As we head down for Harrison’s 30th trip to Shriners this week, I found this old draft buried in the archives, written after one of our earlier, more chaotic visits back in October 2021. Before sharing the milestone that is Trip 30, I wanted to revisit this unforgettable night that perfectly captured the exhaustion, emotion, and occasional absurdity that have been part of this journey.
Our latest trip to Greenville, SC, proved to be one of our more “unique” trips up to this point.
The drive to Greenville takes us at least 5 hours, so we’ve always gone down the night before and stayed at a hotel less than 10 minutes from the Shriners hospital.
After seven trips, we’ve got it nailed down pretty well. We’re lucky to have a little guy who is an amazing travel baby and can sleep practically the entire way, so it’s usually just a straight shot. We’d never actually left the house on time, until this trip. So we’ve not been getting to the hotel until around midnight for the six trips leading up to this latest one.
The night before our appointment always proves to be not only mentally but also emotionally charged. These trips, while immeasurably worth every minute and every mile, take a lot out of us. The night before a Shriners appointment proves to be the point when we can’t hide from reality. This is when it weighs on us that we’re taking our son to Shriners, to see specialists, rather than being at a soccer game, or out hiking, hanging out with family, or just able to do the mundane like mow the yard or just be sitting on the couch.
No, we have a son who has Arthrogryposis. Who was born with club feet, has scoliosis, and torticollis. A son who has a dislocated hip and has to wear orthotics on his hands and feet.
This is the window when all these facts weigh a ton. This is when we can’t hide or ignore the facts. This is a time when we feel the most alone. Hours away from the closest loved ones. The three of us are on an island, alone.
We can’t act like everything is fine and everything is typical. I think subconsciously, that’s why we’ve always left the house so much later than we intended. We eliminate having a lot of “downtime” in our room. Once you’re in your room, you simply do what needs to be done and get to bed. There’s not a ton of time left to reflect or think about things.
So, while on previous trips we’ve not arrived until late, we managed to arrive just after 10 PM this time around. Plenty of time to wind down, take a shower, and get a full night’s rest.
Or so we thought.
After a five-hour drive, we’re already pretty wiped out. We’re not at home, and that weight of the upcoming morning is starting to peak out around the corner. Harrison is hungry, and we’re just ready to try to chill.
We check in, grab our bags, and head up to our room. A room that, as soon as we walked in, had clearly not been cleaned. The bed had not been made, with the top sheet actually pulled halfway off the bed and across the floor.
So, with a quick trip back downstairs, we explained the condition of the room we were given, and within two minutes, we were given a new keycard to a new room.
We’ve stayed at this same hotel nearly every trip. It is our preferred choice, so I didn’t hold any negative feelings at the time. It was a mistake they quickly rectified without really raising an eyebrow. However, they also did not apologize. It was just a very dry and straightforward transaction.
However, I’ll say that after being on the road ten hours total for the day, that was exactly what I wanted. And honestly, after a ten-hour day, that was perfect. Just get me into a room.
Once our new room was checked out, we set out to settle in for the night.
A quick shower with me gets Harrison clean and ready for tomorrow. The hope is we get his belly full and he’ll be ready to sleep.
Of course, our son clearly knew this and disagreed with the plans we had set in our heads, and proceeded to promptly thwart them. A bit of fussing, a bit of clear teething pain, and the second event of the evening was fast approaching!
Teething tablets are awesome. Baby boy’s gums were clearly bugging him, so Dad to the rescue with the soothing happiness of teething tablets, or so I thought.
Remember that whole emotional weight thing I mentioned? Well, I’m feeling it, I know Jenna is feeling it, and I know Harrison isn’t happy that he isn’t at home in his bed. So, being who I am, I’m being goofy, getting HG to smile and laugh, and ultimately doing my best to keep the mood in the room lighthearted.
In doing so, I didn’t give tablet #2 enough time to dissolve before giving tablet #3.
That mistake proved costly. Too much tabletness on the tongue ended up being the perfect puke trigger to a baby who has rarely ever puked.
But boy, did he make up for it! In one clear and powerful gag, Mr. Harrison proved to puke up enough milk and teething tablet to cover his PJs from the ankle to the collar.
