Eric Tapley

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.

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

Kate and I are celebrating our five-year anniversary today. She’s an amazingly supportive wife, a great mother, and just all-around wonderful. Her love, companionship, and belief in me help me every day and encourage me to be a better man.

Happy anniversary, Kate! I’m looking forward to our next five years and sharing more my life with you.

Over the past six months I’ve primarily used my old site (eTapley.com) as a place for photo galleries, most of them of baby Sam. I’m linking to those here to maintain the galleries for now, but plan to migrate these to a real gallery system soon.

Selected galleries:
Birth photos.
Sam’s first week.
Sam’s second and third weeks.
Fourth week shots.
Sam, month two.
Assorted photos, months two through five.

Any suggestions on what to use? I’m thinking about Gallery2 with the WordPress plug-in, but I don’t have experience with this and would appreciate feedback from those really using this setup.

Thanks.

After years of editing a series of flat files over at eTapley.com I’ve finally made the move to using blog software. I’ve selected WordPress and will be working over the next few weeks to learn the ins and outs of this, migrate old static posts from eTapley to this dynamic system, and generally catch up to where the world of 2006 is.

Why the wait?

I was too busy doing other things to get my act together. Not a good excuse (and, thankfully, an excuse no more).

So, I’ve been back in the hospital. I know… It’s a habit I’m trying to break. But this was for poison ivy, a particularly nasty allergy I have, not for my gut problems of the past.

A short summary:
On Saturday I woke up with itchy and slightly swollen eyes. By noon I had a small rash that was developing on my arms, and by evening it had spread to my abdomen and legs.

I went to the Fallon Clinic to get checked out and, while there, had problems with dizziness, lightheadedness, and trouble breathing. My throat was swelling and felt sore and thick. The doctors at the clinic were worried they wouldn’t be able to deal with my breathing difficulties so I was rushed off (and admitted overnight) to the Worcester Medical Center.

Since Saturday I’ve been in and out of the hospital, ER, and seen a number of doctors and a dermatologist. They concluded that I have a bad case of poison ivy that began to spread into my throat (hence the breathing trouble). As of now I have it all over my hands, arms, chest, lower back, abdomen, upper and lower legs, but my breathing is back to normal.

Kate thinks I look like a burn victim. I don’t think it’s that bad, but damn does the itch get aggravating.

The cure?
It hasn’t done much yet but I’m taking Prednisone, Benadryl, and using special creams every day to help get this under control. I have faith that over time this will bring the response under control and I’ll feel better, but my body is reacting much slower than usual to these meds. I think this has to do with my long battle with Ulcerative Colitis and the long-term impact that has had on my immune system.

Silver lining.
As when I’ve been sick in the past I’ve learned that it’s friends, family, and community that help see you through trouble like this. Kate has been tremendous this past week. I’m grateful for the guys at the office, especially Sam Costello and Ali Aslam, who’ve helped cart me around and take care of me (I’m not supposed to drive on some of these meds). And I’ve had a lot wonderful well-wishing from clients and associates.

Community and people matter a lot. I’m glad to have been reminded of that, and will keep it in the forefront of my mind as we work at 3000K to develop the new version of The Daily Jolt and other community sites.

Here’s some of the poison ivy on my arm. It’s like this everywhere. Ugh.

At 4:30pm today I’ll be speaking at the Beechwood Forum about success in business. I have a lot of advice to give (all of it free and thus worthless) and will be available for questions and to chat afterwards.

D’oh! There’s an admission fee, so I suppose it’s *not* free. I’d better come up with something of value to say!

Details and discounted online registration