The Outtakes:
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Where's my t-shirt?
A friend called me from campus yesterday, she looked up my grade for me and I got my C! Never have I been so pleased with a C.
A couple of days ago, I was signing BubTar's progress report and we had the following exchange:
BubTar: I didn't make any grades below a 93!
Me: I wish I could say the same!
BubTar: What do you mean? What are your grades?
Me: Right now I have 3 A's, 1 C and I'm hoping for another C.
BubTar (taken aback with a hint of disdain in his voice): But Mom...a C is just average!
That's my little overachiever. ;) I explained to him that since the majority of my class had F's, a C wasn't too shabby. I think I'm more than fine with being merely average in organic chemistry...so long as I don't have to ever take the first part of it again!
A couple of days ago, I was signing BubTar's progress report and we had the following exchange:
BubTar: I didn't make any grades below a 93!
Me: I wish I could say the same!
BubTar: What do you mean? What are your grades?
Me: Right now I have 3 A's, 1 C and I'm hoping for another C.
BubTar (taken aback with a hint of disdain in his voice): But Mom...a C is just average!
That's my little overachiever. ;) I explained to him that since the majority of my class had F's, a C wasn't too shabby. I think I'm more than fine with being merely average in organic chemistry...so long as I don't have to ever take the first part of it again!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
I survived!
I don't know if I passed, but I lived through the semester. I sort of look like this now, though.
Image from The Secret Life of the American Chem Major
I know that I made A's in US History, Music, and Biopsych...and I know I made a C in organic lab, which was actually a miracle. My lab professor was the biggest douche-canoe known to man. Lab has been an absolute nightmare all semester, even though I always successfully completed the experiments. The professor was outrageous; he quizzed us over material that is never covered in class, he made it impossible to get higher than a B on a labs that were executed largely without error, he docked us a full letter grade once for not stapling our papers although there is no stapler in lab...all while reminding all of us that he is a "cool guy" and telling us daily how "lucky we are to have [him] for a professor". I've never been in a course where the professor is so universally disliked by the students. The class average on the final was a 36. It was rough. Oh well, let's call it preparation for all of the horrific residents and attendings I'll have the pleasure of working under during my training.
As far as lecture goes, I studied my heart out. I worked through 228 pages of material between yesterday afternoon and my test this morning. If it goes badly, I will not be able to say, "Oh, I should have done more." Whatever the outcome, I know I put the work in and tried my best.
Monday night, we had a bit of a lively evening around here. I was studying (organic, what else) when I heard a very familiar sound over the monitor. Mt. Saint KayTar was about to blow. I ran to the kitchen for a bowl and dashed up to her room, seconds too late. She was already covered in vomit, but I caught what I could. When I looked in the bowl, I was shocked to see a couple of teaspoons worth of bright red blood mixed into her bedtime feed. Yikes! Josh and I hypothesized that it was a nosebleed draining posteriorly and collecting in her tummy, but I emailed the pediatrician to be on the safe side. She said we could watch her for the time being, but if it continued we need to go to the EC. But guess what? I had a final the next morning! Oh noooo. So I emailed my professor to let her know about the situation and possibility of being stuck in the EC some test time, just in case. My professor said I could take the exam at another time if necessary, but thankfully, it all worked out in the end. No more bloody vomit! Just when I think that kid is out of surprises, she pulls a new one out.
I'm officially on break now. Such sweet relief, though I fully expect to be B-O-R-E-D in 3-5 days. Oh well, such is life.
I know that I made A's in US History, Music, and Biopsych...and I know I made a C in organic lab, which was actually a miracle. My lab professor was the biggest douche-canoe known to man. Lab has been an absolute nightmare all semester, even though I always successfully completed the experiments. The professor was outrageous; he quizzed us over material that is never covered in class, he made it impossible to get higher than a B on a labs that were executed largely without error, he docked us a full letter grade once for not stapling our papers although there is no stapler in lab...all while reminding all of us that he is a "cool guy" and telling us daily how "lucky we are to have [him] for a professor". I've never been in a course where the professor is so universally disliked by the students. The class average on the final was a 36. It was rough. Oh well, let's call it preparation for all of the horrific residents and attendings I'll have the pleasure of working under during my training.
As far as lecture goes, I studied my heart out. I worked through 228 pages of material between yesterday afternoon and my test this morning. If it goes badly, I will not be able to say, "Oh, I should have done more." Whatever the outcome, I know I put the work in and tried my best.
Monday night, we had a bit of a lively evening around here. I was studying (organic, what else) when I heard a very familiar sound over the monitor. Mt. Saint KayTar was about to blow. I ran to the kitchen for a bowl and dashed up to her room, seconds too late. She was already covered in vomit, but I caught what I could. When I looked in the bowl, I was shocked to see a couple of teaspoons worth of bright red blood mixed into her bedtime feed. Yikes! Josh and I hypothesized that it was a nosebleed draining posteriorly and collecting in her tummy, but I emailed the pediatrician to be on the safe side. She said we could watch her for the time being, but if it continued we need to go to the EC. But guess what? I had a final the next morning! Oh noooo. So I emailed my professor to let her know about the situation and possibility of being stuck in the EC some test time, just in case. My professor said I could take the exam at another time if necessary, but thankfully, it all worked out in the end. No more bloody vomit! Just when I think that kid is out of surprises, she pulls a new one out.
I'm officially on break now. Such sweet relief, though I fully expect to be B-O-R-E-D in 3-5 days. Oh well, such is life.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Burgled on a Tuesday.
I don't know if that is the correct term for it, but it is more fun to say that "burglarized". So yeah, that happened yesterday.
I'm sort of out of school right now, as this week and next are finals weeks and I only have three interspersed over 10 days of school. Since I usually volunteer at the kids' school before class on Tuesday, I went in with them and stayed longer than usual just because I could. It was a nice morning of sorting books and helping the counselor and librarian make hot cocoa and pass out gingerbread cookies to the classes that would come through. Just as I was about to leave, KayTar spotted me and asked me to have lunch with her. Actually, she sort of begged and threw in a "But I've been waiting ALL OF KINDERGARTEN for you to have lunch with me!" Who can say no to that? So I stayed, though my tummy was grumbling since I had skipped breakfast, and then when BubTar spotted me in the cafeteria, I stayed for his lunch, too. After all the lunching was over, I left the school and swung by Dairy Queen for a quick lunch to bring home and eat before it was time to turn around and go pick the kids up.
As I pulled up to the house, I reflexively reached up to my garage door opener and hit the button and started to pull into the driveway...then I saw it. The front door was wide open. I guess I'm an optimist, because I sort of thought Josh might have accidentally left it unlocked and the wind had sucked it open or something. However, I'm not an idiot, so I stopped short and called Josh before pulling into the drive. He said, "I know I locked it. Leave and call the cops." My stomach sank a little. I asked him to call the cops and meet me at home, because the last time I called the cops it was because I thought I heard a gun shot and it turned out to be a squirrel getting fried by a transformer on the power line. I didn't really want to make another unnecessary call, which I was really hoping this would be. I parked at the end of the block, so I could watch the front door in case anyone came out. They didn't. A few minutes later I saw a police officer enter the house, so I pulled up in front of it. He said, "Is this your house, ma'am? Was this bag here when you left this morning?" He pointed to a duffel bag on the floor in the entryway. The bag Josh brings to the shooting range. It definitely had not been there when we left. Then I knew.
Josh pulled up moments later and we both sat in my van while we waiting for the officers to clear the house. I hoped our dog was alive. I was so worried that whoever had done this had shot her. I hoped the presents and tree were still there, I didn't want the kids to learn there are real Grinches in the world. A few seconds or eternities later, the officers called up inside. Penny was fine. The presents were under the tree. The house was in disarray. Josh's guns were gone (he's a hunter and he likes to go to the range for fun, he had more than a few, some had been handed down to him, even). My camera, my beloved camera, was gone. My favorite lens, gone. Our living room TV was gone. We went into the bedroom, it had been ransacked. Our TV was gone. My laptop and iPod touch, gone. Every time we noted something else that was missing, my stomach dropped lower. All of my favorite non-living things, gone in a blink. The laundry basket was gone, too, I suppose they needed it to carry things out.
Our house had been locked up tight, but it didn't matter. They must have known our schedule, because it seems like they took their time getting inside. First, they borrowed a hammer from our tool shed and pried off the sheet metal scratch guard from the backdoor, hoping for a hole there, I guess. Then they tried to use the same hammer, OUR hammer, to pry open a back window, bending the frame in the process, but getting nowhere. Finally, they used OUR hammer to shatter the window, reach in, and unlatch it. Then they climbed through, gathered up our things, and walked out the front door in the middle of the day. Just.like.that.
We told the kids last night. BubTar said, "Did you check my books? Are they all still here?!" KayTar said, "Are my stuffed animals okay?" After we assured them their prized possessions were safe, BubTar suggested we dust for prints in the kitchen and KayTar went upstairs to check for tracks in her bedroom. BubTar watched A Series of Unfortunate Events on DVD last night, after it was over he said that at the end it says that when unfortunate things happen there is always more good than bad and he said, "Like tonight, even though the burglars came, I felt a lot closer as a family after that talk." This morning, KayTar was walking around taking inventory of what they didn't take. Baby powder, check! Deodorant, check! Blankey, check! We've got good kids.
I'm glad we weren't here. I'm glad I stayed for lunch with the kids and didn't come home and surprise them. I'm glad this didn't happen on Monday when I was home studying and showering all by my lonesome during that time slot. I'm glad they didn't take any necessities or the kids' things or the presents (they actually set them aside nicely, so they didn't get trampled). I'm glad they didn't break anything except the window. I'm glad they didn't make more of a mess than they had to. I'm glad they left the Wii and the desktop computers (especially the one with my photos on it) and that Penny is fine. They just took our toys. Mean kids will do that, I guess. Last night we had to *gasp* watch TV in the living room before bed on a borrowed TV...and I had to *gasp* walk into the study to check my email. Such hardships! ;) How will we survive? We're just lucky to have those nice things in the first place.
