Kyle – Page 10 – Andelin Adventures

Things are looking up

Chloe has been doing much better than she did previously. She still has the IV in her arm, and still has the feeding tube in her nose, but we’ve been told the doctor approved removing the feeding tube if she eats regularly. Also, they have said the IV will be replaced with a PICC since the antibiotics are so abrasive on her vein, and that way it will provide the antibiotics directly into her blood stream through her heart. Personally, that sounds rather scary, but we just have to assume they know what they are doing.

She’s also been nursing and feeding from a bottle more regularly. Rebecca has been released and is now at home, and she and the nurses have decided they can alternate feedings every three hours (so Rebecca nurses once every 6 hours, and they use formula for the other 3-hour feedings). Rebecca can then just pump during the times she’s at home, which gives me a chance to go in and help as well. I must say, waking up for the 2am feeding was not fun (the nurse said to just let them handle it since they were already there), but it was nice to spend some quiet early morning time with my little girl. I just held her until she fell back asleep and then put her back down.

One thing more that Rebecca was told is if they can do the PICC, they might be able to release her to our care if they wean her off the IV fluids, and we’ll just be able to give her the antibiotics at home. So that would be great, although the idea of having her at home with a little tube leading right to her heart is a bit concerning.

Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day! Here it is, the start of this special day when we celebrate those women who give so much to be our mothers. Rebecca is a mother of 4 (usually) wonderful children, as troublesome as they might be, and she’s expecting another one due next month. It’s amasing how much she goes through, dealing with my absense due to working two jobs, and still being able to get Ethan to school every day, and keep the kids from completely destroying the house. I’m always amased at how much she puts up with.

It’s interesting for me to look at the past three generations of Andelin men, that I am a proud part of. From my understanding, my grandmother Helena joined the LDS Church in Sweden when she was a teenager, and she left her family and life to come to Utah to be with people who believed the same that she does, where she eventually met my grandfather. My mother left New York along with her mother and sister (leaving behind some bittersweet experiences) for California, where they encountered the LDS missionaries and joined the church in her mid teens, and where she eventually met my father. Rebecca grew up in Fullerton with her family, and moved to Yorba Linda for a larger house, where they lost the youngest family member, which led them to meeting members of the LDS Church and eventually joining it, in her mid teens. And of course, she eventually met and married me. 🙂

I often wonder if that’s a coincidence, that three Andelin men married three converts from their teens. I’m sure their experiences were essential for leading them to meeting such wonderful husbands. Right darling? 😉 I love you!

Hot Dog!

Since we needed to do a bit of shopping, we decided to check out the new Wal-Mart in our area; Saratoga Springs (now we can get to Wal-Mart in UNDER 25 minutes!) The layout is a bit different from the American Fork one, so it took a while to get used to, but it was nice anyway, and we got some good deals. While I was checking out, Rebecca ran out to the van to grab our Fly Lady grocery bags, and she came back in with an excited expression on her face. “The Weinermobile is here,” she explained. She had never been close to it before, aside from the Hard Hat Harry video we have about it, so we had to stop by and inspect it, before heading home.

I remember hearing on the radio that Oscar Meyer receives thousands of applications for people wanting to be a “Hotdogger,” one of the drivers of the giant dog. I didn’t realise how popular the job would be of driving this thing around. Anyway, we let the kids walk around (and even peek their heads inside and check out the interior), and they were thrilled to get whistles and stickers from the Hotdoggers. What an unusual experience!

We got a picture of Ethan, Tyra, and Jeremy, in front of the Weinermobile. Dinah stayed in the cart during the picture moment, although she got to look inside it with the others.

I suspect that Rebecca was just as thrilled at seeing this thing in person, as the kids were!

http://brands.kraftfoods.com/oscarmayer/omm_wienermobile.htm

Swine Flu Outbreak!

Okay, now that I have your attention… nobody in the family has the swine flu. Although after the way we were treated tonight, it seemed as if people suspected it.

