Wednesday 16 February 2011

A day in the life of.........

Getting Jack ready for school this morning, I had a wee accident.  I was carrying the basin of soapy water into his room and I must have tripped cos the next thing I knew, the whole lot flew through the air and I took a frantic leap forward to catch it all but it stotted off the side of the basin and landed in a soapy heap all over his carpet!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!  I spent a good 10 minutes trying to mop it up, muttering under my breath the whole time.  Holly, bless her, came to see what the noise was all about and just laughed and gave me a hug.  Jack meanwhile was looking on, giving me that look, you know the one......the one that says "save me from the incompetent one!".

source

That meant that I was then running 10 minutes late. Then while I was giving him his meds, one of the meds blocked the peg and no amount of trying to flush it through was gonna make it budge. This meant that I had to take the peg button out of his tummy and put in a new one.  It's a simple job but you need to do it carefully and slowly to make sure you position the new one into his stomach.  This set me back another 10 mins and believe me the sweat was dripping down my back cos I was running out of time, the bus was gonna be here any minute..............aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....again.

This is what goes into the hole in his tummy.  It is held in place by filling the balloon at the bottom with water.

Luckily for me the peg went in without a hitch and we were good to go.  I finished getting him dressed, got him into his chair expecting the bus to be waiting but there was no sign.  So I quickly filled in Jack's school diary and seizure/fluid book, checked his magnet was in his bag and even managed to get some feed supplies ready for taking to school before the bus appeared.  Yay, they were running about 15 mins late too, glad it wasn't just me.

Just before I got into the shower, Nancy, who helps me out with housework and ironing on a Wednesday, phoned to tell me her daughter had gotten the results back from her biopsy and it wasn't good news.  Nancy wasn't sure but she thought it was Lymphoma but not sure which one.  I had a feeling it would be, when she was describing her symptoms to me and the swelling on her neck was scaring me half to death because that was how mine started.  What can you say at a time like this apart from sending your love and offering to be a shoulder to cry on?

I then threw myself into the shower, dressed and was out the door 20 mins later to pick up my friend Moira as we were going to our first meeting of the support group for Parents of Special Needs Children.

bliss oh bliss

It went ok.  Seven of us were there, not bad for the first time and the stories they had to tell were quite shocking.  We were able to discuss quite a few things, mainly to do with benefits they can apply for and about who to speak to about education as some parents are led to believe that they don't need a Co-ordinated Support Plan.  Without one of these, the school can not apply for funding, to get the extra help your child needs.

The meeting lasted about an hour and it passed in a blur.  Moira and I went to Baxter's after for lunch.  If you've heard of Baxter's soup, well this is the place that they make it.  They have a visitors centre, shops and a cafe there and the specialty is their pancakes, served with ice cream and maple syrup.  To die for!  But we just had soup and a sandwich and we struggled to finish that, as the portions are huge.  Moira made me laugh cos she was eying up the pancakes, thinking she would have one after her soup/sandwich but even she had to admit defeat.

they are much bigger than this, take up the whole of the plate but you get the gist

The I picked Holly and her friend Dizz up from school then dropped Moira back home.  I managed a cup of tea and started to write this post and then it was off back to school to drop them off.  I had 45 mins before I had to meet Jack off the bus for his rebound therapy so I quickly ran around the house, tidying.

Jack was sleeping when he came off the bus.  He slept through me taking off his hat and jacket but when I went to remove his shoes,  he leapt about 6 feet in the air!  I knew something was wrong straight away so I took off his sock and his foot was swollen, hot, red and blotchy.  The other one was not as bad but also swollen.

I checked his school diary to see if anything had been written in it and when there was nothing,. I called them.
They said he hadn't hurt his foot at all that they were aware of and really that was all I needed to know so that I could rule that out.  Debbie from rebound let me phone my doctors from the landline phone there cos when you call now you have to choose from options and I can't do that on my crappy mobile!

The receptionist said that she would get a doctor to call me, so I headed home.  A half hour later he called and I'd to take Jack straight up.  Holly helped me get him into the car and we were seen straight away.  Jack was not happy letting the doctor touch his feet and kept drawing up his knees.  The doc said straight away that he thought it was Cellulitis but that it wasn't contagious to either myself or Holly but that if he didn't get antibiotics, it could spread.



