Reality Check

Wow, this is a little odd for me. A post minus a picture, it feels a little off. Oh well. Okay, I feel the need to post about the the other half of our lives which doesn't get captured on camera. This is just a little reality check to show, yes, we really do live in a normal, real world and the Harrison family realizes it's not always smiles and laughs.

Hmmm... let's see, to emphasize the point from my intro paragraph on the main blog page.. yes, we really do makes lots of trips to the dr. Let's go back to the end of June 09. Breck pulled a table down on him, taking us all to the ER to endure about 7 hours of waiting and about 10 stitches to his precious little nose. It looks really good now by the way, the plastic surgeon did a good job and I still owe him a thank you note.

A couple of months ago, Breck had been acting 'off ' for about a week and i knew he wasn't feeling well. Then one morning he went from crankiness to not really responding at all to me, no eye contact or smiles, so I ended up called the 911. They came, checked his vitals and he started coming back with smiles. I took him to the ped that afternoon, but nobody knew what happened. Only thought on the paramedic's and pediatrician's part was maybe he had a febrile seizure. Who knows, but he was fine after that and ever since.

Last Friday night, I started having these horrible chest pains when i inhaled, radiating out toward my left shoulder. I had Brian call both of my sisters who are BOTH RN's. My RN sister who lives close to me was able to come over immediately take my BP, which was normal and even stayed with me for several hours. I actually had her drive me to an ER, where I sat outside in the car just in case things got worse. Thankfully, about 3 hours after the onset, the pain subsided completely. I went to the Dr., had an EKG, chest Xray, and blood labs and everything shows NORMAL?! Glad for that... but I've had the pains several times this week, lasting for hours.. but NOT last night. Hoping that interesting part of my life is over and am self diagnosing myself with a pleurisy from this bad cold I've had for about a month.

Yesterday afternoon, Breck asked for a box of sunkist yogurt covered raisins which I keep in an air tight container in the pantry. He opened the box himself and starting eating. I noticed, as I started picking up raisins he accidentally dropped on the floor while eating, that the white yogurt covered raisins were covered in brown little spots. I dumped the box of raisins into my hand for further inspecion and realized these brown spots were EGGS and I even found a WORM. I wipe out Breck's mouth asap and make sure he had no more raisins. I call the Dr. and poison control (for the 3rd time in about 2 weeks- but i'll touch on that later). After searching the internet, I realize Breck ate maggots. Are you sick to your stomach yet? Apparently poison control said it will only upset his stomach and he'll be fine. Yep, they were right, 45 minutes later he threw up. My poor baby..... Sunkist WILL be hearing from me.

So, back to poison control now on my speed dial. Right. So, about 2 weeks ago, i heard breck coughing and gagging on the monitor while he was in his room for 'quiet' time. Turns out he had climbed up on his changing table and stood on it to reach the baby lotion up on a shelf. Breck had been lotioning up his legs in between taking little tastes. The lotion was EVERYWHERE. Poison control said no harm would be done.. maybe just a little diarrhea. good to know. A few days following this incident, Brady tells me and Mahgie he's eating this m&m. It was circular and orange, turns out it was a 200mg advil. Again, poison control said his weight, 28lbs, could handle up to 13 200mg tablets of advil. Absolutely no reaction from either of these lovely incidents except for a highly stressed mom. So, there you have it, those two moments plus the maggot infested raisins equals out 3 phone calls to poison control in a matter of a couple of weeks. They must have my zip code memorized by now.

So...this is the stuff that happens in between all of our awesomely fun moments where we capture laughter and giggles. It's life, and we are definitely living it.. all sides. We are a normal family experiencing life in all ways. The good times far outweigh the bad! We are blessed in more ways than one can imagine and I try to teach the boys that everyday. It's the simple things.. the most basic things that are the greatest.. and being together is #1.