From the category archives:

Illness

A Night at the ER

November 2, 2009 · 5 comments

I don’t want to hear one more person tell me the flu is no big deal.

Yes, it probably won’t kill you, but it will still make you miserable and send you to the ER.

Putting you hand in a fire probably won’t kill you either, but it will hurt you and send you to the ER. So we avoid doing it right?

Well, it stands to reason we’d want to avoid the flu also.

I thought David was getting better, then he started coughing on Saturday. We put him to bed last night with Vicks on his chest, and the humidifier running with KAZ decongestant in it.

I was worried about David, and checked on him an hour later. He was laying in his bed in the fetal position moaning and coughing. We got him out of bed, and he could hardly stop coughing long enough to get a breath. He was crying too. Then he gagged himself, and his dinner made a reappearance.

When David was  a year and a half he had a bad episode of croup that put him in the hospital over night. It took two or three rounds of meds through an IV, two breathing treatments and a several hours on oxygen before he was well enough to go home.

So we decided to take him to the ER last night before he got that bad again. I mean you just don’t know, and I didn’t want to wait until he was turning blue.

I suggested that Dave take him, and I stay home with Wade. That sent David into even more hysterics, because he wanted me to go. But I knew if it came to needing to hold him down while the nurse administered an IV, I couldn’t do it. The last time when he was still a toddler it took three people to hold him still. I’m not kidding when I tell you he’s freakishly strong. I really wonder sometimes if he’s from the planet Kypton.

That’s a horrible experience by the way, standing there helpless while your child fights and cries, scared to death of what the doctors and nurses are doing to him. I so feel for parents with seriously ill children who go through stuff like that on a regular basis.

So we woke Wade from a peaceful slumber and ran out the door to the ER. It was a blessing that they weren’t busy. The doctor saw him right away, and they took him for x-rays, all in less than an hour. There was a delay while we waited for the results of the x-rays, but as far as ER visits go, it was pretty speedy.

David had swelling in his throat and voice box that caused the croup. The nurse gave him some steroids that helped with the swelling. The doctor said the swelling was caused by a virus – the flu that he had.

David got upset again over taking the medicine. He was afraid it would taste bad. He wouldn’t even try it at first. The nurse tried tempting him with the promise of a Popsicle. But she didn’t know how stubborn David is. Bribery usually is wasted on him.

Now this is the same kid who today wanted to taste the homemade playdough I was making. I told him it was yucky, and he tasted it anyway. Why the playdough and not the medicine? Good grief.

Oh, and his conclusion after trying the playdough?

“Hmmm, it tastes like playdough.”

Really? Who’d of thought.

Back to last night, David kept asking to go home, and I think we finally got him to take the medicine by telling him he could go home if he did.

The medicine did taste terrible, but he got it down.

The nurse gave him a Popsicle, but he didn’t eat it. Who wants a Popsicle at 1 a.m.?

They sent us off with a prescription to fill in the morning.

We got home around 1:30, and put David back to bed. Wade who even seemed to sense that there was some excitement going on, was over-stimulated and didn’t go back to sleep until 2:30. I just laid down and closed my eyes when David crawled into bed next to me around 3.

No one got much sleep last night.

I went out this morning to fill the prescription. I was second in line at the pharmacy when they opened, and still had to wait 45 minutes for them to fill it. Does it really take that long to pour liquid in a bottle and put a label on it? Seems like it used to only take 15 or 20 minutes.

There’s a joke in there somewhere about the government taking over health care, but I’m too tired to come up with it today.

David is breathing fine now, but he’s worn out and still feels yucky.

Now, here’s the thing. The flu doesn’t kill you. The complications do. You can get pneumonia, and a myriad of other things after the flu that can kill you.

You don’t want the flu. You don’t want your kids to get the flu. Stay away from it. Wash your hands. Get the vaccine if it’s available.

The flu stinks.

(I don’t know if it was Swine or seasonal flu. David had a seasonal flu shot, but he got sick with in the 10 days that it takes for the vaccine to be fully effective. And no, he did not get the flu because he got the shot. It’s a myth that you can get the flu from the vaccine.)

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Poor David

October 31, 2009 · 2 comments

Poor David. He’s going to miss Trick-or-Treat this year. He still has a fever this morning. Later this afternoon we’ll dress him up in his costume, if he feels up to it, and take a picture. His grandma did bring him a  bag of candy, so he’ll still be able to get a sugar fix at least.

We didn’t even carve our Jack-O-Lantern yet. We were going to that Thursday night when the guys first came down with this flu.

David was just miserable yesterday. With Tylenol his fever was 100.6. This morning it’s down to 99.6, but he still feels yucky.

David can be stubborn and difficult when he’s healthy. Sick, he’s almost impossible. All my questions about how he feels are met with an annoyed, “Good grief Mommie! I’m fine.”

