A tug at the heartstrings

I just saw the link for this on Michelle Malkin's website.

http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=24001

And believe it or not, I was actually able to read it without the aid of Kleenex.

Follow-up

I just realized that I never did any follow-up on Olivia's post where she was sick, yet again.

We did take her to the dr. that Friday and she ended up with a Roceferin shot and then another one Saturday. This seemed to do the trick and she's now okay. She went back to the dr. this week to finally get her 12-month immunizations (she's 14 mos now) and she gained a pound in two weeks. Amazing what eating without the pain of an ear infection can do!

All of this partly contributed to our decision to take her out of daycare. Bob remarked that they always seemed to be hosing the place down when he was there, so I know it was probably cleaner than my own house, it's just the nature of having several kids in one place day after day. They slobber on toys and then pass them around. If one has a runny nose they'll all get it. The only problem is mine will develop an infection from it and need 2-3 rounds of antibiotics to clear it up. Not to mention the days she missed that we still had to pay for.

On another whiny complaining note, our heat pump decided to stop working that same weekend. We had a major cold-front that Friday night and Saturday and I couldn't get the thermostat above 65 degrees, but it all got fixed just in time for the weather to hit 70 degrees.

If I could just have two weeks with no crises or illnesses. And then if I could have a few more...

She's Outta There

Bob and I had been discussing me pulling away from the day to day operations of his business. It's pretty tough working with your spouse, the whole dynamic of your relationship shifts when one of you is "the boss" and we really do better when we each have our own space and our own areas of responsibility that we carry out without the other one looking over our shoulder. Okay, I'm the one that looks over the shoulder. I'm a control freak, so sue me.

Anyway, I haven't been there much lately and Bob's doing great on his own. He still could use a hand with the paperwork and books and I'm more than happy to help out, but it's not something I need to be there for on a full-time basis. So with all that, we decided we didn't really need to keep Olivia in fulltime daycare. I miss my little girl during the day and there's other things we could do with the $600+ that it costs per month to put her there.

So Monday we decided to pull her out and today was her last day (they're closed tomorrow for Good Friday). So now she'll be my little sidekick, my shadow, the growth on my hip wherever I go. If I have work to do, I'll take care of it when she naps or at night after they all go to bed.

I'm looking forward to showing her that mommy can be fun too. I'm not all about laundry, cooking, cleaning house and sitting at the computer. Yes, work and chores still have to be done, but we can goof off with the best of them when we want to.

Shhh...just don't tell the other two what really goes on when they're at school. hee hee

I've been robbed!

Okay, the great $4 list may not be all it's cracked up to be.

I just looked at Wal-Mart and Target's Pharmacy sites where they list their $4 medicines. My prescription was for Amoxicillin 875 MG, 1 tablet 2x day for 7 days (14 pills). It cost 17.99 at Target. If it had been written in one of these configurations it would have been $4 (the third column is Qty).

AMOXICILLIN 125 MG/5 ML	Suspension	80, 100, 150
AMOXICILLIN 200 MG/5 ML*	Suspension	50, 75, 100
AMOXICILLIN 250 MG	Capsule	30
AMOXICILLIN 250 MG/5 ML	Suspension	80, 100, 150
AMOXICILLIN 400 MG/5 ML*	Suspension	50, 75, 100
AMOXICILLIN 500 MG	Capsule	30

So apparently, it's not enough to get your doctor to prescribe one antibiotic over another, you have to make sure it's one of the dosages and quantities on the list. So for me, the closest is 30 500 mg capsules. I would have to take 2 capsules, 2x a day.

I would have asked for it if I had known, but the point is, Target and Wal-Mart act like this is some great saving grace for the little guy, but how many of those people would be proactive and aware enough to make sure their doctor configured everything just right. Like me, they would probably assume that any dosage a dr. prescribes is going to be routine enough to be included and then when they found out it wasn't, they'd feel like they were ripped off.

And you think it's picky now, just imagine what would happen if the gov't ran it. You wouldn't even be able to ask for options because your dr. would be limited in how they could even write the script.

Knocked Down!

Monday I had a little bit of sore throat and then that night started to feel pretty rough. All day Tuesday I felt like I had been run over -- aches, chills and the sore throat had gotten worse. I took Daytime Theraflu which is pretty much like Daytime Nyquil and I highly recommend it. It made the day tolerable until Bob got home and I could crawl under the covers and doze on and off while watching Gene Simmons' Family Jewels.

At some point in the evening I went in the bathroom and looked at my throat, expecting to see the usual angry red streaks. Instead, I saw nasty white blisters going down both sides of my throat. Dang! "That's probably strep," I thought.

This morning I went to the local walk-in clinic and the PA took one look at my throat and said "Whoa... oh yeah, that's strep!" She didn't even bother with the culture, she just wrote the script. I was fine with that because my insurance has a high deductible and I had to pay the whole fee as it was. I didn't need any extra costs since we all knew what the problem was.

Still it's a bummer that it cost me over $100 for someone without a medical degree to tell me what I already knew and get me a prescription for basic run-of-the-mill antibiotics. At least the medicine was under $20, but next time I'm taking the Wal-Mart $4 list and telling them to pick something off of there. You gotta save where you can. I'm also going to look into an HSA so these kind of expenses can at least be pre-tax.

Still sick

Olivia's daycare called this afternoon and said she had a 102+ temp. Her doctor said Tuesday that if she still had a fever on Friday to bring her back in so that's what I gues we'll be doing tomorrow.

