[/caption]There is a children's book by David Shannon entitled A Bad Case of Stripes where the main character suddenly and inexplicably awakens covered in stripes. Well this week on Thursday, Ben woke up with red dots on his legs. Not bumpy like a rash, just polka dotted. As if he'd taken a marker and drawn dots all over himself (which he added later on). As the day wore on, the dots began to spread to his arms, stomach and finally his face. Very strange indeed. He also started complaining of an earache, stuffy nose and finally on Friday morning he started coughing. Fortunately, the red dots were never itchy or uncomfortable, just quite interesting to look at. The pediatrician is pretty sure the dots, which eventually began to resemble more of a bumpy rash in appearance, is caused by an allergic reaction to the antibiotic he was taking that was going to cure all that ailed him (strep throat, Lyme's Disease, tooth ache). The other symptoms are most likely caused by a secondary viral infection that he has picked up as his body is fighting off the other aforementioned ailments (which can also cause a rash like the one mentioned above). Shockingly, he even requested to lay down yesterday afternoon. On a bed. For more than 5 seconds. I cannot recall the last time that happened! I had the thought this morning that I guess he is just making up for being so healthy the last 5 years of his life.
[caption id="attachment_2755" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Ellie smiles BIG for the camera."]
[/caption]Ellie continues to be pretty lethargic (although I must say that her lethargic looks drastically different than Ben's lethargic) most of the time. She is still sleeping more and having difficulty walking around, or even sitting on certain days, on her own. We have physical therapy 3 times a week and occupational therapy 1 time a week coming to help her gain her strength back. We continue to search for some respite care for her so that Ben and I can get out of the house some during the day. We did get 2 more big boxes of crayons from Aunt Linda in Virginia which have been a life saver as many days that is about the only thing she wants (or can) do. Our crayon paper trail through the house continues to grow.
Our "respite care" this week has been visits from great friends. A humongous (a Sesame Street Word on the Street word) thanks to Esther for her visit and oh so delicious European chocolates on Tuesday. And a big thanks to Brittany for her visit also on Tuesday, so fun getting a chance to connect just the two of us. I almost felt like we should have a slumber party just to keep the fun conversation going and going. Finally, a bunch of gratitude thrown at Cynthia for her visit on Thursday, we had so much fun with her that she ended up staying half the day! It was another of my wishes that came true just to keep talking because it felt more important than anything else at that moment. (She even missed a conference call on our behalf!)
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