Archive for the 'Family' Category

The Fright of Our Lives

Marian April 5th, 2007

Our son, Roy, has been sick since last Friday. You know, the stomach thing, diarrhea & vomiting. This combined with what we came to find was Strep on Saturday at the Emergency Room.

Last night, about midnight, I was getting Roy’s bed ready to move him off of the couch and into his bed when I heard a whimpering sound (I had no idea it could be Roy) but, I turn around on hearing him, and saw him clutching the wall, trying to steady himself. I reached him just in time to keep him from falling to the floor and hurting himself.

A sick child is a terrible thing, but when you have a child who is unable to communicate as a normal child might makes things much more difficult to grasp. He was terrified, not knowing what was happening to himself and loosing control of his body. We were terrified, as well. Dad was still at work because of our bad weather. Kerri was nearby and came as soon as I called for her.

We know that he is dehydrated and just can’t get him to eat or drink as he should. After he passed out and was feeling a bit better, we moved him to my bed, but he kept having little accidents, having to change his pants. Immodium just doesn’t seem to be stopping the diarrhea, (where most dehydration begins!) I put him on the scales. Saturday he weighed 106 lbs. at the hospital, last night he weighed 99 lbs. His weight loss is visible.

We concentrated last night on keeping him comfortable and trying to re-hydrate him. Kerri went to the store and brought in Pedialite, Gatorade, yogurt, bananas, etc…

We called the doctor this morning, she’s out today, but her nurse told us to stop the antibiotics (Augmentin) as it could be exacerbating the problem. Now, we wait to hear from them to see what our next step should be!

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Children and being sick…

Marian April 3rd, 2007

Friday began like any other Friday…. Get up get the kids off to school, all of the usual things. Little did I know that Roy would come home from school sick. It started with diarrhea at about 3pm. Then by 9pm it had graduated to vomiting. All through the night, he could never really get comfortable and the going from both ends continued. Finally, at 6:30, we became more concerned. He had the shakes and couldn’t stand up steadily. His eyes were sunken. He was dehydrated! We decided to call the doctor, but I wasn’t familiar with the Doctor on-call, so I thought it wasn’t too early to call my neighbour, Maria, who is also an M.D. (she didn’t answer!)

Then, we decided we needed to call his doctor at home! She’s a friend, and I am loathe to take advantage of that friendship. But, my son was sick and getting sicker by the minute, so I called her, and woke her…. ( I owe her lunch! :-) )

She told us to give him another suppository to stop his nausea, and if it didn’t stop it to take him to the Pediatric E.R. After 30 minutes we still had the diarrhea and nausea. We got ready to go to hospital. Roy was triaged and and taken to a room in the ER, where he was receiving treatment within a short time of our arrival. He was given IV fluids and eventually antibiotics as they also did a throat swab which indicated that he had Strep.

We left the ER by midday and were on our way home after a couple of intermediary stops, on of which was the pharmacy. Then it was home, where we tried to keep Roy as comfortable as possible, but his temp started going up. We decided to let it work for a while. Your body runs a fever for a reason, usually to cook out whatever bug is going after you!

We kept him home from school on Monday and Tuesday… and it looks like it may be Wednesday as well!

Wish us luck, until later,

Marian

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Our Winter Snow Pilgrimage

Marian January 2nd, 2007

Each year, we take a Winter holiday to see and experience snow and a nice dry cold…. I mean really cold.

We left Huntsville last Wednesday the 27th, and spent the night in Nashville, as we had a very early flight out to Calgary. We were a bit concerned, we had a connection in Denver and they had another blizzard in the forecast. But, we made it through with flying colours, and with all of our luggage. The storm hit Denver much later in the day. Almost everything was shut down again, but they were better prepared than they were for the pre-Christmas storm that wreaked havoc.

We stay at a very kid friendly place in Banff. They have a huge indoor play structure as well as 2 indoor water slides, 2 hot tubs, a kiddie pool, and a smaller pool. Attached is a small grocery store, laundromat, and spirits store.

On New Year’s eve we went over to Lake Louise, and Dan ice skated on the lake while the kids and I went inside the Chateau for a cup of hot chocolate. Then on New Years Day, we went back to Lake Louise for a Sleigh Ride. It was beautiful. We went most of the way down the lake which is just over a mile long. We watched Ice Climbers preparing to climb a frozen waterfall, then we turned back to the chateau and a snack before the hour drive back to Banff.

I have taken a few snaps, they can be seen with some of my other photos, the link is on the right. But Danny has uploaded a few pictures to his album as well, click here for a look!

I will try to make another post as time permits. See you when we return. The kids are back in school next Monday.

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