Two Versions of a Tent-Camping Story

Each fall, our congregation reserves a couple of group campsites at a state park and we gather out in the woods for a loosely-planned weekend of fellowship and camping. This year was the first year since Joy's birth that we've actually dared to try & tent-camp overnight as a family. Herewith, the campout story.

The Diagnostic Version

We almost didn't go. The night before we were going to drive up to the park, Joy woke up crying THREE times. This never happens. She almost always sleeps through, and if she does wake, she usually stims and babbles herself back to sleep, rather than crying loudly. JoyDad reported that on one of the occasions, she was grabbing at her head. Plus, after the third waking, we gave her ibuprofen and then she finally fell asleep for the rest of the night.

We suspected ear infection. She's had quite a few, though it's been a while. It's very hard to tell, though, because she has an enormous pain tolerance and an out-of-kilter sensory system and doesn't have the language to tell us when something hurts. She had just the slightest edge of a fever. So I took her in to Urgent Care when they opened for the morning (of course this always happens on a weekend, right?)

Well, Joy's ears were clear. And her throat looked fine. And her mood was improving by the minute. So when I got her home from the check, we packed up and went.

It turned out to be a lovely time. We set up Joy's PeaPod travel bed inside the tent, where she took a nice afternoon rest and then slept the night without complaint. She didn't really do any dashing at all, nor did she try to play with the campfire. Instead, she ran around within the confines of the camp area, but deliberately kept looking back to interact with whomever was tailing her. She also managed to come on a bit of a hike with me and a couple of friends. And she ate well, and smiled a lot, and generally did great.

Oh, and no seizures, though our party-count-clock has been set back with a night-time seizure last week. (Which shouldn't count. But I think it does.)

So why did the campout go so well?

1) Maybe she's settling in to a recent epilepsy-meds dosage increase.

2) Maybe having had a whole summer to experience a backyard fence has helped reduce her urge to dash.

3) Maybe the intensive autism therapy is starting to get her into an increasingly interactive mode, which we'd love to credit for some of the wanting to be with people.

4) Maybe we just hit it lucky with a good-mood weekend.

And maybe I'm wayyy over-analyzing this and should learn to live in the moment! So, here goes again:

The In-The-Moment Version

We were so happy to be able to go camping with our friends from church, after briefly thinking that we wouldn't be able to go.

It turned out to be a lovely time. We set up Joy's PeaPod travel bed inside the tent, where she took a nice afternoon rest and then slept the night without complaint. She didn't really do any dashing at all, nor did she try to play with the campfire. Instead, she ran around within the confines of the camp area, but deliberately kept looking back to interact with whomever was tailing her. She also managed to come on a bit of a hike with me and a couple of friends. And she ate well, and smiled a lot, and generally did great.

Oh, and no seizures!

And I got to play Boggle with friends (and with Rose) by lantern-light after Joy went to bed.

What a blessing and a Joy.