Shortnin' Bread

This will be short because my eyes and hands aren't working very well together. I think dextromethorphan and I may be a mismatch, but that's another story. Well, maybe not, but it's not what I'm talking about right now. I have one girl down with pneumonia, two with ear infections, and Q is either puking up any food that has the barest hint of texture or refusing to eat altogether. I'm hoping that he's just "that age" -- the one where he exerts his opinion -- but I keep thinking about g-tubes and wondering how long he can go on with this kind of finicky nonsense before he actually shows weight loss. Thank God for that Boost stuff. At 1.5cal/ml it doesn't mess around.

Q got up around 2, didn't settle well, then again at 4, hollering, which he rarely does, and took a good while to get settled again. He almost napped, but then gave a little start and woke up with the rattle of snot in his nose. I'm about to go put him down now, he's all dosed up for the evening, and I just need him to sleep. I'm all loopy and I thought it was the Mucinex (took the mondo dose), but it should be gone by now, so... I'm not pleased with the alternatives. I don't have the time or other resources to deal with being that sick.

Gotta scoot. The boy and laundry and dishes and vertigo are callin' my name. I'll whinge about the pecularities of EEG scheduling some other time.

Thanks for your prayers.

Oremus

I have just a couple of minutes before Q's ibuprofen really kicks in. His fever went from 101.3 to 100.3 in about half an hour, thanks to the last dose. I'm popping in to ask for prayers. We're having a cold. One of those very sore throat, barky/croupy coughing kind of cold. This particular bug, having hit Q's neuro function as they often seem to do, has left him jumpy, with much crying, plenty of coughing, and a gag-reflex that's so sensitive that he lost his supper last night because the homemade mac and cheese wasn't perfectly smooth. Perfectly smooth mac and cheese equals glue, so I didn't want that... Anyway, we wore it. This morning he kept down the pears and blueberries, all two ounces of them, but lost about half of his Boost (FKA: Just For Kids). Avert your eyes if you're nauseous or have those kinds of "issues." I could tell that it was about half because it had no red medicine (guaifenesin and a decongestant) in it, nor any of the herbal stuff for inflammation that's violently yellow. It was just plain white. Hallelujah.

Before I run off to drip some more 1.5cal/ml stuff into his little head, I'm asking for some prayers. My arms are pretty tired from carrying the snuggly punkin around. I know he's losing weight -- yesterday was not a good eating day either -- but he's still around thirty pounds. My back can take this, but my arms and shoulders are waning, I'm afraid. His respiration rate was 32 breaths/min. while he was sleeping. I'm pretty sure that this is due to the fever, which tends to be a bit higher than the readings I can get -- after this many kids, I find that I'm pretty accurate when just feeling for the temp, you know? I'm guessing that he was closer to 102. Dehydration may also play a role, so I'll have the cup of water and syringe for him in just a minute. He's not sleeping very well. His nap today was about twelve minutes, though he could clearly have used more. I started him on Xopenex and Pulmicort last night because it's clear (to me) that the inflammation in his bronchii is driving most of his discomfort and inability to swallow. I see no spots or other signs of strep in him or any of the other kids, just croupiness (so far). Nighttime tends to be significantly harder when he's sick. The virus seems worse, my arms more tired, the options fewer.

Honestly, at this point if I thought it would have an impact on the duration of illness, I'd take him in for IV rehydration, not because he's so desperately in need of it (though I'm watching), but because aspiration is always a risk, orders of magnitude moreso when his tone is floppy as it is now. And because he needs to have some calories and then sleeeeeep. And because aspiration risk rises and just plain freaks me out when he's crying through an entire feeding.

So if you don't mind praying, we could use it. The big kids aren't liking this bug, but it's not affecting them the same way. They can swallow medicine and it's helping them pretty quickly. They're having tea and other soothing things as well, listening to audio books, lolling in the sunshine, and generally lying low, but none feeling as sick as Q.

K made grandma a big old pot of tea when she was feeling yucky with the same bug a few days ago. It was much appreciated, and no one will ever bring up to her that it was Organic Mother's Milk Tea. "To Promote Healthy Lactation." I considered using this to introduce an object lesson on reading the whole phrase, vs. just the beginnings of words or phrases, but I think I'll find another opportunity. One that does not involve me laughing 'til I'm breathless.

