Growing and growing

I decided to measure the kids today, and yep, they are both still growing like weeds. M currently measures 69 1/2 inches (5' 9.5") and A is 59 1/4 inches (4' 11.25").

What I find really interesting is that A is the same height that M was on 3/30/08, or 2 years 7 months ago - whereas A is 2 yrs 10 months younger. So A is just slightly ahead of M's pace. This could be A is going to be taller, or A is peaking slightly sooner or just chance. Who knows. I suppose we won't really know until they are both done growing.

But due to all this growing going on, I'm not buying A a hiking backpack anytime soon. I've been told that they will cover about a 9 inch height range, but given that M is a good 10 inches taller than A now, and both are still growing, I think any pack I get now, A would outgrow in the next 3 years. He's borrowed one from the Scoutmaster for the campout this month. It will be a very gently intro to backpacking.

H1N1

No, we're not sick here - at least not yet.  But seemingly the flu is running rampant at A's school - they've had 15% absentee rates yesterday and today.  That's more than enough to warrant notifying the state and the parents, so we got a lovely letter home today - reminding us to cover our mouths when coughing, wash our hands and for heaven's sakes, stay HOME when sick.

At this rate, we may not need a vaccine by the time it finally arrives next month or so.  I hope we don't get sick, but now I'm seeing that they are recommending reserving Tamiflu for people at higher risk of complications (which none of us are).  A's teacher says that many of the kids are being out for 3-5 days.

I'm beginning to think that making up a batch of chicken soup and portioning it up in the freezer wouldn't be a bad idea...

Strep

Yep, A has strep.  And really, really swollen lymph nodes inside his mouth - it looks like the sides of his throat are bulging out towards his tonsils.  But, he's on antibiotics and ibuprofen (more for reducing the swelling than anything else).  After dosing him up tomorrow morning, he shouldn't be contagious anymore, so unless something changes, its off to school for him.  And he wants to go to school tomorrow as its his Challenge day.

A has been the wellest sick kid I've had in a while.  Granted he didn't have too much fever today, just under 100 this morning, but he acted like normal - never napped or looked droopy.  I did have him read quietly some this afternoon and he got really into the book and read for about 2 hours.  I had thought he might drift off, but nope.

Lets hope that this is it for this round...

Good News/Bad News

Bad: A said he didn't feel so great at breakfast this morning.

Good: No fever, no throwing up, so off to school he went

Bad: 102 degree fever when he got home this afternoon, so no Scouts tonight and no school tomorrow

Good: M dressed nicely to give a presentation at school today

Bad: M called me just after he got to school saying he didn't have his flash drive.  I couldn't find it here or along the street

Good: M took the initiative to call transportation and have the bus driver search the bus.

More good: I finally found the flash drive (hiding in the USB port) and took it to school

Bad: M had realized just before leaving for school that he didn't have some info on his project that he needed

Good: M talked to the teacher this morning (well before class and when he was still missing the flash drive) and she said he could do his presentation tomorrow

More good: M added (most of) the missing info and practiced his presentation some

Bad (in M's opinion): M has to dress up again tomorrow (collared shirt)

Good: I found a missing library book

Bad: it was 2 weeks overdue

Bad: the cats evidently brought a bird into the house

Good: D managed to get it safely outside where it flew off, seemingly unharmed

M is Back at School!

M may not be all the way well yet, but he was well enough to go back to school today.  Hallelujah!  He was a model patient while he had a fever last week (sleeping a lot), but once he started feeling better, he was wanting to be on the computer a lot.  I got really tired of listening to him watching the Simpsons on the computer.  It was tough because he seemed to be feeling ok in the morning, only to end up coughing a good bit by lunchtime and into the afternoon - and going to bed early by choice.  I was tempted to send him back to school on Friday, but the Dr had said to wait until today, and looking at M Friday afternoon, I could see that was the right choice.  He was MUCH better today.

