Question time

So boy-child has been pretty good all day. Not exactly normal but close to it. He spent much of the day playing with friends and fantasizing about life as a wrestler.
We spent the afternoon in the park with a rather group of friends sharing a picnic to celebrate Halloween. The plan was to let the kids eat too much junk food and run wild. In actual fact boy-child spent his time snuggled on my lap.
Afterwards I went to a friends for dinner but man-child took the boy home to rest. I am not long home and already his temp is up to 39.2 and not as hot to touch as last night (mine is currently 36.7).
The pharmacist was suggesting that over 38 was a trip to the emergency room. I am not sure though. Whilst hot he is not unwell. He is eating and drinking, he is hungry he is just hot and has a headache. I don’t know what to do. The emergency eo is likely to let is sit there all night saying it is just fever and ther is nothing they can do.
For now he is burning up andeatcjimg Toy Story 2, wondering why je can’t have popcorn. I think it is going to be another long night. Should I plan a trip to the emergency room or try wait it out?

More Plans Out the Window

I have grand plans for this weekend, plans that included sleep. I negotiated with the kids that of they wanted to go to the Halloween picnic they had to allow me to sleep in. Also as I still need to make/finish costumes I need them to clean up their room and put toys away as they do every Saturday morning prior to getting their pocket money. Once that was done we were going to make witchy fingers to take to the picnic. I even tried to circumvent the mess I anticipate will occour during the biscuit making so I pre mixed the dough before going to bed. And yes I made the dough to prevent mess not just because I wanted to snack on it!
Anyway, that was my plan. It was spimple really, how could it go wrong? Oh I forgot the moons have aligned in a most conspiritoral way again and I am spending the wee hours of the morning wide awake listening to the ragged, rapid breathing and delusional rants of boy-child as he lay beside me on the sofa bed in the study.
He woke up about an hour ago (about 3 hours after I went to bed) screaming. He has a headache, fever and by the sound of it a blocked sinus. Even after nurofen the poor boy is so hot it is like laying next to a radiant heater that can only be comfortable if draped over my body. I don’t think much sleep will be happening this morning

Normalish?

Well I am finally heading towards normal.  It is Sunday afternoon and all is quiet and dare I say ‘drama free’ in the house.  Girl-child and a friend are upstairs destroying playing quietly in her bedroom.  Boy-child is outside playing wii with our latest family addition (the new student arrived safely this morning), man-child has wandered over to a friends for a drop of red and I am sitting down to enjoy a drop of red also, relaxing to some great music, smelling the wonderful aromas of dinner gently simmering on the stove.  Mmmm, red chicken curry.

Today has also included a flying trip to Ikea to get a desk and chair.  In the 90 minute round trip I managed to get the items I required, plus a laptop bag, 1 1/2 dozen glasses, a desk lamp, power boards, napkins for tomorrows picnic in the park if the rain holds off, as well as stopping by the florist for some much needed fresh flowers to brighten up the place.

Oh and speaking of tomorrows events, I have made Honey Joys to be taken into girl-child’s class to be shared by all (hooray for simple sweet food that meets the class allergy criteria list), and because they were so easy to make I made a second batch to be eaten in the park.  When that was done, girl-child and her friend and I made an ice cream cake for her party.  OK, so we didn’t actually make an icecream cake, we partially melted some ice cream, added choc ripple biscuit chunks and chocolate toffee pieces, poured it in to moulds to re-freeze ready for the party!  Now all that is left to do is chop up some fresh fruit and vegetables and the party food is covered.  As for activities I think I will take a pile of dress ups to the park and they can all run around as fairies, princesses, mermaids or puppy dogs and make their own fun.

The easy part is done, trying to get 8 hours of work done in 5 hours or less tomorrow will be much more interesting but it will be done.  Fingers crossed I will get a better sleep tonight and not one that is filled with dreams/nightmares of me being injured.  I dreamt the same dream over and over all night – Some incident would occur (the incident would change with each variation of the dream) where the outcome was me being taken to the hospital for xrays of a broken ankle.  Of course knowing that I didn’t have the time or energy to be injured I had the hospital staff put a cast on my ankle that was black.  I then put a heel on it so I could pretend it was a boot and I was able to go about my life and work unhindered.  Naturally my walk was very suspect and ungainly looking so people were always questioning me about my strange footwear.  I must have been holding my foot as if it was in a cast all night long because today my calf muscle is as fatigued as if I had run a marathon in ill-fitting shoes!

