The ride of his life . . .

Back in October, Jakob drew his own fire escape plan for Fire Prevention Month . . . there was a contest at school. The local fire department came into his classroom and discussed the importance of having a escape plan for at home in the case of an emergency. Jakob came straight home that day and drew his. Weeks went back and right after we returned home from Iowa I got the phone call that out of all the 2nd and 3rd graders at his school his escape plan had been picked! This meant a fire truck what going to come and pick him up at our house and then drive him to the fire station to have breakfast with his teacher and all the fire fighters. And the best part of all . . . drive him back to school.

Jakob broke out in hives last night and didn't get much sleep (neither did I), by morning he was completely covered from head to toe. The fire truck was suppose to pick him up at 7:30 AM, we waited and hoped for the Benedryl to kick in. When his ride showed up he was still itching all over, but was super excited to be getting in that fire truck. He got to sit in the front seat and be an honorary fireman for the morning. Breakfast was great despite the fact Jakob couldn't sit still in his chair, the itching was driving him crazy!

I followed the fire truck back to the school, I had called the Dr. on my way and got an appt. for him. We went into the office to let them know that he wouldn't be in school until after we found out what was going on with him. Little did we know then that it would turn into an all day affair . . . we got to the Dr.'s office and of course sat in the waiting room forever. By the time Jakob was called back, he literally was going crazy, about to rip off his skin or have a major panic attack. Poor little guy . . . and there was absolutely nothing that I could do for him. He laid in that exam room and cried! Jakob was given a steroid and we were told that he would need to see an allergist for testing if the hives didn't go away. Well, they didn't, they just kept getting worse . . . we went straight to the allergy/asthma clinic in hopes of getting an appt., luckily we were able to get one for later in the afternoon. The steroid that the Dr. gave him made him sick, too strong of a med for his little body.

Fast forward a couple of hours . . . we got back to the second appt., we were told that the hives were caused from a viral infection. And after all the hives were gone we'd need to do some skin testing. Jakob was given some more meds, which seemed to help alot, the hives were disappearing and he had stopped itching. By evening most of the hives were gone and I hoped for good . . . well, I was wrong, just before bed time he started getting them back on his hands and face. We put him to bed with a cool wash cloth for his head, seems that if we kept him cool the welts weren't so bad, lets hope he gets some sleep tonight. It's moments like this that make Motherhood so hard . . . you see your baby hurting and in pain and can't take any of it away. And a special "Thanks" to Grandma for being there today for Jakob and me!

Here's his fire escape plan . . .