busy week, Sam's trip to the ER

This week and next are really busy because I'm working full time and am on call for 16 days straight, plus we have Buzz's medical school graduation this Saturday. Bryan's mom is here helping with the kids, my parents are here too (helping Buzz pack and move), and Pete and Grace are also visiting. Last night we had dinner with Pete and Grace, without kids - SO nice to see them and catch up. Peter and I found we have independently each developed similar interests in food, nutrition, and Macs :-) (we each bought our first one about 6 weeks ago) , despite not communicating regularly. I felt like I'd found my long-lost twin. :-) That has happened before with other siblings. We don't live in the same state and don't keep up as well as we would like, but when we visit we find we have been doing the same things, unknowingly. Once I visited Laura and saw we had bought the same coat - she in LA and I in SLC.

As if things weren't hectic enough, Wednesday Sam got into Mom's suitcase and took an estimated 600 mg of Tegretol and some adult multivitamins. We spent 6 hours in the ER under observation, and he surprisingly drank up all his activated charcoal with the promise of a popsicle reward. He got a little sleepy but did not slow down much. The nurse said his blood pressure was a little low for a while but it normalized over several hours. Thank goodness that was all there was to it. As I was driving him home from the ER, Cameo called and reminded me (thank goodness!) that I was supposed to take Alex to a birthday party that I had completely forgotten about. I dropped off Sam, put Alex in the car (in her pajamas, since that is what she was wearing), grabbed a gift bag after discovering that we had used all our birthday wrap and had only Christmas wrap, and made it to the party. After that we all had a picnic in the park.

Tomorrow morning, Buzz graduates and I will be the honored one to do the "hooding." I need to iron my old gown, figure out a way to attach the too-large cap to my head long enough to last through the ceremony, and find an outfit that can double for VA neurology rounds and graduation. I'm just hoping there will be no neurologic emergencies between 10 a.m. and noon tomorrow.