Maybe Blueberries Are the Trick...

Me: "Rylee, does your throat hurt?"

Rylee: "No."

Me: "Oh, good... that means the medicine you're taking like a big kid *ahem* is working!"

Carter: "Mom... my troat huh-ts, too!" (throat hurts)

Me: "Oh no! What should we do?"

Carter: "Go to dah-ter." (doctor)

Me: "What do you think he will give you for your sore throat?"

Carter: "Meh-cine."

Me: "What kind of medicine?  The kind Rylee has?"

Carter: "No.... boo-berries!"

Me: "Do you think blueberries will help your throat feel better."

Carter: "YEEEAAAAAAAH!" (Said very loudly, if you recall the post entitled "Can You Hear Me Now?")

I get Carter some blueberries, give him a chance to stuff 8 in his mouth at a time   eat some.

Me: "Carter, how does your throat feel now?"

Carter: "Bettaaaaaa!"(Better... said with a little smirk, followed by his adorable little giggle.)

Maybe doctors need to check into the healing powers of blueberries!

Update on Rylee's Tonsillectomy

* Update:

Some of you are sending suggestions about medicine-giving, and I appreciate it!  I have had a few of you mention the flavor of the medicine, which can often be a deterrent to taking it!  I should have said that the medicine she is taking, fortunately, tastes ok.  In fact, pretty good.   I would even take the medicine every now and then for a little snack if it weren't frowned upon by the medical community. We had one of her stronger pain meds flavored at the pharmacy, but lucky she hasn't even had to take that one.  So, I don't think that the flavor has anything to do with her not wanting it.  I think it has to do more with the fact that... we're asking her to take it.  And she's the boss, you know.

*****

Rylee is doing pretty well at home.  She seems a bit more tired than usual, and I find her sitting on the couch with her blanket more often than normal.  She is up and about playing from time to time, but she's also asking to be held more (which Carter doesn't find acceptable -- I am only HIS Mom, you know!)

Rylee is eating and drinking well -- whew!  That is a biggie after a surgery like this!  We haven't seen any signs of pain yet... but giving her an antibiotic for 10 days and pain meds every 4 hours for a week or so is the key to keeping things under control.

Giving her meds has been a challenge.  She's never been big on taking medicine, so unfortunately I thought... okay, knew this would be difficult for us.  

How difficult?  Well, do a little math lesson here. The antibiotic is given 2 times a day for 10 days... and though I wasn't a Math major in college, I believe that makes 20 doses of that.  Then the pain meds... well, every 4 hours means 6 doses a day.  They say that days 5-7 post-surgery can be painful, as the scabs (I know that's a gross word... sorry) may start to fall off.  The doctor and nurses (along with many parents who have gone through this with their kids) say that the worst thing you can do is stop the pain meds when you think they don't need them.  It's just about that time that the pain gets worse, and it's difficult to catch up after you've stopped the meds.)  So, let's say we have 10 days of pain meds... that's 60 doses.

Recap: 20 doses + 60 doses = 80 doses of meds

For Rylee, that means 80 times we are/will be begging, pleading, and bargaining with her to take her pain meds.  Statistics show at this point that begging, pleading and bargaining works only 10% of the time.  Therefore, we have 72 times in which we will have to find alternative means for giving meds. 

About 30% of the time, I can hide the medicine in something she likes to eat, and she'll take it just fine.  Whew.  There's 24 more times we can deceive our child and she'll take the meds. Not that I feel good about this.

40% of the time, Jeremy and I wind up having to do the least-desirable... hold her down and squirt the medicine in her mouth (without her choking) -- wipe up what she manages to spit out -- and decide if she spit out enough that we should give her a bit more, or just forget it because we don't want our poor kid to OD and hope she got enough.

So, we've got 20% of the times left... 16 more times in which we have to find an answer.  We've had her give her baby doll some pretend medicine before her, we've blamed it on told her that the doctor said she needed to take it to feel good, we've asked family members who have visited to ask her to show them what a big kid she is by taking her medicine... 

and Rylee just keeps reminding us that she's the boss.

Can we blame her?  I wanna be the boss, too.

So, if you have any fabulous medicine-giving suggestions, or if you want to get on our family/friend rotation of coming over and asking Rylee to show you what a big girl she is, let us know. 

Though, keep in mind... that doesn't always work either.

Updates on Rylee's Tonsillectomy

I posted a few updates on Facebook yesterday and today about Rylee's tonsillectomy... but suddenly realized that some of you aren't on Facebook (or aren't my "friends"... although you ARE my "friends," just not on Facebook!)

I'll definitely post more later (with pictures, of course... probably didn't even need to say that) about our couple of days in the hospital and our little trooper, Rylee, but for now, here are my Facebook updates to recap:

Yesterday (Tuesday) 1:30 pm

Quick update... all went well with Rylee's surgery. We're settled into the hospital now and she's enjoying a popsicle! She's 10 seconds from falling asleep! Thanks for everyone's thoughts! Please keep sending them... we hope we can keep her eating/drinking in the days ahead!

Yesterday (Tuesday) 6:50 pm

Things are still going well here at the hospital! Thanks for everyone's thoughtful comments!! Rylee is eating and drinking pretty well so far, and charming all the nurses with her personality! We're bribing with movies and anything else we can to keep her drinking! She isn't a fan of her IV, but we're distracting as much as we can!

