I told you in the previous post that Kate was on antibiotics before we left for our trip to Dallas. She had some areas around her mouth and nose that looked like impetigo, although not anywhere close to being as hideous looking as some of the examples I pulled up on the web. If it was impetigo, it was caught very early.
Brent got up very early on Saturday morning, the morning of the Dravet Syndrome Foundation Steps Toward A Cure walk in Frisco, and headed for the Care Plus (I think that was the name of the facility) near the hotel. They didn't open until 8 AM, however, and we needed to be on our way to Frisco by then, so he had to put off the visit to the doctor.
Fortunately, we saw another Care Plus near the Frisco Commons and after he let the rest of us out, helped unload the car of kids, the stroller, and raffle items, he did what he could to help set up and then left to go to the doctor. There were evidently a lot of people at the Care Plus, so he didn't get back to the walk until it was over and most of the participants were gone. The diagnosis...strep throat. He got a steroid shot and a prescription for an antibiotic.
While he was at Care Plus, he mentioned to the doctor that Jax had waked up that morning with some red splotches on his face. It started with one nickel-sized splotch on his cheek and then the areas on either sides of his nose got reddish and blotchy. Carolyn took a photo of Jax and texted it to Brent who showed it to the doctor. The doctor suggested that Jax might have strep, also. Apparently the rash could be a symptom.
After Brent had a chance to visit a bit with the family members who were still there, we packed up kids, the stroller, and the raffle prizes we won (yes, we were taking home a couple of the prizes we had carried from home) and headed to the hotel. Once back there, I think we went to the water park to get lunch while Brent went to a Walgreen's nearby to get his prescription. After lunch all of us girls changed into swimsuits for another session in the water park. Jax went down for a nap...and probably Brent did, too. When Jax got up from his nap, Brent took him to the nearby Care Plus, where, yes, he was diagnosed with strep, also. So, they went back to the Walgreen's to pick up the antibiotic for Jax.
Meanwhile, the rest of us (the girls) were still in the water park. Carolyn wanted to take Kate on a couple of the more advanced rides, and I was watching Carlee who was happily playing in the pool area for the smallest kids.
The video below wasn't taken during that session in the water park...I think I took this on Friday afternoon, because at the end you can see that Jax and Brent are there, too.
Before Carolyn took Kate to the bigger rides, she went over there by herself to see how they were. That's when she met the 6th graders. During the time she was gone, Kate and Carlee started the climb up Fort MacKinzie to do that slide. I waited at the bottom, but couldn't really see them as they climbed, although I kept watching up there, thinking I would see them eventually. Suddenly, Kate was right in front of me, so I thought I had missed her finish.
Now, I was watching for Carlee, but Kate seemed to be telling me that Carlee fell, although it was hard to understand her as it's very noisy in there. I thought Carlee was still going to be coming down the slide and didn't want to move from where I was. Kate patiently came around the ropes to where I was, took my hand and led me to the area where you enter the ride. There, I saw two lifeguards trying to talk to Carlee, probably asking her where her mommy was. I explained that she was my granddaughter and asked what happened. They told me that she had fallen and hit her head on the stairs. So, I picked her up and she sat on my lap for 10 or 15 minutes while Kate stood nearby. Eventually, I was able to coax her to go back into the water in the shallow pool and she and Kate began to play again.
Later, I was able to understand from Kate that Carlee had slipped while running (tsk, tsk) up the stairs and had hit her head. I guess the lifeguard had taken both she and Kate down the stairs and when Kate had suddenly appeared in front of me, she had not actually slid down.
After the fall, while Carolyn and Kate were on the other end of the water park, Carlee spent almost all her time on the structure with the ropes to pull that dump water on the area below it. She referred to it as her house. I stood nearby and watched her go up the 6 or 7 steps, pull one of the ropes, pull the other rope, push the big button (I don't know what that did). Then she would go down the steps (very carefully), take a few steps away, turn around and repeat the whole process.
After about the 10th time she did that, I'm thinking OCD...obsessive compulsive disorder. But, just about the time that went through my mind, she varied the routine by adding imaginary people. She'd go up the steps, pull the two ropes, push the button, squat down and tap the structure floor a couple of times with the sides of both hands, stand up holding her hands cupped as if she were carrying something in them, and then go down the steps. She would take a couple of steps further, squat down again and tap the floor a couple of times. Then turn around and repeat that process.
About the second time of that process, I asked her what she was carrying and she told me they were friends or mommies, or something. I suggested that she needed to hold onto the rail when she was going up or down the stairs, so maybe she could let the people ride on her shoulders. She said, "Okay..." and from then on, once she had "them in her hands" she tapped her shoulders a couple of times and then had free hands to hold onto the rail.
After about the 10th trip of that series, she reversed the process. Now she started taking them all back up the stairs, leaving them on the floor up there. The whole time...in all of these different routines, she's talking to them. I can see that she's talking to them, but I can't hear what she's saying. The only time I could hear her, she was heading down the stairs and I saw her suddenly push her hand backwards, turn her head to that side and say, "Wait!" in the same exasperated tone of voice that an irritated mother would use. One of the invisible people was evidently being a pain in the neck.
It was around that time that I moved past OCD and wondered if she had suffered a head injury when she fell on the other stairs.
Once she finished making the ten trips or so to take all the IP (imaginary people) back up the steps, she began to quickly pick them up, and throw them off the platform, with a "woosh" sound each time. After they all got thrown off, she was done. At that point she just got in the pool and played, totally happy in her own little world. It was very interesting to watch and I wish I had taken my camera with me for that session. However, that might have changed her behavior. As it was, she barely paid any attention to me, intent only on her IPs and what she was doing with them. Carlee has a very vivid imagination, to say the least.
In all, I would estimate she made about 40 trips up and down those 6 or 7 steps. She tried to block the way when one little boy wanted to go in her house. At a signal from me, though, she stood aside and grudgingly let him enter. She watched him carefully, though, while he was in "her house."
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