And, because I was going to post the following last night (but became waylaid with, well, let's just say "laundry")...

I just love PW. Check out her recipes, her gorgeous pictures, her hunky hubby, her homeschooling posts and information. If she weren't so nice, I'd be just a smidge jealous. (grins) She's an inspiration, especially in the smart, um, alek, department.

Hope you're enjoying the spring -- we've hyacinths and violets, birds gathering twigs for nest building, daffodils and tulips and fluffy pink cherry trees. Aside from the wretched throat/not eating thing, it's pretty nice here.

XO.

Contest!

Get thee over to Better Than Normal and take part. Woot, team Daniel!!

Renewal/update

I should post something. Really I should. Right? It's late, though and the kids are all asleep and we have a big day at church. Well, as long as I'm here and you're twisting my arm...

Big weeks, and they keep flying right on by. We've had some gorgeous weather. Think shorts and short sleeves. Think planting peas and potatoes and onions and garlic. The garden dirt is all aerated, mixed, rich and loamy, like something you'd want to scoop up and eat, had it not been most recently the chicken yard. Now the rain is back, just in time to water the tiny sprouting peas, encourage those potatoes, and hopefully ruin at least a couple of onions or garlic. Seriously. I never thought I'd be fine with the decline of baby vegetables, but who actually needs two or more rows of onions and garlic? I guess if they all grow and the economy really tanks big, we'll have to rely on them for immune system support, so never mind. Pray for raging success. Thank you.

The evil sinus bug that's been trying to knock some of us flat seems to really be leaving. I think the recovery is thanks to a combination of getting to play in the warm sunshine and Mucinex-D. After all this I'd do a commercial for them. Well, as long as it didn't involve the green slime characters.

The big kids are doing well. Piano and violin practice go on, flying toward spring recitals. Q is progressing nicely.

Last week, he got to play with the PRC ECO. Wow. More cool stuff. He was really interested in the screen and the colors. Getting to choose which color of ball got dropped down the tube was awesome for him. The funniest part is that toward the end, when it got a little bit complicated, I swear he totally got it. The settings on the screen with a switch (button to press) combination meant that if he wanted the red ball, he had to wait until the green box highlighted the splotch of red on the ECO screen, then hit the switch. The Speech Path guy doing the testing then dropped the red ball down the tube maze and Q giggled accordingly. In order to move on, Q had to hit the switch again to restart the color selection process, then wait until the green highlight box got to the color he wanted and hit it again, before it moved on to say, purple, which we didn't have in actual balls, just as a choice on the screen. After a couple of times of watching the highlighter box go through the whole set of colors and hitting the switch for random colors, Q settled on red. He'd hit the switch, the ball would go and he would giggle, and then he'd hit the switch again, rapidly, twice, so he was both restarting the selection process and hitting it again before it could move on to a different color. And the ball would go and he would giggle.

He did this a few times in a row, getting faster and more appropriate each time. Watching him, I was thinking that if he had that box (ECO) for a few days, he'd gladly spend an hour at a time with it, much as he has when he's had help with other toys that he figures out fairly quickly, but has to work with to perfect his combination of motor planning and cognitive planning. I really think that if he had it for an hour, he'd figure out that choosing the arrow means that you go back a screen to three choices of "games." That the eraser makes things go away. That yes, he likes purple, even though he doesn't see it as much as say red, and that it might even be his favorite.

Q tries to sneak up to the mouse or keyboard if he's on someone's lap here at the computer at home. He very often succeeds. He's erased things for me, the sneaky little monkey. (heh) And in OT, he uses the touch screen and the head switch set-up with flair. This week he used both to get to new pictures and even follow directions. His motor planning trips him up constantly for the following of directions, but he gets it eventually. I wish I had something more to just give him, something to make this less of a struggle, especially in the way of equipment.

Speaking of wishing for things, Melanie has a couple of great posts up at Daniel's blog: Better Than Normal. She's quoting someone else who's blog I haven't read, but after that entry (4/09/09), I will be. If I can ever get there (too much to do).

Right now, I'm going to go sleep. Perchance to dream. Or not -- sometimes those dreams just poke at a person and it would be nice to be not poked at in one's sleep time. It would be nice to just sleep.

Have a luverly Easter, all. Hope you're celebrating Resurrection with your dearly held ones. XO.