But I Had Such a Fun Time! I Really Did!

This successful experience was brought to you by the grace of God, a stubborn will, and five units of Clinical Pastoral Education. 

I have preached in many contexts, not all of them pleasant. I have preached while pregnant, with painful Braxton-Hicks contractions rippling through my body. I have preached while in the throes of bronchitis (also pregnant, I should add). I have preached while a congregation glared poisonous daggers at me during the whole service (that was my next-to-last Sunday at St. John's). I have literally preached to the choir, when they were the only ones who showed up for a Maundy Thursday service.

However, I had never preached while suffering from the stomach flu. Until yesterday, that is**.

I woke up yesterday feeling kind of queasy and with some symptoms of mild stomach upset. I assumed they were due to nerves, because I had been putting myself under an unreasonable amount of stress about this sermon, service, etc. I ate some breakfast, got dressed, and headed to church.

The first service went well, but I was still feeling kind of queasy, so I ate a bagel and drank some water. It's a good thing I didn't eat the Hostess cupcake I received from a very nice gentleman who attended the 8:15 service (I still haven't eaten it, but I WILL, because I LOVE those things). I still felt queasy.

I went into the worship space for the 11:00 service to pray, re-read my sermon, and prepare for worship. Around 10:15, I began to have THAT FEELING. You know, when the queasiness turns into the I'M GONNA PUKE feeling. So, I walked very quickly to the ladies' room (which was mercifully empty), locked myself in a stall, and promptly expelled the contents of my stomach into the toilet.

I felt somewhat better, but found myself in a new predicament: was I sick, or was this just nerves? And if I was sick, then what should I do? My instinct was that I was coming down with the stomach flu, because I had NEVER EVER thrown up as a result of nerves. I also knew that James was not feeling great (and was, in fact, staying at home because he wasn't feeling well), so it was possible that I had caught whatever he had.

I did two things: first, I asked God to please hold off any further symptoms until the service was over and I was home. Next, I posted something on my Face*book status, asking others to pray for the same. Then I continued preparing for worship. After all, it was 10:30 by this point. I figured that as long as I could get up and down from the stage and stand to deliver my sermon, there was no reason for me not to finish what I had started. I had brought some mouthwash and used that, and sanitized my hands very very well.

And it worked. I compartmentalized the queasiness (hardly even felt it, really), did a reasonable job with the service, and headed home. Within an hour of returning home, I was shivering with a fever and unable to keep down even Pedialyte. That continued for the rest of the afternoon and evening. James (who was also miserable, as was Susanna) went out and bought some Gatorade and ginger ale. The Gatorade stayed down, and I began feeling better.

We're all better today and even eating solid food again. And I really really enjoyed preaching yesterday...I had forgotten just how much I missed it.

**Really, I wasn't THAT sick during the morning hours. It didn't get bad until I got home. But "I preached with the stomach flu" sounds good, doesn't it?

My Kid Saved Me $110...

Explanation for the title: under our insurance plan, a doctor's visit is a $15 co-pay and an Emergency Room visit is a $125 co-pay. Read on...

So, when I checked Greg's temp this morning, it was back to normal. I debated not taking him to the doctor, but decided to go ahead and take him, because he still seemed miserable in the Respiratory Department. He was coughing a lot and wheezing a lot.

Our pediatrician has drop-in hours from 7:30-9:00 am, and we arrived a little after 8am. The waiting room was full (I expected it after the weekend, especially a holiday weekend). Almost four hours, one nurse practitioner visit, two nebulizer treatments, one chest X-ray, and a tentative diagnosis (only tentative because they can't run the actual test in the office) of RSV/bronchiolitis later, we left the building. They gave me a nebulizer machine for Greg (well, they're actually billing our insurance for it) and prescriptions for liquid Albuterol (for the nebulizer) and a steroid. The chest X-ray was to rule out pneumonia. Thankfully, that came back negative.

Remember this post from when Susanna was a baby? Susanna had the same thing Greg has. Apparently, Greg had reached that critical point in his illness where he was really having trouble breathing. He actually slept fairly well last night (in three or four hour stretches), which was why I was so surprised that he seemed so bad off this morning. Had he begun showing signs of distress overnight (the way Susanna did when she had bronchiolitis), I would have had to take him to the ER (which I did with Susanna*). Wasn't that thoughtful of him to wait a few hours before having breathing difficulties? I'm SURE he did that intentionally (of course he didn't. It was purely by chance).