Hopefully sleep tonight, aided by a drink or three will be more relaxing and sleep like, ready for a day of celebrating girl-child’s 6th birthday.

Edited to add:  OK, so I am clearly not back to normal yet.  I decided that I should post a link to the Honey Joy recipe as I had touted it as being so simple and delicious for the kids.  Doing this I noticed that right at the top of the recipe it says Preheat oven to 150°C. Oops I forgot that part, I haven’t cooked them yet!  How awesome am I?  A simple 7 line recipe and I forget the first and last of them.  I had better go do that now before I forget again.

Deja Vu

Well I have just returned home from the hospital.  Man-child was finally being wheeled towards theatre as I left, a mere 16 hours after dislocating his elbow.  Further tests and scans have shown that not only was the joint dislocated but there were bone fragments and a fracture to deal with.

It all sounds so similar to the day dubbed as ‘Alexander and the No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day‘.  A fall that resulted in an awkward landing and the arm hyper-extending then crunch, bones out of alignment.  The results of boy-child’s fall was a 3 hour surgery where the joint was relocated and the bones were screwed back together.  That was followed by months in a cast with him becoming depressed and forlorn, not knowing who he is or where he fits in.  It was probably one of the worst times of my life and I am more than happy to have (albeit temporarily it seems) moved on from there.

Man-child has done one better, whilst he is in surgery the plan is that he will have 2 screws and a plate attached to the radius, holding his arm back together.  I have no idea how long the surgery will be, when the kids will be able to visit or what will happen next.

When I told the kids this morning that their dad was playing copy-cat and that he had a dislocation just like boy-child the poor boy went white.  It was like he was reliving the experience.  I am expecting that he will struggle through this time more than the rest of us.

I was hoping that we could go visit this morning but unfortunately he was still in emergency waiting for a bed or surgery – which ever happened first and I really didn’t want the kids hanging around the trauma in an emergency ward.  Hopefully he will be out of recovery this afternoon and the kids can go visit whilst he is still high on pain meds and looking cheerful, unlike when I just visited.  I think it is going to be another long day and night.  Did I mention how much I love hospitals?

Updated to add – The hospital called to say that the surgery went well and that he is finally out of recovery and is back on the ward.  Man-child then called to say that the pain is insane but he was able to reassure the kids that he is fine.  It was perfectly bad timing that he came out of the surgery so late and the kids were already yawning, ready for bed and visiting hours were almost over.  They will have to wait until tomorrow to visit.  Perhaps I will even pick them up from school at lunch time so they can visit.  Now to get ready for netball and ponder how I will possibly work a split shift tomorrow?

Early Nights

I am tired, really tired, ‘new parent with a baby who never sleeps’ tired except I am not a new parent I don’t have a new baby I am just tired, perhaps even exhausted.   So tired that I decided to forgo watching TV and decided to have a nanna nap and then go to bed early.  It was a great plan but as usual the universe is conspiring against me and sleep is not going to happen any time soon it seems.

First it was a friend dropping in to say Hi just as I was almost asleep on the couch making me say goodbye to the chance of a nanna nap.  This was followed by a phone call from my parents and I spent the next half hour playing ‘help desk’ bringing me to normal bed time.  During this call with my parents, I ignored a few phone calls.  Of course those phone calls were actually important, they were to tell me that man-child had fallen at basketball and had dislocated his elbow and an ambulance was on its way.

Well that was a few hours ago now, three hours in fact.  My neighbour dropped back and ended up sticking around to keep me company as I waited on news from the hospital.  There was an offer to look after the kids so I could go in to the hospital but I have spent enough time already this year sitting around hospitals unable to do anything so I politely declined.

Apparently as I type his elbow is being popped back into place and I am sitting here, barely awake wondering if he will be sent home or kept in overnight.  So now I wait and don’t sleep…

Updated to add – The ‘popping’ of the elbow wasn’t as smooth as planned – it didn’t work so that had to knock him out and do it under anesthetic.  He is back in x-ray seeing if there are any fractures or chipped bones that may need surgery!

Updated again – The xrays and CT scans have shown that there are bone chips that need removing so boy-child is fasting in preparation for surgery some time later in the morning.  He is currently trying to get comfortable on a narrow gurney in the hospital corridor as there are no beds available!

Change of Plans

Well this is what we had planned for the day.

