As my dear friend Angela is constantly reminding me "Do not pray for patience or God will help you by exercising your skills." So this week I did not pray for patience but I did my best to practice my patience. I spent Sunday evening in the ER with Sary because she had 103.5 fever and was complaining of abdominal pain. It was on the right side so I was afraid it was appendicitis but when I got to the ER they seemed to think that a urinary tract infection was more likely for a girl her age. Her pee came back normal and we moved on to focusing on her appendix. In the mean time they started an IV and took some blood. (both of these were a first for Sary).
She handled it like a rockstar. Sary was so well behaved she charmed all the nurses and techs. She was quite adorable in her rainbow pants with her rainbow build-a-bear and her light up stride-rite shoes.
She had an ultrasound and they couldn't see the appendix. Then we moved onto a CAT scan which required her to drink contrast, and have some contrast injected through her IV and she had to be sedated. The nurse told the Dr that she was sucha good patient that she didn't need sedation but the Dr insisted. The CAT scan came back clear.
The Dr determined that there was no need for surgery and that she had a virus and should be seen by her Pediatrician the next day.
I must have been quite the sight scooping up my sedated 3 year old that is more than half my height, lugging her to the car, looking worse coming out of the ER than she did going in. I was so overwhelmed that I forgot her discharge papers in the exam room.
The medication they used to sedate her made her sick over night and in the morning.
On Monday morning when we went to the Pediatricians office Dr P looked at the results from the CAT and said there was fluid in her lungs. She listened to her lungs and her crackling and wheezing. She determined that Sary had early pneumonia and that the abdominal pain was referred pain from her lungs. Just when I thought I was going to start getting into a groove with this whole going back to work on a project thing Sary gets pneumonia!
I spent Monday with Sary and she spent Tuesday and Wednesday at Nana's while I went into the office. She was so sad about being sick she cried herself to sleep Tuesday night. She wanted me to stay with her so bad on Wednesday that I almost turned around and came back home. But we were both strong.
Here we are we made it to Thursday. Dr P says there is a little crackling left in her lungs but she is on the mend. I am home with her and Piper for the next four days. Thankful once again that I get to spend more than 50% of my week with my babies.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Lorna the Therapist
So the last 6 months have been the most difficult 6 months in my life. I had a baby girl Piper who was born prematurely and that has defined everything I have been doing for the last 6 months. I am still now starting to find out if there is anything else I can handle doing anything besides mother her right now. I have been on a project at work now for 2 weeks which with the holiday has meant a total of 5 days away from the Piper. I am blessed with the flexibility to work from home two days a week. By the end of the day yesterday all I wanted all I needed "was to hold my baby". When I say I think the United States should have State funded 1 year paid maternity leave I mean it not from a political stance. But from the stance of a mother that desparately yearns to hold my baby when she is away from me. It is viceral not a political idea.
Today unfortunatly was not all giggles and spit up though. Today was a Physical Therapy day, which is presumably why I am working from home in the first place to do all the hands on appointments for Piper. The Ocupational Therapist is named Lorna. I would just refer to her as "the therapist" but my mother in law always refers to her by name which feels a bit strange and almost too personal. She does come to my home and does a service for my family but I don't know that I would call her Lorna if I went to her at an office somewhere.
So anyway Lorna the Therapist really made Piper scream today. Apparently Piper's torticollis is getting worse. So we need to "be more agressive with her neck stretches". Early on when Lorna the Therapist noticed that Piper had a slight issue with torticollis she threatened us with these "horrible stretches" which is now where we are. Today she threatened us with a collar made of tubing, which BTW she had in the car. But she didn't want to use it if we could make the stretches work. Ugh I feel like I am at the dentist when the therapist comes over. Every week it is a new issue and a new horrible painful thing that could happen if I do not follow Lorna the Therapist's recommondations.
There was mentions of working on her overstimulation issues and her tolorance of crowds. But that is not important right now right now we have the "take care of the neck". I was instructed to get on the floor with Piper and hold her neck to the right. "How long?" I ask. "To tolorance" translation until she screams to the point that you can't tolorate it anymore. I think it is supposed to be until she can't tolorate it but to me that would be as soon as she screams. When Lorna the Therapist had me administer the exercise she had me do it until I couldn't take the screaming anymore. In addition to this stretch we are supposed to do the one that Piper really hates which is holding down on her right shoulder and pushing her head straight But Lorna the Therapist didn't write that one on the list. Piper was so "done" by this point that Lorna the Therapist did not have me administer that one.
Lorna the Therapist wrote the following instructions in Piper's notebook:
On tummy - turn head to the right - hold- lay next to her and talk [while she screams in your face]
On tummy - double roll to increase angle and look for head up arms forward and straight is fine. [because we tried to get her to do something with her arms but she wont so go ahead and focus on the head]
Roll side -> Back->Side [because she refuses to be on her belly so let's not even go there right now]
Today unfortunatly was not all giggles and spit up though. Today was a Physical Therapy day, which is presumably why I am working from home in the first place to do all the hands on appointments for Piper. The Ocupational Therapist is named Lorna. I would just refer to her as "the therapist" but my mother in law always refers to her by name which feels a bit strange and almost too personal. She does come to my home and does a service for my family but I don't know that I would call her Lorna if I went to her at an office somewhere.
So anyway Lorna the Therapist really made Piper scream today. Apparently Piper's torticollis is getting worse. So we need to "be more agressive with her neck stretches". Early on when Lorna the Therapist noticed that Piper had a slight issue with torticollis she threatened us with these "horrible stretches" which is now where we are. Today she threatened us with a collar made of tubing, which BTW she had in the car. But she didn't want to use it if we could make the stretches work. Ugh I feel like I am at the dentist when the therapist comes over. Every week it is a new issue and a new horrible painful thing that could happen if I do not follow Lorna the Therapist's recommondations.
There was mentions of working on her overstimulation issues and her tolorance of crowds. But that is not important right now right now we have the "take care of the neck". I was instructed to get on the floor with Piper and hold her neck to the right. "How long?" I ask. "To tolorance" translation until she screams to the point that you can't tolorate it anymore. I think it is supposed to be until she can't tolorate it but to me that would be as soon as she screams. When Lorna the Therapist had me administer the exercise she had me do it until I couldn't take the screaming anymore. In addition to this stretch we are supposed to do the one that Piper really hates which is holding down on her right shoulder and pushing her head straight But Lorna the Therapist didn't write that one on the list. Piper was so "done" by this point that Lorna the Therapist did not have me administer that one.
Lorna the Therapist wrote the following instructions in Piper's notebook:
On tummy - turn head to the right - hold- lay next to her and talk [while she screams in your face]
On tummy - double roll to increase angle and look for head up arms forward and straight is fine. [because we tried to get her to do something with her arms but she wont so go ahead and focus on the head]
Roll side -> Back->Side [because she refuses to be on her belly so let's not even go there right now]
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