Bob has recovered from whatever bit him. The steroids made him hyperactive - even more so than he normally is. I put a note in Bob's folder for school letting them know what had happened so they would know why he was acting the way he was. I received a note from the teacher thanking me for telling her about it because he was easily frustrated and cried a lot in school - which is not his norm. Getting him to go to sleep was a challenge. He just could not wind down to get to sleep. I wound up sleeping with him on the floor in his room with one of my arms on top of him. It was the only way I could calm him down and help him relax. We were both exhausted.
After nine years, I had to say goodbye to the Explorer. It needed a lot of work - about $3000 in work total - so I took that $3000 and put it towards a downpayment on a Nissan Xterra S. It was a 2007 that had been on the lot for almost a year, so there were a lot of rebates and dealer incentives to get rid of it. It was only about 3-4 thousand dollars more than the program cars that were on the lot, and I was able to get a maintenance package that pays for all the routine maintenance until the car reaches 100,000 - it includes tire rotations, oil changes, air filter changes, windshield wipers, transmission fluid flushes, antifreeze flushes - the only things that are not included are tires, brakes, light bulbs, and batteries. I just take it to any Nissan dealer. It was a pretty good deal. Just the cost of oil changes for the 100,000 miles at today's prices more than covers the cost of the maintenance package. And the 2007 Xterra won several awards for lowest price of ownership and lowest cost of maintenance for vehicles in it's class. It seems to get good gas mileage. I have had it for almost two weeks and I still haven't filled it up yet. I won't know exact numbers until I actually fill the fuel tank - something I will probably do today or tomorrow as I am down to almost a quarter of a tank. The Explorer I pretty much filled up weekly.
The only extras the car has is curtain airbags and automatic transmission. Power windows and doorlocks are standard on the Xterra S.
I had my driver's license switched over to Arizona's license - so I am officially an Arizonan now. But my license does not expire until my birthday in 2038 (as in 31 years from now) - a good $25 investment. Jim also has an Arizona non-driver ID card. They suggested that we get Bob an Arizona ID - for a child the ID is only $12 and it only costs $3 to have the picture updated - something we could do every couple of years. It would make plane rides much easier - we wouldn't have to carry around a copy of his birth certificate. And if we drove to Mexico (which we don't plan on doing in the near future), we would have picture ID for Bob to get back in the country. And if we happen to still be in Arizona when it is time for Bob to get his driver's license, it would be a lot easier for him to get his license - he would already have ID.
As many of you know, my mother-in-law was evacuated from her San Diego home. She is now back home and her house and her neighborhood are safe. She was very fortunate. I have not found out how the firefighter that was injured is doing. I will ask her the next time I talk to her. What is frustrating was the person she was trying to rescue was told to evacuate and he didn't which cost him his life, and made the firefighters take risks they normally would not have made and probably will cost this firefighter her life.
Bob is having fun playing with airplanes, and hammering wooden golf tees into a piece of styrofoam with a wooden hammer. He keeps on bringing an airplane out to me, showing it to me, telling me that "this airplane is an aircraft" then hammering a golf tee into the styrofoam before bringing me another aircraft. Needless to say, he is a typical boy - into every thing that has wheels or flies.
I hope everyone is doing well. I will keep in touch.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
???? Bite
Bob got bitten by something on Friday evening. He was playing on the patio. I don't know what bit him and neither did he. He had five or six bites on his left leg. I put hydrocortisone on it and put him to bed.
Saturday afternoon, his leg was huge. I had no Benadryl in the house, so I gave him some Claritin and it did not help. We wound up going to urgent care (what they call walk-ins on the west coast) as it was in the afternoon and his pediatrician only has office hours until noon on Saturday. His right leg (the good one) measured 21 cm in circumference. His left leg measured 24 cm in circumference. His left leg was also hot and red, and he had a low-grade temperature (99.7) He started on steroids and antibiotics - steroids in case it was just a venom reaction and antibiotics in case it was cellulitis.
The swelling is now down significantly - he is down to 22.5 cm, but every single one of the bites has turned into a bruise. I am going to call the pediatricians office in the AM because I want to spray the patio. I will ask them if they have any idea what could have caused such a bite. I don't think it was a flying insect as the bites are only on one leg. I think it was something that crawls and it crawled up his leg.