Of course, he’s not fine.

Trying to keep him entertained while he is convalescing on the couch is a chore. Yesterday he didn’t want to watch any of the shows on the umpteen kid’s networks on the satellite. He didn’t want to watch any of the umpteen videos in the cabinet. I named off every title we own, and each was given a resounding thumbs down. Even the beloved Polar Express.

Before David got sick we were going to take him to see Astro Boy. Dave found original episodes on Netflix on Demand, and David spent most of the day watching episode after episode on my laptop. A few hours of badly dubbed 80′s anime’ will drive you crazy. But it kept David occupied. For a while.

I tried to make him lay down in his bed for a nap in the afternoon. After about 45 minutes I heard him whimpering, and went to check on him. He was burning up, so I let him go back to the couch and put a cool cloth on his head. He didn’t even want to watch Astro Boy after that.

I thought a story might put him to sleep. What did he pick? Rudyard Kipling’s Riki Tiki Tavi. It’s a great story, but it’s long and Kipling isn’t exactly Dr. Suess. As far as children’s literature goes, it’s not an easy read. I thought surely that would put him to sleep. It didn’t, but I needed a nap after that.

David hasn’t eaten hardly anything since lunch yesterday. He’s subsisting on ice cream, cookies and half a Lunchable right now. I was able to get him to drink juice. But even that I coerced him in to doing. I told him if he didn’t drink he’d get dehydrated and have to go to the hospital. At the hospital they stick needles in you. That was enough to get him to drink his juice.

Dave is sick too, but he doesn’t have it as bad as David. So far Wade and I have managed to avoid it. I try to keep Wade away from the other guys, and I’m washing my hands constantly.

It’s tricky watching over Wade, and trying to take care of David. David just wants to lay on the couch all day with his head in my lap, but I can’t give him my undivided attention since I have Wade to think about too.

At least it seems that the worst of it is over for David. I can tell he feels better, because he’s watching Spongebob this morning.

We’ll see what happens when he realizes he’s not going Trick-or-Treating this year.

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Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

October 30, 2009 · 2 comments

Oink, Oink.

Yesterday afternoon Dave and David came in from playing outside, and flopped down on the couch. Dave’s head was in his hands, and he looked miserable. David was particularly whiny.

I took their temperatures.

Both had fevers that came on suddenly.

“N0000000000000000000! Please God, not the Swine Flu,”  I moaned.

I don’t know for sure that it’s the Swine Flu, but it’s definitely some kind of flu. Dave’s doing all right, but David is miserable.

As of now Wade doesn’t seem to have it, and I’ve told the other’s to stay far away from him.

I’ve washed my hands about a thousands already times as I switch back and forth taking care of all of them.

I need to go tend to my wards now.

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When Mom takes a Sick Day

June 4, 2008 · 0 comments

I’ve been trying to get back up to speed after being sick with a terrible cold last week. Either the colds are getting worse, or it’s getting harder to recover as I get older. I can’t remember being so exhausted from a cold before. It’s not like I had the flu. Even after my symptoms were gone, I felt like I lacked my usual energy for a few days.

Once I started feeling well enough to care again, I realized just what a sad state my house was in. My living room looked like a bomb went off in it. Embarrassing as it is, here’s a photo of what it looked like Monday morning.

This is what happens when husband and toddler are left to fend for themselves for several days. And that’s not even scratching the surface. The kitchen and my son’s room were littered with more piles of toys. The mountain of dirty clothes in the laundry room was so high I needed repelling equipment to get over it to the washing machine, and the dinning room table was unidentifiable under all the papers, books and unopened mail. There would have been a pile of dirty dishes in the sink too were it not for disposable plates and cups and fast food. If you had illusions my house always being neat and clean, consider yourself now disillusioned. I wish I had an after picture to show you, but it’s still a work in progress. The toys have been organized and put away, and the laundry pile is slowly dwindling, but I’m not done yet.

I also remembered on Monday that I had flats and pots of flowers I’d purchased the day before I got sick languishing in the yard waiting to be planted. Not wanting my investment to go to waste, I put aside some of the house work to get those planted. I also couldn’t stand to be inside all day when it was so lovely outside.

To make matters worse, yesterday afternoon just as I was about start vacuuming, our power went out for the second time in about a week. That brought the house work to an end for the day. And cut off my Internet access putting the kibosh on my plans to blog last night. The power’s back on and I’m back to cleaning, and trying to get some blogging in here and there too.

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Girl Talk: Relax in Some Cute PJs

May 29, 2008 · 3 comments

Girl Talk is late today, because I’ve been miserably sick with a bad cold this week. I didn’t even get out of my pajamas today. Looking at the “pajamas” I’m wearing, which really are just a t-shirt and a pair of stretchy cotton capris, I think I need to get some new ones.

