Oct 4, 2010

I saw a story on the news tonight that had me fuming. I actually cursed the news caster. It's not his fault; he just happens to be the bearer of bad news. The gist of it is that Canadian pediatricians are calling for a rotavirus vaccine for babies. 500-600 babies are hospitalized for rotavirus annually. Guess who was one of those babies in 2009? Mine. Aaron was hospitalized due to dehydration. I also didn't know that I could feed him Pedialite in a syringe because nobody told me!

Aaron at one day old. (I just found this in an old file)

This angers me so much because nobody ever told me what the hell it was or that there was vaccine for it. Had I known, I would've gotten it for him. Seeing my baby in the hospital like that was heart breaking as I didn't know what to do. But really whose responsibility is it to educate new parents? Our health system? The hospital? Ourselves? I thought I knew childhood illnesses pretty well. Ear infections, cold/flu, chicken pox, measles. I know I am missing a lot of common ones.

I wish I had had the foresight to read a book on childhood illnesses or vaccines. I took a prenatal class; I went to Baby Talk at my local health unit. It never came up. I didn't know until I had Aaron at the walk-in clinic.

If I ever have another baby, you bet s/he will be getting vaccinated for rotavirus.

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Gah in one and a half weeks time I have my high school reunion. I wasn't popular in high school, but I wasn't bullied either. I had a few good friends which got me through. I didn't fair to well in elementary school or junior high. I was teased and bullied, which I believe was due to my not being socialized as a young child. I never learned basic social skills from a young age and for some reason I always craved the approval of others.

My going to my reunion is more about proving a point. Or settling a score if you will. My former BFF and I had a falling out shortly after I moved in with Eric the first time in 2003. It was silly really, but our friendship never recovered. I tried to make amends a year later but it was ignored. I am not sure what the score is, but I still have my youngish looks and a confidence I never possessed back then.

A lot people aren't going, but I will be out of curiosity more than anything. The 2 things that suck is that one I don’t' have a date as Eric is deployed and two I've no one to go with as my friend who said she would go is selling me out. So I am doing this solo. I am nuts.

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Eric was in Ecuador recently. He has had some stories to tell me. Some I'd care not to know about. But he tells me none the less. I am not sure if your up on recent world events but this past week there was coup attempt in Ecuador.  A week before this happened, Eric was there. The city which they were visiting (which I can't remember the name for the life of me) is in complete chaos and in a state of looting and lawlessness. I can't believe he missed that by a week. Thank God. This was the first time a Canadian navel ship has had a port visit to Ecuador since 1989 because of it's political of unstableness.

Here is an excerpt from one of his emails:

Its not really a bus more than a 15 passenger van. I was up front next to the driver and there was no seat belt. Lets just say that this was the most scariest ride of my life. We are driving in mountains in Guatemala at night, when there are landslides that washed out sections of the road, we hit two dogs [Which were already dead] on the way home which was loud as fuck, and the rain was so bad that it washed out our side of the highway and twice our driver "Victor" switched to the opposite side of the highway driving into oncoming traffic at night in fog in the rain, because our side of the hwy was washed out. I was freaked out by that a bit, but he drove slowest. Like 60kmh instead of the 120kmh he was booking it normally. It was worse than any driving I've ever done over the coquhalla or the Rockies. But we got back to the boat fine and we had a fun time. We might go back to the cruise ship bar tonight for an hour or two. This email doesn't even begin to really describe my experiences. I didn't want to email you about them I wanted to call you tonight cause I thought I had new time, but I only had 90 seconds.

He will be home in 19 days.

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Things are still moving forward on the egg donation front. I have some blood work to get done and the initial consult. Not much will be done until Eric is back.