Doctor's Office, Pharmacy, House Showing, Bloody Toe, etc...

What a day. Anders either has a virus or a food allergy. The doctor and I settled on an allergic reaction to Anders' new old formula. He was on Simulac Advance briefly back in the fall before we switched to high calorie preemie formula. Well, that was the only change in his diet over the last day or two. She prescribed some ointment for the rash, which had spread to his arms today. That was the trigger for me to take him in, plus the pediatricians would be working today. The scene at urgent care on the weekend can be pretty grim.

Regardless of the rash, she also prescribed Children's Benadryl, which seems to be working like a charm so far, although some kids get wired from using it rather than crashing. Hopefully, the entire Peterson family will get a good night's sleep. Anders was up about three times last night before our bedtime, then at 2:02 am (yep, between the sacred 2-4 am period), but then slept until 7:30 am.

It was actually nice here this morning, and because I was worried that he had a heat rash, we went walking in the morning. I am sold on morning walking. There are cool breezes, chipper old people, and we are almost always facing away from the sun on our route. The sports radio is better in the morning, but I am willing to make the sacrifice for Anders.

I received a surprise call from Anna in the late morning saying that we had a house showing at 4 pm that day, mere minutes after I made a 3 pm appointment for Anders to see the doctor. So we went to the doctor, Walmart to get the new old formula, and then to CVS for the prescriptions. As we were walking in, I noticed CVS has carts, I made a hard stop and jammed my toe to the degree that it turned to a bloody mess. I forgot that some days you need a sundial to measure your wait at CVS.

Meanwhile, Anders was having a ball. As Anna said, being slightly sick and visiting medical professionals is Anders' natural state. He charmed the doctor. She said something like "He has a happy heart" or something like that. I gave Anders the formula to hold in the Walmart cart, then at CVS he melted the heart of a woman who almost fainted (not from Anders, but from her flu shot).

After all of this filibustering, we arrived home well after the scheduled 4 pm house showing time. We rolled in at 5:10 EDT, and at 5:11 in rolled the agent showing the house along with his clients. I had just taken Anders's stuff in and was on the way back out to get Anders. I realize that the times they give are approximate but being over an hour late? I don't know, perhaps I might try to get in touch with the people who live in the house because, well, they are LIVING IN THE HOUSE and they expected you to be long gone.

I spent all of Anders' afternoon nap flying around the house to clean some things and hide others. Our AC is at Ice Planet of Hoth level for Anders, but I was sweating like Mark Dayton at a Lutheran coffee hour. It turned out pretty well, but I didn't get the vibe that this crew would be "The Buyers" from our accidental encounter.

Anyway, we left. I called Anna, and we met at Arby's for supper. Arby's and TGI Fridays were our two stops in Minneapolis for supper after a bad day. By this point I was so exhausted that I did not even turn to object as the Arby's employee sprayed me with disinfectant (we were sitting in the booth next to the tray dump). I did not want to discourage any Athens area food service employee from cleaning owing to the rarity of this occurrence.

I am trying to keep in mind the words of my friend Bill, who is leaving SE Ohio this week after doing four years down here, "Just remember, Jon, you're not wrong."

The important thing, though, is that Anders should be on the road to: recovery, a full night's sleep, and morning walks from now on.