The Fish Pond

There's Nothing Like Spending Thanksgiving in the Hospital to Remind You of What You're Thankful For

As I mentioned in my previous post, Trout had developed pneumonia and started antibiotics for that on Monday. We had figured that she'd be on them for 24 hours and be visibly better, just like Little Man did, but it was not to be. She continued to run fevers. Wednesday her temp dropped to about 101 during the day, so I figured it was a downward trend and didn't call the doctor. Big mistake. She spiked back up over 103 that night, and was still 103.3 when I called the on-call pediatrician Thursday morning, and he sent us to the hospital.

Our hospital has a separate pediatric emergency department, so we had no wait at all, and within 30 minutes we had the chest x-ray the doctor ordered. The doctor came into our room, kinda leaned up against the wall, shook his head at me, and said "She's going to be here for a few days - she needs IV antibiotics."

So upstairs we went, where she received huge doses of IV antibiotics, plus oral antibiotics, plus fluids, plus a lot of really, really crappy food. Seriously, you'd think it'd be impossible to mess up a pb&j, but you'd be wrong. BigDaddyFish brought over a care package of pb&j sandwiches for her and honey baked ham on rolls for me so we'd make it through. My sister-in-law came with her daughters so we had a bit of visiting time, and they brought presents that Trout loved. It really helped pass the time.

 

It was hard. The pullout chair that the parents sleep on is an instrument of torture - my back may take a week to recover. BDF says it's really ridiculous they don't just make bigger, double size beds because you know the parents would rather sleep with the kids, and more than a few kids would like their parents that close, too. You can never sleep in a hospital, there's always something beeping or someone coming into the room to take measurements or too much light. Or, in this case, someone vomiting quite loudly in the next room, or a neurosurgery patient whose brain was rather vociferously not reacting well to his surgery. And still the doctor seemed not to understand why we were champing at the bit to get out of there.

As a result of our blessedly short stay at the hospital, here's a list of things for which I am thankful:

• I am thankful that there are hospitals with full-time staff to help people who are sick on holidays
• I am grateful for my Kindle, loaded with The Princess Bride, which I read aloud to Trout and which I enjoyed as much as she
• I am thankful for hot tea
• I am thankful for the overall general health of my kids and husband, despite our trials of late
• I am thankful for my bed
• I am thankful for five year old boys who come into my bed in the middle of the night and kick me all night
• I am thankful that the problems my kids have are relatively minor in the overall scheme of things
• I am thankful for good food and clean water and hot showers

I am also thankful for each of you who spends the time reading about my crazy family. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Oh, sure, it looks like an innocent chair, but I tell you, torture device.

 

 

By a Thread

Let me 'splain. No, too much, let me sum up. Buttercup is marrying....no.

Here's the short version.

• Approximately two weeks ago, Little Man got pneumonia and missed a week and a half of school. He's in a magnet program that has about 1.5 hours of homework a night. He still isn't caught up.
• Nemo had croup, which fortunately only lasted a day.
• BigDaddyFish has a cyst in his neck that he's had for years, and it started to grow. It got big enough that it needs to be removed, but he never had time to deal with it, and it's still considered elective even though it needs to come out. It got infected about the same time Little Man developed pneumonia. BDF went in and I'll save the horrid details, but the short version is that they didn't give him an antibiotic, it's still infected, surgeon can't operate until the infection is gone, surgeon suspects staph, gave antibiotic, and he has to go back in three weeks. So it can mess with another holiday because one isn't enough.
• While he was at the doctor, someone hit BDF's car in the parking lot and dented it badly and didn't leave a note.
• Trout started running a fever last Thursday, and was diagnosed with pneumonia yesterday. She's had three doses of antibiotic and is still rocking along around 102 degrees.
• My mother-in-law had a knee replacement and isn't healing as well as everyone had hoped.
• I am not ready to blog about it yet, but Nemo has some issues we're working on.

I. Am. Exhausted.

Yesterday at the pediatrician's office the nurse practitioner looked at me and said "You look like you could use a couple of days at MomSpa."

Indeed. I would settle for a couple of days alone in my house to catch up on stuff. And nap. Excessively.

Wordless Wednesday: Trout's First Concert - downhere, Aaron Shust, and Jason Gray play well together

 

 *I wanted to put a photo of Trout and her two friends enjoying themselves, but Typepad is not cooperating for some reason so these will have to do.

 

 

Wordless Wednesday: What Bored Ten Year Olds Do When They Have Pneumonia

One of Many Reasons I've Been So Stressed Out This Week (do not look if you have a weak stomach)

This has been a long week. The schedule of four different schools plus hours upon hours of homework is wearing on me. Little Man is sick, Trout is 12, Sunny is awesome and taking karate but is never, ever quiet, and we have some Big issues we're working through in regard to Nemo. And then this:

You're welcome for not leaving that full size. BigDaddyFish has had a cyst in his neck for years, and he knew he needed to have it out. As I've reminded him time and time again when you ignore things that require attention until you "have time for it" those things have an uncanny knack for making you pay attention at a most inconvenient time (see also: blown engine), but, well, you know. So it got infected. And he saw the doctor today, who seemed to derive great delight in dealing with the situation. At least it's been taken care of, but it's going to be a long weekend.

At least there's this:

http://hotguysreadingbooks.tumblr.com/

 

 

Wordless Wednesday: Halloween Craziness