Sometimes a mom just has to wonder what her children are thinking! You think you have done your best to childproof your home and teach them to make good decisions. But we all know that there are some lessons that kids just have to learn on their own. My biggest challenge this particular week has been my "normally" level-headed Sam. In the past couple of days he:
1. Stuck his tongue to a metal pole at school - and managed to liberate several of his taste buds in the process!
2. Decided it would be "fun" to slide off our snowbank onto the concrete driveway on his sled Saturday afternoon after a Friday night snow storm.
He did not fair as well in his second escapade, as he managed to land square on his nose on the concrete driveway. Dad, being the OCD driveway-guy he is, had already snowblown and shoveled to get every last snowflake off the driveway - poor Sam didn't even have a single snowflake to cushion his fall!
I was alerted to the mayhem by a shriek from the driveway, and opened the front door to find Sam bent over with a large pool of blood gathering underneath him. Not a scene any mom wants to see! I did what any mom who has an EMT background would do - yelled for dad! Just kidding (sort of), I did take care of him and evaluated the situation. It took a few minutes to recreate the "scene of the crime" and to determine that his injuries were likely a broken nose and some road rash on his poor nose that was already twice the size it should be! He had a gusher bloody nose - both barrels - and once we managed to get that stopped, we were grateful to learn that he had not broken any teeth. He is recovering well, and all seems to be well with his nose so far. Our pediatrician said that there isn't anything more to do until the swelling goes down and it begins to heal, then we will determine if he needs xrays or a visit to the ENT. Likely it will just heal on its own, and he will look even more like his mom and dad who both broke their noses when they were younger!
If that wasn't enough to get my heart pumping, we had another unexpected event earlier on Saturday morning. I was brushing Kaylie's hair and a big section of hair fell off in my hand. This is not a good sign for her metabolic status. We contacted her nephrologist today, and she is determining next steps. Likely we will do some additional tests with our pediatrician here, then head back to Mayo once those results are in. In the meantime, I did not let Kaylie know what happened, as she really wants to grow her hair out longer. I know she would be upset to learn that two clumps have now broken loose.
Finally, today was Kendra's turn. We headed back to the pediatrician to have her ears checked. Her ear infection is back in the left ear, but the eardrum perforation has improved and is healing. When he examined the right ear, there was a 95% wax blockage, so they did an irrigation procedure to remove it. This was not comfortable for Kendra, but she was a trooper and they were successful in removing the blockage that has been causing her pain. Once he could visualize the eardrum, he realized that her right ear is very infected as well. She was put back on oral antibiotics and ear drops, and will be having some new hearing tests and another exam in 2 weeks. Likely she will be heading back for surgery for her 5th set of tubes. They would then repair the left eardrum during that procedure.
As long as she was not running a fever, they decided to go ahead and give her her flu shot. She then had a blood draw for her immune deficiency, and an xray to check progress on her arm that she broke last June. Good news for her arm is that it is now 90% healed! Great progress with her slow healing bones! She was certainly wore out by the end of that appointment. Kaylie happened to go with me to the doctor, so she was also lucky enough to get a flu shot as well. Now I have two little girls that are none too pleased with me!
Hopefully tomorrow will be the start of a better week. After all 5 of us puked through Thanksgiving weekend, then had the drama in the house last weekend, we are ready for a non-eventful weekend!
And, I am off to get another hair coloring kit to keep all the gray hairs at bay for another 4 weeks!
~Ali
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