I'm irritated about small things. They broke my deodorant. My iPod was my alarm and my cell phone was a poor and annoying replacement (though, as I complained about that this morning, Josh pointed out that my alarm had probably woken them at 5:15 this morning and I hope they had trouble finding it to turn it off!). I couldn't find my chapstick last night because they had knocked it down in their search for expensive things. Stupid things that remind me bad guys were in our house. I have a final tomorrow, but didn't feel safe enough to stay here today so I went to the library to study. I like to study in my pjs while listening to TV, not while being politely silent in the library. I was a little worried that they might come back for things today, knowing what was left and that the window is an easy access point, since they broke it and all. Today has been fine, though, and we're home now just like normal. You know, life goes on...but yeah, we're definitely getting a security system after this!
I'm sort of out of school right now, as this week and next are finals weeks and I only have three interspersed over 10 days of school. Since I usually volunteer at the kids' school before class on Tuesday, I went in with them and stayed longer than usual just because I could. It was a nice morning of sorting books and helping the counselor and librarian make hot cocoa and pass out gingerbread cookies to the classes that would come through. Just as I was about to leave, KayTar spotted me and asked me to have lunch with her. Actually, she sort of begged and threw in a "But I've been waiting ALL OF KINDERGARTEN for you to have lunch with me!" Who can say no to that? So I stayed, though my tummy was grumbling since I had skipped breakfast, and then when BubTar spotted me in the cafeteria, I stayed for his lunch, too. After all the lunching was over, I left the school and swung by Dairy Queen for a quick lunch to bring home and eat before it was time to turn around and go pick the kids up.
As I pulled up to the house, I reflexively reached up to my garage door opener and hit the button and started to pull into the driveway...then I saw it. The front door was wide open. I guess I'm an optimist, because I sort of thought Josh might have accidentally left it unlocked and the wind had sucked it open or something. However, I'm not an idiot, so I stopped short and called Josh before pulling into the drive. He said, "I know I locked it. Leave and call the cops." My stomach sank a little. I asked him to call the cops and meet me at home, because the last time I called the cops it was because I thought I heard a gun shot and it turned out to be a squirrel getting fried by a transformer on the power line. I didn't really want to make another unnecessary call, which I was really hoping this would be. I parked at the end of the block, so I could watch the front door in case anyone came out. They didn't. A few minutes later I saw a police officer enter the house, so I pulled up in front of it. He said, "Is this your house, ma'am? Was this bag here when you left this morning?" He pointed to a duffel bag on the floor in the entryway. The bag Josh brings to the shooting range. It definitely had not been there when we left. Then I knew.
Josh pulled up moments later and we both sat in my van while we waiting for the officers to clear the house. I hoped our dog was alive. I was so worried that whoever had done this had shot her. I hoped the presents and tree were still there, I didn't want the kids to learn there are real Grinches in the world. A few seconds or eternities later, the officers called up inside. Penny was fine. The presents were under the tree. The house was in disarray. Josh's guns were gone (he's a hunter and he likes to go to the range for fun, he had more than a few, some had been handed down to him, even). My camera, my beloved camera, was gone. My favorite lens, gone. Our living room TV was gone. We went into the bedroom, it had been ransacked. Our TV was gone. My laptop and iPod touch, gone. Every time we noted something else that was missing, my stomach dropped lower. All of my favorite non-living things, gone in a blink. The laundry basket was gone, too, I suppose they needed it to carry things out.
Our house had been locked up tight, but it didn't matter. They must have known our schedule, because it seems like they took their time getting inside. First, they borrowed a hammer from our tool shed and pried off the sheet metal scratch guard from the backdoor, hoping for a hole there, I guess. Then they tried to use the same hammer, OUR hammer, to pry open a back window, bending the frame in the process, but getting nowhere. Finally, they used OUR hammer to shatter the window, reach in, and unlatch it. Then they climbed through, gathered up our things, and walked out the front door in the middle of the day. Just.like.that.
We told the kids last night. BubTar said, "Did you check my books? Are they all still here?!" KayTar said, "Are my stuffed animals okay?" After we assured them their prized possessions were safe, BubTar suggested we dust for prints in the kitchen and KayTar went upstairs to check for tracks in her bedroom. BubTar watched A Series of Unfortunate Events on DVD last night, after it was over he said that at the end it says that when unfortunate things happen there is always more good than bad and he said, "Like tonight, even though the burglars came, I felt a lot closer as a family after that talk." This morning, KayTar was walking around taking inventory of what they didn't take. Baby powder, check! Deodorant, check! Blankey, check! We've got good kids.
I'm glad we weren't here. I'm glad I stayed for lunch with the kids and didn't come home and surprise them. I'm glad this didn't happen on Monday when I was home studying and showering all by my lonesome during that time slot. I'm glad they didn't take any necessities or the kids' things or the presents (they actually set them aside nicely, so they didn't get trampled). I'm glad they didn't break anything except the window. I'm glad they didn't make more of a mess than they had to. I'm glad they left the Wii and the desktop computers (especially the one with my photos on it) and that Penny is fine. They just took our toys. Mean kids will do that, I guess. Last night we had to *gasp* watch TV in the living room before bed on a borrowed TV...and I had to *gasp* walk into the study to check my email. Such hardships! ;) How will we survive? We're just lucky to have those nice things in the first place.
I'm irritated about small things. They broke my deodorant. My iPod was my alarm and my cell phone was a poor and annoying replacement (though, as I complained about that this morning, Josh pointed out that my alarm had probably woken them at 5:15 this morning and I hope they had trouble finding it to turn it off!). I couldn't find my chapstick last night because they had knocked it down in their search for expensive things. Stupid things that remind me bad guys were in our house. I have a final tomorrow, but didn't feel safe enough to stay here today so I went to the library to study. I like to study in my pjs while listening to TV, not while being politely silent in the library. I was a little worried that they might come back for things today, knowing what was left and that the window is an easy access point, since they broke it and all. Today has been fine, though, and we're home now just like normal. You know, life goes on...but yeah, we're definitely getting a security system after this!
Thursday, December 02, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Beware of Auto-Correct
I'm sure everyone on the planet knows about the website Damn You, AutoCorrect! by now. I find it outrageously hilarious, like laugh-until-I-cry-every-time-I-read-it-hilarious and once-it-made-me-laugh-so-hard-that-I-had-an-asthma-attack-hilarious. If you haven't seen it before, you are missing out.
The reason I bring this up is that I had my very own auto-correct incident a couple of weeks ago. When KayTar was having those issues with hypoglycemia during her last illness, I sent the pediatrician an email and ended it by saying, "I just wanted to touch base with you..." However, my iPod thought better of it and decided that what I actually wanted to say was "I just wanted to touch ass with you." and promptly changed my wording. Luckily, I gave my email a quick once over before sending it and I caught the errant auto-correction before I inadvertently and inappropriately hit on our pediatrician, because as much as I like her...I don't really like her in THAT way. ;)
The reason I bring this up is that I had my very own auto-correct incident a couple of weeks ago. When KayTar was having those issues with hypoglycemia during her last illness, I sent the pediatrician an email and ended it by saying, "I just wanted to touch base with you..." However, my iPod thought better of it and decided that what I actually wanted to say was "I just wanted to touch ass with you." and promptly changed my wording. Luckily, I gave my email a quick once over before sending it and I caught the errant auto-correction before I inadvertently and inappropriately hit on our pediatrician, because as much as I like her...I don't really like her in THAT way. ;)
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Pictures from Thanksgiving
Friday, November 19, 2010
Outed!
Well, it finally happened. After roughly 4.5 years of secretly blogging, I have been outed...by a DOLL, no less. I always thought it would be medical information that finally did it, because whenever I toss a few of KayTar's medical issues into a search bar, my blog is always on the first page of results. But no...it was not medical information, it was a Jewel Sparkle Lalaloopsy doll that did it in the end.
My mom (hi, MOM!) was searching the internet for the doll that KayTar really wants for Christmas and guess what she found instead? THIS BLOG. I was quite surprised when she called me and said, "I was looking for that Lalaloopsy doll KayTar wants and guess what I found?! YOUR BLOG!" It was bound to happen sometime, in fact there were times I had wondered if people secretly knew about my blog and were secretly reading it as I was secretly writing it. Josh was just thrilled that HE wasn't the one to spill the beans. He is a terrible secret keeper and it is impressive that although he's known abut the blog all this time, he's never accidentally mentioned it.
I don't have any real reason for keeping the blog a secret, I just liked the privacy it afforded me. I tend to be a bit self-conscious, in fact if Josh comes into a room when I'm writing a post I close it down and finish it later. In the past, I've told him he is welcome to read the blog (he doesn't) but not to discuss it with me later. In the early days of the blog, I was very worried about KayTar...everything felt so serious all the time...I needed the privacy to work through the weight of it on my own. Now, I don't really need it anymore, I just kept it a secret out of habit. I guess now I'll have to decide if I want to tell everyone, as I'm sure there are people (friends and family) who would like to keep up with us this way, or keep it a pseudo-secret until they stumble across us on an errant Google search of their own!
All I can say is KayTar better be getting that doll for Christmas (Yes, I'm talking to YOU, Mom)! ;)
My mom (hi, MOM!) was searching the internet for the doll that KayTar really wants for Christmas and guess what she found instead? THIS BLOG. I was quite surprised when she called me and said, "I was looking for that Lalaloopsy doll KayTar wants and guess what I found?! YOUR BLOG!" It was bound to happen sometime, in fact there were times I had wondered if people secretly knew about my blog and were secretly reading it as I was secretly writing it. Josh was just thrilled that HE wasn't the one to spill the beans. He is a terrible secret keeper and it is impressive that although he's known abut the blog all this time, he's never accidentally mentioned it.
I don't have any real reason for keeping the blog a secret, I just liked the privacy it afforded me. I tend to be a bit self-conscious, in fact if Josh comes into a room when I'm writing a post I close it down and finish it later. In the past, I've told him he is welcome to read the blog (he doesn't) but not to discuss it with me later. In the early days of the blog, I was very worried about KayTar...everything felt so serious all the time...I needed the privacy to work through the weight of it on my own. Now, I don't really need it anymore, I just kept it a secret out of habit. I guess now I'll have to decide if I want to tell everyone, as I'm sure there are people (friends and family) who would like to keep up with us this way, or keep it a pseudo-secret until they stumble across us on an errant Google search of their own!
