Friday, May 9, 2008

Graduation and the mystery diagnosis


HAPPY GRADUATION KRISTIN! My sister in law finally graduated from nursing school yesterday. How exciting! The whole family, sans Chris, went up to Knoxville for the ceremony. Grace did well in the car on the way up there, especially for being woken up at 6:30am... But Izze and I were in the back seat with her, and she had 'gracie TV' (DVD Player) so she was all set. We met Kristin's family up there and then traveled over to the ole' Alma Mater... UT... Ahhh, the memories.....
The actual ceremony was pretty normal, as graduation ceremonies go. Grace lasted all of about 3 minutes in the seats, so she and I roamed the bowels of Thomson Bowling Arena for an hour or so. We watched Pat Summitt age year by year in pictures... riveting....

At one point, Grace decided she wanted to see Papa, so she ran over to the black curtain, swung it open and YELLED.... PAPAAAAAA.... Yup, it echoed through the whole arena, awesome. Kristin did get an unexpected award, which was great....and she said that she didn't notice grace's yell....

Back to David and Kristin's we went after the ceremony was over... We ate good food and visited. Grace fell in love with Kristin's little brother... she has been calling him "Unky Pete." She ran circles around the house, played with the 2 Sallie's (2 dogs) and Rufus the cat. Keep in mind... NO NAP, and an early rise.... she is doing awesome, but the tides are about to turn....

All is well, dad decides that we need to leave about 5pm or so to get back for his early bedtime, of course. We pack up, change grace into her PJ's, get her 'nilk" ready, get in the car, back out of the driveway, and grace starts screaming... and screaming....and screaming....This goes on for about 30 minutes, until she completely conks out. I mean, the child was in some kind of altered state of mind, nothing consoled her, not slammy, not milk, NOTHING...Eventually she just gave out... head fell over, she couldn't cry anymore... she couldn't even suck her fingers, she was so tired.... All is well...QUIET....

Let me back up a few hours..... Right after graduation, I decide that I need a quick trip to the goodwill. So I entrust grace into the care of my dear mom, dad and grandmother for a quick 30 minutes....When I get back to the house... mom goes... "Look at Grace's head...." and low and behold, it looked like someone had taken a baseball bat, or golf club to the middle of her forehead.... She had a goose egg the size of a golf ball, literally....it was red and bruised looking... Ummmm....might I mention that Grace has hit her head a million times in her life and she has never had so much as the start of a goose egg! Luckily, since Kristin is a nurse now, she took a look and said she was fine....no concussion or permanent damage ensued....

Ok, back to the car ride: grace slept peacefully for about an hour and a half when suddenly she must have been awoken by Satan himself...We had to stop for gas in Lebanon and all hell broke loose. The crying started, and crying is kind of a mild word to describe what was going on in that car.... For the next 45 minutes, seriously, grace was out of her mind... thrashing around, screaming, probably foaming at the mouth.. who knows.... NOTHING would help, trust me, we tried everything....

My dad, who is patiently sitting in the front seat, driving the car, concludes that she must have a rare disease of the retina and that the setting sun is burning a hole right through her eyes.... Mom doesn't know what to think, and probably is secretly concluding that she has a laceration in her stomach or some type of internal injury.... and Poor JoJo (the great grandmother,) in the front seat is probably going back through her all her studies in health and nutrition at Vanderbilt 50 years ago to try and diagnose the problem. I just think that she is demon possessed....plain and simple, something else is inhabiting my child and taking over her body....
Dad then says this is the last time he'll ride in the car with Grace until she is 9, sans heavy sleeping medication... I am thinking the same thing....

The screaming and crying continued through the car switch and on to our house... where Chris has been home sick all day..... I take grace inside the house, kicking and screaming, hand her to Chris, without saying a word and leave the room...( I was thinking about leaving the state) I just needed some peace and quiet. She eventually calmed down and Chris played with her for a while and let me go to bed early. THANKS honey. Here are some pictures of our trip.



David, Grace and Rufus in their matching outfits, how cute!

Happy Baby...

Look how happy we were on the ride to Knoxville...!

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