So, we have a fairly sick little boy on our hands, but he will be OK in a few days. For now, we're giving him breathing treatments every four hours and a steroid once a day. He goes back to the pediatrician on Wednesday, but hopefully things will be better by then.

I have another post brewing about hospice and palliative care (hey! did you know that November is National Hospice and Palliative Care month? Neither did I until today!), but that will take actual time and more thought than I can drum up right now. Hopefully that will show up tomorrow.

*In Susanna's/my defense, I had already taken her to an Urgent Care center once and called the pediatrician's answering service early that evening when she seemed to be getting worse. I think that if medical care in Danville had been better, the ER trip would have been unnecessary, because the bronchiolitis would have been caught earlier.

Quick Takes, Sick Baby Edition

1. Sheesh, I'm tired, and I'm on call tonight and then on Monday night.

2. The reason I'm tired is a certain little boy named Gregory James who is sick. The sickest I've ever seen him, actually. Last night he really didn't sleep, except for a two-hour period. Today he had a fever (101 and higher), a bad cough, and for several hours was exceedingly fussy. He seemed to feel better after his afternoon nap, but he still didn't want much to eat, so I'm worried about dehydration.

3. We put up our Christmas tree today. It's not decorated, but probably will be in the next day or so. I've never been a huge fan of putting up the tree so early (Advent and all), but last year we couldn't find any lights TWO WEEKS before Christmas (we save the lights every year, but some always don't work the next year). So, this year we're putting it up early.

4. Being a PRN (as-needed) chaplain is either feast or famine. A few weeks ago I was in the middle of "feast" mode: lots of extra on-call shifts, one regular day shift, and plenty of pages while on-call. Right now, I'm in the middle of "famine" mode: I've had about eight on-call shifts in the past three weeks, but only one of them has netted an actual page (I get paid $1.50/hr for carrying the pager, and then my regular hourly rate plus a "shift differential" whenever I answer a page), so my last paycheck was fairly small. However, that's going to change. I have three daytime shifts scheduled for December in addition to my regular twice-weekly on-call duties.

5. I bought Susanna the Candyland game at Target this afternoon because it was only $4 and I thought she'd like it. The first time, she was more interested in the pretty game board and the cards than the actual game and rules. However, the second game (which she played with James) was a little bit more fruitful. We shall see. Of course, now she'll be asking me to play Candyland every five minutes, but that's what parenthood is about, isn't it?

6. My traffic has really not picked up very much, and I was hoping it would as a result of my posting (almost) every day this month. I'm thinking of doing NaBloPoMo again in December (it's actually an ongoing thing you can sign up for now, not just a once-a-year deal) and actually making it all the way through this time. Maybe then I'll get more traffic...we shall see. Any suggestions?

7. Remember my de-lurking post from a week or so ago? I've done what I said I was going to do; I've left comments on just about every blog I've been "lurking" on and have begun "following" some new bloggers on Twitter. I feel good about that, and it will be interesting to see if any new Internet friendships come out of it.

Greg is crying! Bye!

Miscellaneous

OK, so posting every six weeks isn't that bad, right? Right???

Allow me to provide a few updates:

• Christmas was fun, and I think that Susanna really enjoyed it. She's really not into the gift thing (yet), which took the pressure off of us. We spent Christmas Eve with my parents and James' mom came down on Christmas Day. Our gifts to each other were exceptionally domestic; I got a laundry sorter and crock pot, and James got a quesadilla maker and cookware.
• With great fear and trembling, I am putting myself up for an appointment this year. I've been working on some of my own issues that contributed to the SJ debacle and also much better informed on how to handle a "problem church." I think that the local church and I deserve to give each other another chance. I'm just terrified, which may be a good thing. At least I won't be cocky.
• I am LOVING my residency. I love my fellow residents, my supervisor, and the rest of the Pastoral Care staff. I also like Riverside. I hate the commute (40 miles each way) but at least I get to listen to lots of books on CD...the residency ends on August 31.
• Susanna is still not walking. She is standing fairly well with support and is developing more muscle tone, which is key. She's still working with the PT, and will do so until she reaches our goal (able to walk/run easily) or her third birthday, whichever comes first. Apparently I didn't walk until I was about 22 months, so this may be a genetic thing.
• Outside the walking issue, she is still clearly the most adorable, intelligent, and personable child alive. James and I are absolutely enthralled by her, and she charms everyone she meets. She's been sick more this year, with two ear infections and a recent bout of bronchiolitis (thankfully, no ER trip this time!), but her daycare is larger and she's not getting "mommy's milk" anymore. However, she's still pretty healthy, which is a relief. Last time we checked, she was about 31" long and weighed about 23 lbs. She has a smattering of words and lots of unrecognizable sounds. She likes bananas, quesadillas, green beans, and chocolate chip cookies.
• Simon is enjoying his life as a suburban dog and likes barking at the other dogs in the neighborhood. His closest "friend" is Charlie, whose parents are Joel and Melissa (good friends of ours who live in Hampton). He is incredibly gentle with Susanna, who calls him "Dog dog" and likes to pet/hit him. We have yet to see him snap or growl at her. He just gets up and moves when he's had enough. Simon is still extremely cuddly and likes sleeping in bed with us.
• James is doing very, very well at work. He's already gotten a big, fat raise and a performance award. He likes what he's doing, which is a nice change from those last few months at NCCU. Job Satisfaction + Job Success = Happy Husband.

And...I think that's about it. I'll try and post some pictures soon, so you can see how absolutely cute our daughter is.

Prayers for Rocky

Please pray for Rocky, my parents' black Lab. He's 10, and has been diagnosed with pancreatis. He is currently an inpatient in the "doggie hospital", and will probably be there for another day or so. He'll hopefully be fine (although my parents' bank account may not!), but it's still kind of worrisome. We got Rocky when he was a puppy and I was in college, so he's sort of been "my" dog, too.

I really hope he gets better, because I don't think I can handle losing two dogs in three months.

Been to the Emergency Room

I don't think you've fully experienced parenthood until you've made a middle-of-the-night visit to the ER with your child.

Less than four hours after I wrote Thursday's post, I woke up to hear Susanna sounding like Darth Vader over the baby monitor. When I went to check on her, I could hear her wheezing from the doorway of her room. The on-call nurse had told me if her wheezing got that loud that I needed to take her to the ER. So...in the next thirty minutes I did everything possible to avoid doing just that. I fed her some Pedialyte, ran the shower for 20 minutes, and kept her upright to help her breathe easier.

Why did I want to avoid the ER? No, it wasn't for financial reasons. Nor was it laziness. It's because the ER at Danville Regional Medical Center is legendary for being S L O W. I've heard of people waiting FIVE HOURS in the WAITING ROOM, giving up, and heading to another ER (there are about three others within an hour's drive). I didn't want to take her there unless it was absolutely necessary.

Alas, none of my measures worked, so I got dressed, bundled her up and off we went. Please note that I had the presence of mind to write down her Social Security # before we left. We arrived at 1:50 a.m. Thankfully, we were taken back to a room within 45 minutes, saw a doctor almost immediately, and within 30 minutes Susanna was receiving a breathing treatment. She was still wheezing a bunch after her first breathing treatment, so they gave her a second one. Thankfully, the second one did the trick...mostly. She wasn't breathing normally, but was showing enough improvement that the doctor said she didn't need to be hospitalized. He wrote a few prescriptions and told me to take her to the pediatrician that day (Friday). The diagnosis he gave us was: bronchiolitis (click on the link if you want more info).

Thankfully, she's doing much, much better. She's sleeping through the night again, is wheezing very rarely, is coughing less, and has regained her appetite. I'm keeping her home with me for the next few days until she's fully recovered. In the meantime, several times a day we "drug her up" with Amoxocillin (for the ear infection), Albuterol (for the wheezing), and a cough syrup.

I'm hoping and praying that she stays healthy for the next two months. I can't handle too many more weeks like this past week. Of course, I'll deal with it if it happens again. But I'm hoping that it doesn't.

