THANK HEAVEN...

For little boys.

(who are so forgiving)

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FREEZE HAMPSHIRE

This is how we dress in the North Pole...

INSIDE the house.

PT ON THE BALL

There are few things that excite Ben.
PT is just not one of them.
He's ON the ball,
but he's not HAVING a ball.
Just look at his face,
cracks me up.
He worked really hard,
then we cozied up next to the fire.
Now THAT he likes.

SUCTION IS MY FRIEND

(and Ben's too)

I'm a bona fide suctioner.
Two handed, double fisted, snot sucker.
This is pretty much how I've spent my week with Ben.
He has a cold right now...
and there are times I can't keep up with his secretions.
Thankfully we have two suctions in his room.
One is hooked to his vent (in the grey bag on the right)
and one is for his upper airway. (above my head)
If you look closely...
(and maybe you don't want to)
you'll see how full his bucket is from just a day.
That's only one.
How this child produces SO much I'll never know?

Stevie took this video tonight...

(warning: it's NOISY!)

A Little Christmas Cheer

FEVER

Ben developed a high fever today.
I took him to the hospital this morning for Stevie's appointment and so that I could get my blood drawn. We got home around 10am. I remember thinking that he was breathing fast, but didn't want to really believe anything was wrong. I went to pick him up a couple hours later (from his beanbag) and he felt really warm. Sure enough, 101 degrees. He's up to 102F tonight. Guess we'll see how he does through the night. Thank goodness (who would have thought I would ever say this) for the vent.

It allows us to linger longer at home.

Santa Claus

I BELIEVE!

(I felt as if this picture needed a caption)

HO, HO, HOME!

And I'm in love all over again! :)

ALLERGIES

Today is Ben's 2nd day on his antibiotic. I got a phone call from Steve telling me that he is having an allerigic reaction to it. Not great news because he is allergic to everything under the sun. This is pretty much the last oral antibiotic that he has been able to take. Now Steve has to take him in daily to the ER for IM shots. His neurologist wants me to take him to the allergist when I get home to see if his allergies have more to do with the colors/dyes/flavors of the antibiotics vs. the medicine itself. Stay tuned!

FIGURES!

(this picture was taken in the ER...doesn't he look MISERABLE?)

I leave town for a week and Ben gets sick. Yesterday I got a phone call from Steve telling me that Ben developed a high fever. (1o2.5) He took him to the ER to see if they could figure out what was going on. The chest x-ray didn't come out (probably because they don't know how to position him like I do), there was never any viral panel done (WHAT?), and his white blood cell count was elevated. I can't believe with a runny nose that they didn't test for RSV. Steve has kept him on the vent to give him some extra support and he is currently on cipro and toby nebs. So far he's stable. I'm praying that he will hold out until I can fly back on Friday.