sickness | The Angel Forever

Category Archives sickness

The “sick” week in photo review

Posted on April 3, 2008 11:42 am by TheAngelForever

Now that everyone is as healthy as we have been in months (I will not dare to say we are healthy – that would be bad news), it is time to play some catch up. Last week NHL was home sick from school and I then had what he was ill with, so blogging took a back seat.

***Note to self: Be sure to work on the new rules of sharing with NHL. There are limits that are acceptable – flu is not included!

Last week I blogged, but I did not write as much as I have in the past since I was so exhausted at the end of the day. Thankfully I had the energy to take photos. Here are some highlights of the week gone by.

On Monday (3/24) JSL decided to try NHL’s Doodle Pro. He had fun with it at first and then realized that his big brother was missing.

He set off on a mission to find NHL in their room. This was by far one of his longest crawling adventures to date!

Little brother on a mission

Finally he arrived at the destination of choice.

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On Wednesday (3/26) I gave each of the boys a little gift. I wanted to give NHL something for doing his nebulizer treatment. JSL received a Fisher Price Little People egg that had a little boy in it. It was an Easter toy, but aside from the egg holding it you would never know. I was a sport for $1 (and the next day they were ten cents). JSL was in LOVE with his new toy. He would throw it out in front of himself and crawl to it. Here he is playing with me while NHL slept on the couch.

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By Friday (3/28) NHL was going stir crazy from being in the house all week. We had to come up with things to keep him busy. All of this while Mommy was getting a fever and horrible body aches.

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On Sunday (3/30) I was feeling slightly better. I forced myself to do all of the laundry from the week that had not been done. NHL went to his room for being naughty and actually fell asleep. At the same time JSL fell asleep in an interesting position on Daddy.

After both boys were up from their naps, JSL decided he wanted his sippy cup. He noticed that he was under the dining room table. I thought it was hilarious how he was hunting for the cup. I grabbed my camera. Soon after this JL got his out and was shooting away with me.

NHL even got into the act, but he apparently forgot his camera.

Fun photo shoot

At one point both JL and I were taking a shot at the exact same time. The result of the front and back shot of this moment is really neat (also know that I was taking this photos blind since my hands were under the table and my head above).

In the end we gave him some quiet time after bombarding him with all of the flashes from the camera. As you can see he just wanted to drink some water and read the newspaper!

So that is a sick week in review via photos of some memorable moments.

Categories:
family jl jsl looking back my boys nhl photos sick kid sickness weekend

102 is not a nice number

Posted on March 29, 2008 9:41 pm by TheAngelForever

No, 102 is not a nice number at all. This is especially true if you are talking about my temperature this morning. The sweet little boy pictured below shared very well with me. I ache all over, have chills that make my entire body shake, pounding headache, and the lovely fever is present to boot.

Never doubt that a child likes to share in our house . . . especially an illness like the flu.

*groan* – it hurts to type. I was shivering in bed before whining to JL that I want to knit. Unfortunately it is difficult to knit when every bone and muscle in my body aches. Who knew that my fingers and wrists could pulse?!?! I miss knitting – no I take that back. I really miss being healthy and being sickie free. This of course would allow me to knit, read, clean (man I must really be sick if I just typed that), and do piles of laundry that have grown this week.

The good news (yes there is some) is that NHL is feeling much better. After being cooped up in the house for the last week NHL was finally allowed to go out. Nana took him for a special day with her. They started off going to breakfast and then went to see Horton Hears a Who. NHL had a very nice time and was talking about their adventure to the theater all evening.

Thanks to my mother taking NHL, JL was able to assist me with JSL. The poor little monkey was so upset that big brother was gone. He kept crawling around looking for him and calling his name. He was thrilled at one point when NHL called and talked with him on the phone.

On that note the iboprofen is starting to kick in (hot flash starting as temperature falls). I best be off to rest while I am able to. Hopefully I will dream about a house free of sickies!

Categories:
me moments sickness weekend

Fevers, coughs, nebulizers and the flu – oh my!

