All she really needed was some antibiotics but when we tried to call her doctor we were told to bring her into the ER. Sigh. So we packed up the van and off we went through the ice and slush. Thankfully the roads improved the closer we got to Duluth and we evaded the 4 inches of snow that hit later.
Rachel's going to stay overnight in Pediatrics so they can give her antibiotics by IV tonight and tomorrow. The only thing that gets frustrating about spending the night in the hospital is that we don't have a nurse or even an aide to watch her 1:1. So Luke's spending the night there alone since I have to be at my parents to feed Kaleigh. (The stinker still doesn't take a bottle.) Rachel hasn't thrown up in a while and they do have a monitor that will alert them at the nurses' desk if her oxygen level dips but even if they immediately ran from the desk to where her room is they wouldn't get to her in time to suction her. Hopefully she'll be so tired out from the busy day that she'll sleep well all night. All day she kept trying to fall asleep but we had to keep moving her and messing with her.
All the peds nurses still remember her, I'm suprised with how few of them I remember. I suppose everything was a blur back then. They couldn't believe how tall she's getting and how she looks so much older. Her hair is also darker and long, long, long. (Rachel was a little peanut before and the Pediasure has so much nutrition in it that now she's 90th percentile for height and weight. She used to be always in the 75th percentile.) Rachel should be discharged sometime tomorrow after a second dose of antibiotics by IV.
So anyway, um, Happy New Year everyone!
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Rachel's still under the weather with an upset tummy and is running a temp if she doesn't have any tylenol or ibuprofen. Kaleigh isn't sick, after her amazing gastrointestinal pyrotechnics yesterday morning she was fine.
We now are officially fully staffed! I think for the very first time... We have three LPNs and three PCAs (four if you count Luke's mom, she's our back-up but not on the schedule). We never had more than two PCAs before. So now if someone calls in sick, there is more than one person to call to fill in for them.
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It's still pretty early but I think both Rachel and Kaleigh are sick. Kaleigh seems okay now but after I fed her this morning she threw up everywhere! Luckily I took the day off yesterday. Originally I was thinking that I should get some more sleep or I might get sick. I was also thinking that I should help out the new PCA who's never taken care of Rachel when she's this sick. But the PCA isn't here today so it was an extra good thing I stayed home! So I'm just hanging out in Rachel's room today. Even typing this is taking a little too long, I've had to run upstairs to suction her about five times while writing this... better go!
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Or she might still just be sick from before. She's throwing up again and looks pretty miserable.
She was okay during Christmas and it really wasn't too strenuous on her, we had a pretty relaxing Christmas. We got to see family this year but she still kept up her schedule of falling asleep by 3 or 4 pm so if we opened presents or tried to do something after that time she was zonked. Bill and his family stopped by on the Saturday before Christmas. It was really fun to see them (if you guys could e-mail me some pictures that would be great!) and after we all went downstairs and Rachel was still upstairs she started "complaining"- once we brought her downstairs with the rest of us she didn't make a peep.
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The other day Rachel came home from therapy with the beginnings of her communication board. She likes to bounce on one of those big therapy balls so on the piece of plexiglass are two squares of paper. One has a basic picture that is a big person standing behind a little person that is sitting on the ball. The ball is colored in to match Rachel's ball and it says "Bounce" on the square. Then lower on the plexiglass is a picture of an arrow pointing away from the ball and it says "Off". I'll try to get a picture of it and Rachel bouncing on the ball when I get the chance. So if we hold it up for Rachel to see and she looks at the "Bounce" she gets to bounce on the ball. If we show her the board and then looks at "Off" then she gets to get off. They also sent home other words with illustrations like book, turn page, blocks, bed, stop, blow bubbles, and a few more. Check back to this post later when I eventually post the pictures.
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Probably not a title you expect to see on Rachel's site, huh?
On Sunday Hudson and Luke were wrestling in the living room at Grandma's house. Rachel was on the couch so Luke had Hudson lay on his stomach on the floor so Rachel could "wrestle" and "body slam" him. Nope, not as bad as it sounds, he just held her as we normally do and made her bounce on his back and had her punch him or had her lay on the ground next to him and kick him. She didn't have her speaking valve in but from the big smiles on her face I bet she would have been noisy! At one point she did a really great job holding up her head on her own while Luke was having her sit up and punch at Hudson.
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At therapy yesterday her OT said that Rachel's arms don't turn down very well while out and at a 90 degree angle. (Kind of like you're signaling for a turn when your blinkers aren't working.) So it's a good thing OT has started back up and we can work on stretching that back out again.
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Sorry I haven't updated lately. Rachel's feeling a little better but she's still thrown up once a day or so. She hasn't had therapy or school for a while either so there hasn't been much new going on. It's getting close to Christmas when Bill said he'd stop for a visit. (Rachel's so excited
) "I miss Bill" is a catch phrase around the house, especially on Saturday mornings when at 8:00 we'd hear either Bill or Hudson exclaim "It's Cartoon Day!" when Bill arrived. Last Saturday Emily was the first person we've had on a Saturday since he left. Otherwise I'd usually be doing meds at 8:00 and when the "Signing time with Alex and Leah" theme song would start playing I'd half expect to hear Bill downstairs. So the catch phrase started where one of us would say, "No Bill." and then the other would say "I miss Bill." Even Hudson joins in with an "I miss Bill." Maybe he just misses Bill's potato chips that he used to snitch. [ add comment ] | permalink | related link
Rachel threw up twice yesterday and is still really gunky with a cold but she was less crabby by the afternoon.
I didn't get to see her awake for very long because I brought Kaleigh to her checkup. (She's 14 lbs now.)
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We kept Rachel home from school since she's still a little sick. She's not that bad anymore but it's so cold out today!
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Rachel might be sick. She threw up a couple of times last night but she didn't have a fever or act like she felt bad. One of her night nurses had a stomach bug so she might have something.
Keep her in your prayers today, we kept her home from therapy because she looked a little crabbier than usual.
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Rachel had a great day in therapy today. Usually Luke has to leave because she thinks it's time to go so she won't do anything if he stays to watch therapy. She still did really well, she was talking up a storm in speech therapy. They would ask questions and she would seem to respond at the right times. She doesn't speak words but you can tell the intent is there. Sometimes it even sounds as if she's attempting a word that she wants to say. They asked if she liked daddy or mommy best and she said something that started with an "M" sound. They asked if daddy was pretty and she kind of said "Nah" but when they asked if daddy was handsome she made a more affirmative sound.
Then in PT she was just yelling/laughing when they played on the exercise ball. After she pulls her head forward she gets rewarded by getting rolled back and forth on the ball on her back while her therapist holds onto her legs. When she got to roll she was so excited and so LOUD! Luke said it was very cute. She was pretty crabby when it was time to get off of the ball. She was extra crabby and yelling at Bev when they did an exercise she didn't like on the swing. She also did great knocking down the blocks with her leg.
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