So after getting the prescription, I went home via the chemist and we finally got home at around 5.40pm.  I was nearly an hour late with his feed so quickly gravity fed him, then Holly brought the antibiotic and painkillers through so that I could administer them.  Turns out the antibiotics have to be given on an empty stomach..........aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!

This day has just been full of aaaaaaahhhhh moments and I had another one about an hour later when I was trying to put the covers onto Jack's chair which I'd taken off to wash for the first time.  Never again.  It was like a jigsaw puzzle but the worst jigsaw puzzle ever!  I wrestled with the damn thing for over an hour til finally it looked like it did in the picture.  As is typical of these things, there are instructions for adjusting the chair but none for putting the covers back on.

this is his chair, the covers look a bit like this now lol

We finally got Jack into his chair so that we could wheel it through the house to put him to bed.  Holly washed his feet and we put lots of moisturiser on but he really was sore and kept shaking.  My poor wee man.

I have managed to get 2 doses of the antibiotics into him and painkillers so he is now quite comfortable.

Now I am going to fall into my bed and sleep like sleeping beauty, except not for a 100 years, more like 7 hours!

8 comments:

  1. As I said in my FB response...words cannot really convey my admiration for all you do....I just wish you and Jack would get a break...a period of time when everything is boringly normal and life just jogs along. I really do wish you, I and Julie all lived just round the corner from each other so we could help each other out xx

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  2. Wow Lynn what a day you had and probably have a lot of days. I sit here and can't imagine any female I know that could handle what you do on a daily basis. I do hope Jack's feet improves quickly. Say hi to Holly & Jack for me and you have a great thursday.
    Odie

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  3. ahhhh lindy, talk about a bad hair day!!! after you spilled that water while in a hurry I jsut knew it set the pace for the rest of the day! have done it myself,and the faster you try to catch up about 10 other things go wrong while you're trying to fix the the first and the 2nd............

    I hope you crashed and slept like a log for the whole 7 hours and tomorrow is a better day.

    cellulitis is painful poor jack, I've seen grown men in hospital with it. Hope the Ab's work qhickly for him. (((((big hugs)))))

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  4. wish i had a teleport or a tardis and i'd be ther - picking up linda on the way.
    Hugs to you all and i hope Jack is better soon

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  5. I've had cellulitis before. It sucks, it burns, and it spreads like wildfire. Almost landed me in the hospital. Thanks God for Epsom Salt and the sore bursting so the puss could come out.

    I hope Jack gets better.

    The Adorkable Ditz' Missteps

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  6. My grandson Lee is now a little more than half way through the US Air Force basic military training course at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas. I believe he was in his second week of training when he had to drop out of a run because of the pain in his feet. His instructors at first thought he was just a "baby" who couldn't take it. When they looked at his feet they had to cut his boots off of his feet because they were so swollen. He was sent to the base hospital where he was treated for Cellulitis and then returned to his training group within a couple of days.

    Air Force doctors said that some people are allergic to something in the socks that the Air Force issues to its members causing them to develop Cellulitis. They issued Lee some socks of a different type and he hasn't had any more problems with his feet.

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  7. {{{{hugs}}}} to both you and Jack!

    His little foot looked like Scooter's did when her IV infiltrated in the hospital once. The idiot nurse then ripped the bandage off it when she took the IV out, and she tore a huge hole in the top of her foot. You could have put a quarter in the hole and not seen it at all except, if you were looking straight down at it.

    And I have to say I'm so in awe of you! Scooter only had a feeding tube for a few weeks followed by a button for about a year. She pulled it out once and was swinging it around in her crib when Bugster happened upon her. It freaked us all out a bit. We took her to the emergency room to have it replaced. I can't imagine having to have replaced them myself!! Kudos to you! You're one exceptionally strong mom!! :)

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  8. Linda - that would just be lovely if you and Julie were just around the corner. Just think of the fun and laughter!
    Odie - Jack's feet are improving, he says hi :)
    IWBY - ah you just knew after that first sentence eh and yes I slept like a baby
    Julie - ooh imagine that, where would we go??
    Ditz - ouch ouch ouch!
    Don - your poor grandson!
    Judy - lol I can just see her swinging it around! It's nerve wracking to begin with but you soon get used to it.

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Laughter is the best medicine and it's free. Thanks for visiting my blog and I look forward to hearing from you.

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