The Infirmary

We have a tradition around our house - one that we follow very closely when Tony is out of town. We MUST visit the emergency room or doctor's office if his trips are over one week long. We have been working on this tradition for years. And years. And years. We have had two broken bones, and one hospitalization for dehydration in addition to the "normal" stuff like strep throat and ear infections. It has turned into a joke to some degree. "Hey kids, Daddy is leaving for a week, whose turn is it?"

Anthony's...

Two weeks ago when school started he was really tired every night. He was not just tired, he was dragging, going to be early, sleeping late, and just flat worn out. He was running cross country every day but what 14-year-old can't run 3 miles a day and still have energy to do lots of other stuff afterwards? Last Saturday, a week ago, we were determined to let him sleep in since he had been so tired all week. When he finally woke up, he complained that his chest was hurting. It hurt when you pressed on it. We, being the great diagnosticians that we are, decided that he had pulled a muscle - probably doing something very strenuous like fishing or playing XBox. Then - Tony left. It all medically goes downhill from there with our kids. His chest pain continued to get worse and when he couldn't walk through Wal-Mart standing up straight Monday night I decided it was time to go to the doctor. On Tuesday morning he had x-rays done and a rather involved physical examination. His x-rays looked good and his doctor could find nothing else that could be causing the pain so, "Come back in a week if it doesn't get any better." And, since Tony is out of town, it kept getting worse.

On Friday night, he woke me up at 1 a.m., after already having taken his temperature, to tell me that he had a fever. And his chest was hurting really bad. And his back was hurting really bad. More ibuprofen and back to bed he went.

On Saturday, I took him to the ER where they greeted us at the desk with, "Oh, Tony must be out of town." (just kidding).... But after a very brief examination he was found to have pneumonia. After two days of Zithromax and a little Lortab he is back up playing XBox and arguing wtih Alex. All with a smile on his face.

This trusted air soft gun is never far away - kinda like the bat that Tom Cruise uses to help him think in "A Few Good Men."

Since he ran almost every day for the last two weeks after school with his cross country team - though just a mile on Thursday and none on Friday - I am thinking he might be a little like Lance Armstrong. Just think what he will be able to do with two whole lungs!