Keeper of the Home

Mandatory Family Craft Time

Really! I'm back! For Sure!

Stormy Night

The wind howled around our house last night battering the vinyl siding and rattling the patio furniture. It whipped up in great gusts and then moved on while we held our breaths waiting for the next blast. The trees were tossed about, the tops bending almost horizontal before righting themselves. The power flickered a few times and I knew it was only a matter of time before it went out completely. And then it did...the whole house subsiding into absolute darkness and silence.

The stillness of a house without power is really strange. I sat in bed for a long time, journally by flashlight, and listening to the wind. A glance out the windows showed that the whole neighbourhood below and above us on the mountain was also plunged into a mirky quiet but I could see the lights of downtown twinkling in the distance.

This morning our corner of the world is quiet again and sometime during the night I heard the squeal of the smoke detector as the electricity came on. I'm always relieved to hear the familiar hum of the house coming alive again - the furnace kicking in, the refridgerator starting up, and the comfort of knowing that once again everything is back to normal.

Push Toward Report Cards

Even though the kids and hubby aren't quite over the flu symptoms yet, this week we're supposed to be into the big push toward report cards. This means gathering all the assignments that the kids have done over the past couple of months and assembling them in a presentable manner for the teacher's visit. Some of those assignments aren't completed yet, others aren't marked, and others have mysteriously gone missing. So the task feels a little overwhelming.

After all the busyness of last week, my mood isn't conducive to beginning this daunting task today. Unfortunately, time feels the enemy and a glance at the calendar confirms that I need to get going. Is it just me or do the days seem shorter than ever since we put the clocks back? In truth, the gloomy dark weather of late makes one feel as though day never quite arrives.

I feel a little downhearted today.

Flu Symptoms from the H1N1 Vaccine

On Wednesday evening my youngest daughter also succumbed to flu symptoms after we thought she wasn't going to react to the H1N1 vaccine. She developed a fever, a terrible headache, and a really chesty cough. Strange how this virus knows how to zero in on the weak areas. When Mady was younger she used to get croup every winter. That's the kind of cough I've been hearing over the past few days.

William is doing better but is still bed-bound. His asthma symptoms have settled down but a nagging dry cough is still hanging around. He looks better to my eye today but is still pale and lacking energy. His tummy hurts from the array of medications we keep pumping into his system, and it's also sore from all the coughing. (That reminds me that I need to heat up the little gel-pack for him to put on those aching muscles. I'll do that when this is posted.)

My husband, who is also an asthmatic, had his flu vaccines at the same time as the two children. He has been struggling with flu symptomsall week too. But, being true to his stubborn self, has been going off to work everyday regardless. I've been very thankful that the weekend has given everyone the opportunity for a few days to rest and try to lick this thing.

So much for my prediction (in the last post) that everyone would be feeling better by the weekend! I'm exhausted running up and down the stairs at everyone's beck and call. And, I pulled a calf muscle as I was jogging up the stairs for the millionth time on Friday. So I'm now hobbling up and down.

I'm also running out of ideas for enticing meals or drinks to make my picky patients. Let's see... we've gone through a couple of loaves of bread making toast, a couple of boxes of eggs, several bottles of Orangina, a bottle of V8 Splash, jugs and jugs of water, a whole box of vanilla Earl Grey tea, and many cans of chicken noodle soup. Nevermind, the popsicles, jell-o, puddings, and yogurts. We also used a bottle of extra-strength Tylenol, another of Advil, a week's worth of prednisone (just one dose left), cough medicine, and a shocking amount of asthma meds. Wow. That's an impressive list.

Did I mention that my two older daughters and I haven't received our flu vaccines yet? After seeing how its affected my family I'm feeling quite reluctant to go and get one. How do I chose when I think it will be a good time to start feeling lousy? I think I'll deal with my daughters first, see how they react, and then maybe I'll get one when everyone else is over their symptoms.

So Glad to be Home...

...after a long day in Emergency with my youngest.

We were finally able to get him his H1N1 flu shot on Tuesday night, an essential for a kid who's asthmatic. However, he didn't respond well to the shot and ended up coming down with flu symptoms that resulted in a full-blown asthma attack. He was up all through the night dealing with different symptoms, and when the asthmatic coughing started we increased his doses of ventolin.By about 11:30am I realized that I needed to take him to the ER. His asthma meds just weren't doing their job and his breathing was really labored.

Fortunately, they take breathing issues seriously at the hospital and we were whisked in right away to start on the nebulizer. After a dose of prednisone and more doses of ventolin in the nebulizer he finally started sounding better. Only...because he had a low grade fever, the doctor wanted to have a chest xray done to check for pneumonia. I was worried that we'd end up having to stay in overnight, but thankfully we were given the okay to go at around 4:30. Yeah!

So now...we have follow-up meds to administer for the next five days, and of course are keeping a close watch on his breathing. He won't be able to fly around the house for awhile but hopefully by the weekend he'll be feeling completely over this episode.

I am so glad to be home as I didn't have a chance to eat all day and I was beginning to feel rather faint. Now after a meal and a hot drink I'm about ready to have a quick bath and crawl into bed.

Thanksgiving Journal Continued

My Thumb

On Sunday night I slammed the car door on my thumb. I stood there in shock for a moment before managing to extricate it and then caught up with my husband and friends who had gone ahead into the restaurant, not realizing my distress. They could tell by my face that something was wrong, and I'm surprised in hindsight that I was so quiet about the whole episode. No screaming or tears. I simply held my breath and waited without success for the wave of pain to pass.

I spent the meal in hazy distraction with my thumb immersed in an icy-cold glass of water. A couple of Advil also helped to mute the throbbing. Still, by the end of dinner I was happy to be heading home until everyone suggested that I get it checked out at Emergency. Unfortunately we were too late to stop by a clinic which in my opinion would have been the lest dramatic of my options. After several hours, avoiding patients who seemed to be smitten with flu and drenching our hands in anti-bacterial wash, the doctor announced that there was nothing broken. However, he did puncture the nail to allow the blood that was pooling underneath to have a way out. Lovely. Truly.

So, for the last couple of nights I've been sleeping with my hand carefully laid on the pillow and trying to avoid bumping it on anything when I turn over. During the day I've discovered a renewed respect for this particular digit as I didn't realize, until it was incapacitated, just how much my thumb is involved in most everything I do.  Although the pain has significantly reduced, it still remains bruised and swollen and I'm unable to put pressure on it. Just another reminder to slow down and do less during the strange season of learning to live life differently.

Oooh! A New Journal Idea!

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