TMI Tuesday: What Rhymes With Poop?

Well, the poop hit the fan last weekend! As last week came to an end, we were all tired. It was a long week at the office for me, my wife returned to work after doggedly pursuing the last document she needed from a former employer, and our son had his first experience at daycare (he spent three days there). We were all ready for a quiet weekend spent at home taking a break from the chaotic days that seem to have dominated these days off during the summer. Well, that was the plan…

We had noticed that our son wasn’t feeling well later in the week and my wife had taken him to the pediatrician on Friday to get checked out. We followed the directions they gave us and we put him to bed with a little Tylenol (per the instructions we were given), a cold air humidifier in the corner, and the head of his bed slightly elevated. A few hours later, with my wife and son now both asleep, I was at my computer sorting through my neglected emails when I could hear what sounded like a wounded cow near the top of the stairs. When I turned the corner to walk toward the bedroom there was my wife holding our moaning child. Something wasn’t right.

It wasn’t long before we were all in the car on our way to the emergency room. Thankfully, it was a slow night and I was able to hold my son in the hospital bed shortly after our arrival. In the end it wasn’t just a cold as the pediatrician told us earlier, he had Croup. Almost immediately after he was given the right medicine the groans stopped and we could both tell that he was beginning to feel better. An hour after we arrived we were back in the car and on our way home. We were all exhausted and soon after our return assumed our positions from before this whole ordeal began.

Obviously we all slept in on Saturday as we resumed our plans and took it easy allowing our son sleep as much as he needed and my wife and I trying to relax, order dinner, and spend some time together. Well, dinner was a mistake. By Sunday morning our son was returning to his normal happy self while my wife and I were struggling to do just about anything. After my wife reluctantly cancelled her plans for the day, we knew that this wasn’t going to get better without some help so we both headed over to the local Urgent Care once my mom arrived to watch our recuperating baby.

Fortunately, the doctors knew exactly how to treat food poisoning and so after some medicine and two IV bags, we returned to the house feeling a lot better than when we left. While we were both nowhere near ‘better’ we both felt good enough to return to work the following morning and our son, no longer contagious, returned to daycare. It was a long weekend after a long week and I hope we never have to go through that again!

NOT A Relaxing Weekend

As I alluded to yesterday, the weekend did not get off to a good start. Unfortunately, it also proceeded to get much worse following the frustrating Friday. In fact, I am still dealing with the fallout today. It was one of those weekends that you just want to forget ever happened and move on to the next work day.

It all started with what should have been a simple drive into the city on Friday afternoon. I left the office at about 4:30 expecting to sit in a bit of traffic but with enough time set aside to make it to old city by 5:30. About a tenth of a mile away from the route 63 entrance, those plans completely fell apart as soon as my front right tire slammed into the crater.

Now with a donut on the car, I wasn’t about to drive on the highway or in the city so I slowly made my way down the remainder of route 1 and parked the car at the Wynnewood train station. My timing was still pretty good at this point as I made the right train which got me to the event on time. This was just the beginning of the weekend.

Following the event, I walked down the street to catch the next train at Suburban Station. With the event ending at 10 I thought I had plenty of time to make the 10:26 train. Well, by the time I found one of the few entrances to the train station still open at that hour, the train had departed and I was left waiting for the 11:26 train. In the end, I didn’t get home until 1:00am but that was not the worst part of the weekend.

After dropping the tire off at the dealer early on Saturday morning, running some errands, and grabbing a quick breakfast at Wawa we settled back down at the house to try and relax a little for the day and get some things done. By the time the sun began to set I was not feeling well and found myself heading off to bed much earlier than usual. Throughout the night I found myself sicker than I had been in a long time. Turns out that Wawa was offering an extra helping of food poisoning at no extra charge.

While I felt a little better toward the end of the day yesterday, and despite my gulping efforts, the dehydration caught up with me this morning and forced me to call out of work for the day. With a screaming headache I finally gave in and went to the local urgent care where they confirmed our suspicions and hooked me up to an IV. Finally feeling somewhat normal I all want now is for this weekend to finally come to an end.