You can’t under estimate the value of a cute pair of PJs. It’s relaxing to put on some comfy lounge wear after a long day and sprawl on the couch with a good movie and a bowl of popcorn. Nice PJs are good to have around for sick days too. Wearing something pretty will make you feel better, even if you don’t have the energy to shower and get dressed. It’s also helpful to have some pajamas that you can answer the door in, and not be too embarrassed, if the UPS guy shows up. Or take the dog out in. I’m sure my neighbors are tired of my tired old blue bath robe. And if you are the mother of a newborn, cute sleepwear is an absolute must, because there will be many, many days you won’t have time to get dressed. Or you will leave the PJs on hoping for that elusive nap.

So where to get a great pair of Pajamas? I found several at this on-line store, Planet Sleep Pajamas &Loungewear. They’ve got it all. Men’s, Women’s, Plus Size, Maternity and Kids PJs. Even lingerie for those, um, more active nights. And they have a huge selection of name brands and designers.

I really like this Blissful Blues Floral Lounge Set from Plantet Sleep. With the baby doll top, you could almost wear this one to the grocery store. (But please don’t. There has to be a line. Only children can get away with that.)

This Betsy Johnson Butterfly Bop Chemise made of all cotton will keep you cool, but still looking hot on those warm summer nights.

It’s spring now, but come winter you’ll be nice and toasty in Pine Cone Hills’ Audrey PJs.

I really love this Aerodot robe from Tepper Jackson. The colorful polka dots should wake the neighbors up in the morning.

Yawn! All this talk about PJs is making me sleepy. I’m off to bed. Hope you find a great pair of Pajamas to make your dreams even sweeter.

Want to join in on some Girl Talk? Post about anything girlie on your blog, let’s keep it PG-13 at least, and link back to this post. Don’t forget to sign the Mr. Linky form below and enter your post permalink. Feel free to grab the Girl Talk button and use it on your blog. I post this once a week on Thursdays, usually in the afternoon when my son is sleeping. You can link up any time between now and next Wednesday.

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Cookie of the Week: Valentine Sugar Cookies

February 13, 2008 · 1 comment

cookie.jpgWell this week I was delayed by my son being ill. Then just as I was finally ready to write this post last night, he spilled water on my laptop. It’s still not working properly. So I’m back at the desktop in the basement.

The chocolate-covered, heart-shaped, pink filled Whoopie Pies didn’t completely satisfy my hankering for Valentine’s Day goodies. So I made sugar cookies, cut out hearts and, of course, frosted them pink.

I used Martha Stewart’s sugar cookie recipe. For rolled and cut cookies I prefer it. The raw dough isn’t as sticky as other sugar cookie recipes I’ve used, and holds up well to all the handling. It’s maybe not as sweet as others, but once you get all that frosting on, and I used a lot as you can see, it doesn’t matter.

Now, I guess sugar cookies are supposed to be frosted with royal icing. And I did try. But the royal icing I made turned out to be way too thin, and just ran right off the cookies. I don’t think it was the fault of Martha’s recipe, I just didn’t know what I was doing. So I turned to my favorite type of frosting, buttercream. To my dismay, I’d used up almost all of the powdered sugar, and didn’t have enough left for another batch of frosting. I went in search of a buttercream frosting recipe that didn’t call for powdered sugar.

I did find a buttercream recipe with out powdered sugar. It doesn’t taste anything like buttercream, but it’s still good. It came out sweet and light with the flavor of homemade whipped cream, only thicker. It actually worked well with the sugar cookies because it wasn’t overly sweet. And since it was so thick, it gave me an excuse to play with my cake decorating tools. Tools that I have no skills to go with. It may look like my son did the decorating, but that’s all me!

Martha Stewart’s Sugar Cookie Recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Butter Cream Frosting Recipe

1 Cup Butter

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Milk

6 tbs Flour

1 tsp vanilla

In a sauce pan stir together flour and milk. Cook until very thick. So thick you can’t stir it anymore.

Cream together butter and sugar. Add vanilla. Beat in milk and flour mixture until smooth and fluffy.

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Stethoscopes, Stickers and Hamburgers

November 20, 2007 · 0 comments

Here’s a story about taking my son to the doctor last Friday. It really doesn’t have a point other than to give you in-site into what life with my strong-willed, bright, gregarious, always curious and sometimes overly-dramatic son is like.

Last Friday I had to take my son to the doctor for an ear infection. At first he protested, saying he didn’t want to go to the doctor. He spent almost the entire 45 minutes drive saying over and over, “I don’t want to go to the doctor. I don’t like the doctor. I can’t go to the doctor. I want to go home.” I’m not sure what brought that on. I don’t think he even remembered the last time he’d seen the doctor. He will be three in less than two months, and before this he hadn’t been to the doctor since his two-year-old checkup. We were blessed with a year of good health with the exception of some minor colds.

