More Laundry Anyone?

If you're popping in to check up on the latest drama at our house, I promise not to disappoint. Just when we thought things were on the mend, well they're not so much. First the good news, my mom and father in law are feeling better and the stomach bug they caught seems to be a short lived virus, so if I do go down at least I will know there is an end in sight.

Patient #1: Ryan seems to be doing a little better, the swelling may be down a bit, but he's still in quite a bit of pain and the most substantial food he's had in four days were mashed potatoes tonight.

Patient #2: Logan, well he's coughing still and was in a horrible mood all day. I decided to spoil him a little bit (not b/c he was being good, but b/c we'll be going to the hospital this week) and I took him to a movie. On the way there, he pronounced, "it's probably a movie I won't like." Honestly, it's so difficult to do fun things with that kid sometimes. I finally just asked him why nothing nice or happy ever comes out of his mouth. He was silent for a minute, then said, "I'm sorry." So we're working on saying nice things. When he says something negative or mean, I just remind him to, "try again." I can't say it's been too sucessful yet, but I'm going to keep trying.

And the one you're probably coming here to read about, patient #3: Chelsea wasn't doing so well today. Poor kid woke up coughing, from Logan I suppose. Her cough sounds 'wet'. It has the potential to be productive, but either she's too week to cough it up, or she's too young to know how to. She was once again very clingy, she didn't play much, only in short spurts today. She drank enough to have two wet diapers, not saturated, but nonetheless wet. She ate her breakfest well, lunch, a few bites, and no dinner. Dad did manage to get some of a strawberry/blueberry smoothie down her this evening though...only to have it come back up a short while ago. Yep, have I not had enough laundry to do in the past few days?

Here's how it went. Logan, after not eating any dinner, fell asleep on the couch watching extreme home makeover. I think he absolutely exhausted himself from screaming about how much his ear hurt for an hour and a half. Ironically his ear was hurting b/c he had been crying so hard after he got in trouble. Ryan was about to lock him in the closet, but I opted to lay him on a heating pad in hopes that would ease his "ear pain". Ryan was tired and wanted to go to bed, so he was rocking Chelsea to sleep and I had a moment of ... ahhhhh .... can you hear it? (That's me taking a nice deep breathe.) I had my bubble bath running before I even carried Logan to his bed. I had just gotten comfortable and was attempting to get through the last few chapters of my book when I hear Chelsea coughing. I thought Ryan was still rocking her, but she kept coughing, then I heard it. Just like the other night and I envisioned Ryan covered in vomit. Then I hear his footsteps rushing into her bedroom, "oh crap, I need help!" So that was the end of my bubble bath. Before I knew it I was wrapped in a towel with bubbles from my shoulders to my feet holding Chelsea still over the overused dishpan.

It was that exact moment that I remembered her tumbling off of Logan's bed two hours earlier onto her little noggin. She's got the goose egg to prove it. I frantically called the nurse on call who put the entire thing into perspective.
"How big is the bump on her head?" she asked.
"Well, the red spot is the size of a quarter."
She rephrases her question, "but how high is it raised."
"Oh, well not much, if any."
"Did she fall on carpet, wood floors or what?"
"Well, luckily he had a rug there that she fell on."
"From what you described, it's likely she's throwing up because of the cough and not the fall on her head."

I guess it just helps to have a professional tell you that. I did express my concern over her continued lethargy and this nasty cough though. It's just like her throwing up just sent me over the edge again. Of course she tells us we can take her to the ER, but I chose to wait and call our nurse in the morning. I'm hoping she'll be able to check her out and if nothing else, rehydrate her. The on-call nurse assured me they won't be starting chemo on her Tuesday if she's still puny....which at this rate, it's likely she'll still be sick.

So that's all I've got for tonight. It's still early, and I'm almost finished with a great book, so I'm off to lay in my nice warm bed with My Sister's Keeper. I'm sure I'll hardly notice Chelsea sleeping in her playpen at the foot of my bed coughing in unison with her brother in the room next to ours!