All I can say is KayTar better be getting that doll for Christmas (Yes, I'm talking to YOU, Mom)! ;)
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Better/Worse.
I woke up at about 5:30 this morning to KayTar calling me from her room. She wanted me to take her temperature, so I did, along with checking her glucose. Her temperature was just 100.6 and her glucose was 52. I think she was a little diaphoretic from the hypoglycemia, which she related to a feverish feeling. I set up a 4 ounce Pedialyte feed and told her to go back to sleep, 5:30 is too early on a Sunday. I went back to sleep for a bit, too. I assumed that the Pedialyte would fix things rather easily, as it had yesterday. When we woke up, her glucose was still 52 (or perhaps it had risen a small amount and then fallen again)! I gave her another 4 ounces of Pedialyte, this time with her tablespoon of cornstarch, but her response was very sluggish. As a point of reference, yesterday her glucose levels were rising by about 10 points at every 15 minute check. This morning, it took 30 minutes to go from 52 to 54. She was feeling hungry, so we gave her a jar of corn and sweet potatoes since it has the biggest carbohydrate punch of any of the baby foods she will eat. She tolerated it well and about 30 minutes after, she numbers finally got up into the 60s. Yesterday, we went from 47 to 90 in an hour, today it took about 4 hours to get from the 50s to the 60s. She's back in her normal range now, but it took a long time to get there. Tonight we're going to do an intermittent Pedialyte feed to see if that will prevent the overnight hypoglycemia.
For some reason, this virus is having a particularly nasty effect on her glucose levels. She's been sick loads of times recently and none of those viruses have caused her numbers to bottom out like this one has. The last time we dealt with this was April, I think! I suppose certain viruses cause more of a metabolic strain, causing everything to get a bit wonky for her. Even though this virus has been little more than a fever, symptom-wise, I'll be glad to see it go!
For some reason, this virus is having a particularly nasty effect on her glucose levels. She's been sick loads of times recently and none of those viruses have caused her numbers to bottom out like this one has. The last time we dealt with this was April, I think! I suppose certain viruses cause more of a metabolic strain, causing everything to get a bit wonky for her. Even though this virus has been little more than a fever, symptom-wise, I'll be glad to see it go!
Saturday, November 13, 2010
More effective than coffee!
This morning was the first Saturday morning in quite a while that we didn't have to be up, ready, and out the door by 8:45am because of baseball. Regardless, BubTar was up at 6:30am because he wanted to start reading the new Wimpy Kid book he picked up last night. KayTar woke up about 7am and called down to us, still snug in our bed, and we directed her to go read in her brother's room with him. She did and we stayed cozy in bed, though not quite asleep anymore. About thirty minutes later, KayTar started calling me. She had come down to the living room, asking me to get her chicken nuggets from the kitchen...which is NOT that far from the living room. I said, "Can't you just get them?" She said, "I'm trying, but my legs are too wobbly!" I was up in a FLASH. Wobbly legs is one of her chief complaints when she is hypoglycemic, and she has been feverish since yesterday morning...making hypoglycemia a definite possibility.
I checked her glucose and it was 47. Then I felt like a real jerk for lazing around in bed like I had, especially when she said, "Well, I slid myself down the stairs because my legs wouldn't work and I was trying to drag myself to the kitchen, but I just couldn't." We ran in 2 ounces of Pedialyte and rechecked her glucose in 15 minutes (in the interim, I rushed to get ready in case we were going to have to go to the hospital), it went up to 60. We repeated the Pedialyte and glucose checks every 15 minutes until she'd had a whole 8 ounces plus a tablespoon of cornstarch. Luckily, she tolerated it well without any vomiting. After that, her glucose was back up to the 90's. Whew. There are few things that can instantly shake me from a sleepy stupor without the aid of caffeine, but this is definitely one of them. I don't recommend it, though, just stick to coffee.
The rest of the day has gone pretty well with 4 ounce feeds of Pediasure, but she vomited up her most recent feed which was a 6 ouncer. I'm not sure what we will be able to get in her before bed...and I don't know how her numbers will be in the morning. Wish us luck!
I checked her glucose and it was 47. Then I felt like a real jerk for lazing around in bed like I had, especially when she said, "Well, I slid myself down the stairs because my legs wouldn't work and I was trying to drag myself to the kitchen, but I just couldn't." We ran in 2 ounces of Pedialyte and rechecked her glucose in 15 minutes (in the interim, I rushed to get ready in case we were going to have to go to the hospital), it went up to 60. We repeated the Pedialyte and glucose checks every 15 minutes until she'd had a whole 8 ounces plus a tablespoon of cornstarch. Luckily, she tolerated it well without any vomiting. After that, her glucose was back up to the 90's. Whew. There are few things that can instantly shake me from a sleepy stupor without the aid of caffeine, but this is definitely one of them. I don't recommend it, though, just stick to coffee.
The rest of the day has gone pretty well with 4 ounce feeds of Pediasure, but she vomited up her most recent feed which was a 6 ouncer. I'm not sure what we will be able to get in her before bed...and I don't know how her numbers will be in the morning. Wish us luck!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Leftovers.
I had several leftover photos from September and October, so I figured it was about time to post them, as it is now November! I went through and posted captions for all of them and then Blogger decided to ignore my save and I'm not rewriting them...so now you're on your own. The photos are pretty self-explanatory.
Monday, November 08, 2010
All better!
KayTar's swallowing issues got progressively better over the weekend and I daresay we're back to normal now! I think that she had either inflammation in her esophagus from the vomiting last weekend or perhaps some anxiety triggered by all of that, but whatever the cause, it seems like things are functioning properly again and I am so glad.
The whole thing really took me by surprise. Things have been steadily improving for KayTar for so long now that the thought of something deteriorating without warning was really frightening. It reminded me that although we know so much more about KayTar than we used to, we still don't really know the underlying condition that has triggered any of her symptoms or what the long term prognosis is. I have faith that the amazing improvements we've seen will continue, but when things like this happen it reminds me that there are no guarantees. Honestly, there are no guarantees in parenting of any kind, but it is especially true when dealing with a child who has special medical or developmental needs. The moment you discover that something is "wrong" with your child, you lose the ability to envision the future the way you always have. As things with KayTar have changed so much over the past couple of years, I've begun to take things for granted again and believe that this steady uphill climb will continue to be an uphill climb. When she started to have trouble swallowing, I suddenly felt the ground shift between my feet and somehow we were suddenly going downhill without warning. It is a relief to know that it was simply a small dip in the terrain rather than a permanent change in direction, but it reminded me that out here on the road less traveled, there isn't a road map and we've just got to take each step as it comes.
The whole thing really took me by surprise. Things have been steadily improving for KayTar for so long now that the thought of something deteriorating without warning was really frightening. It reminded me that although we know so much more about KayTar than we used to, we still don't really know the underlying condition that has triggered any of her symptoms or what the long term prognosis is. I have faith that the amazing improvements we've seen will continue, but when things like this happen it reminds me that there are no guarantees. Honestly, there are no guarantees in parenting of any kind, but it is especially true when dealing with a child who has special medical or developmental needs. The moment you discover that something is "wrong" with your child, you lose the ability to envision the future the way you always have. As things with KayTar have changed so much over the past couple of years, I've begun to take things for granted again and believe that this steady uphill climb will continue to be an uphill climb. When she started to have trouble swallowing, I suddenly felt the ground shift between my feet and somehow we were suddenly going downhill without warning. It is a relief to know that it was simply a small dip in the terrain rather than a permanent change in direction, but it reminded me that out here on the road less traveled, there isn't a road map and we've just got to take each step as it comes.
Thursday, November 04, 2010
Dysphagia.
That is the fancy word for difficulty swallowing...it is also happens to be KayTar's brand new issue, apparently.
Yesterday, I noticed that she was chewing up a bite of her solid food, then spitting it back out. She did it at snack and at dinner, and both times she stopped eating afterward. She said the food was getting stuck in her mouth. I asked her what she meant and she said she was spitting it out because it wouldn't go down her throat. I asked her about her meals at school (breakfast and lunch) for the past couple of days and she told me the same thing about each of them, she tried her food, chewed it, but spit it out because it wouldn't go down. She was with my mom during the day on Monday, so I called and asked if she had seen KayTar eat any solids. She said she had given KayTar chips and guacamole, but she couldn't say whether she ate any chips or just the guacamole (which is a pureed consistency). I also talked to the pediatrician, who said that if it continues to be an issue, we'll need to see the ENT/get an upper GI with a swallow study done.
I emailed KayTar's teacher and school nurse, so they could keep an eye on her at meals. Although I think it is very unlikely because of how cautious KayTar is with food, I'd hate for her to choke and not have mentioned this issue to anyone in advance. At breakfast, the teacher sat with her and encouraged her to try her pepperoni, which she did...but she picked it back out of her mouth because it wouldn't go down. At lunch, she successfully ate a few bites of garlic bread and a pepperoni. At snack, she tried pepperoni again, but it got stuck and she spit it out. After school, she wanted to try bacon bits, so I gave her one and it went down fine...but the subsequent ones got stuck and then she was done. Trying to get some more information about what exactly is happening, I gave her some options to explain what might be happening:
Yesterday, I noticed that she was chewing up a bite of her solid food, then spitting it back out. She did it at snack and at dinner, and both times she stopped eating afterward. She said the food was getting stuck in her mouth. I asked her what she meant and she said she was spitting it out because it wouldn't go down her throat. I asked her about her meals at school (breakfast and lunch) for the past couple of days and she told me the same thing about each of them, she tried her food, chewed it, but spit it out because it wouldn't go down. She was with my mom during the day on Monday, so I called and asked if she had seen KayTar eat any solids. She said she had given KayTar chips and guacamole, but she couldn't say whether she ate any chips or just the guacamole (which is a pureed consistency). I also talked to the pediatrician, who said that if it continues to be an issue, we'll need to see the ENT/get an upper GI with a swallow study done.
