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August 18, 2004

We eventually did make it believe it or not!

But it wasn't without visiting the third ring of Dante's Hell. We managed to catch a flight out of Sicily on Tuesday (we started trying on Sunday) but on the way discovered that we would have to spend the night in Spain. Just as we were landing, the pilot told us, over the intercom, that we may be taking off in a few hours (way ahead of schedule) due to the tropical storm over the gulf coast. This info coupled with a few horror stories of people who were unexpectedly left behind, made me decide to sleep in the terminal. About half the other passengers were able to get hotel rooms, the rest of us pulled chairs together and got "comfy". The boys and I discovered that no one knew about the nursery, so we actually slept on kid sized cots and crib mattresses. It was not good, especially when everyone else showed up the next morning freshly showered.

About an hour before the scheduled flight, fourteen people were bumped off the flight - fortunately it wasn't us, but the anxiety around the terminal skyrocketed. After 26 hours of traveling, we finally made it onto the flight. The plane is one of the largest in use, a C-5. They can transport tanks inside of it. While there are passenger seats (that are added as space is available), there are no other similarities to commercial airlines. You have to wear earplugs because it is so loud you can barely hear yourself think. Of course, we could still hear my seven year old across the aisle. Seth thought the earplugs made a reasonable replacement for chewing gum - look ma, no sugar".

We arrived in Norfolk thirty minutes prior to my commercial flight that I had already rescheduled once. One hotel room later, we were eating our first American food in nearly two years ... pizza. I kid you not, it was FABOO! Italian pizza has very, very little sauce and only one kind of cheese (usually). It is very simple and very good. American pizza is a study in excess. And it is excessively good.

We got up at 4:00 in the morning to catch our flight because we had to rework the tickets. We were the first ones in line with plenty of time to spare. Except the computers were not working. The people in line being routed through Boston, which was the first flight out, were starting to hop from foot to foot. They finally got us out of there with 20 minutes left to get through security and board the plane. Did I mention how much I hate running through an airport with three tired kids? Oh and did I also mention that my backpack weighed 13 pounds and my two year old (who suddenly developed a leg condition and could not walk) weighed 30 pounds? And that ALL of us were selected at the security line as suspected terrorists? And that two years ago I had confiscated a mock leatherman from Eli and hidden it in my backpack?

We made it just as they called for boarding, with great relief. One of my very favorite feelings is the one where you settle your butt safely in the seat prior to take off. All is well and you are on your way! Before I forget, what is the deal with airlines not serving food anymore? They don't even have tasty snacks like they used to - pretzels only get you so far. We were starving by the time we hit Boston and made it a mission to get food and coffee on our one-hour layover. I would give anything to turn back time and erase this next part. I apologize in advance because it is disturbing.

We ran for for a coffee shop and loaded up on croissants, juice, fruit and a huge cup of coffee. We put the food on a teeny tiny table and I turned to get cream and sugar for my coffee. I was a couple of steps away when I heard Jake say "Mom, he has your coffee".
I turned and as I did, Seth realized the cup was too hot to hold. He dropped it and as it hit the table, the lid flew off. It poured down his leg and he immediately screamed that it was hot. I ripped off his shorts and underwear. Too my horror, I watched blisters form and then his skin melt away. I put our blanket around him and ran him to the counter and yelled at the guy to get some tap water. I poured water down his leg to cool it off. My mind was going a million miles a minute. "my poor baby, this is a nightmare, we are going to miss our flight, we can still make it, he will be okay, we have to go to the hospital, no I can take him to the hospital when we get there, no we have to go to the ER now, I can't believe this is happening, poor Seth" and on and on. What I said outloud though was, "call 9-1-1". One of the airport staff gave us a cool gel pad that appeared to be for burns, I carefully held them onto the worst parts. Within 10 minutes of the burn, the EMT's were there and took us to Massuchusetts General Pediatric ER. Seth and I cried the whole way. They were incredibly nice and helpful to us there. They estimated that Seth had second degree burns over 6% of his body surface (down most of the back of his left leg) but that it didn't involve his groin or crease of his knee so they were not the worst they could be. They gave Seth some codeine syrup for his pain which took an agonizingly long time to work. They then took off the extra skin (called debriding). This is not something I EVER want to repeat. All the while, they offered Eli and Jake a box lunch, cartoons, coloring books and gave Seth bubbles and a lollypop. Once they put the dressing on they gave Seth breakfast too. They also donated extra bandages, bacitracin, tape, hospital jammy pants, a diaper and socks for Seth since our suitcases had already traveled to Chicago. I think there is no worse feeling in the world than having only the backpack on your back. They even offered to get me a cup of coffee ("since you obviously didn't get your coffee this morning"), which I promptly turned down.

We were able to fly out four hours later on standby status (our third rescheduling of flights) and got to Chicago without anymore problems. After fifty-nine hours of traveling.

I was worried about Seth riding in a carseat but he didn't complain at all. I gave him one more dose of codeine but as the stuff was pretty vile, he refused it ever after. The only way I could tell he was in pain was that he would mutter to himself "stupid coffee, you hurt me".
I would then ask "does your leg hurt?" and he would say emphatically "no it feel good!"
I talked one of my pediatrician friends into doing an internet consult because the hospital had admonished us to "have it checked everyday". I sent a picture to him and he reassured me that the burns looked okay for me to do the dressing changes. This was a huge help and saved large amounts of time and money. I am happy to report that 13 days later his burns have nearly completely healed and are just large patches of white skin now. I got some scar reduction cream (called Mederma), so hopefully he will have very little scarring.

This has gotten long, so I will post more in a few days. I promise that the rest of the trip went very well!

Posted by DebC at August 18, 2004 9:50 AM

Comments

Posted by: belva at August 20, 2004 1:13 AM