Today (Wednesday) 8:30 am

Long night... Rylee wasn't IN pain at all, but was a bit of A pain!! She thought that water with FRESH ice every 1/2 hour sounded good, and wouldn't go back to sleep until she got it! She's up and walking around this morning, waiting for her breakfast. She requested chicken strips and french fries, but I talked her into eggs! Hope we're out of here later this morning!!

Today (Wednesday)... just a few minutes ago!

Home, exhausted, but doing well! Rylee and I got home around noon, and enjoyed some time with my Mom and Dad this afternoon. She's pretty tired (asking for ice all night long can do that to a girl!) so she took a nap and is already tucked in for the night! We're keeping up on pain meds, hoping all goes well as she heals! Thanks again for everyone's caring thoughts!! Off to bed myself!

Bye-Bye Tonsils

You know, if tonsils can be removed, did we really need to go through the extra step of developing them in the first place?

It's been a long journey to get to this point... one in which I will post about at a later time, but tomorrow Rylee is having a tonsillectomy.

Routine?  Well, I guess.  For most kids it is.  And we hope it is for Rylee, too.  However, with her health history and diagnosis, it can be a bit more risky.

We're headed in at 7:15 am, with a scheduled surgery at 9:00 am CST.  The surgery should go quickly, with an hour or so spent in recovery, and then we head to the Pediatric Unit of the hospital where we'll stay overnight tomorrow night.  If... I mean when all goes well, we plan to be home sometime on Wednesday.

If you happen to have a few spare thoughts or prayers, we'd be thankful to have them!  

Oh, and since no post is complete without a picture, here's one for ya.  My Mom came up today to spend a few days here (she'll be staying here with Carter while we're at the hospital) and she snapped a picture of me with the little ones.  Yes, that's me... I know I'm usually "heard but not seen" here on my blog, but here's proof that I do indeed exist.  

And so do 2 very adorable little kids, if I do say so myself.

The Aftermath

Jeremy suggested the party.  I wasn't sure it would really all come together, and Jordyn wasn't sure if enough of her friends would be around to attend.  But, apparently, 727 texts later, she determined that yes, if she had the party on the 3rd of July, nearly 30 of her friends (boys and girls) would be able to come to destroy our yard  enjoy a 4th of July Party!

We hoped for sun.  Instead, we got rain.  And lots of it.  We saw it coming yesterday morning, so we spent some time cleaning up the garage so the kids could hang out there... 

But, apparently 14-year-olds don't care if it's raining.  

I don't have any pictures of the party.  The truth of the matter is that I hid inside.  When glancing out our windows to see 14-year-old boys chasing each other with fireworks in the pouring rain got to be too much for me, I headed to the basement with the little kids to hid there.  Jeremy stuck it out.  He and his brother supervised to be sure that our house didn't burn down (I guess I should be very thankful for the rain) that everyone behaved appropriately and that everyone kept their hands and lips to themselves.

We had only 1 injury... Jordyn somehow managed to get her part of her hand pinched between the springs on our trampoline (even though we have a safety net on it, and the springs are on the outside of the safety net... I guess Jordyn is just talented that way.)  And yes, she thoroughly enjoyed pitching in her softball tournament today with that fresh injury on her hand. Ouch!

I only had to (politely) holler at the kids once... they were utterly surprised that I was not thrilled with the idea of them lighting fireworks on our deck.  (Notice that didn't say off our deck... no, it was on our deck.)  I know.  I am so un-cool. 

I didn't hear of any other major blow-ups, but then again, I was hiding inside.

This morning, things were a soggy, wet mess.  Jeremy swept the driveway just enough to get his car out to take Jordyn to her softball tournament.  Here's the pile... a mess of wet grass, firework remnants, plastic wrappers, and pop cans...

Consumed: 30 hot dogs, 34 hot dog buns (either kids like to eat plain 'ole buns, or several landed on the dirty, wet garage floor in the chaos of the party... I am leaning toward the latter) 6 large bags of chips, 2 bags of large marshmallows, 9 Hershey bars, 1 box of Graham Crackers, and 72 cans of pop... (yes, that is 7-2... no typo)

All of that, and we still have an unopened bag of napkins.  

Note to self: Napkins unnecessary.  Apparently 14-year-olds wipe hands on pants & shirts, much like our 2-year-old.

Yes, that is someone's pair of sweatpants on the floor of the garage.  I'm hoping they had something else on under them.

We had bought some fireworks for the kids, but Jordyn also told her friends they could bring some of their own.  When it seemed as though the fireworks would never end, I told Jeremy to sneak out to the garage and bring in some of what we'd bought to hide from the kids.  We just wanted it to end!

Here's more of today's yard decorations.

The firepit survived... kind of.

Dear French's Mustard: I am sorry you were left stranded in the backyard last night. I'm not sure how you got there... the location in which we found you was hundreds of yards from the area of hot dog consumption. We apologize for the rain you endured overnight.  We look forward to seeing you (well, maybe not you, since we feel it's best that you get thrown away) at our next BBQ. Sincerely, The Griffiths

 

We gave the mess the day to dry up. After Jordyn plays her last softball game tomorrow in the tournament, she's spending time cleaning up.  Maybe she'll recruit some of her friends to come back to help.  All I know is... I'm hiding inside again.