Hospital Blues

For the past 2 nights my Kangaroo and I have stayed at the hospital. My baby is fighting an MSRA staph infection. On Tuesday evening I discovered what looked like a little ant bite in a location where one wouldn't want to discover an ant bite. Twenty four hours later, I was calling the pediatrician. This thing had grown to over 1 1/2 inches in diameter and was purple! I was quite concerned.

The pediatrician took a look after my description of the problem and promptly exclaimed, "Whoa! I was NOT expecting THAT!". Then he says he's not comfortable addressing the problem in office and placed a call to the Peds unit at the hospital. I wish he had told me not to feed my baby before we got to the hospital but he didn't. So, on the way, when she said she was hungry, I stopped and fed her thus postponing surgery for the "thing" by 1 day. Aaack!

At any rate, upon arrival she was immediately hooked up to an antibiotic IV and placed in a room. See how she's feeling in the pic below? However, that didn't stop her from correcting the nurses when they called her by name. They would come in and say, "So, how's Kangaroo feeling today?" and instead of answering the question, she would reply, "It's Pwincess Kangawoo!" and then she would say, "My bottom huts." :(

After 24 hours of antibiotics, Kangaroo is wheeled out for the procedure to lance the MSRA infected boil/bump/whatever it's called. It looks like she's feeling much better here. In truth, she's looking at this entire ordeal as an adventure. She's such a trooper!

In the pre-op room getting their party hats on and ready to go.
All is well. Headed back tothe room with a popsicle.
Her appetite was NOT affected!
However, by 1 a.m. following procedure (12 hours later), Kangaroo has finally fallen asleep but developed a fever. I hope this is normal after such a procedure.

The doctor is supposed to see us in the morning and declare whether we can home.

Edited to Add: The surgeon came in at 6 a.m. and opted to wait on extracting the gauze for a later time. She returned at 11 a.m. with a small syringe of morphine, administered that, and then proceeded to extract the nasty looking gauze. She then said that as long as there is fever, we stay here. Otherwise, Kangaroo is cleared to go home. So, we continue to wait and watch cartoons.

Update (8/2/09): We were released and sent on our way. As of today, Roo has fully recovered and is bossier than ever. I think the nurses spoiled her a bit too much.

Soft Drink Boycott

If you’ve read my entire post on the Chest Pains, then you know one of my reasons for boycotting certain products….one of which is Soft Drinks....or rather, the Gum Arabic that goes in soft drinks. Anyway, my 2nd reason for the soft drink boycott is in reference to the crimes against humanity in Darfur, Sudan.

Last week, I read an article that listed the top ten dictators on the globe. One of them is Omar Al-Bashir. The article states, “Under Bashir’s rule, the Darfur region of Sudan continues to be the site of a violent power struggle among government forces and allied militia, rebels and bandits. In 2007, Bashir ordered aerial bombing raids that killed dozens of civilians. While Bashir did appoint an official to investigate the human-rights situation in Darfur, the appointee himself has been suspected of war crimes by the International Criminal Court.”

This same article also reveals that the U.S. Link to Sudan and Omar is “The U.S. government has harshly criticized the abuses in Sudan. The Clinton Administration issued trade sanctions in 1997, but it exempted gum arabic, which is used in products ranging from soft drinks and candy to shoe polish and stamps. The U.S. still imports more than 4000 tons of the substance from Sudan annually.”

Some other articles I read that affect my decision.
http://www1.american.edu/TED/gumarab.htm
http://www.amnestyusa.org/darfur/page.do?id=1351050

My first thought upon reading this is that I’m always hearing about the crimes against humanity over there and while I disagree with our government sticking their noses where it doesn’t belong, I do feel sympathetic and would like to do something to help those poor people. I decided that I would no longer support those atrocities with my purchase of soft drinks. Of course, I’ll have to find a way to combat my withdrawal. Arrgggh!

Thanks for reading and feel free to share your thoughts.

Chest Pains

Last Monday, I went for a walk down the road with my husband and youngest children. I didn’t get very far at all when I was hit with severe chest pains which took my breath away and radiated up the left side of my neck. We strolled back home where I waited for the pains to pass. When 30 minutes went by with no relief, I told my husband to drive me to the hospital; leaving my girls with DQ.

