My knight in shining armor.

 We got home from Seattle with colds. No surprise there, it seems to happen every time we travel. Then Sunday night/ Monday morning Evan's cold turned to yuck. At the time he was just vomiting... no fever. Then we called our hemo nurse. We didn't know if he had hit his head on the ice when he fell on our skating rink of a driveway or not so she wanted us to take him in to be evaluated for a concussion just to be safe. Ian is my hero and automatically packed Evan up to go to the emergency room for that while I stayed home with our other 2 sleeping children. Evan was fine, as we suspected, but it was good to at least have him checked out to ease everyone's minds. 

Then of course Monday he got a fever. It has totally been drilled in my head do not pass go, go directly to get blood drawn for cultures the moment his fever hits 101.5. I wish that I could just go directly to the labs. Our usual pediatrician is awesome about understanding this is just protocol... it doesn't matter if he obviously caught the flu that is going around town we just need to make sure that his port is not infected. Port infections can be super scary and you just don't mess with them. Well the pediatrician in the office yesterday is more of the mindset that cultures are totally unnecessary when he sees a reasonable cause for fever that we should just watch his fever at home. I left the pediatrician's office so confused... I don't think I normally would have left without being sent to the lab but I was so sleep deprived that I was second guessing my understanding of the fever protocol for ports. A quick email to the hemophilia nurse confirmed that my understanding of the protocol was correct and by this time it was after office hours, so hello emergency room for the second time in less than 24 hours. 

Once again Ian was my knight in shining armor. He decided that I could get the other two kids to bed at home and he would brave the emergency room again. His account of the experience did not sound fun and I am so grateful that he was willing to go because I hate it when the doctor's basically tell you that you are being a worry wart and wasting their time. The doctor told Ian as he left that the justification for blood cultures was marginal at best... grr. I would have been pissed to have the doctor tell me that. Ian said overall it went well because he was able to get them to do the cultures we were instructed to get by the hemophilia nurse. I am so glad that I married someone who can be so calm and collected... because that is totally not me. Ian totally deserves something special for the back-to-back emergency room visits. I am just hoping that Ezra doesn't get the same bug as Evan... because I know what we are supposed to do if he does and don't want to have to fight so dang hard to get it. 

Sunny Seatte

We got back last night from the boys' checkups with their hemophilia care team. What a crazy but fun time. First off the weather in Seattle was amazing!! It was so nice and springy it was kind of a downer to come home to our frozen driveway.

The flight down was kind of a surprise. We have been flying with Evan since he was 3 months old and he has been the model flyer. I guess he was just saving up for the opportune moment. Which was this flight. The first flight since he turned two. I thought having his own seat would be a huge bonus. It was, until he realized he had to be buckled up. Then he screamed, and screamed until he fell asleep. I would guess it was at least a half hour of screaming. Then he woke up and was fine while he could be unbuckled. When it was time for landing it was the same screaming experience all over again. Yuck!

We landed in Seattle with just enough time to get a rental car and drive straight to our appointments. Grandpa Lynn met up with us there to come along for our wild ride. The appointments went pretty well. The boys are looking good. Our nurse could not believe that Evan was a wild child. He was glued to me most of the time. I think she thought I was exaggerating. I only wish I was. They also let us know that Evan's behavior during infusions is typical for his age and that Ezra is just amazingly behaved. They say that usually poking a 3 year old is a 2 person job, at least, not the one person job it is with Ezra. At least we luck out with something. After meeting with the crew it was time for blood draws. We got our favorite phlebotomist, Hector, I swear he is a magician. He just throws the needle like a dart and magically every time he is in. I love him.

After lab draws it was time to party with Grandpa. Off to Target to get some much needed energy out and prizes for good behavior. Then dinner time. Then a nice night drive back to the hospital pharmacy because they take so dang long to fill a prescription. 

Yesterday we woke up and got ready for another busy day. We did our big Costco run. Then went to Toys R Us to play. Lunch was at the Rainforest Cafe and then it was time to say goodbye to Grandpa Lynn and head to the airport. Or so we thought. We were already on our way sitting in traffic when we found out that our flight was delayed for 2 hours. Oh well. That just meant we had time to play in the awesome play area and get dinner before the flight. The flight back home was much like the flight down for Evan but luckily Ian took a turn with our crazy monkey and I got the easy kid.

Hooray for being home!