Once we arrived his mood improved when he saw the other children and new toys to play with in the waiting room. (An aside to you parents out there.Is it really a good idea for doctor’s to encourage children with potentially contagious diseases to play and share toys together?) We were early for our appoint because I had new insurance information that needed to be entered into the computer, and it takes the receptionist what seems like an inordinately long amount of time to do so. So my son eventually got bored with the toys and brought over a book that he wanted me me to read. The book described the various layers that make up the human body like the skin, muscles, nervous system, and skeleton. I found myself trying to explain all of it to him in terms he could understand and at the same time trying to recall information I hadn’t thought about since ninth grade science class. He’s become very inquisitive about everything, and this wasn’t the first time in recent day’s I’d had to answer questions about complex topics that I am not an expert in. I remember as a kid it seemed like my dad knew everything. There wasn’t a question I could ask him that he couldn’t answer. As I set there feeling unqualified, wondering if I should just have the doctor explain anatomy 101 to my son, I imagined my dad must have felt the same way. I guess I said a few things right because my son told me later that his skin covers his muscles that make him strong and his nerves tell him if he’s hot or cold and with out his bones he’d fall apart. Not a bad understanding for an almost three-year-old.

Finally, we got to go back to the examination room. There were many more things he found in there to ask me about. One of the first things that caught his eye were the stirrups on the end of the exam table. “What are those for? What do they do?” he asked. I didn’t think I should tell him the that they are medical torture devices that make women feel exposed and uncomfortable.

“They’re for girls. You’re a boy. Don’t worry about it,” I said.

Then he wanted to know what the Medical Waste Disposal box on the wall was for. “Trash. They put ucky trash in there.” Then he took his gum out of his mouth and started to climb on a near by chair so he could throw it away with the hazardous waste. “No, No! Don’t touch that! Get down. It’s for really bad stuff. Only the doctor or nurse can put stuff in there.” Now I know why it has a lock on it.

A few minutes and a hundred more questions later the doctor came in. She diagnosed a double ear infection and prescribed antibiotics. She took out her stephascope and said, “Do you know what this is? It’s a stethoscope. Can you say stethoscope? Say steth–,” trying to get my son to sound out the word one syllable at a time.

He stared at her for a moment with a puzzled look on his face then said, “oscope. Stethoscope. I have a toy one at home,” in a voice that said he couldn’t believe she thought he didn’t know what it was. The doctor was surprised and I stifled a chuckle. He’s had a play doctor’s kit for months. He saw a doctor on TV one day and started putting things like belts and scarves around his neck pretending they were stethoscopes. I got him a toy one thinking it was less of a choking hazard.

The doctor commented on how talkative and funny my son was. “He’s great. He cracks me up. I can’t believe he’s not even three. I bet he jabbers all day long at home. Isn’t that just great?”

I smiled at her thinking, “It’s great most of the time, but try having a phone conversation or watching Oprah and never hearing a word she says.”

“Well he’s in such a good mood too for having such a bad ear infection. Most kids would be crying and screaming,” the doctor added. I gave my son Tylenol that morning which was responsible for preventing the screaming, but he wasn’t in the good mood the doctor thought he was. When my son gets cranky he gets negative and belligerent instead of whinny. The doctor took her little prize box out of the draw and asked my son to pick out something.

“No! No!” My son yelled recoiling from the box and waving it away with a flourish of his hands. She tried to encourage him to take something and he said emphatically, “I don’t want one! I don’t like them! No!”

“Oh, he’s opinionated too isn’t he? He is just so great!” She smiled, genuinely impressed.

Again I had to keep my thoughts to myself. “Great  except when he doesn’t want to eat what I made for him, wear the clothes I picked out or read the short book.”

As we were leaving the office a nurse offered my son a sticker. He had a reaction similar to the one to the prize box. I don’t think the nurse new what to say. What kid refuses a free sticker?

In the car he announced that he was hungry. I drove through McDonald’s and ordered his usual, Hamburger Happy Meal — hold the onions and pickles. My son always dismantles his hamburger, which he pronounces hang-ga-burger by the way, and eats the meat first and the bun second. When he took his hamburger apart and discovered it was sans pickles he got mad. Any other day he wouldn’t want pickles. But because he was sick, “Mommie! Where are pickles?! I want pickles!” I took a pickle off my hamburger and gave it to him. He held on to it for about five minutes then gave it back to me. “I don’t want it . I don’t like pickles.” This is what I deal with when he’s in a bad mood.

Thankfully he fell asleep in the car, french fry in hand. No more questions, no more complaining. It was quiet. If only I could have watched Oprah in the car.

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