FunChop

Monday, 26 December 2005

Today Hailey got baptized, and we went. It’s hard to believe that this was the kid’s first baptism. We’ve talked a lot about baptism, but just in case, we did a baptism refresher course in the car talking about John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. Sam stayed with GR in the gym helping him get set up to take a full family picture (Her entire extended family was in town for Christmas and the baptism) while the girls and I attended the baptism.

After the baptism and the family picture (which turned out really well!) we went and had lunch with the whole family at a Mongolia BBQ place in town. The girls LOVED it - and Sam would have had he not been so tired! Some of the kids (there were 10 total at the table) got chopsticks which meant that ALL the kids wanted/needed chopsticks. Our waiter brought the kids a neat little contraption that you snap each chopstick into called a FUNCHOP. A FunChop makes it so that even a 4 year-old can use chopsticks! I made sure the two we got made it into my purse for future use!

Want your own? I found 5 chopsticks + 5 'helpers' at X-treme Geek.com for $1.99 - not bad.

Ice

Friday, December 30, 2005

Our ice maker quit on us back in October and our water consumption dropped significantly. GR ordered a new one from Sears - $140 ouch - and it arrived earlier this week. Bob came over Wednesday and installed it for us. This afternoon, Sam opened the freezer door, pointed at the ice in the freezer and declared:

"Mama! Ice! Grandpa made ice for us!"

$69.37

Wednesday night about 10:30 Sam woke up and started to cry, holding his right ear. Nothing made him comfortable and Tylenol only took the edge off his pain allowing him to sleep an hour or so, before waking up again, crying and needing to be held and cuddled.

I was able to get a 9:30 appointment Thursday morning with the Pediatrician. She found that his left ear was a little pink, and his right ear was red, and his tube was filled with gunk. Sam got tubes 16 months ago and they made a huge difference in the number of ear infections he got! But they don't last for ever and eventually a year - 18 months later fall out. Sam's are on their way out, but obviously they are still there. We got a prescription and headed for home. I stopped at the pharmacy in town to have it filled and was grateful to have a 20 minute wait so I could sleep in the car with Sam. When we got home I gave Sam his medication and we took a long 3 hour nap.

Well all weekend it was obvious that Sam's ear still really hurt him. He was extra clingy, wouldn't go anywhere with out his "vroom, vroom" blanky or his bear blanky, would hold his ear in the mornings and lay on the couch till 10 most mornings, and then when things were quiet, you'd catch him cocking his head to the right, or simply holding his right ear. Last night he was up at least 5 different times, and wouldn't sleep unless he was in bed with me.

With the New Year holiday Sunday and Monday, today was the first time I got to see the Peds office or the ENTs office. I called the ENT first, and they said they didn't want to see him until he'd finished his antibiotic.... !!??!!... When I tried calling the Peds office the line was busy, so I asked GR (who works in the same general building as the Peds office (which was a zoo)) to walk in and find out if they wanted to see Sam again or if there was something else we needed to be doing to help Sam feel better. They got Sam in for an appointment within the hour!

Dr. Sandy found that his ears have had ZERO improvement since starting the antibiotic Thursday and his right ear was actually starting to bulge above the tube! I'm glad we got him in when we did - I don't think he or I could have handled a burst ear drum. She told me to pitch the old medication and wrote a script for some new stuff - stuff I'd never heard of - and off we went to get it filled.

I'm learning that ears can be expensive things to treat. The ear drops we had to get for Sam after his tubes got put in were $90 for a tiny bottle with about a tablespoon of stuff in it. And that was with prescription insurance. Omnicef - the stuff we got for him today - $70 for a little over 1/3 cup of medicine. I'm glad she decided to go to a more powerful medication. Hopefully within a day or two we'll both be able to get a full night sleep.