Posted on March 27, 2008 11:42 am by TheAngelForever

As previously mentioned we had several doctor visits on Monday. This is how NHL looked on Monday before going to the doctor. He was exhausted from being up almost all night (two evenings in a row) with a horrible barking, croupy cough that would not go away.

Things were worse Monday night. NHL was gasping for air. JL went to work and NHL fell asleep on the couch from sheer exhaustion.

The poor little guy could not catch a break. Every time he would fall asleep he would wake up coughing that dry barking cough again and again. At about noon he was in tears asking to leave. He said he hurt from the cough. His entire body was shaking and he was gasping for air. I put in a call for the doctor since the breathing was getting so bad and Motrin and Tylenol together were barely keeping his fever under 100 when given together.

While waiting for the call back JSL was quarantined to another room with me (not worth much, but it was all I could do). He was having fun playing with his Nubby sippy cup. All of the sudden he started "talking" to me. I was floored. It was not simply play time. . . he was drinking water. I could see him doing the proper sipping motion and see water in his mouth. Wahoo! This was a much needed thing since the baby will NOT take a bottle since he was in the hospital in February. So now he knows that the sippy cup is not only a fun water toy to get soaked with, but also useful to drink! Another milestone during this was JSL saying "cheese" when I fed him a slice of cheese. His words just keep adding up.

Smiling while making a mess

Getting some water in!

At about this time the nurse called back. They were going to call in a nebulizer for us to use with NHL along with medications for it. After much "fun" (note the sarcasm) straightening out all of the co-pays, getting a pharmacy that actually had the medication we were all set. At about 3:00 the machine was delivered and Papa brought the medicine soon after. Here is the top of the new handy dandy nebulizer.

Dragon mask to make it more interesting

We have used this for the one medication since Tuesday night (2 times a day) and we have started to notice a difference. The barking cough is much less pronounced. NHL is also able to run around and talk without getting winded. The fever still does not want to back down. However we may have turned the corner. Last night we went without replenishing Motrin and Tylenol during the night. So far with only Motrin we have kept things below 100! If this stays true then he will be set to go back to school tomorrow – he is SO ready to go back.

Oh, and NHL is such a sweet little boy. He shared with Mommy. I have a 100+ degree temperature, aches, sore throat, headache, congestion . . . ick! I am taking Motrin and Mucinex for the congestion since that is all I am able to take when nursing. Now we just have to wait and see if the other boys in the house (JL and JSL) get this nasty flu that seems to originate at the school that NHL goes to.

With any luck the rest of the day will fly by and JL will be home so I can go back to BED!

Categories:
doctor jsl milestone nhl photos sick kid sickness sleep

I Give Up – Sickies Win

Posted on March 25, 2008 6:14 am by TheAngelForever

Would someone PLEASE give the message to all bacteria and viruses that I officially give up?!?! They win and can go the H-E Double Hockey Sticks away! Seriously it is now technically spring (not that you would know from the weather here) and we can not seem to shake being sick here. OK – so technically we went about two weeks without anything, but now BAM it is back in force.

Saturday night NHL was not feeling well. He woke up throughout the night with a barking/hacking croupy cough and fever. We gave him meds and kept him quiet most of the day. Sunday I was in agony. Before going to bed Saturday night I told JL that my right breast was killing me. It felt a little warm and if anything brushed up against it I was ready to scream. I went to bed and hoped for the best. JSL woke up during the night thanks to NHL being sick and nursed on it (something he never does in the night) and it was horrible. The shooting pain just kept getting worse all day and I ached all over. Needless to say we were quite a group on Sunday. Sunday night JL helped me to hot compress my breast to try to help it in case it was mastitis starting to settle in. At this point I was ready to try anything since I was in tears and had chills.

Yesterday we took NHL to the doctor. His fever would not stop climbing if he did not have Tylenol or Motrin in him. We got there and got a virus diagnosis, but he did have fluid in his ears. *sigh* I went to my doctor to have myself looked at since they wanted to see me. The NP said that she could tell from me still being swollen that there was definitely a very clogged duct at one point. She was very happy that I was able to keep the mastitis away at least at this point. She told JSL to stop biting me and causing the cracking on my poor body and told me she would look into something else for me. She also gave me a prescription for an antibiotic just in case I need it for mastitis if it comes back.