Of course, M thinks that since he is feeling better, he shouldn't have to take the medicine anymore.  Nope - its an antibiotic, so you have to finish it off - days and days more of the stuff, unfortunately.

Sick Bay continues

M is still at home, still sick.  The Dr. was thinking strep, but when he went to swab M's throat (only partially successfully), he heard the thick cough and changed his mind to bronchitis.  He didn't even bother to culture for strep.  Oh, and by the time we saw the Dr, M no longer had a fever either.  And it hasn't come back.

Due to the lack of pill swallowing, M got prescribed liquid Augmentin, or as M calls it paint.  M also gets to take Mucinex, or "that nasty acid" - it evidently burned his throat the first time, so I've been mixing it with warm honey and water, to dilute it and cut the taste a bit.  He still doesn't like it, but maybe this will be good reason to work on swallowing pills...

M was feeling better this morning, but wilting again by afternoon.  I had been thinking that maybe he could go back to school tomorrow, but seeing the wilt, I think its best not to tempt fate.  He was trying to do some math homework this afternoon, and it just wasn't going well - mixing up the y-intercept with the x-intercept.

Sick Bay

First time M has missed a day in middle school.

One of the few benefits of being sick is having a cat take a nap on you.

M took 3 naps yesterday. One in his bed and the other 2 brief naps on the sofa. He's back in bed now for another nap (first one of today). We're headed for a dr's appointment later this afternoon. I'm afraid that what we're going to hear is that this is a virus and only time will clear it up.

His fever has been running in the 102-103 range without acetominophen. Once he's well again, we're going to have to try again on learning to swallow pills. We tried at least once before with mini M&M's, but with no luck. I know better than to try learning to swallow pills with a sore throat. So for now, we're sticking with chewables. If he doesn't learn to swallow pills, though, I'm going to be extrapolating the appropriate dosage as he's at the top of the range that they give doses for.

At this point, I'm guessing we're in for another sick day tomorrow, but maybe he can go back to school on Friday. I hope! And please, don't let any of the rest of us get this....

Snake bit

It appears that Shadow got snake bit.  Or at least that is the vet's best guess.  He seems to be well on the mend now, after 3 trips to the vet, including one overnight visit (with 2 postponements in my picking him up).  It's been a long week for poor Shadow.  

Monday morning when we got up Shadow was napping in the closet on the laundry.  A bit different - he's never chosen that place before, but ok.  But then I noticed that he hadn't moved in several hours.  Hmmm.  I brought him some food and he ate it, so that was good.  Finally around lunchtime I saw him walking and noticed he was limping.  Huh - not so good.  I couldn't find any obvious problem, so I initially thought we'd just wait and see.  A few hours later, it seemed he was limping more, so I called the vet.  No appointments that afternoon, but I got an appt for the next morning.  Nothing seemed urgent at that point - I thought maybe he had sprained his foot.

Tuesday morning, he was limping even more.  Good thing we were headed to the vet.  I made M come along to help corral Shadow.  The vet pokes and prods him.  His left foot is swollen and sore.  The vet thinks it is either a broken bone (probably from jumping off something too high) or an infected cat bite.  She prods some more and thinks she finds a wound on the bottom of his foot - so she takes him off to shave his foot and get a better look.  She comes back with the option of sedating him and draining the pus from his foot or having us do hot compresses at home.  She thinks either would work, but that the opening another wound on his foot would be more painful for him.  So, off we go with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory meds.  I do hot compresses on his foot 6 times that afternoon/evening.

Wednesday morning I can't tell if his foot is more swollen or not, but we do the hot compress.  By lunchtime, though, it is clear that his foot is more swollen, so I call the vet and they tell me to bring him in and drop him off.  So off we go again.  After dropping Shadow off, M and I head to the library.  I was hoping to be able to pick Shadow back up on our way home, but instead I get a call that they would like to keep him overnight.  They sedated him and drained out a good bit of pus, but they want to keep an eye on him.  They tell me I can pick him up after 9 am on Thursday.

