RyRyelsuperguy: Ryan - Conjunctivitis in the Caribbean

Ryan looking happy and healthy

Our vacation began with a drive to Florida for Thanksgiving with plans to take off for the Bahamas from Ft. Lauderdale the following Saturday. Ryan seemed to take the trip well until the last hour when he was just miserable. We thought he was being fussy from the car trip. He wasn't. He was getting sick.

On Thanksgiving morning, he had a fever around 3am. Gave him some Tylenol. Then drove to Port St. Lucie. His fever appeared again around 11am and stayed the entire day. At first, I thought it was teething, but by the evening, I knew it was something worse. He hadn't slept well and would startle awake EVERY time he fell asleep. Seriously, the poor chap got in about 15 to 20 minutes of sleep and then his eyes would shoot open then he would scream and fail his arms out wide. Friday he was feverish again with a fever of 102.6.

He was still cheerful and quite the personality...entertaining his aunts, grandparents, cousins, Great-Nanny Ellie, and Uncle David. He even tried to hold it together for Clai and Todd on Friday night. Saturday morning he seemed okay, but as we were having lunch, goo started coming out of both eyes. I had joked that he would have goo coming from both eyes due to lack of sleep, but I was joking! My reality came true and instead of heading to the airport in Ft. Lauderdale, we headed to Joe DiMaggio's Pediatric Emergency Room. The diagnosis was viral conjuncitivitis and inflamation in both ears.

The doctor prescribed Ryan medication to make him comfortable and because one quarter of the Bahamas came over to the USA for Black Friday, we were able to make our flight to the Bahamas. (Flights were backed up with Bahamians heading home with LOTS of baggage). Except for his nasty looking eyes, you wouldn't even have known he was sick. He was actually HYPER and yelling HI to everyone. So, yeah, we brought a virus-filled boy over to the Bahamas to recover, and believe me, the sun, sea, and sand did just that!

We had a lovely time. The people of the Bahamas are very, very friendly. We stayed at the Westwind II, Cable Beach, Nassau. We had a two bedroom, two bath villa. We overlooked the largest pool and were very close to the cafe and laundry room. The resort is small. We had such a nice time going to the beach every day followed by a dip in the saltwater pool then lunchtime then nap then more pool or sand. We had to keep Ryan out of the pool the first day and kept his head out of water on the second day.

It was very windy while we were there, and you will see that in the videos. By Thursday or Friday, I swear the winds were blowing a steady 25 miles per hour give or take. This prevented us from taking a "formal" family pic on the beach for our Christmas card. Actually, three things prevented our family pic: Ryan's eyes & Dave's cold the first time we tried. Then Ryan had a MAJOR blowout due to drinking pool water just as we were leaving to try pic #2. Then by Friday, the wind was blowing so hard it was ridiculous. We would have looked like those crazy people standing outside during a hurricane (minus the rain).

While in the Bahamas, we visited Ardastra Zoo and the aquariums of Atlantis. We took a quick trip to downtown Nassau as well. Overall, a great trip for our family! So warm, so nice, great memories. We flew back to Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday and made the LONG journey back to Atlanta with a quick breakfast break with Nanny and Pappy then an overnight in Valdosta before returing home. Ryan was ready to get home too...he kept running to the door of the hotel saying "bye-bye, home, bye-bye, home."

Here are some shots & video of the trip - enjoyed by Ryan and his parents.