5/9/05
7:30 PM: It's been a pretty good day. Sophie and Elisabeth have had no further nausea problems (so it probably was just car-sickness). Sophie and Randall had a good day at home, and Randall got quite a few things accomplished, including preparing a delicious new recipe from one of our cookbooks. Sophie did okay with her potty training until Randall was right in the middle of cooking the sauce (which required close attention), and she chose that moment to poop in her panties--twice in less than 5 minutes (she did it again later a third time too). Luckily, I came home just at that time, so I could help get the rest of dinner pulled together.
Sophie took a bath after dinner, and after that we changed her dressing. It went incredibly well. I had everything laid out, so we were ready to go. We let her sit up instead of making her lay flat, and although she cried when I pulled the old dressing off, she stopped crying fairly quickly. She did great while I was cleaning with the alcohol swabs (three of them). Her lip started to quiver when I did the chloraprep (especially on the places where the tape had held the bottom of the dressing in place), but she held it together. I moved the dressing up a little bit so we wouldn't be putting tape over the irritated spots, and she's been a happy little person ever since. Elisabeth helped with the cap change and pushing in the saline and heparin. Daddy cheered us on and held her hands for me. Everybody did a terrific job! Maybe dressing changes won't be so traumatic from here on out.
Another reason to celebrate: Randall found out that he made A's in two of his classes (he's taking an incomplete in the third and will write a 25-page paper over the summer). That's pretty good considering what we've been through this semester. I'm so proud of him!
Comments
Hi, Congradulations on the A's, Randall. I know you have worked very hard and this has been an extrememly stressful semester. I am sure that you will pull together a wonderful paper over the summer.
Sorry about the potty training accidents. I know that happens. It is disappointing and somewhat frustrating when you are trying very hard to cook dinner at the same time!
I am happy that the dressing change went better today. I know that is another stress for all of you. It is a good idea to move the bioocclusive dressing around a little bit so that the irritated areas can heal and at least rotate the irritation around on the chest a little.
Take care. Love, Eileen
Posted by: Eileen J. Brumbaugh | May 9, 2005 09:37 PM
Glad you had a good day. I too know about the challenges of potty training. Accidents have become less frequent, thank goodness.
Glad you had a great Mother's Day. I spent mine in the ER at Betsy Johnson with Sara Katherine, who thought she needed to carry a screwdriver around outside and fall down while her Grandmother was watching her and I was cooking lunch. Her grandmother had told her not to carry it around or she may get hurt and she did. It went in the left side of her face above her lip and below her nose. Thankfully, not through her lip. She landed on the concrete sidewalk and was bleeding from her mouth, nose and left eye. Very scary to say the least. Went by ambulance to the ER since her eye was involved and I didn't know how bad she was hurt. CT scan showed no evidence of fracture so home we went 4 hours later. Never a dull moment with children. She will be fine but has a shiner on her left eye and some "glue" on her cut.
Posted by: Annette Sills | May 9, 2005 10:32 PM
You don't mention your day at work; I hope it went well. I'm sorry about the car-sickness, but it's good to hear that was all it was. It sounds like the dressing changes are getting less stressful for all.
Congratulations to Randall on his great grades, too!
Posted by: Gwyneth | May 10, 2005 07:04 AM