Eric Tapley

Last night Sam enjoyed a few minutes of the second Patriots preseason game. He was happy with the rout of the Cardinals and, as you can see in the photo below, is already mesmerized by our world champs. (I refuse to admit it’s just the sound and color and movement on the TV that caught his eye.)

To Mike, Sam’s godfather:

This is for you my friend. The first of many such games, I promise. We’re raising a Pats fan!

My mystery rash – let’s not call it poison ivy any more – first appeared on July 22nd. It’s been nearly a month of dealing with this unknown, recurring, mystery thing. It’s painful, itchy, irritating, hot, prickly, and makes my skin feel tight. At times I feel short of breath, almost as if I can’t take a deep breath, and that’s scary. Behind my elbows and knees, and between my fingers, my skin has become inflamed and sensitive and bleeds now and then from the chaffing. When I wake in the morning there is often a little blood on the sheets from my legs.

But I can’t stop moving or using my hands or walking or living. I have to move forward the best I can.

All of this is starting to get to me. I’m trying to be optimistic but I feel a little lost. I’m losing track of tasks that I need to finish, I don’t have the same focus or drive at work (which is in large part due to the medication I’m on). The days seem to bleed together, and on top of it all I’m not sleeping well. Each of these feeds the other.

I constantly worry that this is in fact contagious and that Sam will get sick from it. I’ve had nightmares about that. I obsessively wash my hands an am incredibly careful every time I play with him. I use a separate towel to dry my hands and even have a ’sick sheet’ I put on the couch when I sit there so, just in case this is infectious, even just a little, I’m not leaving residue around.

Even still, he has some kind of rash. The doctor said it’s unrelated, something called “prickly heat rash,” and that he’s fine. But I worry and don’t feel any better that she’s given it a benign name - what if it is from me?

During my long years of battling Colitis I experienced this kind of depression frequently. It’s the unknown that gets to me – I don’t deal well with situations in which I feel helpless or out of control – and with a good long walk and a little reflection I’m able to pull through and get back to a positive, optimistic place. It’s just hard sometimes.

It’s hard right now.

Poison ivy? Maybe not.

I met with my dermatologist again and she is “mystified” and “confused” by my condition. The rash has continued to spread and, at this point, covers most of my body. It’s still painful and hard to deal with the constant irritation, especially at night. Thankfully the pain meds I have are helping to alleviate the pain enough so I can get some sleep.

I have faith that my doctors will be able to figure this out with more time and testing. I have upcoming appointments with specialists and an allergist. In the meantime, however, just waiting (and hurting) is no cool. No cool indeed.

Kate and I signed up a while ago to be BzzAgents, and as part of the program are evaluating the Playtex VentAire bottle system. They have a whole series of bottles, inserts, and nipples that are designed to reduce the amount of bubbles in a bottle and provide a more natural shape for the nipple.

So far, Sam loves these. (And he’s one whose opinion counts!) I’ve been using the small bottle to feed Sam. He likes to grab the bottle while he’s eating and feel somewhat “in control” and the smaller bottle is a good size for him to manipulate (but I keep my hand on the bottle to actually direct his feeding). Because he’s younger I’m using the Stage 1 (slow flow) nipples which are specifically designed to reduce the flow speed. This is good for younger babies so they don’t choke or spit up because they’re eating too quickly or too much. They also have smaller tummies to hold their food in.

I’m happy that the VentAire system keeps most of the air and air bubbles out of the formula because it helps Sam from becoming too gassy. There is a special ventilation system at the base of the bottle (the end pointed up when the nipple is down in Sam’s mouth). This way any air that enters the bottle to compensate for consumed formula or breast milk comes in trough the space where there already is air, instead of up from the nipple. As a result air doesn’t mix in as bubbles in the formula or breast milk. Cool.

We don’t have a dishwasher to clean the bottles, but they’re easy to take apart and clean by hand. If you buy one and do have a dishwasher you’re in luck, they are dishwasher safe. Just to be careful and keep clean we boil the vent component and nipples for five or six minutes once a week, per the recommendation in the product guide.

So, baby bottles. I think these VentAire bottles from Playtex are really good, and, more importantly, Sam really likes them. I’m glad we were able to test and review these and we’re going to continue using these when we feed Baby Sam.

· Playtex VentAire Bottles

· BzzAgent Program

Wow, Sam said his first word!

Kate and I just returned from a friend’s wedding. Sam was a little fussy (it’s after his bedtime and we were in the car for a while, plus he’s hungry). Once inside he looked up at Kate and said “mama”.

Surprised, she looked down. Maybe he was just murmuring syllables, a habit he’s started lately as he learns to vocalize. But no, he looked at her again, more insistent this time, and repeated himself: “Mama!”

Wow. Sam’s first word! I’m overwhelmed.

iClip lite is a great Mac OS X dashboard widget. It works as an extended clipboard to store and retrieve text, URLs, graphics, etc., in a more permanent way. The design is polished and attractive, the functionality is dead useful, and the operation is flawless.

This is an example of great software design. Simple, focused, small and effective at doing one thing really well. It makes working with copied items quick and easy, which is a huge benefit with frequent little edits (which I usually do by saving files with data I’ll need).

Requires Mac OS X 10.4. If you don’t have that, get it.

Check it out: iClip lite.

What a surprise - this site was covered in the blog watch of the Worcester Magazine! It seems as if my poison ivy saga is more popular than I could have ever imagined. Lucky you to be able to read about my rash when I really thought only my Mom would care.

So, welcome! Happy to have you as a reader! Feel free to poke around and comment if you like. There’s more than just rash news, of course, but for the past couple of weeks that has been occupying most of my attention.

As for my rash, I do have an update to share. Here goes:

I spoke with my dermatologist today. It turns out that the biopsy does in fact indicate I have a ‘contact dermatitis’ response, which, in human lingo, means poison ivy (or poison sumac, or poison oak, or some other form of the poison vine variety). She [my dermatologist] felt that with my current course of medication I should be better, soon, especially given the high daily dose of Prednisone I’m taking.

In the meantime the course of action is to wait and let nature run its course.

I have a follow-up appointment for this next week and will be closely monitoring my symptoms to see if they get any worse, especially if I start having more dizziness, light headedness, or breathing problems.

As for you, my lucky reader, if you have an allergic reaction with any of those symptoms you should get checked out right away. Especially if you have breathing problems, as that could be a sign of a more serious reaction that could be life threatening. It’s not a good idea to take risks and play around when your health is at stake.

WoMag Blog Log