Potty training is on hold for the time being. Despite the fact that I have been giving Bob acidophilus supplements, he has a bad case of diarrhea from the antibiotics. We started using Desitin prophylactically.
Bob does not seem to be in much pain. I showed him the FACES pain scale and he picked out the FACE for 4/10 pain. He then ran away and started jumping on his trampoline. If his leg really hurt him, I don't think he would jump on the trampoline like that.
My fear is that it may have been a small scorpion. The effects of a scorpion bite can last a couple of weeks. But scorpion bites are supposively very painful, and I think Bob would have known he was being bit repeatedly by a small painful creature. He has a high pain tolerance, but not that high of a pain tolerance.
I will keep everyone updated.
Saturday afternoon, his leg was huge. I had no Benadryl in the house, so I gave him some Claritin and it did not help. We wound up going to urgent care (what they call walk-ins on the west coast) as it was in the afternoon and his pediatrician only has office hours until noon on Saturday. His right leg (the good one) measured 21 cm in circumference. His left leg measured 24 cm in circumference. His left leg was also hot and red, and he had a low-grade temperature (99.7) He started on steroids and antibiotics - steroids in case it was just a venom reaction and antibiotics in case it was cellulitis.
The swelling is now down significantly - he is down to 22.5 cm, but every single one of the bites has turned into a bruise. I am going to call the pediatricians office in the AM because I want to spray the patio. I will ask them if they have any idea what could have caused such a bite. I don't think it was a flying insect as the bites are only on one leg. I think it was something that crawls and it crawled up his leg.
Potty training is on hold for the time being. Despite the fact that I have been giving Bob acidophilus supplements, he has a bad case of diarrhea from the antibiotics. We started using Desitin prophylactically.
Bob does not seem to be in much pain. I showed him the FACES pain scale and he picked out the FACE for 4/10 pain. He then ran away and started jumping on his trampoline. If his leg really hurt him, I don't think he would jump on the trampoline like that.
My fear is that it may have been a small scorpion. The effects of a scorpion bite can last a couple of weeks. But scorpion bites are supposively very painful, and I think Bob would have known he was being bit repeatedly by a small painful creature. He has a high pain tolerance, but not that high of a pain tolerance.
I will keep everyone updated.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Mid-October update
I hope this post finds everyone doing well and in good health.
We have had an exciting week. It was my last week working nights. I will miss my friends at St. Joseph's, but it is time to move on. Everyone wanted me to stay and become a staff nurse there, but I miss emergency medicine and I want to go to the emergency room.
I was given an unofficial offer at Scottsdale healthcare - Shea campus. The nurse manager has to complete the paperwork for the official offer, so I should start the week after next. In the mean time, I will work with a Registry nursing firm doing per diem/temp work. I may just stay with them for a while because I will only be able to get 36 hours a week while I am on orientation. Plus, it is a good way to keep up my med-surge nursing skills up. And the pay is really good. The hourly rate there is just about the time and a half rate anywhere I would work as a staff nurse. And I would not have to sign up ahead of time - I would tell them which days I want to work, and I could refuse any assignment they offer me if I don't like a particular hospital or floor.
Bob's IEP was today. He qualifies to remain in the preschool. He has come a long way since this time last year. He is talking in complete sentences, although they are short sentences. He is using verb+ing words. He does not, however, ask questions -except for "Where my blankie go?" when he is looking for his blanket. He still is not always age appropriate with his social interactions. His pincer grasp also is still not properly developed - which is needed to hold a pen/pencil/crayon properly. (Much to Bob's dismay, at the OT's suggestion, all of Bob's crayons are now broken - broken (small) crayons are difficult to hold with a fisted grasp and must be held properly) He can draw vertical and horizontal lines, but he does not even come close to approximating a circle or square. Markers are out of the question as they are long and Bob holds them with a fisted grip. He winds up just crushing the tip.
I discussed the option of the pre-kindergarten program for him next year. The pre-kindergarten program is tuition based (I would have to pay for it). There is one instructor for 13 children - so no one would be available for one-on-one time with Bob. The teacher is not certified (usually has an associate's degree). The pre-kindergarten program is run by a community education program - not the school district. And Bob would only get thirty minutes of OT and thirty minutes of speech therapy a week instead of the 600 minutes combined he gets now. Needless to say, Bob will be in Preschool for about three years total. I am not going to pay for Bob to get less services than he has now (unless he miraculously does not need services next year - then I would gladly pay for the pre-K program). Of course the fact that they love Bob and want him to stay with them had nothing to do with them convincing me that Bob needed to stay with them.