Mama's Girl All the Way!

I am so freaking tired, yet I can't go to sleep. Don't you hate that? I haven't gotten a full night's sleep all week. Susanna is sick. She developed a cough over the weekend. Monday night, we woke up about three times because she kept coughing. Tuesday, I kept her home from daycare "just in case." On Wednesday, a church member had surgery in Winston-Salem, so I took her to daycare, so I could go down there. She seemed to be a little better. When I got back on Wednesday night, she was much worse. She hadn't eaten much at all, she was extremely clingy, and her cough seemed worse. So, I took her to the urgent care clinic. Turns out that in addition to her cold (or whatever it is), she has an EAR INFECTION.

That's where the "Mama's Girl" comes in...I had tons of ear infections when I was little. My very first one ocurred when I was about Susanna's age. Amazingly enough, Amoxocillin hasn't changed in 20+ years...I recognized the smell as soon as I opened the bottle of oral suspension liquid. They also gave her another cough syrup, and I'm running the vaporizer whenever she's in her room. She was sounding sort of wheezy/raspy tonight, but she's asleep now. I'll probably call the doctor in the morning if she's not better.

It's very difficult to get work done while taking care of a sick child. Thankfully, she slept more than usual today, so I was able to get some things accomplished. I'll probably keep her home with me tomorrow, because I don't want her spreading anything to the other kids (or getting another bug). Hopefully she'll be right as rain by Monday!

Woody Update 2

Woody is home from the vet's office. His bloodwork came back OK and they gave us some medication and a special prescription dog food. They also gave us some de-worming stuff for any parasites in his system. Now the challenge will be to make him eat!

We've had a "pet insurance" policy for him since we adopted him in 2004, but haven't had to file a claim on it. Part of the reason is that the deductible in $75/per illness. Now we're glad that we have it, and PetCare will be receiving our first claim!

Woody Update

Poor Woody is still sick. I took him to the vet, and they said he probably has colitis (they found blood in his stool), but they don't know why yet. He's there right now; they're running some tests on him. He's also somewhat dehydrated, so they may have to give him some fluids. I'm supposed to call at 3:30 p.m. to find out what's what. Hopefully I'll be able to pick him up and take him home!

The poor thing was so lethargic on Saturday night and all day yesterday. He seems to be feeling slightly better now, but he refuses to eat anything. I have confidence in this vet, though. She and the other vet in the practice have both been highly recommended by several people in my church.

Sick Puppy

Poor Woody has a sick tummy. Last night we took him to Sonic, because it's his favorite restaurant (I think he just likes getting a car ride and eating with us). He always gets a corn dog and James often gives him a couple fries and a bite of hamburger. Anyway, this morning around 5am he woke me up, whimpering. I let him out for a few minutes, and then we went back to bed. Same drill again at 7am. He seemed OK after we woke up this morning, so I thought he was better. Wrong. James and I went to town to do some errands. When we came home two hours later, Woody streaked out the door before we had it halfway open. Turns out, poor boy had an accident on the kitchen floor. Guess the corn dog didn't agree with him...

Now, Woody is so well-trained that we know he must have been really miserable for an accident to have happened. I can count on one hand the number of times that's happened since we've had him. We appreciate his thoughtfulness, though. Instead of going on the beautiful hardwood floors, the lovely rugs in the living and dining rooms, or even our bargain rug in the T.V. room, he chose the vinyl floor in the kitchen. That's by far the easiest spot in clean up. Good job, boy! Thank for making Mommy's job easier.

Woody should be on the mend now. I gave him some doggie medicine and will fix him a gourmet meal of rice and cottage cheese tonight. I'll follow the same drill tomorrow. Just to be on the safe side, I'm giving him a few days off from his job as my "bodyguard." Normally he comes to the church office with me, but that's not happening until he's 100% better. No way, Jose. It's not like the Stony Mill area is high-crime, anyway. It's a very safe area; I just like having Woody with me when I'm at church alone.

Scratch, scratch...

What's teeny-tiny, gets under your skin and makes you miserable? C-H-I-G-G-E-R-S! That's right, folks, I have chiggers. Apparently I need to wear heavy-duty insect repellent whenever I am in the yard for any length of time, and not just at night.

