The second day they were here, we headed to Monschau, Germany. We have been here way too many times, but I love it. It is what you picture when you think of a what a little German town should look like. Kelsey was able to watch Norah and Meika that day so we could go kidless.
After Monschau, we headed over to Belgium because it was on their bucket list to have a Belgium waffle IN Belgium. We stopped in a little town called Malmedy. There wasn't much to see there, but it was still fun walking around and seeing the cute little town. There was only one little Belgium waffle shop and it was small and packed. After a recommendation from the tourism office, we headed up the mountain a couple minutes to a restaurant that was known for their waffles.
Our view of Malmedy from our table
Afterwards, we decided to have a little "recess" and play on all the fun equipment right in front of the restaurant/hotel.
Ugh, I can hardly stand to look at my hair in these pictures. It was horrible!!!
The third day I took them to Maastricht, Netherlands. I love this town. It is pretty and there is tons of shopping. We got the famous "Pinkies" waffles there and walked around the shops for a bit. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures from this day.
Over the weekend, the four of them took a high speed train to Paris until Monday. The entire time they were gone, Adeline looked like this...
This girl NEVER slows down. Even if she is sick or tired, she is usually still going. Not this weekend. I knew she was really sick, because all she wanted to do was lay down and sleep. She had an extremely high temperature and had a really bad sore throat. AFter putting her to bed Sunday night, she woke up about an hour later gasping for breath and hyperventilating a little bit. She spit up some mucous too that was a little pink. That was it. I knew for a fact that she had strep and needed to be on antibiotics. I took her into the "ER" in the Netherlands and they confirmed that they thought she had strep and put her on some antibiotics.
I gave her a dose and put her to bed that night really late. Right after, I was a little worried because I had remembered that when she was a baby she had an allergic reaction to an antibiotic. For some reason I was thinking it was penicillin and that is what I had just given her. Ugh. In the morning, she did have a rash on her chest. Since we were leaving for Ireland Wednesday, I did not want to take a chance. The doctor confirmed to me that she was not allergic to Penicillin, it was Cephrazil (sp?). But, just to be sure, he put her on Zithromax. Phew. She seemed to be over her strep throat at this point and was on antibiotics, so I figured she was golden for Ireland.
The next day, she started getting a rash on her feet and it started to swell a little bit. Weird, but it wasn't that bad... yet :) I was just hoping it was a reaction from her previous medicine and just needed to get out of her body.
That night, all of us Adults had a little date night where we went Go-Carting and out to ice cream at McDonalds (because that's the ONLY place that is open past 6 it seems).
The next day we were headed to Ireland. Her feet still had a rash on them (maybe both at this point?), but the one wasn't too swollen anymore. I thought we were good. Off to my dream vacation that I had been counting down the days to.
Norah kept being a pest and sitting on top of Meika. Meika is starting to stick up for herself a little bit :)
We all made it there in one piece. I was just happy I didn't have to drive. Driving on the left side of the road, on the right side of the car and with a manual with my left hand.... DID NOT SOUND FUN! Abe was a champ though.
One of Abe's mission companions named Brandon Barnley married an Irish girl and they live in Belfast. He is originally from England. He was able to meet up with us at a random mall right outside of Dublin. He brought two of his kids with him and they were all able to play at an indoor play area while the boys were able to catch up.
Every mall should have one of these!!
After they boys were able to catch up and the kids played their little hearts out on all the slides, bouncy things, etc. it was time for us to go. Literally right when we walked out of the play area, Adeline started collapsing saying she couldn't walk and her feet hurt. I took her boots off and her feet were SCARY. They were both very very big, swollen and her rash was worse. Oh dear. I was crossing my fingers that she had just been playing way too hard for the last couple hours and it would go away. We were able to make our drive 2 hours to our rental house in Killaloe. By bedtime, Adeline looked even worse and was in a lot of pain. I almost took her into the Urgent Care, but decided to wait until morning if she was still bad.
The next day, he feet looked so much better as far as the swelling goes. She was on her feet and running around playing while we all got ready to head out for the day. Right before we were going to leave, Adeline mentioned that her knees were really hurting. I pulled her pants down and her knees were the size of softballs!! This picture does not do it justice...
Within 30 minutes, she couldn't walk and was screaming in pain. We decided to take her into the local Urgent Care. The doctor was super nice and told us right off the bat that it was HSP. I thought, whatever.. it is an allergic reaction to this new antibiotic!! A second doctor came in and confirmed it as well. They advised us to go into the ER at the hospital because she was in so much pain and there could be other complications. We sent the others off on their day trip and Abe headed to the hospital where the waited 6 hours in the ER and then were admitted. The doctors there also said that it was HSP. What in the heck is HSP? Of course I started researching. Meanwhile, I was stuck at home with Norah instead of exploring Ireland because she had a fever and diarrhea. Worst luck ever!
That night, I switched Abe and stayed at the hospital with Adeline. She was already sound asleep when I got there.
The next morning, she was much happier and her knees were less swollen. They were still a little swollen and they looked bruised, but she was able to walk around a little bit.