A slow morning bumming around the house, cleaning up the remnants of the puking gastro infestation that has finally left our happy home.  that would include finishing off the rest of the laundry and getting all the sheets and towels dried and put away.  I need to rebuild the beds and put girl-child’s mattress back on top bunk.   We should also trying to eat something at some stage too.

Today is girl-child’s best-not-school-friends birthday and party.  Despite her being sick yesterday, her friend still wants her to come over today, however I am waiting for final confirmation from her parents.  I feel apprehensive sending her to a party after being so unwell but she has been puke free for 24 hours, for longer than she was actually unwell, and besides this bug seems to be everywhere at the moment and not just here.  So assuming she goes to the party, we will drop her at the party and I have to drop in to work for a while.  I love that despite being on holidays, I still need to get work ’stuff’ done, at work!  If the work thing gets done quickly enough I hope to make a quick stop at a craft/fabric store to collect a few more supplies to finish the costume I am making for a friend before heading back to the party.

The plan was to head from the party to mum and dad’s house for a few days of R&R.  I wasn’t looking forward to a 3 hour drive but figured it would be worth it for the recovery time and sunshine when I am there.  3 days in the country with yummy home cooked meals and someone else to entertain the kids was going to be perfect to recharge the batteries.  That isn’t going to happen now and to say that I am bitterly disappointed would be an understatement.

Latest Tally

Skip this post if you don’t want to hear more ranting from a sleep deprived janitor.

Well it is almost 2am, 4 hours after I had decided that I really should go to bed and I still haven’t had any sleep.  Here are the latest stats…

• boy-child is only just ahead of girl-child 8 vomits to 6
• washing load #3 is in and I think there is enough to make a 4th
• girl-child is in her 3rd pair of pyjamas for the night
• boy-child has now moved on from just throwing up to feeling dizzy and making frequent bathroom trips

In relation to said frequent bathroom trips, how do you teach a boy-child that it is better (for me at least) to sit down and pee, especially in the wee hours of the morning.  I was wiping vomit from girl-child’s face when he made his latest bathroom wanderings and from the sound of it, he missed.  It isn’t as if I have anything to do other than clean up bodily fluids, that is one fluid that I shouldn’t have to clean up!

Oh and my up-chuck reflex is still going strong, bile has its own vile nausea inducing aroma.  It really doesn’t matter how often I wash/spray/hide behind a mask the smell is lingering.

Feeling Great and Looking Hot?

So late on a Sunday evening, at the end of a quiet day but of a busy weekend the list of things to do consists of

1. Going to bed to get some much needed sleep
2. Working on a costume for a friend to wear to a party next weekend
3. Contemplate organising my study to assist with number 2
4. Kill a few brain cells watching drivel on TV

I was quite happy with a list of options that was achievable should I choose any option.  Of course just when you think you are on top of things, the universe decides to kick you fair and square in the arse and adds options number 5 and 6 that end up with this being me.

Masking the Funky Smells

The beautiful facial apparel I am sporting is courtesy of an aroma that makes me want to puke – literally.  You see option 5 is comforting not only one child but two children as they vomit everywhere.  That then leads to option 6 which is wash bedding.  I mustn’t forget scrape puke from carpeting, bathe children again, wash puke from the hair of said children.

I really should have known that puke-fest 09 was on its way, I mean half the neighbourhood has been afflicted in the past week, I just assumed that we have served our time in the land of ill and that sickness would by-pass our happy home this week.  As a result I really took no notice of the warning signs.

The first warning sign was that boy-child didn’t finish his dinner.  From a boy who eats twice what I eat for every meal that should have been warning enough.  I just assumed that since he had been at a friends house all afternoon he must have eaten snacks at his house and had no appetite.  The second warning I failed to heed was not long after tucking the kids in to bed.  Boy-child requested panadol to make him feel better.  I figured that he had been running wild all afternoon his arm must be hurting but he informed me it was his tummy.  He even went on to tell me that it was a 9 on the ‘hospital scale of how bad things hurt, with a really unhappy face above it’.  Now I am guessing that a good parent would think uh-oh, this could get ugly.  Me?  I just thought he was being melodramatic because he had no-one to talk to as girl-child had fallen asleep.  How wrong could I be?  No more than 25 minutes after this dialogue, my studious arse-sitting on the couch was interrupted by the sound of puking.

Thankfully man-child was first on the scene and handled the changing of the sheets and the throw the kid into the bath to de-puke.  I had the joyful job of scraping the mess from the carpet, along with half a deck of Uno cards and some origami like creations.  Neither job was pleasant and the smells emanating from both induced a reflex sympathetic vomit action hence the dolls towel tied around my head that has been sprinkled with lavender oil.