I emailed KayTar's teacher and school nurse, so they could keep an eye on her at meals. Although I think it is very unlikely because of how cautious KayTar is with food, I'd hate for her to choke and not have mentioned this issue to anyone in advance. At breakfast, the teacher sat with her and encouraged her to try her pepperoni, which she did...but she picked it back out of her mouth because it wouldn't go down. At lunch, she successfully ate a few bites of garlic bread and a pepperoni. At snack, she tried pepperoni again, but it got stuck and she spit it out. After school, she wanted to try bacon bits, so I gave her one and it went down fine...but the subsequent ones got stuck and then she was done. Trying to get some more information about what exactly is happening, I gave her some options to explain what might be happening:
1. Was she trying to swallow, but the food was getting stuck?She maintained that she was TRYING to swallow, but the food was getting stuck. I'm perplexed. I don't think it is behavioral, because these are foods she likes. She could simply says she was done and no one would make her eat another bite. She's never mentioned anything of this sort before. She is fine with liquids and she ate a stage 2 jar of peas this evening without issue. I'm hoping it resolves itself soon, but I don't know how likely that is...probably about as likely as her participating in a swallow study. (Seriously, how do they do swallow studies on kids like her? I think there is about zero chance she'll willingly drink the barium and we can't put it in her g-button because that defeats the purpose of a SWALLOW study.)
2. Was she swallowing, but then the food was returning to her mouth? (she has reflux)
3. Was she chewing her food, but losing track of where it was in her mouth, causing her to spit out her food? (she seems to only eat with one side of her mouth, which made me wonder about this)
4. None of these...something different that I didn't mention.
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Best Laid Plans...
This weekend didn't *quite* go as planned. Let's take it one day at a time...
Friday:
I did enjoy a lunch date with Josh, but I did not finish that paper. Literature reviews are like 200% more painful to write than a regular research paper. It definitely didn't get done on Friday. We did go to physical therapy and the pediatrician's appointment (and get a script for oral steroids and a switch from Qvar to Advair in an attempt to curtail all the wheezing), but because of that KayTar missed out on trick or treating with her class. She was a little bummed. However, when we were at PT I got a call from the metabolic clinic saying that they were going to test her for VLCAD (she had considerable elevations of C14, C16, and C18 in the acylcarnitine profile in her critical labs) and they needed my signature so they could round up some of her DNA (which I assume they have lying around the lab at this point; blood, CSF, muscle tissue, you name it!) and run the test without having to traumatize her yet again. So between PT and the pediatrician's appointment we went by the hospital to sign the forms. KayTar was in her costume from school and it just so happens the hospital was having a fall festival on the main bridge! KayTar had time to play a few games and it totally made up for missing trick or treating with her class. YAY! After the pediatrician's visit, we spent two hours at Walmart waiting for her prescriptions to be ready. Ugh. I was fighting a cold and by the time we were home for the day, everyone kind of collapsed into bed.
Saturday:
BubTar won his last baseball game of the season, so we blew off martial arts and went to get ice cream with a teammate instead. KayTar skipped dance because of her "uncontrollable coughing" as she said. After that we came home to do a little party prep and give KayTar her feed, while the boys ran to get party supplies from the store. Then we went to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. After that we came home so the kids could put on their costumes and we went to the fall festival. It was fun at first, then KayTar started acting a little off her game. She wanted to lay down on the bleachers instead of play. Then she told me she was going to vomit, so we rushed to find a bathroom. She didn't throw up, but she was fading fast...so I called Josh to meet us at the entrance/exit. He carried her to the car and she started to get limp...EPISODE limp. Uh-oh. On the way to the car, BubTar was so upset about missing the helicopter candy drop. He was all, "This is the worst day of my life." Then we heard the drop was in 5 minutes over the loudspeaker, so I told the boys that KayTar and I would hang out in the car so they could go back for the candy. KayTar was very lethargic and she started vomiting at this point. Good thing we keep one of those blue plastic emesis bags in the car...and an extra bucket. The boys came back 45 minutes later and then we headed home. Once we got home, KayTar perked up...just like she does after an episode...and we dosed her with Zofran and assumed the rest of the night would be business as usual, except she wouldn't be sleeping over at my mom's house like we had planned. We still had a few friends come over for game night, but it did NOT go as planned. KayTar continued to vomit in spite of the Zofran. She spiked a fever. She had a headache. We incorporated a game of KayTar Ping Pong into the festivities for game night, which meant Josh and I took turns dashing upstairs when she needed us. We put her in our bed and I spent most of the night up with her. It was rough.
Sunday:
Nothing went to plan on Sunday. KayTar was still sick and I had my paper to work on. While Josh did party prep, I worked on my paper. When it was party time, KayTar and I went to my mom's so she didn't get the guests sick. While there I worked through a chapter of biopsych in the textbook. When we got home, the boys went out to sell popcorn and I took my quiz...which was over a different chapter than the one I studied! Ack! I still did okay on it, but really hated that I wasted that time studying the wrong material. The boys went to a fall festival and trick or treating while KayTar and I stayed home. She was resting, I was working on my paper and doing laundry. It was kind of a bummer of a Halloween for the girls this year. Though, I did finish my paper!
Over the course of the night, my cold morphed into bronchitis and I woke up to an asthma attack at 4am on Monday. The kids had the day off on Monday, but I still had school (bummer!) so they spent the day with my mom. KayTar seemed to be back to herself, but yesterday she vomited up two of her feeds and I'm not exactly sure why. I think her system isn't quite back to normal from Saturday, but she made it through the school day Tuesday. So did I for that matter, but I'm sure feeling rough. BubTar started vomiting last night, poor kid. Vomiting is such a non-event for KayTar, because it happens so often for her, that I forget what it is like for kids that aren't used to it. Poor BubTar is pretty miserable. Last night, KayTar exclaimed, "It is a rare occasion! I'm not the sick one!" She was a little excited about that, actually. The 'Tars are a bit of a mess at the moment, but hopefully we'll all be over our respective illnesses soon and things will be back to normal around here!
Friday:
I did enjoy a lunch date with Josh, but I did not finish that paper. Literature reviews are like 200% more painful to write than a regular research paper. It definitely didn't get done on Friday. We did go to physical therapy and the pediatrician's appointment (and get a script for oral steroids and a switch from Qvar to Advair in an attempt to curtail all the wheezing), but because of that KayTar missed out on trick or treating with her class. She was a little bummed. However, when we were at PT I got a call from the metabolic clinic saying that they were going to test her for VLCAD (she had considerable elevations of C14, C16, and C18 in the acylcarnitine profile in her critical labs) and they needed my signature so they could round up some of her DNA (which I assume they have lying around the lab at this point; blood, CSF, muscle tissue, you name it!) and run the test without having to traumatize her yet again. So between PT and the pediatrician's appointment we went by the hospital to sign the forms. KayTar was in her costume from school and it just so happens the hospital was having a fall festival on the main bridge! KayTar had time to play a few games and it totally made up for missing trick or treating with her class. YAY! After the pediatrician's visit, we spent two hours at Walmart waiting for her prescriptions to be ready. Ugh. I was fighting a cold and by the time we were home for the day, everyone kind of collapsed into bed.
Saturday:
BubTar won his last baseball game of the season, so we blew off martial arts and went to get ice cream with a teammate instead. KayTar skipped dance because of her "uncontrollable coughing" as she said. After that we came home to do a little party prep and give KayTar her feed, while the boys ran to get party supplies from the store. Then we went to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. After that we came home so the kids could put on their costumes and we went to the fall festival. It was fun at first, then KayTar started acting a little off her game. She wanted to lay down on the bleachers instead of play. Then she told me she was going to vomit, so we rushed to find a bathroom. She didn't throw up, but she was fading fast...so I called Josh to meet us at the entrance/exit. He carried her to the car and she started to get limp...EPISODE limp. Uh-oh. On the way to the car, BubTar was so upset about missing the helicopter candy drop. He was all, "This is the worst day of my life." Then we heard the drop was in 5 minutes over the loudspeaker, so I told the boys that KayTar and I would hang out in the car so they could go back for the candy. KayTar was very lethargic and she started vomiting at this point. Good thing we keep one of those blue plastic emesis bags in the car...and an extra bucket. The boys came back 45 minutes later and then we headed home. Once we got home, KayTar perked up...just like she does after an episode...and we dosed her with Zofran and assumed the rest of the night would be business as usual, except she wouldn't be sleeping over at my mom's house like we had planned. We still had a few friends come over for game night, but it did NOT go as planned. KayTar continued to vomit in spite of the Zofran. She spiked a fever. She had a headache. We incorporated a game of KayTar Ping Pong into the festivities for game night, which meant Josh and I took turns dashing upstairs when she needed us. We put her in our bed and I spent most of the night up with her. It was rough.
Sunday:
Nothing went to plan on Sunday. KayTar was still sick and I had my paper to work on. While Josh did party prep, I worked on my paper. When it was party time, KayTar and I went to my mom's so she didn't get the guests sick. While there I worked through a chapter of biopsych in the textbook. When we got home, the boys went out to sell popcorn and I took my quiz...which was over a different chapter than the one I studied! Ack! I still did okay on it, but really hated that I wasted that time studying the wrong material. The boys went to a fall festival and trick or treating while KayTar and I stayed home. She was resting, I was working on my paper and doing laundry. It was kind of a bummer of a Halloween for the girls this year. Though, I did finish my paper!
Over the course of the night, my cold morphed into bronchitis and I woke up to an asthma attack at 4am on Monday. The kids had the day off on Monday, but I still had school (bummer!) so they spent the day with my mom. KayTar seemed to be back to herself, but yesterday she vomited up two of her feeds and I'm not exactly sure why. I think her system isn't quite back to normal from Saturday, but she made it through the school day Tuesday. So did I for that matter, but I'm sure feeling rough. BubTar started vomiting last night, poor kid. Vomiting is such a non-event for KayTar, because it happens so often for her, that I forget what it is like for kids that aren't used to it. Poor BubTar is pretty miserable. Last night, KayTar exclaimed, "It is a rare occasion! I'm not the sick one!" She was a little excited about that, actually. The 'Tars are a bit of a mess at the moment, but hopefully we'll all be over our respective illnesses soon and things will be back to normal around here!