Rebecca had her normal checkup for the pregnancy (it’s hard to believe she’s at 32 weeks already! Less than two months before The Tiebreaker is born!), and after that, we took Jeremy in to his normal pediatrician. Now, Jeremy has been very lethargic this past week, with a fever reaching up to 104.9 degrees at some points. We’ve been concerned about it, but in the past, if we ever call the doctors about the fever, they tell us to give it a few days, and it eventually goes away. Sometimes, if they find an ear infection, they’ll give us antibiotics for the kids to take, but normally it seems like a trip to the doctor is a waste of time.

Tonight, I was wishing for that waste of time. Last night, I tried calling the after-hours doctor about Jeremy’s fever, and left a message which the answering machine said someone would get back to me about, but nobody called me back. Today, Rebecca called and got their two hour lunch message, so after her appointment, I called and was told to bring him in right away.

We took Jeremy in to see his doctor, arriving at 4:45, and after the routine checks of weight (33.4 pounds. Go my boy!) and temperature (99.4 degrees, pretty decent considering we gave him Ibuprofin earlier today), the Doctor came in, asked a few questions on Jeremy’s issue, then left and came back with a face mask and gloves on. That didn’t seem routine at all, but he continued the exam, looking in Jeremy’s ears and mouth, feeling his belly, listening to his lungs, etc. He then suggested that it could be influenza, pneumonia, or a urinary tract infection. He said he wanted Jeremy to go in for some blood work and a suction (tube up the nose to pull out mucus), and that we had to go to the Provo hospital to do this.

I asked him right out, if he was doing this because of the swine flu scare, since it seemed that in the past, they would just do a few random tests, say they don’t know what’s wrong, and then give us antibiotics as a precaution, or to treat a possible ear infection. He said that he would have done the same thing last year or last month (before the swine flu scare). Whatever…

We drove down to the Provo Hospital, arriving at 6:00, and I texted my work to tell them I wouldn’t be coming in (I never got a response, so I really hope he got it!), and then we parked outside the south entrance. We had no idea where we were supposed to go for the lab work, so we just walked in and asked the first employee we found for directions. He didn’t know for sure where we needed to go, but gave us directions to the main lab, which was through some hallways, out the doors, down the street, and into another building. We went there, and the lady told us they would do the blood work there, but the suction needed to be done in the main part of the hospital that we just left. Okay…

Jeremy was very good during the blood work. I took him in, and held him on my lap, and two ladies did the work; one to draw the blood, and the other to hold his arm still. This was his first time doing the blood work, and he winced but stayed perfectly still. What a great boy! They awarded Jeremy with a rubber duck and stickers for his braveness, and then we went back to the main building and up to the pediatric floor for them to do the suction. It seemed that nobody knew exactly where we needed to go, so we had a bit of a runaround before meeting Ben, the person who would do the suction. He took us into a small room, then left explaining he needed to get a robe. We wondered if Jeremy needed to undress for a simple nasal suction? But no, it was for Ben, and he put it on, along with gloves and a mask. He then had Jeremy lay down, wrapped in a blanket to avoid wiggling, and I helped hold his head still. Ben then stuck a small tube up his nose (probably 4 inches worth) and Jeremy cried! But, it was fast and Jeremy was still very good through it all.

I couldn’t help but feel sad about how much our brave little boy was, and even though he was more pathetic through the whole ordeal, he did really well. Since we were out, in Provo, we decided to go to the mall and have dinner at Red Robin (a wait time of an hour for out tiny party of 6), and while we were eating, the doctor called and said Jeremy didn’t have the flu, and his white blood count was normal, so his assumption was that Jeremy has something viral, but the rest of the tests will come back tomorrow.

What a tiring adventure!

Update: Jeremy seems fine Saturday morning. Go figure.

Dinah is as stubborn as the rest

The kids have a hard time getting motivated to clean up their toys. We usually let Dinah get away with not cleaning, since she’s so young, but she’s been starting to show more of an interest in cleaning. She is very good at understanding, although she speaks very little still. Tonight, when the other kids were sent to their rooms for failure to listen, Dinah was still in the living room. I told her, “Dinah, pick up the toys!”

She looked at me and then looked away, and said, “uh uh!”

“Dinah, go to your room,” I said in mock firmness.

“Ahhhhhh!” she cried in protest, and ran from the room.