On our 15 hours outbound flight, Milo's good eye started bleeding. Yes, BLEEDING. We still had over 8 hours to go until our destination at that point. We thought about what exactly constitute as an emergency landing and if we were to land, I think the closest place at that point would be Japan. And of course to top it off, Milo started throwing up soon after the bloody discovery. And eventually his nose started bleeding intermittently as well. So, for the rest of the flight, his good eye and nose were bleeding and he was throwing up pretty regularly. It was the worst flight of all time. I kept thinking and panicking to myself that oh crap, is he going to loose his vision right now, right before our vacation starts, right before I get to show him all these cool stuff on our vacation and right before we meet up with his grandparents that he has been so eagerly looking forward to visit with.
I called my parents when we landed. I kept thinking of ways to break it to them without freaking them out, but there wasn't really a good way if I had to use blood and Milo's good eye in one sentence. We got really lucky and was able to see my dad's ophthalmologist. The wait time before we saw him was scary. Milo kept saying I can't see. I would gasped each time but I realized it was because of the giant puddle of blood collected in his eye. The ophthalmologist concluded that Milo must have rubbed his eye hard and made a small incision. He said it's not uncommon at all and it does happen all the time. A giant sense of relieve was released in the air between myself, my hubby, my parents and possibly the kids.
Milo's eye bled for couple more days. Matilda caught a cold on the plane and then we all caught it as well. SO, after a week of blood, vomit, and cold, we were so ready to play and we sure did. We had an awsum time and the kids loved seeing all the excitements and holiday decorations throughout the city. We ate all kinds of good food, with the exception that we ate at only two facilities since we wanted to be super safe due to Milo's peanut allergy. We shopped at all different kinds of toy stores and I keep going back to my favorite store, MUJI. We took Milo and Matilda to Disneyland too.
Time went by super quick and it was so sad to go but I am so happy that we went and that it all worked out and no other crazee medical issues happened.
I want to write a little thing about traveling with special needs children, so, if you have no interest, then Happy New Year and I wish you guys the best of 2012 and I promise that I will try to post more this year and illustrate more. But if you are interested, here it goes. Being away from your home and really, from your own stuff is pretty hard especially when you have kids or special needs kids. During our trip, Milo didn't like to walk much and it was not easy to carry a 3.5 year old around. Milo did not want to walk because there were so many people and they were all moving at a very fast pace and for being visually impaired, that makes it pretty darn scary and intimidating. It took Matilda awhile to get used to all kinds of loud noises. She turned her head a lot and was looking at me often for possible explanation as to what and where the noises were coming from. Being hearing impaired, it was challenging to be in such a place but at the same time I thought it was a good experience for her to learn to locate sounds. Milo was more challenging during our vacation since he is older and he is not as easy to carry compare to Matilda. (I used to ergo him in our past trip and he felt very secured with me holding him and we would talk about all the things we were seeing.) We wanted to take Milo to many places but we had to keep in mind of what he might like and not like due to his limited vision and whether or not he would be able to see them. I kept wishing there were some sort of ergo like thing for older kids with special needs. I wanted to ergo Milo but my hubby thought I was crazee because my back would have been dead if I were to walk around with Milo. Matilda was in the ergo everyday and she loved it. I guess a stroller would have been perfect but being in such a tight city, it was hard to get around. My hubby and I each had a pretty decent size backpack filled with Milo's emergency medical supplies, extra clothing, diapers, wipes, Matilda's baby food and snacks. It was okay when we didn't make any purchases since we still have our hands to hold or carry Milo and Matilda, but when we did have shopping bags, it was a pretty good workout. I just wonder what your thoughts are and if anyone have any tips on traveling with special needs children. I really want to travel more with my two kids and especially with Milo because I want him to see as much as he can before his vision completely goes, but at the same time, I am reluctant to take him far because it is kind of a pain and also I am afraid to be far from his team of doctors after our bloody plane ride experience. Maybe I can win some kind of awsum ultimate vacation where when I travel with my kids, I would get car service following me around and have access to anything I want so that I know I can always reach doctors for my kids and that I don't have to worry about Milo not walking. I want stress/medical free trip for my special needs children. All advices and tips are much appreciated.
Anyway, I think I win with this crazee bloody hell plane ride. Happy New Year guys and 2012 better rock your world.
xoxo
me
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