Upon arrival at the hospital, I was immediately taken back to a trauma room, hooked up to machines, stuck with needles, blah blah blah. About 3 hours later, the docs chose to admit me for observation. Fortunately, all test results were negative (or normal). 2 EKG’s, blood tests for enzymes, monitors, and a treadmill test all showed that whatever I was dealing with was not cardio related. It DID show, however, that I’m very much out of shape. Anyway, if there’s a blockage, we won’t know until an angiogram is done but that won’t be until later…..like much later, when we have medical insurance and can afford such an exam or when it’s absolutely necessary.

I was discharged from the hospital the next day. I went home and proceeded to take 600 mg ibuprofen twice a day along with hugging a hot water bottle at bedtime. After 2 days, there was some relief which led me to conclude that this entire incident and pain was due to a pulled muscle. However, the question remains….how does one pull a chest muscle while walking?

On Thursday, I went shoe shopping with DQ and met a young man who was also purchasing shoes for himself. When I say “young”, he certainly looked to be younger than me. He was in the store with a small packet of papers stapled together at the top. He kept referring to the list while he looked for shoes. I saw him again in the grocery store with his wife, looking at the list and comparing labels on the foods they were putting in his cart. I got curious and approached him, jokingly asking him, “Are you having a lifestyle change?”. His wife responded that he’d had a heart attack a couple of weeks ago, and they were trying to follow doc’s orders by changing the way they ate. During our conversation, it was revealed that this young man is only 29 years old!!!

I learned many things through this experience. I learned that the fast food industry is killing us. I learned that soft drinks leach calcium from your bones, thus requiring those with bone density issues to take calcium supplements. I learned that the only groceries you REALLY need are located on the outside walls of the grocery store….the produce, meat, and dairy. Everything else in the middle aisles are processed junk that our bodies don’t need.

My first lifestyle change resulting from this experience is that I’m boycotting fast food. I’m also joining a gym in order to get some more activity. The fact that this experience began while walking out on the road frightened me into exercising in a more populated area….just in case. Oh, and I’m boycotting soft drinks too….but not just for my health. My other reason is here.
If you’ve read this far, thanks for sticking around to the end. I look forward to reading your comments and suggestions for healthier living.

Unmotivated and icky

I fell so icky today. I can't seem to stay focused on anything. My house is a wreck. I'm highly unmotivated. I'm everything the Proverbs 31 lady isn't. I can't even think or focus enough to write a decent blog post.

The other day, the right side of my upper lip started twitching. Unless I was talking. If I was just sitting there doing nothing, it would twitch constantly but only for a few minutes. Then it would quit. It drove me nuts! Then this morning, when I woke up, I just laid in bed staring at the ceiling when I noticed that only my left eye was open. I closed that eye and tried to open my right eye. That took much more effort than I thought was necessary. So I started freaking out.

I got online and started looking up stroke symptoms. I've been having pain in my right shoulder for months now and can't raise it up high over my head the way I can with my left arm. So, I went to the doc for the arm and he said I had tendonitis in that shoulder. He gave me some pain killers and muscle relaxers but it does still hurt. Other people I have talked to say that they ended up getting a cortizone shot in their shoulder. I have decided that my arm must be entirely useless before I cave in for a cortizone shot.

All that being said, I don't think my right arm pain has anything to do with TIA or stroke. It's the lip twitching and right eye that bothers me. Of course, each "episode" (with the exception of the right arm) didn't last very long. According to the net, the only time I should really be concerned is if it last more than 15 minutes. Just 5 minutes of lip twitching is enough to drive one crazy!

Okay, I guess that's enough for today. Maybe I just need to put myself on a schedule. You know. Like in the bed at 9 p.m. whether I'm sleepy or not. Then I'll start feeling better. It's too pretty outside for me to feel this way. My poor girls want to go out and play and all I want to do is sit and stare. Arrrrggghh!

Edited to add (5/5/09): I've determined that all of these symptoms are a result of lack of regular sleep. Going to bed at 2 a.m. and rising at 7 a.m. isn't conducive to good health.

Flu

We've had an icky week here since my last post. The Teen came down with the flu a week ago, DQ exhibited symptoms over the weekend, Little Bird and Kangaroo both are suffering with it now. DH phoned on his way home from work last night exclaiming how badly he was feeling with headaches and body aches. He chalked it up to on the job stress until he got up this morning. Now he's running a low grade fever and feeling like he's been hit by a train. I opened my eyes this morning, looked at the ceiling, felt a throbbing in my temples, closed my eyes and felt the room spin. It looks like I have it too.

I'm feeling well enough right now to post this little blog while my chicken soup heats on the stove top.

I really wanted to write some more about some other things going on but I'll have to save it for later.

It's really too pretty out side to be this sick and stuck inside.