Snow, Sickness, Stories, and Scenes

We had a mild weekend last week. This was especially nice because the temps turned FRIGID around Tuesday. The weekend was around -5, but by Thursday, it was -38 in the morning! Evelyn's playschool was cancelled as the teacher could not start her car (it was plugged in too!)

Anyway, these are from the mild weekend. I took the kids to play at the park before I went to work. The next day, our friend Melissa took the kids to the park and I had the house to myself - alone - for about an hour. Wow. I think the last time I was alone at home for that long was when we bought the house and I was painting.

Evelyn wanted to try pulling Ethan in the sled. She did pretty well too!

I was supposed to work on Monday evening too, but around 11 am, Ethan started to spike a temp and was holding his head/ears saying "It hurts". He was totally clingy and crying a lot. He just got over an ear infection a couple weeks ago, and the eardrum has just sealed. I was not happy that we were headed down the same road again. I called and asked them to cover my shift so I could take him in to the Doctor. They were wonderful, and the day and night nurses each did a 12 hr shift so I could stay with Ethan.

I will pause here to tell the rest of his last ear infection story. I treated it very conservatively for many days. If you remember, it ruptured and was oozing clear yellow fluid with a bit of blood. He continued to have moderate fevers (around 38.0 - 38.5) and was miserable with the fevers. On day 3 after the rupture, the fluid turned milky green and his temps got higher. Now he was sitting in the 38.7 - 39.2 range. I took him in to the outpatient dept and he was started on Ancef, every 8 hrs for 10 days. There is a risk of developing meningitis once that fluid turned purulent (pussy) so I felt good about doing the antibiotics.

Within a day, his fevers stopped, and the oozing also stopped. At the one week check up, the hole was still there, but healing and his ear was still pink. At 2 weeks (after all 10 days of Abx were done) the drum was intact with scar tissue and was not pink. Yah! I thought. We are over this!

Nine days after completing the Abx, (on Monday) the fevers came back and he said his ear hurt. with the first ear infection, about 20 min after he got some Advil, he was back to normal and the fever was gone. This time, the Advil seemed uneffective and Tylenol worked better. I was concerned that the Advil was not bringing his temp down. So, I took him in to the Doctor office to get him looked at. He said Ethan's ears looked fine, but gave me some eardrops with Cipro (an antibiotic) and a steroid to put in every 6 hrs. Ethan hated those drops! (here's a tip: whenever giving ear drops, warm the bottle in a cup of warm water before instilling. This makes the drops more comfortable for the unlucky recipient) We continued with them and Ethan continued to spike occasional fevers around 38.5 for the next few days.

On Thursday, I took him to the chiropractor. This is a pic of him from Thurs morning. He was up every 2-3 hrs the night before, and had a fever around 38.8. In this pic, Ethan is telling me "I'm cold Mommy".
The Chiro showed me how to massage his eustacian tubes and made a small adjustment to his neck. Ethan tolerated the massage well. He even giggled and said it tickled. The Chiro mentioned that when the ears are acting up, the massage is usually painful. He looked in Ethans ears and said the Left one (the one that ruptured) looked a bit pink, but not angry red. I was relieved and happy that I learned a new technique that I could use to keep him comfortable on our flight next week (in 2 more sleeps now!). We went home, Ethan had a nap, and about an hour after the nap, he came up to me and said "Look at my ear Mommy". The too familiar drainiage was coming out of his newly healed left ear. I called the doctor office and left a message with the secretary asking if I should continue with the drops, or if we needed to change treatment. She called back saying the doctor wanted to see Ethan the next morning. So, in we went. His eardrum is indeed ruptured - again - and he is now on another antibiotic (Zithromax). I am happy that this one is only once a day! (No more waiting up until 11 pm so I can give him his night time dose!) His ear contines to drain clear yellow fluid, but he has not had another fever. When we get home from Armstrong, I will have his ear checked again. We may need to see a specialist about getting ear tubes - or grommets inserted. On the positive side, he will probably be more comfortable on the plane now that his ear can drain freely. What a week!

Ryan came home from Phoenix on Thursday night. He took some neat pics of the Grand Canyon. He went to a literacy convention there and met several authors and came home with several books. The kids enjoyed this one called 'Bigger'. It's all about growing up.

Evelyn created this scene this morning. She tells us "It's Victoria. Like where Casey lives" I think she did a great job! When Ryan took pictures, she brought out her watering can and said she wanted to make it rain! (How fitting is THAT for Victoria!?!)
I like that she had all the letter blocks lined up with the same colours facing out. I think it is the legislature with some trees in the background.