My Sick Boy and My Crashes

I am worried about my little #2 son. He had to go back to the
doctor today, after the doctor finally read the EKG results last
Friday. Then we didn't know until Monday that he had to come
back, because even though my Hillbilly Husband called there
last Friday at 1:00, they said they didn't know the results, then
at 2:30 left a message on our home phone, which (DUH) we're
not at until after the doctor's office has stopped answering the
phone.

Anyhoo, the little feller still has a rapid heartbeat, 144 beats per
minute. The doctor said that he was going to call a cardiologist
and would call us back on Monday. He said he isn't that worried,
or he would send #2 straight to the hospital. He thinks he will
need to see a cardiologist at St. Anthony's Hospital in South
St. Louis. Children's Hospital has a section there now. But then,
the doctor went on to say that if #2 faints, or collapses while he's
running around, GET HIM TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM
IMMEDIATELY. Yeah. That makes me feel comfortable with
this diagnosis.

So...I am going to send a note to school, I guess, telling them he
shouldn't run around on the playground, and that especially he
shouldn't do the mile run in PE. HH took him to the doctor, so
he didn't think to get a doctor's note for school. The appointment
will probably be the week of Feb. 27. On the 20th, HH goes
back to Mississippi, but he could change that if #2 needs to see
the cardiologist. The doctor said it's not that big of a rush.

The poor kid has been going through this since the pneumonia
started on Feb. 3. The doctor said his lungs have cleared up.
The fever is gone. He still has a little cough. I'm hoping it's just
something to do with that pneumonia, and he'll get over it. The
doctor checked his records, and when he was there in December
for pinkeye, his heart was normal. I can't think of anything else
that has happened since then, though he did start on Zyrtec at
the end of January. I might be worrying for nothing, but HE'S
MY BABY! My 8-year-old baby.

***************************************************

In other news, my house is giving ME some episodes of rapid
heartbeat. You know that I hear footsteps over my head in the
area of #2 son's room. Even when #2 son is sleeping on the
living room couch.

Wednesday morning, I was sound asleep in the recliner around
5:30 a.m., right in the middle of my morning nap. I heard a crash,
like a table of books turning over. I awoke with a start. I sounded
like it was right in the living room. I tried to make sense of it.
Maybe it was #2 flopping over on the couch, knocking off some
toy. Nope. He was sound asleep, no toys, carpeted floor. Maybe
it was HH dropping something in the bathroom. Nope. I could
hear him in the shower, it was not the dropped soap sound, and
the noise came from the other side of the house. I went back to
sleep for 20 minutes.

HH left for work. I was in the kitchen getting my breakfast and
medicine. I heard the same sound again. It sounded like it was
#2 on the couch. Again, I went to check on #2. Sound asleep.
Nothing around him but blankets. I returned to the kitchen. I
heard that crash a third time. I was sure it was #1 son down in
the basement, and I hollered to ask why he was up early. No
answer. I went to the living room and leaned over the stair rail,
hollering his name. No answer. Creepy. I have not found any
items disturbed or turned over. I don't know what the crash
was. It was from the center of the house, not out on the porch
with the dogs. I know their thumpings and rattlings.

Last night I heard a little walking over my head around 11:00.
HH had already gone to bed. I went up to see if it was #2.
Nope. Asleep on the couch. (He has been sleeping there since
he was sick, so I can hear him coughing in the night and attend
to him.) I put in a load of laundry and went back downstairs.
I came up at 12:00 and put the clothes in the dryer. I laid out
the boys' clothes. I walked from the kitchen to the living room
to check on #2 before I went to bed, and I HEARD FOOT-
STEPS IN #2's BEDROOM! I was afraid to look, but I looked.
I couldn't see anything but his nightlight glow. I did not go to look
into the room. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I
had a shiver. #2 slept peacefully on the couch right next to me,
oblivious to it all. I high-tailed it to bed. Enough of the footsteps,
already!

I do not know what to make of this. I have only once before heard
these things while I was actually upstairs. That was the summer
before last, when I heard footsteps, peeing, and a toilet try to flush.
You know, how the kids hit the handle and it clanks, but they don't
push hard enough to flush? I went to see which boy, and make
him come back to flush, but they were both sound asleep. Creepy.

I have no explanation. I've already told you about my haunted
house on my old Redneck Review blog. It had stopped for a
while, except the footsteps. We used to hear upstairs footsteps
all the time in my Hillbilly Mama's house, from the time we built
it and moved in when I was 12, until my dad died 8 years ago.
Then they just stopped. I told her about my crashes, and she
says she hears them upstairs at her house sometimes, in her
bedroom. Like a picture falls off the wall. But she never finds
anything out of place, either. Thanks, Hillbilly Mama. You've
never mentioned that before. That adds some more creepy to
my life.

#2 used to say his grandpa came to see him at night. He can't
remember him...he was only 2 months old when his grandpa
died. But we have a couple of pictures in the hall, and in #1's
room. #2 was never afraid. He said his grandpa came to make
sure "nobody is doing anything." Whatever that means. And
I could never explain how the cover would be perfectly straight
over #2 in the mornings, like a just-made bed.

Anyhoo...call me crazy, but there are some odd things going on
around here. I used to think people were nuts, until this stuff
actually happened to me. Maybe #2's grandpa is looking for
him, what with him sleeping on the couch for two weeks, and
not in his bed. I can't explain the noises. They are not in the
other parts of the house, but mainly in #2's room. Every now
and then, a packed-away toy will start running, the talking kind.
I do not like that very much, or the footsteps, or the crashes.

I do not like them, Sam-I-Am. I am a logical person. I have a
science background. There must be an explanation, or it makes
me nervous. Stop fooling with me, footsteps! What's next, voices
in my head? Asking myself questions? Calling myself by another
name? Hmm...I'll get back to you.