News
Saturday
I didn’t do much on Saturday. We were going to clean out IL4’s gut, but he had a fever and slept all day. When he awoke, he was covering his ears and complaining of throat pain, so we decided to take him to urgent care to get his ears and throat looked at. Aaron came to keep me company. IL4 had an ear infection in both ears – apparently a fairly bad one in the left. They gave us flavored liquid antibiotics, and we tried putting it in milk, but didn’t succeed in getting the first dose down him.
Sunday
Sunday I felt a little burned out. I worked, then tried to solve the puzzle of how to get IL4 to take his antibiotic. We finally settled on 1:1 ratio to chocolate syrup, as suggested by the nurse-line. It worked, though it’s a slow process. It might not be feasible in the morning before school.
Monday
Monday morning started with dad’s dentist appointment. They pulled 5 teeth, which only took a half hour because the teeth were already loose.
After the dentist, I tried giving IL4 his antibiotic in chocolate syrup again, and he hands-down refused it. So I’d gotten a total of 3 half-doses in him since Saturday night, and was out of options. I wanted to switch to a crushable pill, but the phone number to urgent care was out of service. I tried using their online urgent care option, but that was out of service too. I tried calling the main facility phone number, and told the computer answering service that I wanted to be connected to urgent care, and it answered that urgent care is walk-in only. I called again and asked to talk to a human, and the computer put me on a callback list which never called back. In the evening, I took him to urgent care, where (after 45 minutes in the waiting room despite my using the reserve-a-spot feature) the nurse was awesome and gave me a prescription right away without waiting for the doctor. But it was a prescription for a capsule, not a crushable pill. So we cut the tip off the capsule and poured the powder into his milk. That seemed to work. Yay!
We have at least one mouse in the house, and I put out a mouse trap behind the fridge a week ago. Monday I checked it and all the peanut butter was off the trap, but it hadn’t sprung. Good news is that a cat got one. Hopefully the sole mouse. Fingers crossed.
I made the mistake of confidently drinking one of IL4’s potions. I often confidently do so because I am not squeamish. This time, I knew he’d mixed water, chocolate syrup, and a dash of coke. What I didn’t know is he’d surreptitiously added half a tin of black pepper, as well.
Dad took a bath and couldn’t get out, so I called 911. The medics managed pretty well.
Tuesday
Tuesday started out well enough but ended with a bang.
First, I took IL4 to his poop psychologist and they worked on relaxation techniques. Then after some errands, I took D13 to physical therapy. I did a little bit of housework, and relaxed a bit in the evening.
Then, I had an argument with J19. He had opened a window in his room and was letting our heat out into the 20 degree weather. We don’t have money for that.
Next IL4 suddenly perked up, despite having already been through his entire bedtime routine. He really wanted to make a potion (though when I told him it wasn’t potion-making time, he told me he wanted to make “juice”). There was a lot of kicking and screaming. Finally, we calmed him down. He even apologized to Aaron.
Then, I was on my way to work – ready to escape the madness at home – when I got text message paragraph from someone about their mental health. The car’s computerized voice read it out, vastly missing the raw emotion that was implied by the words. It would have been funny, but I wasn’t in the mood to be amused. (It’s a little amusing now, though.) Anyway, all I could say was: “I’m driving now, so I can’t give that text the answer it deserves. Then I will be at work and unable to text for a while. Try to sleep.”
I was glad to go to sleep.
Wednesday
Wednesday I took D13 to an appointment then took dad on a bunch of errands. One of them was to buy a needle that wouldn’t break while trying to sew on Boy Scout patches. I literally stood there for several minutes trying to figure out what needle to choose. Then, in the check out lane, I discovered fabric glue! Seriously?! I can just GLUE them on? That made my day.
Thursday
Thursday I went directly from one job to another. I was happy to do so because I haven’t been able to work as much with all the appointments kids & dad have, and that cuts into income.
After work, I had planned on going on a massive shopping trip with dad, but he was feeling fatigued, and went into his room to take a nap. So I got into the bathtub for a nice hot bath. As soon as I was settled, I hear dad scream “Rachel!” I yelled “What?” But to no avail, he’d gone back into his room. So I got out to check on him.
He was gasping for breath, pale, sweaty, and complaining of chest pain. I called 911 and gave him a nitroglycerin. The paramedics came and took him away.
We found out very little in the ER – they were thinking either pneumonia (there was an “unimpressive,” but present fog that might be pneumonia in his X-ray. But he also had “unimpressive,” but present increases in troponin, which is a sign of heart damage.
They checked him in and I went to work.
Friday
Friday after work, I took IL4 to speech therapy, from there to the hospital, and from there to feeding therapy. He actually behaved quite well in the hospital. When Bobby got out of bed into the chair, IL4 got to take a ride in the bed and press every button except the red one (the nurse call button). He obeyed!
The doctor said dad did not have pneumonia, but that he seemed to have had a heart attack, albeit, a very minor one. They were going to treat him for that, and release him when he can walk around, which dad says he could do now. Of course, it’ll be a new doctor starting Saturday, so who knows when he’ll be released.
In the evening D14 and I went out to A Stocking Full of Awesome, by The Danger Committee, which is a knife-throwing/juggling show. They are also comedians, so it was a pretty good show. It was D14’s first time seeing them, and she loved it. It was her birthday! She’s 14 now!
Week’s Photos
Letters Written
- 1 letter Maine
- 1 letter Maryland
- 1 letter Texas
- 1 letter Virginia
Reading to myself
- Great Mythologies of the World, by various
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
- How to Read the Bible, by James Kugel
Reading to IL4
- Caveboy is Bored, by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen
- Super Rabbit All-Stars, by Thomas Flintham
D13 reading
- This is Not a Drill, by K A Holt
- The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World, by Amy Reed
- Exile, by Shannon Messenger (I’m reading this to her)
Media Completed
When a literary scholar goes to Istanbul for a conference, she finds a djinn’s bottle. As the story unfolds, they begin to understand each other. Interesting twist on the jennie in a bottle story.
I’m really confused as to what this book was about. It was probably supposed to be post-apocalyptic, but unlike most post-apocalyptic stories it didn’t write in some way for the reader to get her bearings. It just burst in with the story as if bearings had already been found. This was obviously a stylistic approach rather than a mistake. I almost gave the book 3.5 stars because I was so confused, but it kept me coming back for more – interested about how the story would unfold. I caution only complex readers to approach this book.
Weight Loss
X – 43 lbs
Hibernator's Library 