Friday, October 29, 2010
Report Card Time!
BubTar got all A's, as usual. His teacher said, "BubTar is a joy to teach this year. He has so much knowledge to share with the class. Congratulations on making the All A Honor Roll this first nine weeks!"
KayTar got all S's (for satisfactory, the other option is a U for unsatisfactory) and her teacher said, "KayTar is very intelligent. She provides comic relief and shares many interesting facts with the class! I really enjoy having her in class this year. Thanks for all your help at home."
****
We've got a busy weekend ahead. Today, I am writing a 5-7 page literature review on speech and communication in autism spectrum disorders, I took a lunch break to go on a quick date with Josh, now I'm off to pick KayTar up and take her to PT and a pediatrician's visit for her prolonged post-viral cough and wheezing. Tomorrow, BubTar has his last baseball game of the season, then KayTar will go to dance while he goes to martial arts, then we'll meet up for a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, then head to a Fall Festival before dropping the kids off at my parents' house and coming home to host game night. Sunday, we are hosting a Halloween party for the cub scouts and attending another Fall Festival, plus trick or treating...as well as finishing up this paper and completing a chapter of biopsych. Whew, I think I'm tired already!
KayTar got all S's (for satisfactory, the other option is a U for unsatisfactory) and her teacher said, "KayTar is very intelligent. She provides comic relief and shares many interesting facts with the class! I really enjoy having her in class this year. Thanks for all your help at home."
****
We've got a busy weekend ahead. Today, I am writing a 5-7 page literature review on speech and communication in autism spectrum disorders, I took a lunch break to go on a quick date with Josh, now I'm off to pick KayTar up and take her to PT and a pediatrician's visit for her prolonged post-viral cough and wheezing. Tomorrow, BubTar has his last baseball game of the season, then KayTar will go to dance while he goes to martial arts, then we'll meet up for a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, then head to a Fall Festival before dropping the kids off at my parents' house and coming home to host game night. Sunday, we are hosting a Halloween party for the cub scouts and attending another Fall Festival, plus trick or treating...as well as finishing up this paper and completing a chapter of biopsych. Whew, I think I'm tired already!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Blurg.
This weekend I worked my butt off studying for the organic midterm. I probably logged 24 hours worth of study time. Guess what? I FAILED. I haven't seen my grade yet, but based on the amount of guessing I did...I failed. It was like freaking GREEK. I just cannot get NMR spectroscopy to click and that was the majority of the test. I can look at an NMR spectra and determine the various groups, but organizing them into the correct molecule just isn't happening. I'm hoping the rest of the class did as poorly as they think they did (I didn't talk to a single person who thought they had passed, even the guy who loves this stuff and wants to work as a chemist.) and there will be a major curve...otherwise, I'm screwed.
I studied so much this weekend that I missed BubTar's double header baseball game. I had to keep KayTar home from her dance class. We missed the big fall festival at my school. The kids didn't get to have any friends over and we didn't do anything really. It was me and my books all weekend. Now it feels like wasted time. If I was going to fail the test, I might as well have enjoyed my weekend and my kids. I know, I know...it is important that I put the effort in and if I hadn't, I'd be kicking myself over that, too. Either way, it sucks.
I'm about 99% sure that I have an ulcer. Upper middle abdominal pain, below my ribs and above my belly button...it gets much worse when standing, so I think it is probably gastric and not duodenal. It does NOT feel good. Walking up to school today, the pain was climbing all the way up into my chest and radiating toward my back, too. It made it a bit hard to breathe. Not pleasant. I'm self-treating with Zegerid, which has helped with previous ulcers, but if it doesn't help quickly, I predict a trip to student health services in my near future.
Today was supposed to be KayTar's field trip to the farm, but we had to miss it because she has been sick. Yesterday she seemed like she was on the upswing and her fever broke in the morning, but she vomited before bed, so we decided not to push it. I feel bad about it now, because she's done great today and I think she could have gone and been just fine, especially since I was going to tag along. Bummer.
The only bright spot in this bleak, guilt-infested, grump of a post is that I got my midterm grades back for history and music and I got a 102 and 103 respectively. My history professor gave me a lot of wonderful comments on my essay, too. At least I'm competent at SOMETHING, right?
I studied so much this weekend that I missed BubTar's double header baseball game. I had to keep KayTar home from her dance class. We missed the big fall festival at my school. The kids didn't get to have any friends over and we didn't do anything really. It was me and my books all weekend. Now it feels like wasted time. If I was going to fail the test, I might as well have enjoyed my weekend and my kids. I know, I know...it is important that I put the effort in and if I hadn't, I'd be kicking myself over that, too. Either way, it sucks.
I'm about 99% sure that I have an ulcer. Upper middle abdominal pain, below my ribs and above my belly button...it gets much worse when standing, so I think it is probably gastric and not duodenal. It does NOT feel good. Walking up to school today, the pain was climbing all the way up into my chest and radiating toward my back, too. It made it a bit hard to breathe. Not pleasant. I'm self-treating with Zegerid, which has helped with previous ulcers, but if it doesn't help quickly, I predict a trip to student health services in my near future.
Today was supposed to be KayTar's field trip to the farm, but we had to miss it because she has been sick. Yesterday she seemed like she was on the upswing and her fever broke in the morning, but she vomited before bed, so we decided not to push it. I feel bad about it now, because she's done great today and I think she could have gone and been just fine, especially since I was going to tag along. Bummer.
The only bright spot in this bleak, guilt-infested, grump of a post is that I got my midterm grades back for history and music and I got a 102 and 103 respectively. My history professor gave me a lot of wonderful comments on my essay, too. At least I'm competent at SOMETHING, right?
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Oh, that KayTar.
Yesterday was supposed to be KayTar's hospital follow-up appointment with endocrinology, however, I had midterms...so I called 3 separate times to cancel it and reschedule. I attempted to get in touch with a Real Person, but it is increasingly more difficult to speak with a real person in the hospital clinics, so I settled for leaving a message each time. After midterms yesterday, I came home long enough to have lunch before heading to the kids' school to help with Book Fair. The phone rang and it was the endocrinologist. She said, "KayTar was supposed to have a follow-up appointment today, is everything okay?" I explained I had tried to cancel it several times, but evidently no one had been checking messages. Halfway into our phone conversation, I got a call on the other line from the scheduler, she had FINALLY check her messages, just a tiny bit too late. It all worked out well, though, because we did the follow-up over the phone and it saved me about 3 hours.
Long story short, 4-5 out of 20 items on KayTar acylcarnitine profile were abnormal and she had a small elevation of her free fatty acids. For those of you who are not native speakers of Medicalese, this indicates that KayTar probably has an underlying metabolic condition. Based on these specific labs, it is likely to be a fatty acid oxidation disorder, but no one knows at this point. In fact, all of this may lead nowhere in the end...as we've found to be the case more often than not. Her lab results received an automatic flagging in the hospital system and the metabolic clinic was alerted, so we'll be following up with them as well. I'm glad they did get a bit of a lead from that horrible, horrible study, though...it makes me feel just a little less terrible about all of it.
Regardless of how the results turn out in the long run, KayTar is doing very well now that we have added cornstarch to her morning feed. All of her numbers have been in the 80-90 range! She was sick recently and although she did get ketotic, she never became hypoglycemic. We're pretty pleased with how well it is working!
Enough medical talk, though. It has been a while since I've done a Quotable KayTar post, so I'd like to leave you with a few of my favorite recent quotes:
"Mrs. M's (the librarian at school) lipgloss makes her lips look so plump! She's like a hot lady!"
At cub scouts on Monday, the scout leader started to do announcements and KayTar piped up, loudly, "Yadda, yadda, yadda..." Josh almost DIED from embarrassment.
When telling my mom that her friends at school don't believe that she got to go to NYC for a photo shoot and be in a magazine, "You know, everyone is SO jealous of me."
While we were in the hospital she said, "I don't really want my skin to get darker, so I'm not going to eat any melons." I asked, "Okay, but why aren't you going to eat melons?" And she said, "Because of the MELANIN!" (she knows melanin is what makes skin darker, and she assumed it came from melons, LOL!)
Last week, KayTar got a conduct mark for kissing a boy in PE. When I asked her why she did it, she said, "Because I was looking for a little romance!" This one takes the cake.
Long story short, 4-5 out of 20 items on KayTar acylcarnitine profile were abnormal and she had a small elevation of her free fatty acids. For those of you who are not native speakers of Medicalese, this indicates that KayTar probably has an underlying metabolic condition. Based on these specific labs, it is likely to be a fatty acid oxidation disorder, but no one knows at this point. In fact, all of this may lead nowhere in the end...as we've found to be the case more often than not. Her lab results received an automatic flagging in the hospital system and the metabolic clinic was alerted, so we'll be following up with them as well. I'm glad they did get a bit of a lead from that horrible, horrible study, though...it makes me feel just a little less terrible about all of it.
Regardless of how the results turn out in the long run, KayTar is doing very well now that we have added cornstarch to her morning feed. All of her numbers have been in the 80-90 range! She was sick recently and although she did get ketotic, she never became hypoglycemic. We're pretty pleased with how well it is working!
Enough medical talk, though. It has been a while since I've done a Quotable KayTar post, so I'd like to leave you with a few of my favorite recent quotes:
"Mrs. M's (the librarian at school) lipgloss makes her lips look so plump! She's like a hot lady!"
At cub scouts on Monday, the scout leader started to do announcements and KayTar piped up, loudly, "Yadda, yadda, yadda..." Josh almost DIED from embarrassment.
When telling my mom that her friends at school don't believe that she got to go to NYC for a photo shoot and be in a magazine, "You know, everyone is SO jealous of me."
