atlanta was actually pretty fun. chad, vanessa, and i had a good road trip over to see the flyers play, and vanessa and i had fun reminiscing about the days when philiadelphia's glen metropolit played in pensacola. we took pictures with him and sean gauthier way back then, and we still have them. i was 14. the flyers won the game 3-2 over the thrashers, and we made it back to mobile around 10:15 p.m., so driving to atlanta for a hockey game and then back in the same day really isn't bad when the game is at 3:00 ET.
oh, but before atlanta, the day after i spent all morning waiting at walmart, i had to take the max to the doctor. again. he had and ear infection and bronchitis, so we got antibiotics. in case you didn't know, sick babies aren't conducive to a good working environment. so i didn't get anything done.
so, after atlanta, with max on the mend and able to return to daycare, i thought i could get a good bit of writing done. but no. i was wrong. because my computer, which has been circling the drain for a few months, died for good on monday. ahhh! i was SO FRUSTRATED. see, my retarded computer had been randomly freezing and not starting correctly 1 out of 4 times since before christmas. i NEEDED a new computer. but i was going to wait until after graduation, and it was going to be my graduation present. and then my computer, which managed to recover from the Blue Screen of Death a few weeks ago, finally bit the big one on monday. it was plugged (to a surge protector) all day, but it did not recognize the fact that it was plugged in. so the battery went completely dead. the a/c adapter is not charging the battery, and it will not run on a/c power. because the part that you plug the power cord into on the computer is fried. well, not really fried, just completely fucked up. and it's not the first time. about two years ago i had to have that part replaced. but it was covered under the warranty, which after almost 5 years is no longer in effect. plus, laptops are cheap now, and i wanted a new computer anyway ('cause mine was retarded, you know), so i opted to let the old laptop go. i lost about 1/2 a page of dissertation work that i did while in the waiting room at the kia dealership, but it's really not a big deal. everything really important was saved in several locations.
so i spent tuesday computer shopping. since it was sooner than planned, and we've been spending a hell of a lot of $ lately (new tires for the truck, $450 eye doctor visit/contacts/glasses for me, max's birthday, trip to ATL - which actually was pretty cheap), i had to go for something pretty inexpensive. so i shopped around all morning (i hit up circuit city, walmart, best buy, and target), and ended up buying a toshiba laptop from best buy. the hard drive is smaller than a lot of new laptops, but still almost 3 times the size of my old one, and the RAM and processor are comparable to computers that cost $200-$300 more. they didn't have any in stock, so the best buy sales guy sold me the display model for $50 off the regular price. the total price with tax was $326. i had budgeted $500 (pre-tax), so i felt pretty good.
so tuesday afternoon was spent getting the new laptop set up. you know, getting my programs installed, antivirus updates, etc.
then wednesday i had planned on spending the day with max because the weather was supposed to be crappy, and he still didn't feel all that great. plus, i still had thursday and friday to send him to daycare. so max and i pretty much chilled on wednesday, and we had a pretty good day. he ate really well for me, which i was excited about. when he's sick, he barely eats anything.
so, yesterday i was all prepared to get to work. i had some ideas bobbing around my mind, and i was ready to write. but the max? he woke up with what looked like big mosquito bites all over his legs and lower abdomen. which freaked me out. when we visited the pediatrician last week, max had a big red spot on his leg near where he got the chickenpox and MMR vaccines, and it had still been there wednesday night. i was told to take max back to see the doc if it spread or started to look worse. well, yesterday morning the original spot was pretty much gone. but he had new spots. so i decided the new rash warranted a doctor visit. especially since 2 hours after max woke up, the rash had spread all over his body.
i'm sure i've mentioned this before, but max is a naturally rashy baby. he has eczema, which means that his skin is prone to dryness and frequently breaks out in rashes. his skin is very sensitive to fragrances, so everything we use on him is unscented. he gets a bath every other day instead of every day, and we slather moisturizing cream (lotion doesn't help) all over him twice a day to prevent excessive dryness and rashes. but eczema rashes are not scary. they usually cover pretty small area and consist of tiny red bumps. and they go away within a few hours to a day or so if you put aquaphor on them. we are accustomed to rashes around here. so it has to be bad if it wigs me out.
yesterday's rash? it was SCARY. see for yourself.
the diagnosis? hives. the recommended treatment? benadryl every 6 hours. but after two doses of benadryl, the hives were still spreading. and growing in size. so that freaked me out. and i called the pediatrician twice. so he called in a prescription for prednisilone, a steroid. this morning, the hives are still there and still huge. but some of the spots have disappeared, and the big patches aren't quite as angry-looking as they were yesterday.
we aren't sure what caused the hives. they are an allergic reaction to something. but we don't know what. possibly the amoxicillin, so we've stopped that. when the rash clears up, i'm supposed to give max half a dose of amoxicillin and monitor him for a couple of hours. if he breaks out in hives again, i have to call the doctor's office and tell them to make a note in his chart that he's allergic to penicillin. the other two possibilities that i've thought of are the chocolate frosting on the cupcake max had after lunch on wednesday or the dryer sheets that chad and i use on our clothes. i really don't know what it is, though. the doctor said that hives usually appear within an hour of exposure to the allergen, and max was asleep. he didn't have hives when he went to bed, and he did have them when he woke up. it had been 12 hours since he'd had any food or medicine. the only thing he came in contact with was his clothes, his sheet, our sheets, and our clothes. it's baffling. and the doctor said it's likely that we'll never know exactly what caused the hives. hopefully, this won't happen again, because poor max is really itchy, and this rapidly spreading rash is scary. especially when it makes large portions of his body red and makes his belly button swell so much that it closes to a little slit. *sigh*
now, it's time to get some work done. here's hoping that nothing interferes with my ability to write next week.
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