Thursday morning, I decided to call and see if Shadow was ready.  They go off to check and I'm told that they would like to do another compress on him and can I wait to pick him up until after lunch.  Hmmm.  Slight change on my plans for the afternoon, but ok.  We're about to head out to get him around 2 when I decide maybe I should call and check again.  Nope, they want to keep him until after 4pm.  Urrggh.  That's going to be tight.  We have M's open house at 4:30 - on the far side of the county.  M and I dash through open house, talking to his teachers but bringing home all the paperwork to fill out and get to the vet's a few minutes after 6.  I had called ahead to tell them that I was on my way and to please wait for me.  Shadow's foot is still quite swollen, but not nearly so badly as before.  We're instructed to give him warm water foot baths and massage his foot.  They say he doesn't mind this.   She wants to recheck him on Saturday morning.

Hah! - Shadow certainly doesn't like warm foot baths at home.  It takes 2 people - one to hold his front and one to hold his foot in the bath (and keep the other rear foot from gaining purchase and scooting him out of there).  

This morning M and I took Shadow back to the vet, for his 3rd visit (our 4th trip out there).  She is quite pleased with how well the swelling is going down - says there is still edema, but no more pus.  We have to continue the hot water baths on his foot through the weekend, but can then stop them (which is good since M and D will both be back at school fulltime then).  And, of course, finish out the course of antibiotics.

Shadow is clearly feeling better.  He is jumping up on things again, including the counter (ahem - not supposed to be up there!).  It's very good to have him back home again and feeling better!

Earth Hour

We signed up for Earth Hour tonight. The idea is to turn off all lights from 8 to 9 pm.

I wasn't sure how it was going to work since we had A's Blue and Gold Cub Scout banquet tonight from 6-8pm. As it turned out, M wasn't feeling well (temp of at least 101), so he and D stayed home. A and I went to his banquet which ran long - we didn't get home until 9.

We came home to find M feeling better (amazing what a bit of acetaminophen will do), and M and D playing Upwords by candlelight.


It was a little dim, but they had a good time. A and I kibitzed for the last bit of the game. It was a close call as to whether the game would end first or the candles would burn out!

The candles lasted through the whole game, but one of them is down to less than a half inch nub. Guess I need to put out new candles...

Vision Issues

I went back to the eye doctor (3rd time in the last 2 months) and got checked out again. Back story is that I went in to get a new contact prescription the beginning of this year. Got checked, yep, my prescription had changed (and guess what - I was wearing the contacts in the wrong eyes! Wonder how long I did that??)

Then a week later I got new contacts. Joy and wonderfulness abounded - I could see things clearly, across the room. Though it was not as stark a change as when I got my 2nd pair of glasses ever - 6th grade - and walked out of the eye drs and said, amazed, "there are leaves on that tree!" (across the street). I had forgotten that I should be able to see individual leaves at a distance of, oh 40 feet or so.

Then a couple of weeks pass and I notice that maybe my vision is not quite as sharp as it had been. That little message light on the answering machine, which I had been so delighted to be able to distinguish blinking from not-blinking on initially, was no longer so clear. I thought maybe I had gotten lotion on my lenses. So I cleaned them and checked again. And did a REALLY thorough job of cleaning them. But, still, things were a bit vague.

Finally I called the eye doctors office and tried to explain. They had me come in again, 2 weeks ago. When they found that, yes, indeed, my vision was not the same. Hmmm. They had no real explanation other than that the 2 appointments were at different times of the day. But, the thing is, I'd like to be able to see well ALL the times of the day! They sent me home with a return appointment in 2 weeks. That would be today.

So, I went back again today and it was determined that my vision was basically the same as 2 weeks ago. Still no real clue as to why it changed - more noticeably than it has changed in the past 20+ years. But, I have new contacts ordered and they should be here within a week. I can't wait!