While we were in the hospital she said, "I don't really want my skin to get darker, so I'm not going to eat any melons." I asked, "Okay, but why aren't you going to eat melons?" And she said, "Because of the MELANIN!" (she knows melanin is what makes skin darker, and she assumed it came from melons, LOL!)
Last week, KayTar got a conduct mark for kissing a boy in PE. When I asked her why she did it, she said, "Because I was looking for a little romance!" This one takes the cake.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Weekend Update
I spent Friday shadowing our pediatrician. The more time I spend in the clinic, the more certain I am that I could be quite happy as a primary care pediatrician. I really enjoy being in clinic; I love the kids, I love the medicine...its a win-win. It is a very good reminder of why I'm tormenting myself with all of this school business. Earlier this week, I was saying to Josh, "Why can't I just be happy just being a history major or an English major? It would be so easy for me!" I could care less about organic chemistry...or physics next year...but I have to get through them to get to what I really want. I really want to practice medicine one day, and spending time in the clinic reminds me of that and keeps me motivated.
Today has been our first "normal" Saturday in a while (in fact, it has been our first normal week in a while, too!). We all went to BubTar's baseball game, which they lost, and then KayTar and I rushed to her dance class only to find out it was canceled! The Down Syndrome Buddy Walk was today and because a large portion of the class has Down Syndrome and attends the walk, so they canceled class for the day. While we were needlessly rushing to dance class, the boys were rushing from baseball to a trial martial arts class for BubTar. He LOVED it. He gets to attend classes for free for the next month and he's got his cute little uniform and white belt, but then we're going to have to come up with the money for classes or pull him out. It is a really great workout, though, and he really enjoyed it so I hope we can find the money in the couch cushions or something. ;) As of right now, BubTar has scouts on Monday nights and baseball on Thursday night...plus games on Saturday. Martial arts can be as often as daily, but they require two sessions at least each week...so it looks like it will be a Tuesday/Wednesday night event for him...possibly Saturdays when it doesn't interfere with baseball or scouting events. Sometimes I wonder when and how we became over-scheduled, middle-aged (even though we're actually only 27) suburbanites...but such is life with kids!
After we all got home and had Subway for lunch, the kids' went to play at their friends' house for a bit, then the girls came here and the boys went out to sell popcorn together for cub scouts. The girls are sleeping over here tonight and the boys are sleeping over there. I've been studying for midterms next week while the kids are playing together upstairs...and now I'm taking a break to blog, evidently. Josh has a test to take tonight once he is back from popcorn selling, so we'll just be juggling things as usual around here tonight. We had big plans for $1 margarita date night, but it looks like that will be postponed until next Saturday. I'll probably need it more then anyway, as I'll be cramming for organic chemistry next weekend. Eeek!
BubTar, bored in the outfield today.
Today has been our first "normal" Saturday in a while (in fact, it has been our first normal week in a while, too!). We all went to BubTar's baseball game, which they lost, and then KayTar and I rushed to her dance class only to find out it was canceled! The Down Syndrome Buddy Walk was today and because a large portion of the class has Down Syndrome and attends the walk, so they canceled class for the day. While we were needlessly rushing to dance class, the boys were rushing from baseball to a trial martial arts class for BubTar. He LOVED it. He gets to attend classes for free for the next month and he's got his cute little uniform and white belt, but then we're going to have to come up with the money for classes or pull him out. It is a really great workout, though, and he really enjoyed it so I hope we can find the money in the couch cushions or something. ;) As of right now, BubTar has scouts on Monday nights and baseball on Thursday night...plus games on Saturday. Martial arts can be as often as daily, but they require two sessions at least each week...so it looks like it will be a Tuesday/Wednesday night event for him...possibly Saturdays when it doesn't interfere with baseball or scouting events. Sometimes I wonder when and how we became over-scheduled, middle-aged (even though we're actually only 27) suburbanites...but such is life with kids!
After we all got home and had Subway for lunch, the kids' went to play at their friends' house for a bit, then the girls came here and the boys went out to sell popcorn together for cub scouts. The girls are sleeping over here tonight and the boys are sleeping over there. I've been studying for midterms next week while the kids are playing together upstairs...and now I'm taking a break to blog, evidently. Josh has a test to take tonight once he is back from popcorn selling, so we'll just be juggling things as usual around here tonight. We had big plans for $1 margarita date night, but it looks like that will be postponed until next Saturday. I'll probably need it more then anyway, as I'll be cramming for organic chemistry next weekend. Eeek!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
I feel like I should post today...
But it is one of those organic chemistry lecture/orgo lab/lunch with friend/volunteer at the kids' library to help with Book Fair set-up for 3+ hours/laundry so I have clothes to wear tomorrow/quick dinner/shower and get ready/volunteer at the hospital/prep for tomorrow/get ready for bed/watch Modern Family with Josh/THE END kind of days...so writing will just have to wait!
Saturday, October 09, 2010
KayTar had surgery, again.
On Wednesday night, while on my volunteer shift, I remembered that I hadn't told Josh which meds KayTar needed so I gave him a quick call. After my shift, I noticed two missed calls on my cell, so I called Josh back. He said, "Hey! I've got great news!" a little too enthusiastically. I said, "Really? Great news?" and he said, "No. Not great news. I figured out why we've been having some leakage issues with KayTar's tube." I was walking out to the parking garage by this point, so I stopped, wondering if they would be coming to me instead of me to them. He explained that the outer portion of the g-button was detaching from the inner tube.
Image borrowed from http://bieho.blogspot.com/
That flat portion lies on top of her skin, and the tubing goes down into the stomach, where the mushroom hold it in place. Well, the tubing was splitting off of the outer portion and if it had full split, the inner tubing would have falling in and the stoma (hole in her skin/stomach) would begin to close rapidly. Josh said it was only about 25% split, so I headed home and we decided to deal with it the next day. I looked at it when I got home and it was actually about 50% split, and every time we looked at it, it seemed to split more. I emailed our pediatrician and she said to call the surgeon's office when they opened.
The office didn't open until 9am, so I took KayTar to school (with her tube taped, so that it wouldn't get pulled or tugged and split further) and I volunteered in the library as usual for a Thursday morning. I started calling a little after 9am, initially I left a message with the nurse, but because my cell gets TERRIBLE reception at the school, I called back after 10 minutes or so, trying to get someone to tell me what we needed to do. The person who I spoke to said that if it needed to be switched in the OR (which is does, because it is held in place by that hard mushroom which they have to jam a rod into and then jerk the thing back out through the little hole, then do the same thing in reverse to place the new one), then we needed to go the ER to be admitted to surgery. I told her that last time, we came in through the clinic and were sent to day surgery, but she said they couldn't do that. We had to go to the ER. Then she transferred me to the nurse, which was voicemail again, so I called back. I talked to someone else who told me the same thing, then transferred me to the nurse, which was STILL voicemail. I called back again and talked to someone, maybe one of the same people, maybe not...explained the situation and the instructions I'd been given, and they said to go to the ER as well. So we went.
Luckily, our nurse friend M was on! I asked for her at registration and she came and walked us through triage. We waited in the lobby for about 10 minutes before getting called back to finish registration, and by the time we were finished there, M came to tell us she had a room open up! Thank God for small favors. KayTar loooooves M, so having her as a nurse would make the day loads easier...and it really did. She came and chatted with us, took KayTar on walks around the floor, played blocks with us...all sorts of fun stuff. We had absolutely ZERO reason to be in the ER...she didn't need an IV or meds, she didn't need monitoring, she didn't need vitals checks...we were JUST sitting and waiting for surgery to see us, much like we would have done IN CLINIC. KayTar was NPO and acutely aware of this because it was only a week since her fast, so every time she would start to get bored, she would get a little worked up about the no food/drinks thing. The surgical residents came to see us early on, one said they might do it in the ER without sedation and I wasn't coo with that. She sees too many doctors to be majorly traumatized, which is what OUR surgeon has told us many, many times. The rest of the day, roughly 11am-7:30pm was spent WAITING FOR THE SURGICAL ATTENDING. He refused to come down or give anyone instructions for hours. Everyone was frustrated and apologetic, from the nurses to the ER doc to the surgical residents. I was in touch with our pediatrician by phone and text, and she was annoyed with the situation, too. He finally came down a little after 7pm, tried to talk me into letting him do it bedside, which I said no to, and then he basically told me he had enough cases for 12-24 hours and he didn't know what to do with us. I said, "Can't you just send us home and give us a day surgery slot?" It was like he hadn't even thought of that! It took him one phone call and about 45 seconds to get her on the schedule and we FINALLY got out of there.
On the way out, I got a Facebook message from our nurse (who had gotten off shift before we were released) inviting us to dinner at her house with her and her husband. The first thing KayTar had said to M was "I need a BURGER!" and they were having burgers for dinner. I asked KayTar if she wanted to go and she did, so off we went. It was so nice and fun, and it made KayTar forget all the yuckiness of the day. She didn't eat a burger, of course, but she had a little sweet tea and a couple pieces of bacon dipped on mayo (she's all about the saturated fats, that girl). She had been NPO for over 13 hours, so eating anything was good. We hung out for a bit and then headed home, exhausted, but much happier than we were a couple of hours before.
Yesterday was the actual surgery and it was a BREEZE compared to the recent fasting study and day in the ER. There was brief confusion when the surgeon told the anesthesiologist that he wasn't going to do her surgery, so the very kind anesthesiologist found another surgeon for her, but at the last minute the original surgeon decided to do it after all. I got a certain not-so-wonderful impression of that particular surgeon, judging from the level of exasperation EVERYONE who was working with him exhibited over the course of both days. He did his job eventually, and that's all that really mattered in the end. On the way home, we stopped at my mom's for ice cream and then we all went to dinner at KayTar's favorite tex-mex joint. It was wonderful and she ATE. When we got home, she had a fever...not from surgery, but from the virus that had caused her to wake up all congested that same morning. I'm so glad it waited until night to start, because if she had woken with it, we probably wouldn't have been able to do the surgery.
