Chez Drama

Shall we recap the weekend here at Chez Hogan? Hold onto your hats, folks......

Saturday morning started at 4am with a hungry, cranky Mac who wanted to be fed. I had (stupidly) mentioned to Jay the night before that I would be willing to pull the early duty on Saturday morning - so the fat man and I stumbled down the steps together in the early morning dark. No, we didn't fall. But at 4am, I'm not exactly high stepping - you know what I mean?

I fixed my coffee and Mac's bottle and assumed the position on the couch in front of the TV and quickly realized two things. #1 - Mac had a very runny nose. #2 - My stomach didn't appreciate the coffee.

Lovely. A cold and a possible stomach bug. Lois is doomed.

The bean woke up fever free, as usual, and I headed to my consignment sale with Aunt Marpa and Maggie in tow. I've mentioned this consignment sale in passing, but I don't think I've expressed my full adoration for the sale and the ladies who run it. It's uber organized, very large, and computer automated. All I do is gather my items I want to sell, enter them into the computer, print out handy dandy tags for each item, hang em up, pin the tag on them and drop them off. Then I can sit in the comfort of my own home and watch on my computer which items sell each day. I make 70% of whatever selling price I choose. Pretty sweet, right?

The sale runs for 4 weekends in the spring and 4 weekends in the fall. And it's not unusual for me to be there every weekend. Bargain hunting is addicting and they put new items out every week. What's a girl to do? I have to admit that I get a secret pleasure out of being at the sale and watching someone pull one of my items off the rack and stick it in their bag. Of course, occasionally I'll pick an item off the rack and consider purchasing it, only to realize it's my own item.

oops.

I've visited my friends at the sale twice now and spent about $270 on over 60 items of clothing for my children. You are having one of two reactions right now. Either you are appalled at the amount of money I'm willing to spend on my children's clothing and/or the amount of clothing I purchase for them OR you are amazed at the thriftiness of this coupon clippin Momma. That's a lot of clothes for $270. These just aren't any kid's clothes, either. Lilly Pulitzer summer dresses for $8.00? If you insist! Three Ralph Lauren polo shirts for $9.00? Twist my arm! Janie and Jack red, white, and blue madras plaid shorts for $2.50? Yes, thank you! It just makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over.

Did I go off on a tangent? Sorry about that. Back to the story at hand.....

It's always fun to take Maggie shopping. Inevitably she will pick the tackiest, gaudiest, most heinous item on the rack and fall head over heels in love with it. She will then start pleading and begging and promising a year's worth of treats and favors if her mother will just PLEASE buy this item for her. It's fun to watch. At last fall's sale, the two of them almost came to blows over a particularly divine brown and turquoise combo that looked like something a 60 year old woman might wear to church. In 1985.

It was awful. Martha refused to buy it.

Cut to Saturday morning - and 5 minutes after walking in the doors of the sale, here comes Maggie with the SAME awful dress. We couldn't believe it. Perhaps because she felt the universe was trying to tell her something about this dress, Martha bought it. I must remember to take a photo of it for your viewing pleasure.

Martha also purchased for Maggie a lovely black tunic top, only after a 5 minute lecture about it's categorization as a TOP and not a DRESS. Maggie convinced her father this week that it was, indeed, a dress and wore it to school with a zebra striped belt on Tuesday. Needless to say, when Maggie disembarked from the bus sans pants, Aunt Marpa hit the proverbial roof.

I'm not sure who got in more trouble. I'm just glad I wasn't there to witness it.

So we shopped. And I got some bargains. But the whole time I was aware of my queasy stomach. Did it prevent me from thoroughly scavenging the racks of 2T and 3T boys and girls clothing? I think not.

I dropped Martha and Maggie off and headed home to pick up Jay, Lois and Mac and head off to a lacrosse field across town to meet Mother Inferior. So good to see her. It had been too long. Our visit was cut short by a very cranky and unfriendly Mac. I had to wake him up and stuff him in some clothes to get him there on time. Apparently, he didn't appreciate it.

On the drive home it was clear my stomach was going south quickly. By the time we arrived at home I knew my meager breakfast would be making a reappearance very shortly. The rest of the day is a blur and I will spare you the details. By it's intensity and relative brevity, it was obvious it was food poisoning. The Queensland salad from the Outback the night before was apparently a tad "off." As I was lying in misery in the spare bedroom I said a million thank yous to the universe that it was NOT a stomach bug. I was miserable, but Lois couldn't catch it.

