The Po Show

Sigh

Today is Hands on Science Day at school, which they hold every year in conjunction with the Putnam Discovery Science Center. It's a great opportunity for the kids to get do lots of fun interactive science experiments. Last year was Tessa's first time, and she loved it. Matthew's gone every year we've lived here. They've both really been looking forward to this year's event.

I was really looking forward to it, too, because it's on Saturday. As in, it gets BOTH kids out of the house on a weekend, when Ross is home. We never ever get a chance to be alone in the house together; I'm jealous beyond belief of people who can pack their kids off to Grandma's for the weekend, or even just overnight.

So I was REALLY looking forward to some high quality late morning nookie, and then dim sum for lunch (which the kids are very intolerant of, so it's not really worth trying to go with them). FOUR HOURS of kid-free couple time, yay!!!

All started out fine this morning, though Tessa was whiny about having to have a hot dog at lunch (I prebought them the meal plan), so I told her that I'd pack her some tofu to take with her. Then around 8:30 Matthew came up to me and Ross and said he was feeling a little nervous about going. I reminded him that he'd been excited about going (and mentally reminded myself to leave them our cell phone numbers, in case of incidents).

Then around 8:45 he went to the bathroom and started screaming. He said his abdomen really hurt, around where his bladder is. I had him lay on the couch and tried massaging his abdomen, but he said that just made it worse. He continued to grimace, and intermittently scream, for several minutes. I gave him some simethicone (thinking it might be gas-related) and ibuprofen. He said it still hurt so much he couldn't move.

Well, this was not good. He'd had some problems with having to pee every 5 minutes when he started taking Topamax the last time, so I wondered if it was a urinary retention issue (even though the psychiatrist said she didn't think that was a common side effect). I also wondered if it could have anything to do with the fact that he ate like 4 or 5 bananas yesterday (that's a snack he can get for himself, and the appetite suppression effect of the Topamax definitely hasn't kicked in yet). Anyway, it was obvious that he couldn't go to Science Day. He seemed a little sad, saying he'd really been looking forward to going, but all in all he wasn't too bummed about having to stay home. So I also wonder if this was a stress effect.

By 11:00, he was feeling much better and wanted lunch. By noon, he was jumping and running around and stimming as usual. Of course I'm glad he's feeling better, but grrrrrr, was it SO much to ask for something to go smoothly for once?