Barely had we settled boy-child into a clean bed than girl-child got in on the action.  She sleeps on top bunk so it could have been really ugly.  Fortunately she didn’t have time to move so both she and her bed were covered but the floor and the walls have had a reprieve.  In the stripping and remaking of her bed we (man-child) dragged her mattress to the floor.  There is now rubber backed sheeting along side boy-child’s bed, between him and girl-child and more sheeting on the other side of girl-child.  They both have puke buckets by their pillows and a spare between them.

Man-child was complaining that he was feeling a little funky so I have sent him back to bed with a bucket also.  I am planning on spending another night sleeping on the couch in the study, to be able to better respond to further puke issues.  Now I am waiting for the washing machine to finish so I can put on another load of vomit coated laundry!

Despite the face mask, the odours prevail.  Generous burst of various odour eating, anti bacterial, save the world from an apocalypse type household sprays still can’t defeat the smells.  I think I am in for a long night.  At last count girl-child was up to 3 vomits and boy-child has a new personal best of 7!

Edited to add – make that 3 for girl-child.  Fast running out of sheets and towels.

Diagnosis Confirmed

Well another long day with boy-child home from school meant another trip to the doctors office.  He is still not eating much, throwing up occasionally and has spent the majority of the day rolling around moaning and groaning.  The doctor confirmed the diagnosis as a lingering virus that since it is still around after 3 days it is likely to stick around for another few days maybe even a week if we are lucky!  In other words he has man-flu ant there is nothing that anyone can do to treat it.  All boy-child can do is rest and try to eat and drink as normal.  Sure his digestion is less than ordinary, but that probably has something to do with the lack of food intake.  If he would eat his body would have more strength to fight the virus that is traumatising me him.  Essentially the trip to the doctor was to encourage him to eat more to be able to recover since on the last trip to the doctor the need to keep up the fluids was reinforced so I was hoping the same would occur.

The diagnosis of man-flu was further confirmed in the car on the way home from the doctors office with a conversation that went something like this…

“So monkey, what should we have for lunch?” and he replied “I don’t want lunch, my tummy hurts.”

“How about some jelly or a yoghurt?” He declared “That won’t make me feel good.”

Being reeled in I ask him, “What food would make you feel good?”  He suggested “Maybe some KFC.  KFC always makes me feel good.”

“But KFC is greasy and will make your tummy all squirmy again!”  He stated the obvious “I know but it tastes good.”

“Sure it tastes good, but it might make you throw up again.”  Defending his request for crappy food, “That’s OK mama, my tummy feels better if I throw up, especially if I eat KFC!”

Now tell me, if you were sick (other than a hangover) would you want to eat greasy food that is going to make you throw up?  Me neither.  Instead of his request for KFC we headed over to Lil Sis’s place for some soup for me and yoghurt for the boy, some sanity for me and different movies for the lad.

Fingers crossed

Confession Time

Here I am at home in the early afternoon instead of being at work.  Boy-child is still suffering from a puking man flu and we are doing tag care and I have the afternoon shift.  That in itself isn’t the confession.

Last night, again mere minutes after going to bed (I knew I should have gone to bed early) boy-child was awake and uncomfortable.  I settled him back into bed and foolishly tried to go back to bed also.  Again, just as I was comfortable he was calling out again, this time the calls and moaning were accompanied by other less than pleasant noises and I had the joy of cleaning out the puke bucket.

Instead of going back to bed myself I again grabbed a doona and pillow and set up camp on his bedroom floor.  This is where the confession begins – I wrapped myself in a Snuggie before laying down to sleep.  Yes that is right, I have said it for all to here, I am the proud owner of not one but 2 Snuggies.  I must admit that I didn’t get the authentic Snuggie, I have the cheap knock off versions that were 2 for $15 and they are used every single day.  Both kids insist on wrapping in a blanket curled up on the couch so it made sense to get them.  I know they are ugly but they are cheap and warm.  I have to admit that thanks to the snuggie my body was nice and warm all night as I lay in the comfort of the kids room, on the floor.  Now if only I had remembered to wear my slippers my feet would have stayed warm too.

Now that I am confessing, I should also add that I am now wrapped in a Snuggie as I sit and type, so please if you come wandering by allow me time to hide the Snuggie before you come inside!