Sunday, June 27, 2010

Vacation Ulceration

Day 1 of our vacation in Myrtle Beach...in a word...sucked. Let me run you through it:
Starts off ok with bloody mary's at the airport bar in NYC
THEN we get to Myrtle Beach...

We are at the rental counter for almost an hour. Why? Because they were trying to charge us $512 for 4 days of rental instead of the $164 I have reserved it for. So we FINALLY get that figured out and get on the road. I won't even go into what time we have to return the car ahead of our flight on Thurs, it is going to be ridiculous.

We get to the Hilton - we are starving and need some food badly, but our room is ready - YEA! So we check in - they tell us they know nothing about our "bed and breakfast" rate, which we booked through Orbitz that is supposed to include breakfast at one of the Hilton Restaurants each day. They tell us Orbitz isn't allowed to give out that rate - well that's funny because that is what we booked! And we had printed confirmation - they still don't honor it! And tell us to take it up with Orbitz.

So by this time I am pretty sure if I don't eat I am going to get very unreasonable with this woman behind the desk. So we head to the hotel grill and we decide to get something simple to share since we are both starving. We decide on Grilled Chicken Nachos - YUMMMMMMM!.......They take 45 minutes to get to us and they weren't busy. I am about to lose it, but the nacho's have homemade chips and were awesome. So I regain perspective and we go back to the room to call Orbitz.

Orbitz tells us we are right, we should get breakfast each day, they call the Hilton Front Desk for us, this takes about an hour. Orbitz comes back to us and says that Hilton is providing incorrect information to their 3rd party vendors and they are going to "work on it" and get back to us. Meanwhile, even though Orbitz is telling Hilton this is indeed what we booked and Hilton is saying that this has never happened before, they STILL do not honor the rate. We are talking satisfying the customer with breakfast - read...CHEAP FIX. Just do the right thing people. NOPE, they continue to point back at Orbitz and leave the customer in the middle. Well done, oh king of the hospitality industry...

As this is all going on at the front desk, this woman is really smug about the fact that it is not her problem and Orbitz has the issue. I know my limits so I was already letting Jeremy do the talking, but it is so bad, I can't even stand there any more. So I proceed to tell her I can't stand here and listen to this anymore, I don't have time for it and I am supposed to be on vacation and I walk out of the hotel. It was the last straw. I felt like I was at work, putting out fires all day and banging my head into a wall.

The bright spot, I am here with my hubby and we will eventually get to relax and just spend time together. Day 2 has to be better.

Oh and did I mention it is POURING rain?

Friday, June 11, 2010

Breathing easier

Rece had his specialist appt today with the allergist/asthma doctor. The doctor is new to our pediatrics practice and she was so great. She was so understanding, and told me that Rece's "reaction" to colds was not normal/acceptable and that we can make it better. First they tested him for 20 indoor and outdoor allergies, there was zero reaction. This is VERY good news. Allergies at this point in life would be a signal/sign that he might indeed have true asthma later in life. She said what she is sure he does have is "reactive" airways. When he gets the common cold, his airways inflame and we get the horrible cough, wheezing, and the secondary infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia etc. So what she suggested was that we start him on an anti-inflamatory steroid (which we have done during colds in the past and has worked ok) on a preemptive strike type basis, from September - May rergardless if he has a cold. To cover ALL of cold and flu season. She said normally he might have to do this one or two more seasons and then he and his airways will grow and this problem will fade into history...and we will only have the story to tell about how rough he had it the first year or so. So we go back to her in August to get our meds and equipment to help us through cold and flu season, unless he gets another episode sooner and then we start and just continue it until further notice so to speak.

I feel like we have a resource now that is focusing on his specific symptoms and can truely help. I really like Rece's primary care doctor but he is really there for acute care, treat, make better for the time being and release. Maybe we will actually get to a time when if my son rolls over and coughs at night I don't loose two hours sleep laying awake with anxiety about how we are going to take time off work and how long and how bad the next cold will be.