Anyway, that's the latest drama. I missed school the past two Thursdays because we were in the hospital. I was supposed to shadow the pediatrician the past two Fridays, but didn't because we were in the hospital. It sort of makes me wonder what the hell I'm doing with all this school and medicine-related insanity, when I clearly already have enough medicine-related insanity right here at home. I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing...but I do know it kind of makes me want to do it all the more, because the ONLY thing that makes all of this bearable are the wonderful, kind people who are caring for KayTar. The system sucks, there are a lot of jerks and idiots out there and a lot of hoops to jump through, a lot of unfairness in how medical care is provided...but there are a lot of wonderful people in the system who go above and beyond. There are nurses who invite you to dinner after a long day, pediatricians who will talk to you on the phone while they are at home with their own kids, school nurses who research different types of g-buttons for you and send encouraging emails when you are stuck in the torturous throes of a fasting study, ER doctors who are attentive and apologetic when the issue at hand is completely out of their control. There are good people who are passionate about medicine and about caring for people and I want to be one of those people. The system is a mess, but those people...they make it a beautiful kind of mess.
This is what KayTar wore to surgery yesterday. It was QUITE a conversation starter.
PS: If you have g-button experience, I'd love to hear what kind of button you have and how you feel about it. We use a Bard, which requires the OR switch. The two defects we have encountered are common issues according to the surgeon, and replacement is a HASSLE, clearly. We like the Bard because it is lower profile than the Mic-Key and because although the swaps are a hassle, they are much less frequent than balloon ruptures, especially with a normally active kid like KayTar. We've been looking into the minis made by AMT medical and they look pretty nice. They have balloon and non-balloon versions that seem to address some of the issues with the Bard and Mic-Key. Anyone used those? If we have another Bard failure, we're looking to switch...so we want to research and decide before we get to that point.
That flat portion lies on top of her skin, and the tubing goes down into the stomach, where the mushroom hold it in place. Well, the tubing was splitting off of the outer portion and if it had full split, the inner tubing would have falling in and the stoma (hole in her skin/stomach) would begin to close rapidly. Josh said it was only about 25% split, so I headed home and we decided to deal with it the next day. I looked at it when I got home and it was actually about 50% split, and every time we looked at it, it seemed to split more. I emailed our pediatrician and she said to call the surgeon's office when they opened.
The office didn't open until 9am, so I took KayTar to school (with her tube taped, so that it wouldn't get pulled or tugged and split further) and I volunteered in the library as usual for a Thursday morning. I started calling a little after 9am, initially I left a message with the nurse, but because my cell gets TERRIBLE reception at the school, I called back after 10 minutes or so, trying to get someone to tell me what we needed to do. The person who I spoke to said that if it needed to be switched in the OR (which is does, because it is held in place by that hard mushroom which they have to jam a rod into and then jerk the thing back out through the little hole, then do the same thing in reverse to place the new one), then we needed to go the ER to be admitted to surgery. I told her that last time, we came in through the clinic and were sent to day surgery, but she said they couldn't do that. We had to go to the ER. Then she transferred me to the nurse, which was voicemail again, so I called back. I talked to someone else who told me the same thing, then transferred me to the nurse, which was STILL voicemail. I called back again and talked to someone, maybe one of the same people, maybe not...explained the situation and the instructions I'd been given, and they said to go to the ER as well. So we went.
Luckily, our nurse friend M was on! I asked for her at registration and she came and walked us through triage. We waited in the lobby for about 10 minutes before getting called back to finish registration, and by the time we were finished there, M came to tell us she had a room open up! Thank God for small favors. KayTar loooooves M, so having her as a nurse would make the day loads easier...and it really did. She came and chatted with us, took KayTar on walks around the floor, played blocks with us...all sorts of fun stuff. We had absolutely ZERO reason to be in the ER...she didn't need an IV or meds, she didn't need monitoring, she didn't need vitals checks...we were JUST sitting and waiting for surgery to see us, much like we would have done IN CLINIC. KayTar was NPO and acutely aware of this because it was only a week since her fast, so every time she would start to get bored, she would get a little worked up about the no food/drinks thing. The surgical residents came to see us early on, one said they might do it in the ER without sedation and I wasn't coo with that. She sees too many doctors to be majorly traumatized, which is what OUR surgeon has told us many, many times. The rest of the day, roughly 11am-7:30pm was spent WAITING FOR THE SURGICAL ATTENDING. He refused to come down or give anyone instructions for hours. Everyone was frustrated and apologetic, from the nurses to the ER doc to the surgical residents. I was in touch with our pediatrician by phone and text, and she was annoyed with the situation, too. He finally came down a little after 7pm, tried to talk me into letting him do it bedside, which I said no to, and then he basically told me he had enough cases for 12-24 hours and he didn't know what to do with us. I said, "Can't you just send us home and give us a day surgery slot?" It was like he hadn't even thought of that! It took him one phone call and about 45 seconds to get her on the schedule and we FINALLY got out of there.
On the way out, I got a Facebook message from our nurse (who had gotten off shift before we were released) inviting us to dinner at her house with her and her husband. The first thing KayTar had said to M was "I need a BURGER!" and they were having burgers for dinner. I asked KayTar if she wanted to go and she did, so off we went. It was so nice and fun, and it made KayTar forget all the yuckiness of the day. She didn't eat a burger, of course, but she had a little sweet tea and a couple pieces of bacon dipped on mayo (she's all about the saturated fats, that girl). She had been NPO for over 13 hours, so eating anything was good. We hung out for a bit and then headed home, exhausted, but much happier than we were a couple of hours before.
Yesterday was the actual surgery and it was a BREEZE compared to the recent fasting study and day in the ER. There was brief confusion when the surgeon told the anesthesiologist that he wasn't going to do her surgery, so the very kind anesthesiologist found another surgeon for her, but at the last minute the original surgeon decided to do it after all. I got a certain not-so-wonderful impression of that particular surgeon, judging from the level of exasperation EVERYONE who was working with him exhibited over the course of both days. He did his job eventually, and that's all that really mattered in the end. On the way home, we stopped at my mom's for ice cream and then we all went to dinner at KayTar's favorite tex-mex joint. It was wonderful and she ATE. When we got home, she had a fever...not from surgery, but from the virus that had caused her to wake up all congested that same morning. I'm so glad it waited until night to start, because if she had woken with it, we probably wouldn't have been able to do the surgery.
Anyway, that's the latest drama. I missed school the past two Thursdays because we were in the hospital. I was supposed to shadow the pediatrician the past two Fridays, but didn't because we were in the hospital. It sort of makes me wonder what the hell I'm doing with all this school and medicine-related insanity, when I clearly already have enough medicine-related insanity right here at home. I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing...but I do know it kind of makes me want to do it all the more, because the ONLY thing that makes all of this bearable are the wonderful, kind people who are caring for KayTar. The system sucks, there are a lot of jerks and idiots out there and a lot of hoops to jump through, a lot of unfairness in how medical care is provided...but there are a lot of wonderful people in the system who go above and beyond. There are nurses who invite you to dinner after a long day, pediatricians who will talk to you on the phone while they are at home with their own kids, school nurses who research different types of g-buttons for you and send encouraging emails when you are stuck in the torturous throes of a fasting study, ER doctors who are attentive and apologetic when the issue at hand is completely out of their control. There are good people who are passionate about medicine and about caring for people and I want to be one of those people. The system is a mess, but those people...they make it a beautiful kind of mess.
PS: If you have g-button experience, I'd love to hear what kind of button you have and how you feel about it. We use a Bard, which requires the OR switch. The two defects we have encountered are common issues according to the surgeon, and replacement is a HASSLE, clearly. We like the Bard because it is lower profile than the Mic-Key and because although the swaps are a hassle, they are much less frequent than balloon ruptures, especially with a normally active kid like KayTar. We've been looking into the minis made by AMT medical and they look pretty nice. They have balloon and non-balloon versions that seem to address some of the issues with the Bard and Mic-Key. Anyone used those? If we have another Bard failure, we're looking to switch...so we want to research and decide before we get to that point.
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Sunday, October 03, 2010
Glad that is over!
Yesterday was a much better day. Shortly after I posted, they rechecked her glucose and it was up to 103! Woohoo! She slept until 10:30 or so, and when she woke up she was back to her happy, chatty self. It was awesome. She tolerated all of her morning feeds, a total of 2 ounces of Pedialyte and 6 ounces of Pediasure. She snacked on a breakfast sausage patty while we watched cartoons together. It was such a relief.
Results from her critical labs started to come in, and all of the ones they had yesterday were normal, except for her cortisol, which was 7 when it should have been 18. Because of this, they ordered an ACTH stimulation test so we had to hang around longer than expected. It was fine, though, because KayTar was feeling so much better, and the hospital is much easier to tolerate if your kid is happy and well. The results of this ACTH stimulation test were normal, just like the one she had done in June. It sounded like the doctors were discounting the considerably low cortisol as being important because of the results of the ACTH stimulation test, but I disagree with that. If her cortisol was low when she her body was under stress and hypoglycemic, I don't really think it should be dismissed as unimportant. When she is healthy and not expending large amounts of energy, she is fine (as proven by the fact it took her 31 hours to become hypoglycemic at rest), she has problems when her body is stressed by increased metabolic demand or illnesses and her body doesn't rise to the occasion and appropriately mobilize resources. It seems related to me...of course, I'm not an endocrinologist, so who knows. (If you ARE an endocrinologist and you are reading this and can explain it satisfactorily, feel free to do so. If it unrelated, I'd really like to understand why that is. The doctors were not doing a good job of explaining it away.)
There are our discharge orders:
#2 is no problem, we don't mind glucose checks...except, she RARELY has numbers above 80, which I don't think they full understand. Since school began, she's only had 5 numbers over 80. I'd like to make sure they know her numbers tend to stay in the 60s and 70s for the most part.
#3 is a little ridiculous. She'd have been in the ER twice in the last couple of weeks based on this, and we've been able to correct her deficit at home rather easily. It seems unnecessary to take her in for that every time. Of course, if we can't correct the deficit, we'd take her in.
I have to call them on Monday to get our follow-up appointment time, so I'll get some clarification then hopefully. That's that. We're home now and so happy to be here!
