Our trip to see my family in New Hampshire took a bit of a detour this year. The week before our trip, my dad was doing a group bicycle trip in Wisconsin (something he does regularly). He hadn't been feeling well during the trip, and we speculated that it might be in part due to the extremely poor air quality combined with his asthma and physical exertion. Here in Ohio, the air was hazy and smelled like smoke, and he was much closer to the Canadian fires than we were. On Friday night, he decided to go to the hospital in Milwaukee for a breathing treatment. The treatment helped his breathing, but in doing his bloodwork they discovered that he had actually suffered a heart attack.
On Saturday they did a heart catheterization. They put a stent in an artery that was completely blocked and found that two others were partially blocked. My mom was able to get a flight and arrive Saturday night. We cancelled our flights to New Hampshire and packed a few outfits in preparation for driving to Wisconsin. Thankfully, we already had respite for Baby K and a dog-sitter lined up. We were able to see my dad Sunday afternoon, have dinner with my mom, and check into our hotel in Milwaukee.
Monday morning we visited with my parents in the hospital for a while. The doctors all felt confident that he was doing well and could fly home that evening. With my dad going home so soon, we decided to salvage the rest of our time in New Hampshire. Scott booked tickets for the next morning for the kids and me. He would drive the van back to Ohio, then try to get a flight to join us the next day.
Monday afternoon Scott and the kids and I went to a nearby beach that a friend had recommended. (Oh yeah, a few hours from home we happened to stop at a rest stop and see one of Matthew's school buddies who was also headed to Milwaukee! Their grandparents live very close to the hospital, so she was able to give me some tips.) It's not the ocean, but Lake Michigan is pretty nice!
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| playing football |
After the beach, we drove to Chicago. (Did you know that Milwaukee is less than two hours from Chicago? I didn't.) We hit a bit of traffic, but at least there weren't flash floods like we experienced when we drove through Chicago on our way to the hospital! We checked into our hotel (boys in one room, girls in another on a different floor), did a little sight-seeing, and got deep dish Chicago-style pizza (Scott's favorite).
Scott found a fun dessert place for us with ice cream tacos. Hannah and I shared a "s'mores" one (my favorite).
Unfortunately, I just saw "s'mores" and didn't carefully read the ingredients. If I had, I might have noticed that what I thought was just chocolate ice cream was actually rocky road - which contained pecans. The pecans must have been very finely chopped, because neither Hannah nor I noticed them as we were eating. Hannah immediately began to have itchy mouth, swollen lips, and what she described as a lump in her throat. I gave her the maximum dose of Benadryl. It helped significantly, but not completely.
After talking to the nurse hotline back home, we decided to take her to the emergency room. (Actually, the nurse wanted me to give her the EpiPen first, then take her to the hospital. I decided not to. She was already upset and anxious, and I knew getting the injection would scare her. Since her breathing was not affected, I felt comfortable holding off.) After navigating driving and parking in downtown Chicago at night, I was quite dismayed to walk into a waiting room filled with dozens of people. Thankfully, a very nice woman assessed my panic and said, "Honey, do you maybe want to be in the children's hospital?" She graciously walked us all the way through a maze of hallways and stairs and deposited us in a very friendly children's ER with absolutely no wait.
All the doctors and nurses were kind and helpful as they kept Hannah under observation for several hours. (They did not give her epinephrine - just a dose of Zyrtec after the Benadryl was wearing off.) We made it back to the hotel room by 3am, but unfortunately Hannah had severe stomach pain for the last several hours of the night, so neither of us got much sleep.
Scott got up early and walked a few blocks to a drug store. I wanted to replenish my supply of Benadryl before going to the airport, and he also got some Pepto Bismal. Thankfully, Hannah's stomach was much better by the time we were supposed to meet in the lobby for breakfast and head to the airport. But alas, our troubles were not yet over. On the way back from the drug store, Scott's elevator broke down! See in the picture below, Scott is circled in the glass elevator. The Chicago fire department are using the jaws of life to force the door open. Not pictured to the left is a lobby filled with people eating breakfast and being entertained by the excitement. Much thanks to the fire department for getting him out unharmed (just really hot and uncomfortable) with fifteen minutes to spare before we needed to leave for the airport!
Things got easier from there. My brother picked us up from the airport and took us to my parents.
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| We had s'mores and sat by the lake to look for fireworks. |
Eric and Meredith took an extra day off work so we could all have a day together. The cousins had fun water skiing and attacking each other on paddle boards.
Scott got a flight from Cleveland to Boston, then took a bus to New Hampshire. I picked him up at the bus station late afternoon. We were all together for a few hours before the Chamberlins had to head back to Massachusetts.
The kids all had great success with water skiing this year! Matthew popped right up on his
first try. He was also able to get started on his own from the middle of the lake, rather than having me help him from the beach.
Hannah took a few tries, but once
she got up she was also able to get started from the middle of the lake by herself. She has been using a bar across the top of the skis that helps to keep them straight (Matthew does as well). She decided to try without the bar, and she got it!
Micah's goal was to slalom ski. He tried starting on two skis then dropping a ski, and he tried starting in the water with one ski. He was close, but couldn't quite stay up. The next day he tried again and got it! You'll see right at the
beginning of the video he has just kicked off the ski and is balancing on one foot.
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| We had perfect weather for spending all day in the lake. |
Friday morning my parents drove us down to Boston. Except for a small snafu with a birthdate being wrong on a boarding pass, we made it home with no problems.
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