Visitings and Illnesses.....
^^; The past week has been interesting to say the least. I spent the better part of Monday and Tuesday touring Niagara Falls with my mother and sisters. The visit there was a lot of fun. We spent Monday afternoon admiring the Falls and checking out the new casino. Then we went to the Rossi Glass factory outlet after dinner since it was practically across the street from the hotel we were staying in. Rossi Glass is one of three companies in the world that makes and sells cranberry glass and I absolutely adore their factory outlet. It's amazing watching the master glassmakers work and everything that they sell is hand-blown so each piece is slightly unique. After Rossi Glass, Michelle and I went to the Niagara Falls Butterfly Conservatory. Our visit there was...interesting. Many of the butterflies were extremely active and there were times where it seemed like we were swarmed by them. Both of us had tons of butterflies landing on us and at one point I had about five on me all at once. Needless to say we got a ton of pictures. Michelle was slightly disappointed by the fact that they didn't have as many colourful butterflies as she was hoping they would...she wanted to get a good picture of a bright blue one.
After spending about an hour or so at the butterfly conservatory, we went back to the hotel and ended up watching the fireworks display from the hotel. We had the perfect view of it since all the fireworks were being launched from right across from where our hotel was located. After the fireworks display we went down to the Falls since it'd been ages since Michelle had been able to see the Falls all lit up at night.
The next day I woke up bright and early so I could take advantage of the hotel pool before we needed to check out. After checking out and storing our luggage in the cars we went to spend our days at the Falls. Michelle & I went on the Maid of the Mist while my mom & Meaghan went to Journey Behind the Falls. The Maid of the Mist was great...the boat captain kept us near the Horseshoe Falls for a good 15-20 minutes since it wasn't very busy yet (i.e - no line up waiting for the next boat), so we ended up getting soaked. After getting off the boat we met up with my mom & Meg and went out to lunch at Applebees. From Applebees we went out to the Botanical Gardens, it was beautiful seeing all the flowers in bloom - I especially loved all the different rose bushes they had.
After the Botanical Gardens Michelle & I wanted to go on the Whitewater Walk. Mom dropped us off and we got in line, we figured that it'd probably be able 30 minutes for us to get down to the walk itself...boy were we wrong. The people handling the admission to this attraction had everything completely messed up. First off we had to stand in line to get our tickets...once we got our tickets we were told it'd be about 20 minutes til we'd be called to take the elevator down to the walk part. Okay, 20 minutes wasn't so bad we went into the gift shop so we wouldn't need to stand outside in the heat. About 15 minutes later we got back outside since we didn't want to miss them telling us to line up...so we wait and we wait and wait.....we ended up waiting an hour and they still weren't having us line up. Needless to say we didn't end up going on the Whitewater Walk in the end, I just got our passes refunded and we left. I wish I'd stayed with my mom & Meg instead of waiting for the walk...they ended up going inside the Buddist Temple across the street, something I've wanted to do everytime I've been to Niagara the past few years.
By the time mom picked us back up it was about 4:30 and they had to get on the road to head back to CT since they had a 6 hour drive ahead of them. I ended up getting back to Kitchener about 6:30, just beating Phil in the door. Of course, I really didn't expect to come home to my husband having more blisters/sores all over his hands and mouth. When I'd left on Monday he'd only had 2 or 3 small ones on his hands, which we thought were bug bites. Tuesday night ended up being spent in the emergency room at Grand River hospital since a nurse I talked to via Telehealth Ontario told me that I should take him to be checked out ASAP. We were there for over 4 hours before they even called him in, and we waited another 30-40 minutes after that before the doctor even came to check him out. In all the doctor spent less than 5 minutes with him and all he told us was that it "mostly likely is Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease" and just to put Polysporin on the sores/blisters...and that he should take about a week off work. Great...a lot of help that is. We ended up getting home about 5:30 and we both went straight to sleep.
Since then Phil's been feeling pretty miserable. He got a bunch of sores on his tongue and his checks and lower lip ended up getting extremely irritated, so eatings been impossible. Luckilly he's still been able to atleast drink a couple glasses of water or milk each day, so dehydration hasn't been a real issue. He's finally started to get mobility/flexibility back in his fingers since the blisters have started to heal. Thank god he has paid sick days and that his DM has been extremely understanding since there's no way that he could be working right now. HFM disease is highly contagious and with him working in the mall....not a good combination, not to mention one of his employees just got back from maternity leave so she has a 1 year old daughter to worry about.
He's spent most of the past few days sleeping. We're really hoping that he'll be able to be back to work on Tuesday since it seems like he's starting to get better. Although, if you saw him right now you wouldn't think that he looks like he's gotten any better. It looks like he's been in a fight, which in a way he has...to paraphrase Kevin Spacey from Outbreak he got into a fight with something one millionth his size and it kicked his ass.
