My little boys are sick. And let me tell you, no one is more grateful to Dr. Alexander Fleming than this girl! It amazes me time and again that scientists have found cures to everyday ailments. I brought Jace in after a night of a fever of 101.4 that went up to 102.2 and then coughing so hard he couldn't catch his breath (
Nothing scarier than breathing issues!). His breathing was very shallow and he was very weak. If we hadn't had a nebulizer on hand, we would have ended up in the ER at 2:30 am. At the appointment I found out my littlest has an ear infection, an eye infection and a constricted lung capacity. They also found he is anemic and has elevated levels of LEAD in his blood. All of this (minus the lead which they re-tested) can be cured with antibiotics, vitamins, and a bronchodilator. I did not get a before picture as it didn't occur to me that I would be blogging about this, but let me tell you, it was not a pretty picture. He was very obviously sick and I felt a twinge of guilt bringing him into Target to get his prescriptions. What are you gonna do, right? But I had a disinfectant wipe out wiping down anything he coughed on or touched. More than most people do, huh? After we got home I started to administer his new slew of medications.
The amoxicillin is cake, but all the rest consist of me virtually pinning my child to the floor to give.
The eye drops require me to pull down on the bottom lid, pull up on the top and drop the med into the bottom lid. If you have ever tried this on an otherwise squirmy 1 yr old by yourself, you would be wishing for a third arm. Or maybe even a fourth!
The nebulizer he hates as well. I basically try to hold the mask somewhere near his face while he cries, wiggles and spin moves. At least the eye drops only require about 10-15 seconds of pinning. The nebulizer takes 5-10 minutes! Ugh!
He also hates Tylenol and Motrin which I have been alternating as needed. At least when I get it into his mouth he will swallow it.
He was prescribed Poly Vi-sol for his anemia and that is another story. That stuff smells nasty so I can't imagine it tastes good either. So any tips on how to get that to stay in his mouth would be gladly appreciated!
I kind of feel like a nerd, but I made a Medication Administration Record for his medications so I could keep them straight and make sure that I didn't miss any of them. My days at ACR/REM came flooding back to me! It's not as perfect as the state requires them to be, but it gets the job done. Now I can also feel confident that if someone else watches him, they will know what to do. There is also a bit of satisfaction in putting my initials in that little box. Kind of like crossing off something on your to-do list. Yes, I know. Nerd. : )
On the upside, he has been on this schedule for just over 24 hrs now and he is a new kid. With merely a day of these medications under his belt, he turned from a whiny, clingy, sad state of a one year old to a semi-happy, smiling, playful little toddler. Ok, he is still under the weather for sure, but the fact that I can put him down for more than 2 minutes at a time without the world coming to a screeching halt, i would say is progress : )
The amoxicillin is cake, but all the rest consist of me virtually pinning my child to the floor to give.
The eye drops require me to pull down on the bottom lid, pull up on the top and drop the med into the bottom lid. If you have ever tried this on an otherwise squirmy 1 yr old by yourself, you would be wishing for a third arm. Or maybe even a fourth! 
The nebulizer he hates as well. I basically try to hold the mask somewhere near his face while he cries, wiggles and spin moves. At least the eye drops only require about 10-15 seconds of pinning. The nebulizer takes 5-10 minutes! Ugh! 
He also hates Tylenol and Motrin which I have been alternating as needed. At least when I get it into his mouth he will swallow it. 
He was prescribed Poly Vi-sol for his anemia and that is another story. That stuff smells nasty so I can't imagine it tastes good either. So any tips on how to get that to stay in his mouth would be gladly appreciated! 
I kind of feel like a nerd, but I made a Medication Administration Record for his medications so I could keep them straight and make sure that I didn't miss any of them. My days at ACR/REM came flooding back to me! It's not as perfect as the state requires them to be, but it gets the job done. Now I can also feel confident that if someone else watches him, they will know what to do. There is also a bit of satisfaction in putting my initials in that little box. Kind of like crossing off something on your to-do list. Yes, I know. Nerd. : )
On the upside, he has been on this schedule for just over 24 hrs now and he is a new kid. With merely a day of these medications under his belt, he turned from a whiny, clingy, sad state of a one year old to a semi-happy, smiling, playful little toddler. Ok, he is still under the weather for sure, but the fact that I can put him down for more than 2 minutes at a time without the world coming to a screeching halt, i would say is progress : )
Sorry I'm just reading these now...can you do Trivisol instead of Polyvisol? It tastes much better...
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