After watching an episode of Star Trek, Jim asked Bob if when he got bigger, if he wanted to go up in the sky and go to other planets like on Star Trek. Bob's reply was "No - there are no trains on other planets". He still plays with his train table every day. Usually he plays with it for a few minutes before school and when he comes home from school. There is a train table at the school which Bob plays with every day. They were not surprised when I told them his first sign when we were teaching him sign language (before he could talk) was train. He is going to be Thomas for Halloween. I have the costume hanging up in the package where he can see it so he can get used to the idea of wearing it. About a week before Halloween I will take it out of the package and hang it up so he can get used to the way it feels, smells (air out that plastic bag smell), and looks. We did not do that last year with Tow Mater and Bob took some time to warm up to his Halloween costume. Although now he is pretty excited over the fact that he is going to be Thomas for Halloween.
We went to K-mart and Bob was on Jim's shoulders when we were leaving. At the exit, they had a Halloween figure that looked scary and said "Boo" and then something funny. The figure then picked his head off of his body. Poor Bob was terrified. He was not hearing what the thing said. The thing was just scary. He turned Jim's head and said "No like it here, we have to leave" and started crying. Jim did not even see the creature. All he knew was that his head was turned to the exit and he was instructed to leave. It was a topic of conversation all evening. We explained to Bob that it was a make-believe statue and that real things cannot take their heads off of their bodies like that make believe statue. He told us how he did not like it and it made him scared and he cried.
Q's nose still looks okay as long as I squirt saline into it at least daily. It is not "normal" and I don't think it will be "normal" ever again, but I think it looks a lot better. He is not a young dog anymore.
Jim is nearly completely back to his previous insane workout schedule. Depending on the day of the week, Jim is at the gym from one to two hours. It does help him deal with Bob though. He needs to work out to keep up with Bob. He still carries Bob on his shoulders to and from the schoolbus. It is about a 2/10 of a mile walk to where the school bus picks up Bob, so that in and of itself is a workout.
That is all I have to blog on for now. I hope everyone is doing well.
We have had an exciting week. It was my last week working nights. I will miss my friends at St. Joseph's, but it is time to move on. Everyone wanted me to stay and become a staff nurse there, but I miss emergency medicine and I want to go to the emergency room.
I was given an unofficial offer at Scottsdale healthcare - Shea campus. The nurse manager has to complete the paperwork for the official offer, so I should start the week after next. In the mean time, I will work with a Registry nursing firm doing per diem/temp work. I may just stay with them for a while because I will only be able to get 36 hours a week while I am on orientation. Plus, it is a good way to keep up my med-surge nursing skills up. And the pay is really good. The hourly rate there is just about the time and a half rate anywhere I would work as a staff nurse. And I would not have to sign up ahead of time - I would tell them which days I want to work, and I could refuse any assignment they offer me if I don't like a particular hospital or floor.
Bob's IEP was today. He qualifies to remain in the preschool. He has come a long way since this time last year. He is talking in complete sentences, although they are short sentences. He is using verb+ing words. He does not, however, ask questions -except for "Where my blankie go?" when he is looking for his blanket. He still is not always age appropriate with his social interactions. His pincer grasp also is still not properly developed - which is needed to hold a pen/pencil/crayon properly. (Much to Bob's dismay, at the OT's suggestion, all of Bob's crayons are now broken - broken (small) crayons are difficult to hold with a fisted grasp and must be held properly) He can draw vertical and horizontal lines, but he does not even come close to approximating a circle or square. Markers are out of the question as they are long and Bob holds them with a fisted grip. He winds up just crushing the tip.
I discussed the option of the pre-kindergarten program for him next year. The pre-kindergarten program is tuition based (I would have to pay for it). There is one instructor for 13 children - so no one would be available for one-on-one time with Bob. The teacher is not certified (usually has an associate's degree). The pre-kindergarten program is run by a community education program - not the school district. And Bob would only get thirty minutes of OT and thirty minutes of speech therapy a week instead of the 600 minutes combined he gets now. Needless to say, Bob will be in Preschool for about three years total. I am not going to pay for Bob to get less services than he has now (unless he miraculously does not need services next year - then I would gladly pay for the pre-K program). Of course the fact that they love Bob and want him to stay with them had nothing to do with them convincing me that Bob needed to stay with them.