It all started last night, when I took my knee-highs off and saw that my left foot was covered in red bumps. I thought that was odd, but figured I must have brushed against some poison ivy or something. I applied some calamine lotion to the area, put on cotton socks, and went to bed.

This morning, I woke up to find these bumps had spread...to the other foot, up one leg, on my back, and on my butt. I called my unofficial parish nurse, who assured me that I most likely did not have chicken pox (my fear, since I've never had it). She did, however, encourage me to get my bumps looked at by a doctor.

So I drove into downtown Danville, waited at the walk-in clinic for an hour, and emerged with a diagnosis of chiggers and a prescription for a topical cream. I have now applied this cream from head to toe, changed clothes, stripped the bed, and am preparing to wash everything in hot water.

Guess this means I'll have to postpone my plans for a pedicure...

We're here!

I'm writing this from the "business center" of our new apartment complex in Morrisville, NC. We arrived here yesterday (5-13) and are getting used to our new apartment and the area. Our furniture should arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday. Woody likes the place, although he misses his sofa and his bed.

Our departure from Lexington took an interesting twist when James got food poisoning on Thursday night. I wound up missing my last day of work to care for him/deal with the movers. We ditched our original idea of sleeping in our house on Friday night, and stayed in a hotel, instead. James is feeling MUCH better now.

Guess what? It's flu season...

It all started on Tuesday night, when James came home with a cough. Within an hour or so, he had developed a fever, aches and pains...your usual flu symptoms. He went to the doctor the next day, who confirmed that he had the flu. Ironically, he had gotten a flu shot!

On Thursday, I started coughing at work. By 7pm or so, I was running a fever complete with soreness and headache. I went to the doctor on Friday, got tested for the flu and put on Tamiflu, an antiviral medication.

We're slowly on the mend now. My fever is down to 99 or so (it was up to 103 at times). James actually felt well enough to go to the post office earlier. And I actually accomplished something productive; I loaded and started the dishwasher!

Slowly but surely...

Good news: I was able to work for 4 1/2 hours today. Granted, I now feel like a truck ran over me. But I'm happy that I was able to make it standing up that long. Now I have tomorrow to rest, and then Monday I'm scheduled for a full 8-hour shift. Let's hope I can do it by then!

I hate being sick!!

OK, the good news is that I made it to work today. The bad news is that I left after 2 1/2 hours. Apparently I was not well enough to stand up for long periods of time. However, my anti-nausea medication is working. I have kept down everything I've eaten since this morning. I just apparently need to rest a lot...and that's what I plan to do right now. Ta-ta!

Or maybe not...

OK, I had a relapse. I lost the small amount of food I had eaten over the past 40 hours. Then I sipped some Gatorade and even that came back up. I'm now hoping and praying that I won't puke again tonight. I was planning on going to work tomorrow, but I can't do that if I'm still vomiting. Something about the health code...

I think I'm on the mend, but...

So around 9am on Monday morning, I threw up. Out of the blue. And of course, I was already at work. I felt fine afterward, so I stayed at work, since we were short-staffed. Later, I developed a crushing headache, so I went home at 4pm and slept for 14 hours.

Tuesday morning, my headache was gone, but I had nausea. I still went to work and suffered through increasing nausea. After work, I stopped by the store and bought some Gatorade and Jell-O. I had crackers and Gatorade for dinner. A few hours later, I began throwing up...first my "dinner", then the Gatorade I was sipping.

Wednesday I called in sick to work, feeling very guilty (because I knew another employee was out sick) yet knowing I couldn't serve food to people while I was throwing up. James took me to the doctor, who ruled out pregnancy, gallbladder trouble, and a UTI before diagnosing a persistent stomach virus. He sent me home with instructions to rest and eat bland foods. I slept for the rest of the day.

It's Thursday, and I've kept down everything I've eaten/drank for 36 hours. But I'm still very weak and experiencing a lot of nausea. It's my "day off", so I didn't have to call in sick to work. But let's hope that my poor body will heal enough today so that I can go to work tomorrow and Saturday.

James is being very caring and supportive, as always. Although he's trying not to get too close to me, for fear of catching what I have...