Medical Miscellany.

KayTar is still doing the weird breathing thing and I'm still not sure if there is anything to it. The desats on our portable pulse oximeter may or may not be accurate. We're getting a referral to a pulmonologist, though, so hopefully that will be a step in the right direction. I'd love to get a tabletop pulse ox, even temporarily, to check this out, so maybe the pulmonologist can write her a script for one and we can figure out if the breath-holding from "being too tired to breathe all the time" is actually causing any issues for her.

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A couple of days ago, KayTar and I went to the mall. She said she didn't need her stroller, so we left it in the car. We just walked down one corridor (our mall is basically a square) to a store, but on the way out she stopped once we got outside and said, "I can't. We have to stop." I had to carry her out to the car and she said, "My legs and body need to go to bed for a while." So that's what she did when we got home. Looks like we'll be using the stroller next time whether she thinks she'll need it or not!

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This morning I started her usual feed and less than halfway in, she said, "I'm too full! Stop it or I'll puke!" so I stopped it, waited an hour and restarted it. A couple more ounces went in and she said the same thing, so I stopped it. Once her stomach settled, we went to the store to pick up Gatorade. We waited a while longer and ran in some Gatorade. That went well. She just had another feed, 4 ounces of formula and 2 ounces of Gatorade, and that went well, too. We tried a full formula feed just a bit ago and she tolerated it, but then she said, "Oh, you better not give me anything else until tomorrow! My belly is achey." so I'm hoping it stays down. She's fine otherwise, seemingly healthy and happy...her tummy just isn't quite on the same page at the moment.

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We finally got KayTar's MRI situation figured out. It was quite a headache, what with the scheduling service being told that the hospital we were supposed to go to was out of network and scheduling us at a hospital where the ordering physician didn't have rights. When I talked to insurance and the correct hospital, both said it was in-network, but every time the schedulers called, they got a different story. We've been trying to schedule it since her appointment with Dr. K in June...it will only be a couple of weeks shy of her 3 month follow-up appointment when it finally gets done. We won't know what time she is scheduled for until the day before, but the scheduler said she would need to be NPO after midnight, which could be an issue for our hypoglycemic girl! Hopefully, the nurse will have a solution for that when she calls with the official orders.

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Gonna Eat A Lot of Peaches...

On Saturday morning, we went bowling with the cub scouts. About 3 frames into the game, it was BubTar's turn to bowl and we couldn't find him. The alley was mostly empty, us, the workers, and maybe 3 other people. We thought he was in the bathroom, but one of his scout friends checked and he wasn't. So I checked the ladies' room, and he wasn't in there. Then I checked the arcade...and restaurant...and other 4 bathrooms. NOTHING. By this time, me, Josh, the scouts, their parents, and the workers are looking for him. My heart was about fall out my butt, as we speed walked around the building, calling his name...people headed out to the parking lot to look for him. We were probably 10 seconds away from calling the police when one of the moms says, "FOUND HIM!" My darling son was pouting in the corner by the lockers, obscured from view, because his game was not going well. HOLY COW. Josh had a talk with him and I don't think he'll be doing that again...but I'm pretty sure I sprouted some new gray hairs after that. Yikes.

After THAT excitement, we finished our games and then headed out to the country for a little vacation with my parents and niece and nephew. My parents recently got a little house in the country, so that's where we went for our vacation with them this year. It was very relaxing, I finished a book and started a new one, watched some TV shows on DVD, played a LOT of Yahtzee, and generally loafed around. The kids had fun with their cousins and Josh had fun fishing every morning and evening. We could only stay for Saturday-Monday, because Josh was out of vacation days, but BubTar is staying the rest of the week, securing this summer's label as BubTar's Summer of Independence. I swear, that kid has been gone as much as he's been home...if not more. He's loving it, though, so we're okay with it. He's been with his friends, my family, Josh's family...he's been at VBS and camp and birthdays...he's a busy guy these days!

 On the ride up.

 First fish.

 Painting in the library, with bedhead.

 My dad.

 Yahtzee!

 My niece's THIRD Yahtzee in one game!

 Fishing across the pond.

 My dad, using KayTar as a human water balloon shield.

Yes, she actually ATE the pizza that is missing!

As for the title of this post, KayTar and I sing that Presidents of the United States of America song every time we mention going out to the country house. Moving to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches...

Mischief Managed.