An event that made me feel less than an inch tall.
It really only resulted in a change of pjs, but I felt heavily guilty, because it was an avoidable event, but was caused by my own attempts at overcompensating for the weight of being there.
Again, though, a quick change of clothes, and we were back where we were, getting ready for bed. Mommy took a quick shower while HG and I hung out, as I sat hoping he’d fall asleep.
Yeah, remember I said how well he travels and that he slept most of the way? Well, that whole falling asleep thing, while clearly on the horizon, wasn’t happening as quickly as we wanted.
It wasn’t until after 1 am that we finally got Mr. Harrison down and out.
Five minutes before the first fire alarm went off.
Yes, fire alarm, blaring in our room, lights flashing.
I was shocked then and shocked now that Harrison didn’t get upset over the chaos, but he was in Mommy’s arms already, so he was content.
The alarm blared for only a few seconds, then stopped. The bright flashing light, however, stayed on for what felt like forever. A few peaks out our window and out our door showed calmness. No one was rushing out of the building or anything. A call to the front desk asking about the alarm and light proved my suspicions that it was a false alarm. The front desk clerk said it was something on another floor, but all checked out.
So, the lights went back off, and I got back into bed.
Then I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t shut off my brain.
So, like any reasonable person would, I threw my shoes back on, stepped out into the hall, and proceeded up two floors to where the alarm was supposedly triggered. I met the desk clerk whom I had previously talked to on the phone in the stairwell. He said the system said it was the ice machine on another floor that triggered it, but everything checked out, and I could go back to my room.
Accepting the explanation, I did just that.
Thankfully, Jenna and Harrison fall asleep shortly after I get back into bed.
At this point, I’m not as lucky.
I proceeded to toss and turn for another hour and a half, and just as I was about to finally fall asleep, the fire alarms blared for a second time! While the sound and the accompanying light do not last as long as the first, they’re enough to wake both Jenna and me. Somehow, HG sleeps through this one, and the preceding two additional times, the alarm blares.
Yes, two more times.
The final one came at nearly 4 am. Which got me back out of bed and marching down to the front desk. Something that was clearly not an original idea, as there were already nearly half a dozen people standing in the lobby looking for answers.
Finally, the night clerk said that the system was clearly malfunctioning, and he was having someone come over to the building to help shut the system off for the night.
Ok, no fire alarm the rest of the night. At this point, I’m beyond exhausted, so I’m happy with it as long as I don’t have to hear the wailing of the alarm again.
By this point in the night, the adrenaline I had from the mix of anger and the general rush of the fire alarm getting me out of bed was no match for the overwhelming exhaustion I was feeling.
However, less than 5 hours later, I was up, and we were getting ready to head over to Shriners. At this point expecting a less-than-stellar visit based on the night we just had.
Once we get to the hospital, my exhaustion starts showing, and as we go to check in, I realize I’ve left my wallet in the car.
By the time I’ve taken the elevator back down to the parking garage and made it back up with my wallet, Jenna and HG are already checked in and waiting. I manage to get checked in myself just about the time Jenna gets a phone call from an SC number.
Sigh
Turns out the hotel we just left, where we had a horrible night in, was calling to ask us if we owned a gray bag. (which we do)
Turns out, in our hazed exhaustion and the general stress of heading over to Shriners, Jenna and I managed to have a break in communication. We thought the other person was putting the gray travel bag in the car, when in fact neither was.
We drove off, leaving a gray duffle bag sitting in an empty parking spot in the hotel parking lot.
Can you guess what that caused?
If you guessed a small bomb scare, you’d win a prize!
Thankfully, the desk clerk who had called us realized the bag was ours rather than thinking it was a random bomb, and proceeded to call and verify. Once we verified the bag was ours, was when she told us about the small bomb scare, however.
So, after a night full of false fire alarms, it seems we might have caused a small, false bomb scare.
Needless to say, it wasn’t the smoothest night before a Shriners visit, and, as it turns out, it was also the last time we stayed at that particular hotel.
Related: This unforgettable night lines up with Harrison’s 7th trip to Shriners Children’s Greenville. If you’d like to see how that visit unfolded after the chaos, check out Greene Does Greenville VII: Harrison Returns.