We had a great time on our vacation - lots of photos this week!
Sunday, September 15th
The deck on our hotel room in Dillsboro was fabulous - I decided that I would just live out there.
Monday, September 16th
We spent some time driving around the mountains today, but first, Dr. M spent some quality time deck sitting.
Tuesday, September 17th
Happy birthday to my dad! (They were on their own mountain jaunt, so I didn’t feel bad about not being with him on his big day). Meanwhile, can you tell which bed belonged to Captain Chaos?
Then we went on a 4 ½ hour train ride along the Nantahala Gorge! It was a rainy day, but we didn’t care. The train was super comfortable and the views were lovely. This is a small fraction of the photos we took.
There was a wandering musician on the train who took requests. A little girl requested Taylor Swift and then she & her mom sang along with him. It was great!
Wednesday, September 18th
Headed home today. It was a bit foggy!
Thursday, September 19th
Started a new crochet project (another cat pod for someone who requested it).
Friday, September 20th
Update from Elliott’s mom: He had surgery this week so that the doctors could find out why Elliott has difficulty swallowing. So much so that he is still 100% formula fed at 15 months old. Well we finally got our answer! Elliott has Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE). Hopefully with some meds this can be controlled, but there is a very real chance that Elliott will never eat the foods you and I eat. This is an extreme allergy to the common food groups: wheat, soy, dairy, nuts, eggs, and fish. This is a chronic lifelong condition with no cure. Over the next few months/year we will be doing trials to find out what foods are triggering for him, and removing them from his diet. For now, we try meds and do a repeat endoscopy in 2 months to see if they help. Here's to hoping he can still enjoy chocolate milk (it’s actually his formula, but chocolate flavored)
Extra photo because he’s adorable.
Saturday, September 21st
One of my internet friends had sent me a video of a person who made a “soap saver” gadget (upper right photo) that helped make soap stick together. I decided that a fork would probably work, and it DID! I’ve had three showers with the glommed together soap & it is still intact. Woot!
I’ve had a great week. Tomorrow is church and grocery buying and spending time with family and then it’s back to work on Monday. How was your week?
Wow! Talk about a room with a view! Absolutely gorgeous. Was there the sound of the water, too? Ohio is in such a drought that the water levels are drastically low; no rivers are rushing.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos from the trip. Love that fog settling on the hills.
Yes! The sound was the best part. My heart hurts for Ohio.
DeleteNance - I meant to post a video of the running water! I uploaded it to Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/l2JvE835zLI
DeleteWhat a great vacation, and that train trip was the frosting on the cake, or the cherry on top of the sundae, or whatever. Elliott looks happy and healthy, but my goodness: I hope he's not still on formula (or the adult version) when he's seventeen! I've never heard of such a condition, but it sounds like it might be relatively rare -- although not so rare that the docs don't know about it.
ReplyDeleteThat soap saver's interesting. We used to keep all the small slivers in a jar, and then, when we had a pile of them, we'd turn them into laundry soap by boiling them. Thriftiness rocks!
When I worked in an industry with special needs individuals there were definitely clients who couldn't eat solid food. Those particular ones didn't have allergies, so the staff would just puree whatever the other clients ate.
DeleteI really miss sitting by a river and just being. one of my good friends and river guide buddies would go the the Nan as he called it every summer and canoe and kayak the rapids there. and poor Elliot. hopefully they can find decent range of foods he can tolerate.
ReplyDeleteYes - Elliott's mom is hopeful that there will be SOME foods he can eat!
DeleteThat deck and that train ride look idyllic!
ReplyDeleteIt was lovely!
DeleteLast week was stormy for me. Great vacation pictures!
ReplyDelete