Through the eyes of Alexa: California 2013- High highs and Low lows

We try to get to California every year and 2013 was no exception. Last year we drove in the RV and had a great time. Since dad and Hayley were in Peru on a medical mission trip and unable to make the trip, mom thought it would be best to fly this year to avoid the 806 miles in the car. Sounds relaxing, right? Just fly to LAX, spend a couple days visiting grandparents and the Lee Family, then drop Brandon off at tennis camp in Carmel, relax in northern california for 2 weeks and pick up Brandon on our way back to LAX. What could possibly go wrong with that plan? Um, maybe EVERYTHING!

The first 72 hours started out just fine. But clearly grandma and grandpa didn't want us to leave. Grandpa tried to keep us there indefinitely by hiding our car keys in his pocket. He quietly did yard work as we tore apart the packed up car looking for them. Only after 40 minutes did mom realize he was the only other person present when they went missing. Under dad's watch , it would have been no big deal because he likes to leave early for everything. But mom likes to live on the edge where missing 2 stoplights instead of the usual 1 means we are going to be late. We got Brandon to camp with 8 minutes to spare but the only stopping we got to do was on the 101 in horrible Ventura county traffic. From that point on the entire trip was highs and lows. Here they are...

The High Highs

Grandma and Grandpa letting the trampoline live at their house

Spending time with the Lee family

The Lee's letting us relax at their Balboa Island house and my 1st ferry ride

Walking across the Golden Gate Bridge with my cousins

The Adventure Park in Berkeley aka- the junkyard playground

Berkeley kids museum

The Low Lows

Driving, driving, and more driving. Mom should have had Drew take a picture of traffic because that would have been more appropriate for our week. We ended up deciding to go back to LA in the middle of our trip. Because we still needed to pick up Brandon from camp at the end of the two weeks, that put our total miles driven in So Cal at 1530! Not fun.

Oakland Children's Hospital with my first metabolic crisis

We could not be more thankful for the newborn screening program (some still call it a PKU test) that exists in every state. Most of you know I have been followed by a metabolic doctor in Indianapolis since birth because the test done when I left the hospital showed that my body is missing an enzyme and cannot make sugar like its supposed to. At that time I had no symptoms but mom and dad were told that I can't go over 4 hrs without food and that under stress like an illness I am at high risk for my blood sugar to get too low. Its sorta the opposite of diabetes where they get diagnosed because their blood sugar is way too high. We don't know whether it was a virus or a combination of events that set off the metabolic crisis (mom said it definitely wasn't from sleeping more than 4 hours between feedings) but luckily we were staying in Berkeley which is 10 minutes from Oakland Children's hospital. On a busy Sat night we got to cut in front of about 50 kids waiting in the ER and they started an IV as soon as we got there. Mom won't tell me why everyone was moving so fast and what could have happened but I think they were just practicing for when a real emergency comes in. As soon as the IV got my blood sugar back up, I started feeling better. We got to go home the next night and over the next 7 days I slowly got my muscle strength back.

starting to feel better

Back to myself just a pound lighter

The good news is that mom, dad, and the doctors have a better idea of what my early symptoms are and we have a written plan so that every hospital will know what to do in case this happens again. And I will be able to help them out more when I can say something other than doggie and bye.

We enjoyed our visit with family and friends but we are happy to be home. Mom says we aren't travelling out of state for a very long time.