The only plus side to all of this is that it appears that I haven't been infected since I'm not exhibiting any of the symptoms (which we're assuming I would have by now since the virus has a 3-6 day incubation period and I would've been exposed to it over a week ago). So, knock on wood that I don't get sick as well. Of course it's rare for adults to even develops this disease since most of us have developed an immunity to the virus from when we were little (yay for antibodies!!). To be on the safe side, I've wiped down practically every surface in our apartment with a bleach mixture and I've been washing my hands obsessively. -.-; Not to mention I've been spending nights sleeping on the couch/floor in the living room...atleast until the sores/blisters heal since the virus spreads through saliva. >,<
But blargh....so not the way either of us wanted to be spending the week and the week started out so well! ;_; And it's lonely! I don't want to leave Phil by himself so that means I really can't go anywhere and he's sleeping most the time so there's no one to talk to...not that I'm upset he's sleeping, since I know he needs his rest in order to get better quicker...but still.... ;__; This is not a illness I'd wish on anyone.
After spending about an hour or so at the butterfly conservatory, we went back to the hotel and ended up watching the fireworks display from the hotel. We had the perfect view of it since all the fireworks were being launched from right across from where our hotel was located. After the fireworks display we went down to the Falls since it'd been ages since Michelle had been able to see the Falls all lit up at night.
The next day I woke up bright and early so I could take advantage of the hotel pool before we needed to check out. After checking out and storing our luggage in the cars we went to spend our days at the Falls. Michelle & I went on the Maid of the Mist while my mom & Meaghan went to Journey Behind the Falls. The Maid of the Mist was great...the boat captain kept us near the Horseshoe Falls for a good 15-20 minutes since it wasn't very busy yet (i.e - no line up waiting for the next boat), so we ended up getting soaked. After getting off the boat we met up with my mom & Meg and went out to lunch at Applebees. From Applebees we went out to the Botanical Gardens, it was beautiful seeing all the flowers in bloom - I especially loved all the different rose bushes they had.
After the Botanical Gardens Michelle & I wanted to go on the Whitewater Walk. Mom dropped us off and we got in line, we figured that it'd probably be able 30 minutes for us to get down to the walk itself...boy were we wrong. The people handling the admission to this attraction had everything completely messed up. First off we had to stand in line to get our tickets...once we got our tickets we were told it'd be about 20 minutes til we'd be called to take the elevator down to the walk part. Okay, 20 minutes wasn't so bad we went into the gift shop so we wouldn't need to stand outside in the heat. About 15 minutes later we got back outside since we didn't want to miss them telling us to line up...so we wait and we wait and wait.....we ended up waiting an hour and they still weren't having us line up. Needless to say we didn't end up going on the Whitewater Walk in the end, I just got our passes refunded and we left. I wish I'd stayed with my mom & Meg instead of waiting for the walk...they ended up going inside the Buddist Temple across the street, something I've wanted to do everytime I've been to Niagara the past few years.
By the time mom picked us back up it was about 4:30 and they had to get on the road to head back to CT since they had a 6 hour drive ahead of them. I ended up getting back to Kitchener about 6:30, just beating Phil in the door. Of course, I really didn't expect to come home to my husband having more blisters/sores all over his hands and mouth. When I'd left on Monday he'd only had 2 or 3 small ones on his hands, which we thought were bug bites. Tuesday night ended up being spent in the emergency room at Grand River hospital since a nurse I talked to via Telehealth Ontario told me that I should take him to be checked out ASAP. We were there for over 4 hours before they even called him in, and we waited another 30-40 minutes after that before the doctor even came to check him out. In all the doctor spent less than 5 minutes with him and all he told us was that it "mostly likely is Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease" and just to put Polysporin on the sores/blisters...and that he should take about a week off work. Great...a lot of help that is. We ended up getting home about 5:30 and we both went straight to sleep.
Since then Phil's been feeling pretty miserable. He got a bunch of sores on his tongue and his checks and lower lip ended up getting extremely irritated, so eatings been impossible. Luckilly he's still been able to atleast drink a couple glasses of water or milk each day, so dehydration hasn't been a real issue. He's finally started to get mobility/flexibility back in his fingers since the blisters have started to heal. Thank god he has paid sick days and that his DM has been extremely understanding since there's no way that he could be working right now. HFM disease is highly contagious and with him working in the mall....not a good combination, not to mention one of his employees just got back from maternity leave so she has a 1 year old daughter to worry about.
He's spent most of the past few days sleeping. We're really hoping that he'll be able to be back to work on Tuesday since it seems like he's starting to get better. Although, if you saw him right now you wouldn't think that he looks like he's gotten any better. It looks like he's been in a fight, which in a way he has...to paraphrase Kevin Spacey from Outbreak he got into a fight with something one millionth his size and it kicked his ass.
The only plus side to all of this is that it appears that I haven't been infected since I'm not exhibiting any of the symptoms (which we're assuming I would have by now since the virus has a 3-6 day incubation period and I would've been exposed to it over a week ago). So, knock on wood that I don't get sick as well. Of course it's rare for adults to even develops this disease since most of us have developed an immunity to the virus from when we were little (yay for antibodies!!). To be on the safe side, I've wiped down practically every surface in our apartment with a bleach mixture and I've been washing my hands obsessively. -.-; Not to mention I've been spending nights sleeping on the couch/floor in the living room...atleast until the sores/blisters heal since the virus spreads through saliva. >,<
But blargh....so not the way either of us wanted to be spending the week and the week started out so well! ;_; And it's lonely! I don't want to leave Phil by himself so that means I really can't go anywhere and he's sleeping most the time so there's no one to talk to...not that I'm upset he's sleeping, since I know he needs his rest in order to get better quicker...but still.... ;__; This is not a illness I'd wish on anyone.