The Story of Phoenix

I am way over due for a blog post. I have been wanting to blog about my trip to Phoenix for the past couple of months and for some reason or another I have just not gotten around to it. Some of you have heard about my trip to Phoenix and others have not... but here is the whole story with all the glorious details!

I decided to go out to Phoenix for the AANP (American Academy of Nurse Practitioners) conference. This would be a good thing for my career and for me to polish up on my NP skills. I asked my sister-in-law, Susie, if she wanted to meet me out there to help with Jonah and then to have some fun once the conference was over... she agreed, so the plans were made.

Jonah and I left for Phoenix, AZ on a nice Thursday morning. Our first flight out of LGA in NYC was on time leaving... but we were not on time landing... we were diverted to Tulsa, OK due to weather in Dallas. Long story short, we ended up just sitting on the ground in Tulsa for about 3 hours. That is WAAAY fun with a 18 month old! We did finally make it to Dallas, but when we did, we had already missed our connecting flight to Phoenix, which Susie was on. We had it planned so nicely.. Susie was going to be on the second leg of my traveling to help me with Jonah! How happy I would have been to see her in Dallas, but she obviously had to go on... she couldn't miss her flight b/c ours was delayed. Well, once we were in Dallas, our next flight was delayed for about 4 hours. We just wondered around the airport. I was actually trying to keep Jonah awake to ensure that he would sleep on the flight to Phoenix. It was nearly 1am EST when we boarded our plane for Phoneix. Needless to say, we both slept pretty much the whole way from Dallas to Phoenix. Once we landed in Phoenix, I had to get myself, Jonah and our stuff over to the rental car center to pick up our rental. Exactly what I want to be doing around 4am. Luckily, Jonah fell back asleep in the stroller, so at least he wasn't screaming during this glorious event. The bigger task for me, came next.... finding the hotel once I had the rental car. Yes, I had printed out directions on google maps before leaving NYC, but if you know me...that didn't make it much easier. I am QUITE directionally challanged. So, on top of being lost driving around Phoenix, AZ at 5am, my cell phone battery died. I had a sleeping toddler in the car, so it wasn't very easy for me to get out of the car and ask for directions. I finally did find the hotel. I'm not sure how. I did drive around Phoenix for about an hour before finding it. The hotel was about 2 miles from the airport, so that tells you just how lost I was =)

Once we made it to the hotel, the next few days went pretty smooth.... I went to my conference, learned some new stuff, refreshed my NP skills, and then Susie, Jonah, and I had a little fun in the evening. We went swimming at the hotel pool, we would go to dinner, etc.

Sunday morning I went to the last portion of the conference. While I was at the conference, Susie sent me a text message saying Jonah was throwing up. Oh joy. So, I left the conference a little early to get back and make sure he was going to be ok.
When I got back to the hotel he seemed to be alright, he had only thrown up once and was pretty much acting like Jonah. So, as planned, we packed up the car and headed to the Grand Canyon. None of us had ever been to the Grand Canyon, so we were really excited about this little side trip! Jonah did fairly well in the car ride up to the Grand Canyon, which was about a 3 hour trip. If I am remembering correctly, he did not throw up anymore that day.

We made it to the Grand Canyon area, checked into our hotel and headed straight to the Grand Canyon to watch the sunset. It was beautiful, breath-taking, and awe-inspiring. Jonah seemed ok that afternoon, excpet that he was acting unusually clingy to me. He wouldn't ride in the stroller, and he wouldn't let Susie carry him, so I carried him pretty much all that evening, which was not great on the back.

The next morning, we headed back to the Grand Canyon. Jonah seemed to be feeling pretty decent that morning. We rented bikes and got a bike trailer for Jonah to sit in. He loved it. Although, he was acting as if he felt ok, Jonah did have diarrhea several times that day. One time we had to change the lovely diaper on the side of the road at the Grand Canyon, b/c it was while we were on the bike ride. That was another fun moment with Jonah! Even though Jonah was a bit sick that day, we all had a great time. Jonah really enjoyed riding in the bike trailer and Susie and I had a blast riding around part of the rim of the Grand Canyon. It was probably one of the most fun and enjoyable things I have done in quite awhile.

That afternoon, we drove back to the Phoenix area to get ready to fly back home the next morning. Jonah did NOT do well on the ride back. He was just not happy. He continued to have diarrhea that day, but other than that, he did not seem to be becoming more ill or anything like that. He was just NOT a happy camper in his carseat... despite Susie and my numerous and ridiculous attempts at keeping him entertained. We sang songs, we did silly things, we gave him toys, books, etc... nothing was cutting it.

We checked into our hotel near the Phoenix airport and got Jonah to bed... not before changing one last poopy diaper for the day. He continued to eat and drink pretty well throughout the day despite the diarrhea, so I wasn't too concerned. I guess I should've been though....

The next morning was a disaster! We woke up around 5am to get ready to go to the airport. When we woke Jonah up he threw up, he threw up again before we left the hotel. He threw up in his carseat on the way to the airport. He threw up in the stroller waiting on the shuttle from the car rental center. He threw up riding the tram at the airport. He threw up in the security line at the airport. Needless to say, I also had puke all over me. During this whole time, I was really stressing about whether or not to get on the plane to go home. All I wanted to do was get home, but that involved about 8 hours of traveling, which I was not sure if Jonah or myself was up for. Due to all this puking, Jonah really started to look sick. He was so pitiful and just not himself at all. I was having a hard time getting him to wake up and he was looking very dehydrated. Susie and I talked things over and since it had been about 10 minutes since he had thrown up, we thought just maybe he was done throwing up and we would be ok. Susie was going to be on the first leg of my travel with me again, so at least I had that comfort. Well, the final kicker was... Jonah puked again all over the both of us while we were boarding the plane. I more or less had a freak out moment and got off the plane. I am now so glad I did!

Susie had to stay on the plane b/c again, she couldn't miss her flight because of us. She would've had to pay for another flight... and no one wants to do that!
When I got off the plane, I was a bit panicky... Jonah was really scaring me at this point and I just didn't know what I could do for him there in the Phoenix airport, so I had the US airways desk agent call for the paramedics. Jonah was obviously (to me) pretty severely dehydrated and he would not wake up to drink anything, so I was pretty sure he was going to need IV fluids to get him rehydrated. So, we ended up taking an ambulence ride to the Phoenix Children's Hospital.

When we arrived at Phoenix Childrens they took good care of us. They had a difficult time getting an IV in Jonah because he was so dehydrated. They did a couple of tests to make sure he didn't have anything more serious going on, and thank God he didn't. He did have a really low blood sugar of 39, which confirmed to me that I definitely did the right thing by getting off that plane.

Needless to say, after our stay (about 4 hours) at Phoenix Children's Hospital, we were going to be stuck without anywhere to go or any means of getting anywhere. Fortunately, my in-laws have some friends, the Andrews, that live in Phoenix. These precious people really took care of me and Jonah. They picked us up from the hospital, got us food, gave us a bed to sleep in, did our laundry for us and then brought us back to the airport the next morning. They were truly a blessing and I am not quite sure what I would have done without them!

Below are a few pictures from the whole event. The pictures are in a very random order b/c I was having trouble getting the computer to cooperate with me!