After watching an episode of Star Trek, Jim asked Bob if when he got bigger, if he wanted to go up in the sky and go to other planets like on Star Trek. Bob's reply was "No - there are no trains on other planets". He still plays with his train table every day. Usually he plays with it for a few minutes before school and when he comes home from school. There is a train table at the school which Bob plays with every day. They were not surprised when I told them his first sign when we were teaching him sign language (before he could talk) was train. He is going to be Thomas for Halloween. I have the costume hanging up in the package where he can see it so he can get used to the idea of wearing it. About a week before Halloween I will take it out of the package and hang it up so he can get used to the way it feels, smells (air out that plastic bag smell), and looks. We did not do that last year with Tow Mater and Bob took some time to warm up to his Halloween costume. Although now he is pretty excited over the fact that he is going to be Thomas for Halloween.
We went to K-mart and Bob was on Jim's shoulders when we were leaving. At the exit, they had a Halloween figure that looked scary and said "Boo" and then something funny. The figure then picked his head off of his body. Poor Bob was terrified. He was not hearing what the thing said. The thing was just scary. He turned Jim's head and said "No like it here, we have to leave" and started crying. Jim did not even see the creature. All he knew was that his head was turned to the exit and he was instructed to leave. It was a topic of conversation all evening. We explained to Bob that it was a make-believe statue and that real things cannot take their heads off of their bodies like that make believe statue. He told us how he did not like it and it made him scared and he cried.
Q's nose still looks okay as long as I squirt saline into it at least daily. It is not "normal" and I don't think it will be "normal" ever again, but I think it looks a lot better. He is not a young dog anymore.
Jim is nearly completely back to his previous insane workout schedule. Depending on the day of the week, Jim is at the gym from one to two hours. It does help him deal with Bob though. He needs to work out to keep up with Bob. He still carries Bob on his shoulders to and from the schoolbus. It is about a 2/10 of a mile walk to where the school bus picks up Bob, so that in and of itself is a workout.
That is all I have to blog on for now. I hope everyone is doing well.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Vacation
Sorry I have not written an update on this site recently. We were on vacation for about a week and a half.
We had a blast on vacation. We first went to Williams, AZ where we rode the Grand Canyon Railway ( www.thetrain.com ). Bob, Mr.Train, loved every second of it. He even went potty on the train (with his potty chair topper). I had only seen the Grand Canyon from an airplane in the past. The airplane view was misleading. The size of the Grand Canyon is immense - "Grand" is not a proper adjective. Enormous or Gigantic or some other word maybe. You feel so small and insignificant when you stand there looking at the layers of rock that were deposited millions, if not billions of years ago. Compared to geologic time, we are here for just a few seconds. The views were breathtaking. Jim posted the pictures on Shutterfly and finally put them in a file that is shared if you want to look at them. www.thebobpics.shutterfly.com
We then spent the night in Vegas at the Hilton - home of Star Trek the experience. (Since you have to go around the Grand Canyon to get to Utah - Vegas was on the way. If they built a bridge through the Grand Canyon, it would have to be something like 150 to 200 miles long) Bob initially said he wanted to see a Borg. When we arrived and went there, we did see a Borg. Bob got scared and cried. We told him we were not going to let him get assimilated and that he was safe with mommy and daddy. He was still scared. He stayed upstairs in the hotel room with grandma Beverly and played cars with her and read books with her until he fell asleep.
The next day we went to St. George Utah where my in-laws rented a three bedroom condo. Everyone had fun. We went to Zion national park, Bryce canyon, and a smaller local canyon called Snow Canyon. Red Canyon was on the way to Zion national park, so we stopped there as well (to use the bathrooms). Jim took pictures there as well. Those canyons also make you feel small and insignificant, but nothing like the Grand Canyon. There were playgrounds and pools at the condo. There was even a two foot deep children's pool, so Bob did not have to wear his swim vest in that one. He had a blast. We had a birthday party for him at the Condo. It was tractor themed. We had cupcakes baked in ice cream cones as well as ice cream cones filled with ice cream. Bob got really messy, but it was fun.