Fast-forward to last night. NHL’s coughing woke up JSL. We decided to keep JSL in our room and not expose him any further to the night coughing of NHL. NHL’s fever was soaring high and Motrin and Tylenol are not controlling it – not even together. I ended up sleeping in NHL’s bed with him for 3 hours to keep him in bed. I am sure I am in for this next thanks to the coughing exposure. Right now (5:30) his temperature with Motrin (6-8 hour medicine) given at 2:00 is 101.8. We gave Tylenol and are hoping it kicks in. He has not had a febrile seizure since he was 11 months old, but the scare is always there. . . especially since I will be home with both of the boys alone today (JL was home yesterday).

On that note I am off. JSL just woke up and now he is coughing too. *sigh*

If you could please help me to reinforce the message to the sickies to GO AWAY!

Categories:
doctor losing my mind pain sick kid sickness vent

Icy nightmare & thank you J & H

Posted on December 20, 2007 9:53 pm by TheAngelForever

The following picture was going to be my Wordless Wednesday. Unfortunately, a stomach bug that has been passed through everyone in our house finally hit me yesterday afternoon/evening. Here is the photo:

This is the side of our house. As you can see it is a HUGE mess thanks to recent storms. Since we bought our house we have had trouble with ice damns forming and at least two times backing up into the house. I now hear water dripping and am paranoid. The mess pictured above was a new spot that we had never had problems with in the past. The cause – leaving the AC unit in the window.Why did we leave said AC unit in? Well, because we have had a really hard time year in and year out getting that sucker back in to cool the room. We never figured it would be an issue.

The issues that caused the horror shown stem from something that occurred when we bought the house. One of JL’s coworkers removed a tile in our ceiling because it was bulging. Much to our dismay we had a leak in that section of the rubber roofing. That part of the roof had to be replaced. $1000 later it was done just in time for the new carpet to be installed. So for over three years we have left the hole in the ceiling with NO insulation. Can you see where this is going?

Yes, the lack of insulation, along with the heat escaping from the AC unit in the window gave the ice the perfect opportunity to have this occur. The AC unit itself allowed a wonderful spot for the obscene amount of ice to collect.

Tuesday evening JL went up to try to chip away at the ice and put some stuff up there to melt it. That did little or nothing. Here is all he was able to remove next to his hand as a size reference:

Fast forward to me pitching a FIT to dear hubby about this and fearing that the AC unit was going to fall and put a hole in our roof and land in a room below. I blew a gasket (I admit it). Luckily JL talked with our friend J. J had some ideas on what to do and said he would come over. So J and his wife (who I have grown up with) H came over last night. By the time they got here I was not feeling so well. I was in denial and thought I was feeling better. Thank goodness H came – she watched the boys while I tried to keep stomach contents in.

JL and J went upstairs so they could see what was going on. They brought up something to hack at the ice from the tiny crack in the window. Here are two views from the window upstairs:

The guys came downstairs and told us they were going up the ladder to see what else they could do. JL called soon after (via cell phone) to tell me there was good news and bad news. The good news – the ice was gone! The bad news – the AC cover came with it. JL and J came back in and were going to head to Home Depot for insulation and a tarp to put the AC on in the attic. I asked if they could use our old shower curtain instead. I really did not want them going since I was feeling worse again. They said they would. So they went upstairs and removed the AC, took away more ice and then came down.

At this point I was GREEN — I will spare you the details.

The end result is the following was removed from the house (here with some fresh snow on it) and the house as it is now:

So now you can see why I "love" this house so much (long story goes with that) and why I want to move to Florida.

A big thank you to J & H for being so wonderful and helping us with this. I seriously was going insane from worry about this ice formation on the outside of the house. Also sorry that you were exposed to whatever I had – the good news is 24 hours later I feel human again!

Oh and even our rose bush wants the spring to come . . . *sigh*