Has she been cranky?

This was the question my pediatrician asked today as she looked into Olivia's ears. I think in doctor speak that translates to "hey dumb-a** have you noticed your child is in serious pain?" We were there for her 1-year checkup that I forgot to schedule in January because we were all wrapped up in ENT visits and getting her tubes.

When you get this kind of question, you know bad news is coming up. It doesn't help that your response is "well yeah, but she's always like that." And "you know, now that you mention it, she does put her hand up to her ears and shake her head when she's crying". I know, I know, with 3 kids I should recognize things like that by now but you have to understand I come from a family where you have to show signs of near-death to be taken to a doctor. Heck, when I was 12 I walked around with pneumonia for 2 weeks before my parents finally took me to the doctor. And that was only after I missed a lock-in at church that I had been looking forward to.

Anyway, it turns out that Olivia has a blister on her ear drum. It's some kind of infection that the dr. said is usually caused by staph (lovely!) or something else that I can't remember (once they mention staph, you don't really hear anything else). We have antibiotics and ear drops to give her and then she'll go back to the doctor in 10 days.

On the upside, she didn't get her shots. The dr. felt sorry for her because these kinds of blisters are usually very painful and she said she'd rather wait until it was all cleared up before she put Olivia through the shots.

As for her growth stats: Height - 32"; Weight 20lbs, 12 oz; Head Circ - 18 3/4"

If you type the numbers into the growth percentile calculator at babycenter.com, you'll see that she's tall and skinny with a big head. She takes after her daddy.

2 in a Row!

On Tuesdays Vivian brings home a progress report for the previous week. Today she brought home all E's for the 2nd week in a row! We're so happy for her.

This is a big deal for us considering it was only a few months ago that she was bringing home almost all N's, which is like D's or F's. At the time I had a meeting with her teacher who thought she might have ADD and need medication. She still could be ADD, but if so, I'm hoping that it's something we'll be able to help her manage without pills. It was a little disturbing how quickly her teacher and pediatrician were ready to give her meds. The thinking was to give it to her and let's see if it helps... if so, then I guess she's ADD.

Gee, has anyone ever thought of maybe teaching personal responsibility.. a little b-mod through reward and punishment? Or does that take too much time and effort compared to a pill that can turn her into a little Stepford Student?

Enough on the rant, I'm so proud of my girl. She earned this on her own, through her own effort.

Oprah's Big Give

Alright, I lasted about 15 minutes on this. I can't watch anymore because I'm way too big of a softie for it. If I was sitting there listening to any of these stories in person, I know I would be a blubbering idiot. How do people do things like this without sobbing the whole way through?

Maybe I need to go back on the zoloft.

Recovery

If you ever want to renew your appreciation for your own kids, invite a bunch of other people's kids over to spend the night.

And be sure to add lots of sugary junk food to get the full effect.

The girls have all left and the house is pretty much cleaned up. Except for stray bunches of maribou trim that I'll be chasing out from under my DR table for the next week, you can't really tell a party took place. Well, okay, the streamers are still hanging from the chandelier and knowing us they'll be there until at least Easter.

For those who have not had the pleasure of playing endentured servant to a bunch of 6/7-yr-old girls, here are a few things I noted:

1. They eat alot

2. They open a bunch of juice boxes but never actually finish them.

3. They eat alot more.

4. After they've gone through several juice boxes and the orb-shaped bottled water that they never actually drank, they ask for glasses of water.... that comes out of the tap..... for FREE! I have to admit I was impressed with how many wanted water, my dad would be so proud!

Side note: at this point you may realize, as we did, that it's a good idea to have them write their names on their drinks so when they say they're thirsty, you can produce the glass (juice box, water bottle, etc.) they never finished.

5. When a couple of them lie down and start getting tired, don't think you're about to call it a night. Oh no, baby, the others will appear and whip the tired ones back up into a giggling, squealing frenzy.

6. Some of them have really annoying, high-pitched, make-your-ears-bleed squeals, which fortunately your hubby will put a stop to immediately.

7. Just when you think they're going to finally settle down and drift off, one of them announces she's hungry again and suddenly it's like none of them have eaten all night.

8. But when you finally can't take anymore, all you have to do is turn off the lights and resume your rightful position of authority in the house and tell them they are going to sleep.

All in all, it was a good party. The girls had fun and most importantly Vivian had a blast. But just ask me if I'm going to turn around and do this again with a bunch of 5-yr-old boys.

Those 2-hr party places are starting to look like a real bargain.

Winding Down

It's 12:30 and the girls are camped out in the living room watching High School Musical 2. The more hyper ones have seen it about 500 times so we're hoping they'll be bored into a comatose state.

Partytime!

 
Vivian's birthday party is tonight. She wanted a sleepover so it starts around 6pm and ends about 10am tomorrow. We're going to have about 10-12 girls with about half actually spending the night. We're doing pizza, then decorating picture frames with sequins and rhinestones, then cake and ice cream, and finally presents. Then for the girls sleeping over, we're doing movies and popcorn in the living room. I'm hoping they'll start going to sleep around midnight. We'll see.

This is Vivian's cake. She wanted a Webkinz theme so I took a picture of her surrounded by her webkinz and
had Wal-mart put it on a rainbow-colored cake. It's really cool! I had already planned to do a picture cake, but I couldn't decide what type of background and then in Wal-Mart I saw another cake with the rainbow frosting and I knew that was it!