My shoulder is now finally better. Vacation was good for it. I did not have to do any lifting using my shoulder (except to carry Bob) for a week and a half. It needed a rest. Hopefully it stays healthy.
As for Q, I bought saline nose spray. I started spraying it in his nose once a day. His nose is looking a lot better. I think the desert air is just too dry for him. I wish I had thought of that earlier before I spent almost $300 on him. But, he was almost due for his thyroid levels again, so I guess I could say I "only" spent about $175 on him.
Bob has started to go poop on the big potty. He did not like to poop on the little potty, but with the potty topper, he goes poop on the big toilet. It is a really good topper - it is by Baby Bjorn. It adjusts to fit ANY toilet - even elongated ones. I bought some travel sized Clorox anti-bacterial wipes so that I can clean it after he uses a public restroom before putting it back in the bag. He does well as long as we put him on the potty every hour or so. If we forget to put him on the potty, he will go in his pull-up. And if he wants to go back to play, he will just pee and then poop in his pull-up. I keep on telling myself - baby steps. I am not having another child until Bob is potty training. We are slowly getting there.
I have to go. Q needs a walk. I will try and update this next week.
We had a blast on vacation. We first went to Williams, AZ where we rode the Grand Canyon Railway ( www.thetrain.com ). Bob, Mr.Train, loved every second of it. He even went potty on the train (with his potty chair topper). I had only seen the Grand Canyon from an airplane in the past. The airplane view was misleading. The size of the Grand Canyon is immense - "Grand" is not a proper adjective. Enormous or Gigantic or some other word maybe. You feel so small and insignificant when you stand there looking at the layers of rock that were deposited millions, if not billions of years ago. Compared to geologic time, we are here for just a few seconds. The views were breathtaking. Jim posted the pictures on Shutterfly and finally put them in a file that is shared if you want to look at them. www.thebobpics.shutterfly.com
We then spent the night in Vegas at the Hilton - home of Star Trek the experience. (Since you have to go around the Grand Canyon to get to Utah - Vegas was on the way. If they built a bridge through the Grand Canyon, it would have to be something like 150 to 200 miles long) Bob initially said he wanted to see a Borg. When we arrived and went there, we did see a Borg. Bob got scared and cried. We told him we were not going to let him get assimilated and that he was safe with mommy and daddy. He was still scared. He stayed upstairs in the hotel room with grandma Beverly and played cars with her and read books with her until he fell asleep.
The next day we went to St. George Utah where my in-laws rented a three bedroom condo. Everyone had fun. We went to Zion national park, Bryce canyon, and a smaller local canyon called Snow Canyon. Red Canyon was on the way to Zion national park, so we stopped there as well (to use the bathrooms). Jim took pictures there as well. Those canyons also make you feel small and insignificant, but nothing like the Grand Canyon. There were playgrounds and pools at the condo. There was even a two foot deep children's pool, so Bob did not have to wear his swim vest in that one. He had a blast. We had a birthday party for him at the Condo. It was tractor themed. We had cupcakes baked in ice cream cones as well as ice cream cones filled with ice cream. Bob got really messy, but it was fun.
My shoulder is now finally better. Vacation was good for it. I did not have to do any lifting using my shoulder (except to carry Bob) for a week and a half. It needed a rest. Hopefully it stays healthy.
As for Q, I bought saline nose spray. I started spraying it in his nose once a day. His nose is looking a lot better. I think the desert air is just too dry for him. I wish I had thought of that earlier before I spent almost $300 on him. But, he was almost due for his thyroid levels again, so I guess I could say I "only" spent about $175 on him.
Bob has started to go poop on the big potty. He did not like to poop on the little potty, but with the potty topper, he goes poop on the big toilet. It is a really good topper - it is by Baby Bjorn. It adjusts to fit ANY toilet - even elongated ones. I bought some travel sized Clorox anti-bacterial wipes so that I can clean it after he uses a public restroom before putting it back in the bag. He does well as long as we put him on the potty every hour or so. If we forget to put him on the potty, he will go in his pull-up. And if he wants to go back to play, he will just pee and then poop in his pull-up. I keep on telling myself - baby steps. I am not having another child until Bob is potty training. We are slowly getting there.
I have to go. Q needs a walk. I will try and update this next week.
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