Last Thursday night, we took BubTar to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two at the midnight showing. He thought it was amazing, well, we all did, really. Up until about a week prior to that, he had only seen Sorcerer's Stone through Goblet of Fire, because I felt that they stopped being KIDS movies at that point and became considerably darker, however, I told him that he could watch the rest as he finished reading them, because if he was mature enough to finish the books, he was mature enough to see the movies. The Thursday before the movie, though, Josh said, "Wouldn't he just love it if we took him with us?" We discussed it a bit and I decided to discard my lofty parenting ideals about appropriate subject matter and book reading in favor of one really awesome, memorable night. It was the VERY LAST chance he'd get to see one in the theater, and he'd never been before...so morals, schmorals. As soon as we decided he was going to come along, we set to work watching the rest of the movies. He was pretty pleased with the sudden turn of events, too.

I picked up the first Harry Potter on a whim, almost 10 years ago. It was already in paperback, and if I remember correctly, it was also on sale at the time. I was newly pregnant with BubTar and miserable, largely sofa-bound when I wasn't in the bathroom revisiting my breakfast, lunch, or dinner. A kid's book seemed like an entertaining distraction...and thus, a love affair was born. I read through Sorcerer's Stone, Chamber of Secrets, and Prisoner of Azkaban during my pregnancy, and the first time I ever really remember being kicked by BubTar, I was playing the Sorcerer's Stone video game on the computer. I read Goblet of Fire while I nursed him, as a baby. When he was old enough to start reading the books, I was thrilled...it is one of those magical things you want other people, especially your children to experience. It seemed fitting to have him there for the very last of the magic, as we left one era...the era of Harry Potter...and entered another era, the era of having a child old enough for midnight movies!

It was a fun experience, though I was still definitely not feeling my best from that stomach virus. BubTar was enthralled with the folks in costume, we saw Hagrid, Umbridge, Luna, Dobby, Dumbledore, Voldemort, Fleur, and a dozen or so Hogwarts students. Being the shy guy that he is, BubTar wouldn't agree to take a photo with any of them...but he thought it was cool, anyway. I hope it is one of the memories that sticks with him as he grows up. As for the movie itself? I thought it was a wonderful, fitting ending to such a beloved story..not my favorite movie of all, I don't think...but definitely a solid ending. I can't quite believe it is over...and so I'm reading Sorcerer's Stone to KayTar every day, just trying to hold on to the magic for just a bit longer.

Just beachy.

 Yesterday we got home from our little beach getaway. It was wonderful overall, with the exception of my poorly timed stomach virus. We arrived at the beach house at 1pm on Tuesday, and my stomach virus arrived roughly 10 hours later. My darling husband had to drive 30 minutes (each way) to a 24 hour Walgreens to get me medication at 1am. My hero! He literally saved the vacation by doing so, because without that medication I would have been completely non-functional for the vacation. Blech. Regardless of the unfortunate state of my GI tract, we had a lovely trip. The first day we spent exploring the house and checking out our "water street", as KayTar called it, from the dock and balcony.

Once it was evening and "cool" enough (cool is in quotations because, come on, this is TEXAS we're talking about) for KayTar to tolerate it, we headed to the beach which was extremely close to the house. BubTar had a wonderful time running through the waves and KayTar tried it out, but opted for the safety of the beach, where salt water was not trying to splash into her mouth. She preferred sitting in the sand and "getting mucky".

By the time we were done at the beach, our best friends had arrived at the house, so we drove back to meet them. Once everyone was de-sanded, showered, and pajama'd...dinner was ready and we all enjoyed some french bread pizza. The kids went down to bed shortly after and the grown-ups stayed up to play games. We tried a new game this time, Tripoley, in addition to our old standby Mexican Train. It was fun! We played for nickels and the girls cleaned up. We had to wrap up the game because both boys were out of change. Poor boys. After a few rounds of Mexican Train, L was tired and my stomach virus had arrived. The next morning after breakfast, we took KayTar out to the dock to swim a little. She didn't stay in long because she couldn't stop thinking about the fact the FISHES POOP IN THAT WATER! I CAN SMELL IT! What she was really smelling was the salt water, but there's no arguing with that girl sometimes. She decided to spend a little quiet time with the iPad instead.

Right after she came in, the boys went out to try the kayak. Josh fell over the first time he got in (with a little "help" from his friend), so by the time I came back out from getting KayTar settled in, he was bleeding on the dock. Nothing too serious and he was off in the kayak in no time, once he was back, BubTar and his perma-KoolAid 'stache took a turn.

After lunch, we all had some quiet time...especially me, since eating turned out to be very bad idea. After that, we went out for dinner (another bad idea, even though Josh and I just split a club sandwich) and hit the beach again. I almost didn't make it, but pushed through and we had a couple of good hours at the beach before I got back and totally crashed. I felt really terrible when we got back and basically showered and went to bed. I felt super bad about missing out on game night with our friends that night, but I just couldn't hack it. Tummy troubles, body aches, headache...ugh. No fun. But I was still glad I had been able to make to the beach earlier in the evening with everyone. The next day we had breakfast and headed home!