The cold her brother ended up with and kindly passed on to his father? That's another matter entirely. There are lots of snotty tissues circulating in Chez Hogan these days. Jay's knuckles are raw and bleeding from the amount of hand washing and sanitizing he's been doing. We're going crazy keeping Mac's pacifiers out of Lois's mouth and Mac's mouth off of Lois's juice cups. And something we're doing appears to be working. Because....

Lois is still fever free. And she still has zero neutrophils. We returned to the clinic on Monday for another blood check. Her hemoglobin and platelets were both so low that she needed a transfusion of both. Her total white blood cell count hadn't moved and her neutrophil count was still zero. But no fever. She's incredible.

Unfortunately, two hours into the 4 hour process of getting blood, Lois had an allergic reaction to the blood she was receiving. It's not uncommon, and could have resulted in anaphylactic shock instead of a cranky baby girl with a nasty rash. But it was hard to witness. They gave her steroids to deal with the inflammatory response and she REALLY hit the roof. She was miserable, couldn't sit still and sobbing her guts out. They asked me to give her a dose of benadryl orally. I tried. But when you are screaming bloody murder, swallowing doesn't really rank as a high priority. She continued to cry. They brought more benadryl. About 10 minutes later she started to settle down. They turned the blood back on and gave her another dose of steroids, and the whole thing started all over again. She screamed for over an hour and a half. It wasn't pleasant. She just couldn't seem to get herself under control, so they gave her a shot of morphine. And suddenly, all was right with the world.

I told them I'd take my shot in my left arm, please. They weren't buying it.

It was an ugly day, but I'll take a reaction to blood/steroids any day over a raging fever and a hospitalization.

And here we are. It's Thursday. Lois is certainly droopier than she has been, but she's still plugging away. We go back on Friday for another check. HOPEFULLY by then, some white blood cells will start appearing in her blood stream. Fingers crossed.

We had a surprise visit last night from one of my favorite people in the whole world. Mr. Andrew had a meeting here in Richmond and spent the night here with us. No one else in the world (except maybe Jay, Auntie Gina, and Aunt Marpa) makes me laugh harder and longer than Mr. Andrew. And a little laughter is just what this house needs these days. We love you and miss you, friend. Come back soon.

Today, the fifth grade from Christiansburg Elementary came to the big city on a field trip and Mac and I went to the Science Museum of Virginia to meet up with them. I got to see my dear, dear friend Kelley who I think about and miss almost every single day. We met in 1995 when I was a graduate student at Virginia Tech and was assigned to student teach in her classroom in Shawsville. Lucky for me (and for everyone at CES), she transferred to Christiansburg and she and I worked together for four of the best years of my entire teaching career. She's the most dedicated, hard working, compassionate teacher I know and am so proud of the work we did together. We were an amazing team.

I also got to see Nancy, and Jeannie, and Erin, and David, and my old friend and partner Jeff. I adore these people. Miss them. They are all good, hard working, dedicated teachers. It was such a pleasure working side by side with them every day. Those 13 years were happy, happy years. So good to see you, friends.

Aunt Marpa faced her fear of needles and donated blood yesterday for the first time. For Lois. Anything for Lois, remember? I was sorry to hear this morning that it made her feel bad. Or baaaaaaaaad, as she wrote in her email. It might have been the first and the last time for a blood donation from Lois's favorite Aunt.

I forgot to mention a care package we received from my good friend Candace. She sent Mac a super cute pair of Marine Corps overalls (since his Daddy is one of the few, the proud) which luckily, are a size 2T and may accommodate his burgeoning fanny this summer. She also sent Lois a "Fight like a Girl, Win like a Woman" T-shirt in the perfect size for my bean. So thoughtful. Thanks, friend.

I've been working on this blog post for three days now and keep getting sidetracked by things like Mac crawling through a pile of cat barf, or Mac filling his cheeks with dog food for the umpteenth time. I'm feeling the need to get this finished and press "publish post" but I want to thank you for your blog title suggestions. Thus far we've received three:

1. Chez Hogan

2. Mac n Beans

3. Mac and the Bean Talk

I have to say, I'm partial to #3. It was actually suggested by two different people, both of whom happen to have dogs. I'm thinking maybe they might take me up on my prize offer?! I'll throw in paid medical care for the first year, but after that you're on your own. If there are any more title ideas, we'd love to hear them!

Keep sending those positive vibes, keep knocking wood, and keep your fingers crossed. And if you have any spare netrophils lying around, you know where to send them!