We hung out until lunch time until the doctor came to see her. He said that all her urine samples had looked good and she seemed much better, so she could go home. Yay! I guess one of the big concerns with HSP is that you can get kidney problems from it. we will still have to check her urine up to 6 months... or even a year. But so far, so good. You can treat HSP either. You can only treat the symptoms. So, he said just to keep giving her anti-inflammatory/pain medicine to help with the swelling and pain. Normally, HSP only affects the joints in the feet and knees as well. Of course there is a high relapse for HSP. It should take her a good 4-6 weeks to completely get it out of her system.
Back to the hospital. We were finally discharged and I was so excited. We were going to go straight to the Blarney Castle, the Rock of Cashel and out to a fun dinner. Then, we would have the entire day the next day to see the Cliffs of Moher, Ennis, etc. We decided to make Adeline sit in the stroller to be safe. Abe pushed Adeline and Meika, and I pushed Norah in an extra stroller we found in our rental.
Entrance to the Blarney Castle
Now this picture pains me. Adeline looks so uncomfortable. I noticed that she had been walking weird when the girls got out for pictures, but I figured it's because her knees and feet hurt a little bit. Right after I took this, she said, "My back kind of hurts!" I looked at it and her entire length of her spine was started to swell. My heart sank.
We decided at least finish walking up to the castle.
Within 30 minutes, Adeline was crying and the pain on her back was becoming unbearable. They swelling was getting worse and it was freaking me out. We decided to bolt back to the car. I had stopped in at the front office where you buy the tickets to see the Castle and called back the hospital. I spoke with the nurse that took care of her and she consulted the doctor. I really just wanted them to tell me if it was necessary for her to be hospitalized again, or if this too would pass (like her feet and knees). Of course they said since she wasn't like that in the hospital, they couldn't give me advice and if I was worried, we should just bring her in :( NOT the answer I wanted.
The hour car ride back to our house was very scary for me. I think I cried the entire way home because I was so worried about Adeline. She was screaming bloody murder that her back hurt and she couldn't "do anything". She was also saying, "This is all your fault!" and "This is the WORST TRIP EVER!!" I kept telling Adeline that I totally agreed! She eventually passed out. I was trying to call my aunt Cynthia in the States who is a pediatrician, but we kept getting cut off and I never got clarity from her either. However, I was told that it wasn't "normal" for her back to be involved... it "normally" affects the knees and feet. We were contemplating if we should go straight back to the ER, or back to our rental. I felt bad that I ever took her out of the hospital at this point and really wanted to go back I was so worried. Abe talked some sense into me and told me we should at least go back to the house to gather stuff to bring to the hospital and to let Adeline lay down and see how she felt. We got home and Adeline woke up. She immediately started crying again and it was torture having to carry her into the house. I looked at her back again and completely freaked out. It looked horrible. By the time we got her to lay down, she relaxed a lot. I almost ended up taking her back to the Urgent Care that night, but she was already sound asleep and she really needed it. Cynthia also assured me that if she is feeling better and her back is looking somewhat better, then we were probably safe to let her sleep. We just woke up in the night to check on her back.
Luckily, the next morning Adeline felt much better and could move around a little bit. Her back was still swollen, but not nearly as bad. We forced her to be on bed rest the entire last day of our trip. Let me just tell you that Adeline being on bed rest is painful for everyone. Ever 2 minutes or less you are reminding her that she needs to be laying down (not standing on her feet, her head, etc.) I spoke with the "medical team" through our insurance and then ensured me that they think her back swelling was a cause from the HSP. Although rare, it does happen. I also spoke with Cynthia (pediatrician aunt) and Kristina (Dermatologist aunt) and they made me feel more at ease and educated. I am so lucky to be able to call them up with questions I have!
Here is a look of her rash on bed rest day...
By the end of the day it was getting really hard to keep Adeline laying down. Her back looked almost completely better and she was feeling fine. I was talking to my mom on the phone and she asked to speak with Adeline. My mom asked her if she was on bed rest and Adeline said, "Yes, but I am kind of jumping around a little bit!". We decided to bag it and let her play outside for a bit. The girl might as well have an hours worth of fun on the entire trip!
Meika stood at the door like this all day until we would let her out.
Sometimes she was even naked running around outside.
Here is a view of our house from the back
and from the backyard overlooking the Shannon River
That night the "people" as Norah called them, got home in time for dinner. We decided that on our last night, we might as well go out for dinner for the FIRST time! I finally got my fish and chips :)
Luckily we made it on our flight the next morning and back home. I did freak out a little when I saw how bad her rash looked that night.
Since then, Adeline has been doing really well. She had to be on Benadryl for a handful of days along with her anti-inflammatory/pain meds, but was able to attend school. One of her feet did swell up last Thursday night/Friday, but we have had no other "relapses" since. At her check up, her urine still looked good too. I am hopeful that she is over the worst!!
As far as our company goes, they flew back to Utah from Dublin. It was so much fun having them stay with us and being in Ireland with them... even though we didn't "enjoy" Ireland WITH them :) I'm glad that Adeline is ok and that she is feeling better. That was very stressful on the trip. Unfortunately, I am really heartbroken about not seeing Ireland. Maybe one day...
