I'm too tired to be up, but here I am anyway.

Well I managed to get my 2 Design Team pieces uploaded and even uploaded a 3rd today! I used something from the Hands collage sheet to do one of my pages for Michelle's journal in the Cercles d'Ame project. This first and second pictures are a little banner made from the Hands collage sheet. The third picture is Michelle's journal page and it is called "Marriage." I'll get the 2 Design Team pieces on eBay sometime in the next few days.

Looooooooooooooooong story follows:


So, on to the drama of our lives...we had a little scare the other night. Rexy was chipper and happy and playing all day and then around 5pm she came up and asked to watch Sesame Street. Since we're on the afforementioned no-nap program I expect her to slow down around that time, so I wasn't worried. I popped an Elmo video in and went into the kitchen to do the dishes.



A few minutes later I went out to check on her and she was laying on the couch watching the movie. It sounds normal, but for her it's not. She's usually puttering around with her toys only giving the TV half her attention (unless it's Teletubbies - those guys are like baby meth), if that much. I noted that she was laying on the couch, but figured she must be tired - we'd played some serious baloon bounce earlier. I sat down next to her and she perked up and sang along with Elmo for a minute, so I felt she was okay. I went back to kitchen cleaning and again returned a little while later to check on her - still on the couch. Hmm...Back to the kitchen and then out a little bit later to check again. Now she was curled up on her side, but still sort of watching TV. Still, I'm a little concerned so I feel her face and she feels hot so I go looking for the Thermometer.



Our Thermometer is crap. It says 97.7, which is exactly what it has said the last 4 times I've used it. I'm more concerned by her actions than her temp, though. She is a bundle of energy right up until we put her to bed. Always. Just then Phil gets home and Rexy doesn't jump up and say "Daddy's home!" like she usually does. She just lays there and looks at him until we prompt her to say "Hi." Which she does. So I give Phil the run-down and we agree that this behavior is so unusual that we're right to be concerned, but she's showing no overt signs of sickness so we figure we'll just keep an eye on her and maybe call the doctor in the morning.



Phil goes out to unload a truck full of stuff and I sit with Rexy. After just a few minutes she gets up on my lap and curls up. She never does this. She's autistic, long periods of cuddling just don't happen. If I get an extra long hug, I'm thrilled. She's coughing occasionally and kind of crying off and on. Suddenly, her eyes start to look dull and she gets even more lethargic. The change is so quick and so obvious that I get really alarmed. I grab the phone and call the doctor's answering service who connects me with the doctor at home. I love our doctor; She knows that I'm not a worrywart. I've never brought Rexy in and demanded antibiotics, I don't call with every little thing, I know the difference between a cold and something that can actually be treated. Rexy has never been so sick that she needed a doctor visit and she's never had any prescriptions. So when I said that something was wrong - our nice doctor believed me immediately.



Phil comes in just when I get the doctor on the phone and he can see immediately that Rexy is worse. She's practically asleep but she's insisting on laying full out on my lap with her head tipped back. When I try to move her she starts to cry. I'm worried she'll start coughing more in that position because she's congested. I manage to get her shifted to a more upright, sort of, position.



I'm holding her (my 39 inch tall girl) like a baby with her head in the crook of my arm and talking to the doctor. The next thing I know I look down and she's sound asleep, just knocked out - again, never happens. We've been putting her to bed still fully awake since she was about 4 months old. She's never fallen asleep anywhere but her bed or the car. Phil starts frantically calling her name trying to get her to open her eyes - which doesn't happen - while the doctor starts asking me about meningitis symptoms. I almost lost it, I was so worried, but managed to "man up" in just a few seconds. Mostly because I was able to answer all the meningitis questions with a "no." Still, the doctor recommended we go to the Children's Hospital emergency room.



So we rush her out to the car and onto the road. Of course we hit every red light in America and with all the stops and starts and bumpy Seattle roads she got sick in the car. Immediately we all felt better - this is way better than unresponsive unconsciousness. After she is examined, they threaten to give her a catheter so they can do a better diagnosis but - thankfully - decide against it. Instead they give her a magic pill that directly talks to the nausea centers of your brain and tells it it doesn't feel any nausea. they want to see how she is if she's not feeling nauseous. 30 minutes later, she's talking a mile a minute (95% of which we can't understand) and playing pretend with Babo and Pooh and Tigger - back to normal. Phew. The Emergency Room doctor laughed when he came back into the room and saw the huge difference. It was suddenly clear why we would be worried.



She's been sick-ish the last few days, but nothing like that first night. She woke up the next day completely her usual self. Last night (Wednesday) she had a weird allergy attack on her eyes and she kept rubbing them. She woke up and was crying in the middle of the night. Of course I was worried it was the same thing, but it wasn't. When I went in, her eyes were swollen a full inch below her lash line and so dark red she looked like she had two black eyes - gah! A cool washcloth helped and I managed to get her back to sleep after about 2 hours.



Man, I'm glad she's not sick all the time!





P.S. I realize that I mixed tenses and committed other grammar crimes, but I am too tired to go back and fix them. Sorry.