to constantly have to make a fuss but some restaurants really aren’t very cautious or their waiters are completely oblivious to the harm that a single peanut can cause…..
Hopefully you’ll never have to use the Epipen, but thank God for them!
shingles?! oh my gosh, poor thing!! sounds like quite the weekend, yikes! also sounds like you and Ben make a great team 🙂
girlfriend!!! when it rains, it POURS! oh my goodness, so sorry about all of that. xo and healing thoughts to everyone!
(TMI alert! my body is so programmed on the issue of #2, it’s like my bowels are paralyzed until I come home. there have been times where I have literally walked into my home and 2 seconds later, I’ve had to go the bathroom. It’s like my intestines KNOW when I’m a Safe Place…:)
oh no! i had shingels when i was 18 and i was in so much pain i was told its common in people 50 and older 😛 so much for that… 🙁 poor baby…i hope she feels better soon. xoxo
Oh my gosh, you poor thing! What an absolutely shocking weekend and it’s so nice that you can still be grateful after EVERYTHING that happened. I hope your beautiful girls are going okay!
oh no! i hope everyone feels better soon… love love, silvy ps i totally have public bathroom phobia too!!
Oh man! I am so thankful we don’t have any stories like that yet. I am paranoid though because my 16 month old hasn’t tried peanuts yet. Nothing runs in the family but we try to be very sensitive of other people! Our church has a fellowship meal after every service, and it was the same in our old state. When we lived in Washington though, seriously every other family was gluten or dairy intolerant! So there were all these little signs you could put by your dish so people could know it was safe or not. Nothing like that here! I think there is a lot less awareness in the south about allergies and intolerances. I really enjoy the challenge of cooking for friends who have a lot of restrictions!
I don’t love public restrooms but I really miss the ones when we lived in Dubai. They were gorgeous and squeaky clean in the malls, with heavy full doors and no cracks around the corners! They were each proper little rooms. I always felt so exposed when we visited the US! But now that my insides are usually very happy (hopefully due to diet!) I seriously don’t care. It just happens anywhere and is as easy and fast as just having to pee! I really love that.
im so glad the girls are ok! i always seem to get extra frustrated when things like this happen on what is suppose to be a SPECIAL day!!!! why can’t it happen on a routine thursday?!?! lol its a lesson/test in patience!
I’m glad everyone is okay. Most of the time it’s the plans that don’t work out perfectly that make the best memories.
Oh man! We had a stomach bug at our house this weekend (the four year old had two rounds and I had one)—I kept thinking, how do people with more than two kids handle it when there is illness in the house?? Kudos to you (and Ben) for keeping things going through that crazy weekend of unexpected hospital visitS! I hope next weekend is blissful and calm for you all 🙂
Oh wow! poor babies (all of you!). My hubs has the exact same issue with public restrooms. 🙂 It makes life…interesting.
So glad the girls are OK and that you and Ben have these crazy stories to look back on in another 11 years!
11 years is a great number! Isn’t it crazy to think it has been OVER a decade to being a couple? We’ve been 12.5 years ourselves, so it is so crazy to think about!!! It goes by so quickly, right??
Sounds like a very sad day but I am glad that all is well. You just reminded me that I need to get new jr. epi-pens in August for my 4 yr old who has a peanut/tree nut allergy as well. That is so horrible that they mislabeled the muffins like that!!!! It is always so horrible to go to the emergency room because of food reactions!
Happy 11 years together regardless!
OMG! I could not believe what I was reading. Poor True and Soul.. I follow you from Spain, I really love your family! I’m looking forward to having a baby! You’re such a good mum. Keep writing for us, I love it!
oh no! i am so so so sorry to hear all of that. i love how you ended it though, there’s a lot more love added to it eleven years later. i had shingles as a kid, although i was older than soul (i was nine?) i remember the doctor telling my mom that when i would tell her it hurt, to believe that it reallllyyy did hurt. I feel so sad for her that she has to go through it! sending prayers and good thoughts your way super-mommy.
What a rollercoaster of a weekend! I’ll be sending good vibes for Soul’s speedy recovery!
And congratulations on celebrating 11 years together! <3
I am the exact same way about public bathrooms and when the girls use them i triple layer the toilet seat covers!!!
Oh, Ruby… Bless your heart, love. I hope you are all on the mend and that the other girls don’t end up with shingles, too 🙁
Prayers for blessings to head your way, because it is clear that God has already blessed you with a good perspective.
Love, Susan
I totally get the public restroom phobia. I’ve gotten more phobic now that we have five kids!
I am glad True and Soul are doing fine now!
We prayed for them!
Hi Ruby!
So sorry for such a hard weekend! I don’t know what your approach to shingles or chickenpox is, but in my family when a child has chickenpox we try to make our kids sick. Ok…this sounds horrible..but I hope itmakes sense to you after my explanation 🙂
This type of illnesses can be more dangerous when you are an adult and once you have had it you are vaccinated against it (which means that when your kids are pregnant with kids of their own they don’t have to worry about getting them from other kids or their own kids for example). So we as a family believe it is good for kids go through these illnesses, it’s painful, but it’s better in the long run.
My brother and I had chickenpox and meslas at the same time (15 days each). My dad travelled a lot and my mom had to stay home for 30 days in a row. It was not fun and not planned, but it was better for us in our lifetime.
What I am trying to say is that I would not worry so much about the other girls getting it. I would obviously not intentionally infect them (how do you even do that anyway?) but I would not be overly cautious either.
Well..YOUknow what’s best with your girls 🙂
Love,
Leire
I’ve had shingles and it’s very painful, so poor thing if that’s what it is! Guess she’s had chicken pox already? B/c you can’t get shingles unless you’ve had chicken pox. Praying for speedy recovery!
Yesterday i woke up with the flu, the 4 year old got up with an ear infection. The baby is still sick as well. I think these things seem to cluster together somehow..hopefully the summer will bring better health for everyone.
those are las brisas’ striped umbrellas, no? and waffles?
glad true is ok. life is usually crazy, but never this crazy… hope soulie’s shingles are bothering her too much!
(((hugs)))
Aw man that stinks. A couple years agor my 3 year old little boy had a severe allergic reaction to Beets, and then the next day I started getting blisters every where, which turned out to be chicken pox, I was 4 months pregnant. Fun times.