Results from her critical labs started to come in, and all of the ones they had yesterday were normal, except for her cortisol, which was 7 when it should have been 18. Because of this, they ordered an ACTH stimulation test so we had to hang around longer than expected. It was fine, though, because KayTar was feeling so much better, and the hospital is much easier to tolerate if your kid is happy and well. The results of this ACTH stimulation test were normal, just like the one she had done in June. It sounded like the doctors were discounting the considerably low cortisol as being important because of the results of the ACTH stimulation test, but I disagree with that. If her cortisol was low when she her body was under stress and hypoglycemic, I don't really think it should be dismissed as unimportant. When she is healthy and not expending large amounts of energy, she is fine (as proven by the fact it took her 31 hours to become hypoglycemic at rest), she has problems when her body is stressed by increased metabolic demand or illnesses and her body doesn't rise to the occasion and appropriately mobilize resources. It seems related to me...of course, I'm not an endocrinologist, so who knows. (If you ARE an endocrinologist and you are reading this and can explain it satisfactorily, feel free to do so. If it unrelated, I'd really like to understand why that is. The doctors were not doing a good job of explaining it away.)
There are our discharge orders:
1. Add 1 tbsp of cornstarch to morning g-tube feed.#1 is awesome. Cornstarch is a very complex carbohydrate, so it is suppose to help get her to lunch without her glucose dropping like it has been.
2. Check blood glucose in morning and prior to lunch feed for 4-6, can discontinue checks when glucose is consistently above 80.
3. If glucose is less than 60 for 2 checks, call emergency/go to ER.
#2 is no problem, we don't mind glucose checks...except, she RARELY has numbers above 80, which I don't think they full understand. Since school began, she's only had 5 numbers over 80. I'd like to make sure they know her numbers tend to stay in the 60s and 70s for the most part.
#3 is a little ridiculous. She'd have been in the ER twice in the last couple of weeks based on this, and we've been able to correct her deficit at home rather easily. It seems unnecessary to take her in for that every time. Of course, if we can't correct the deficit, we'd take her in.
I have to call them on Monday to get our follow-up appointment time, so I'll get some clarification then hopefully. That's that. We're home now and so happy to be here!
Saturday, October 02, 2010
Slow Torture: A narrative told through Facebook status updates.
Thursday 5:05pm
Finally got the call. Quick dinner and then we're off!
Thursday 6:59pm
Settled in and crafting
Thursday 7:46pm
Waiting anxiously to see if KayTar will win the radio contest...she has prepared confetti to throw just in case she does.
Thursday 9:07pm
Watching The Little Mermaid with my little chickadee.
Thursday 10:36pm
KayTar is out for the night, but her alarms keep going off. It's not looking like a peaceful night is in store between that and the frequent glucose/vitals checks.
Thursday 11:42pm
The nurse lowered the respiratory rate alarm to 10 so it will stop ringing every 30 seconds.
Friday 12:07am
So now that they fixed the respiratory alarm by lowering it, now the ECG is all "Bradycardia!" Lots of ringing around here tonight.
Friday 11am
She started fussing for a snack (14 hours in) and the hospital ice chips came to the rescue. :) She said it is the most refreshing snack ever.
Friday 12pm
Happy little patient
Friday 4pm
We have reached misery...I rocked her to sleep, but I don't think it will last long.
Friday 6pm
She's still asleep, thank goodness, but it is looking like we'll be here another night.
Friday 10pm
Her glucose is only 58 at the 25 hour mark! She can get down to 58 in like 4 hours on a school day! This is going to be a long night of hourly glucose checks.
Saturday 12am
Gah. Her glucose has now gone up to 63. I'm starting to think it will never drop below 50. She's on hourly glucose checks until it does and only one of us sleeps through those...and it sure isn't me!
Saturday 3am
Glucose was 46, so they drew labs...next up the shot of glucagon and glucose testing every 15 minutes for an hour.
Saturday 4am
She can eat now and in typical KayTar fashion, she isn't. She's been vomiting, though, so that might have something to do with it.
Saturday 5am
Vomiting in spite of Zofran, so they're starting dextrose in her line. Seems like she was mostly fine (but unhappy) until the fasting was over!
Saturday 8:30am
She has tolerated 2 ounces of Pedialyte and 2 ounces of Pediasure this morning per her g-button (it hasn't come back up yet), but she isn't maintaining her glucose like they want, so they are starting her on D5 and we'll try more Pediasure in a bit. She has to be able to maintain a glucose of 70+ to be released.
****
I'll have more to say about it, I'm sure...but let me say this for now...WORST TEST EVER. She's had all sort of tests and procedures, from labs to LPs to surgeries, and I think this takes the cake. It was so hard on her. She was so sad/mad/pitiful after she hit her breaking point and there was still so much left after that. So many, many, many needle pokes. So much waiting. So much crying. Ugh.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Morning Report
We spent ALL day waiting yesterday. KayTar and I both took the day off of school because the nurse said we might need to go first thing in the morning or any time following that. We got the call at 5pm when the boys were on their way home with dinner. I scarfed down my Subway sandwich and we hit the road.
Right after we arrived a worker from the in-hospital radio station came by to drop off a craft for KayTar to complete. There was lots of glue and LOTS of rainbow glitter utilized for that particular project.
Anyway, if you attempt the craft, you are entered for an on-air contest where they call your name and then bring a prize to you. KayTar has won every time she has spent the night inpatient and last night was no exception! The only difference was that she is now old enough to be CRA-ZY exciited about hearing her name on the radio. While she was anxiously awaiting the announcement, she made some confetti with leftover crafting supplies and held it in her hands until she heard her name on the radio, then it was tossed into the air. She won a My Little Pony coloring book and the guy who had dropped off the craft came back to deliver it. KayTar had previously made a BIG deal out of how awesome his headband was and somehow she sweet-talked him out of it! She also received a plush guitar from a volunteer who was passing by.
After all the excitement, it was time for her last feed, pajamas, and The Little Mermaid. During the movie, they placed her IV which was not too happy about and even PRACTICED SCREAMING while waiting for the EMLA cream to absorb. She's a hoot. Anyway, they called in the charge nurse and he got it in ONE STICK. This is a very rare occurrence, because KayTar tends to be a tough stick.
After the movie it was lights out for her and studying for me. However, her alarms were going off like crazy last night. Her respiratory rate was hanging out at 11-13 mostly, so having it set for 16 meant that it was literally ringing every 30 seconds or so. They lowered it to 10, but then her heart rate monitor started going off, exclaiming, "Bradycardia!" and "Irregular!" on the screen. It wasn't too annoying when I was studying, but once I laid down at 1am, it became both frustrating and comical. For a while, every time I closed my eyes they would take turns ringing, I thought perhaps the nurses were punking me. They finally lowered the heart rate to 50 and that helped. They still rang quite a bit during the night, but not constantly like in the beginning. She was getting vitals checks and glucose checks every 3 hours, but on a staggered schedule, so I was waking up every hour for either that or alarms it seems. KayTar slept through everything, though, finger sticks included. I wish I had those skills! My best stretch of sleep was from 4-6am, when I was only disturbed once. Also, I didn't realize there was a thermostat in the room and I was frozen solid for hours, I was sleeping in my hoodie and blankets and was still shivering. When I found the thermostat, it was on 50! Geez, that is like mid-winter temps here in Texas and I was not in my outdoor gear. I got up for the day at 6am...sometimes trying to sleep is more frustrating than just getting up!
At last check, her glucose was still in the 80's. I hope that once she is up for the day, it starts dropping more quickly so we can get out of here and there will be a night of sleep in my near future. ;)
KayTar in her new headband.
Right after we arrived a worker from the in-hospital radio station came by to drop off a craft for KayTar to complete. There was lots of glue and LOTS of rainbow glitter utilized for that particular project.
Anyway, if you attempt the craft, you are entered for an on-air contest where they call your name and then bring a prize to you. KayTar has won every time she has spent the night inpatient and last night was no exception! The only difference was that she is now old enough to be CRA-ZY exciited about hearing her name on the radio. While she was anxiously awaiting the announcement, she made some confetti with leftover crafting supplies and held it in her hands until she heard her name on the radio, then it was tossed into the air. She won a My Little Pony coloring book and the guy who had dropped off the craft came back to deliver it. KayTar had previously made a BIG deal out of how awesome his headband was and somehow she sweet-talked him out of it! She also received a plush guitar from a volunteer who was passing by.
After all the excitement, it was time for her last feed, pajamas, and The Little Mermaid. During the movie, they placed her IV which was not too happy about and even PRACTICED SCREAMING while waiting for the EMLA cream to absorb. She's a hoot. Anyway, they called in the charge nurse and he got it in ONE STICK. This is a very rare occurrence, because KayTar tends to be a tough stick.
After the movie it was lights out for her and studying for me. However, her alarms were going off like crazy last night. Her respiratory rate was hanging out at 11-13 mostly, so having it set for 16 meant that it was literally ringing every 30 seconds or so. They lowered it to 10, but then her heart rate monitor started going off, exclaiming, "Bradycardia!" and "Irregular!" on the screen. It wasn't too annoying when I was studying, but once I laid down at 1am, it became both frustrating and comical. For a while, every time I closed my eyes they would take turns ringing, I thought perhaps the nurses were punking me. They finally lowered the heart rate to 50 and that helped. They still rang quite a bit during the night, but not constantly like in the beginning. She was getting vitals checks and glucose checks every 3 hours, but on a staggered schedule, so I was waking up every hour for either that or alarms it seems. KayTar slept through everything, though, finger sticks included. I wish I had those skills! My best stretch of sleep was from 4-6am, when I was only disturbed once. Also, I didn't realize there was a thermostat in the room and I was frozen solid for hours, I was sleeping in my hoodie and blankets and was still shivering. When I found the thermostat, it was on 50! Geez, that is like mid-winter temps here in Texas and I was not in my outdoor gear. I got up for the day at 6am...sometimes trying to sleep is more frustrating than just getting up!
At last check, her glucose was still in the 80's. I hope that once she is up for the day, it starts dropping more quickly so we can get out of here and there will be a night of sleep in my near future. ;)
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