Good Dental Hygiene

Today E had one of two fillings done for cavities*.

Erin was a total champ.  I was a total wreck. I couldn't take pictures of the procedure, due to privacy concerns, but let me tell you friends she was amazing.  She had a large orange-colored nose piece through which she received happy vapors.  She was shown all the instruments, was told a description of each and given a brief demonstration.  The assistant held her hand throughout the entire procedure.  She came out of it looking forward to the next filling.

She couldn't eat for about 2 hours afterwards, and it was nearing lunch time.  So I got her a milk shake. A big one.  She finished about half. 

The tooth had been bothering her for awhile, so I am very glad it was fixed.  And I asked, only half joking, if they would accept adult patients.  No dice, it's pediatric only. Bummer. All dentists should be this patient-centric**.





*Yes, we brush.  No, apparently not as well as we should.  And we have been kind of slack in the floss department.  These are all things that have changed. 
** I'm sure most of them are, I've just had some bad luck. 

Oakland Running Festival

Pre-run nap on BART.

Riding to the start line in style.

Aaaaaaaaaannnnd.... they're off!

Finishers!

All the finishers!!!!

Kids ran their races, Brian SMOKED his.  No rain, saw some friends, ate a lot of snacks.  Thank you Oaktown, for putting on such a great race!

Today's new game: Orange Ball

The game: take an orange, try to land it in the box with one good throw.  Optional: run around the other boxes when an orange has successfully landed in the box.   Equipment: 5 oranges (more or less, depending on how many each kid wants), a few empty christmas boxes, giggles.

The kids were going stir-crazy and starting to throw the oranges in the house.  Solution?  Get them to throw them outside.  Erin made up the rules of the game after the equipment was strategically placed outside.

Robin Update

After the scary incident a few weeks ago, Robin is totally fine.



We learned a lot about febrile seizures, lost a lot of sleep for about a week watching over her at night, got through a round of colds in the whole house, and she is fine. Robin did not do any extra tests, as the pediatrician determined it was a classic case of febrile seizure. I'm kind of relieved about that, knowing the tests would be pretty difficult for a little girl, and also really believing in my heart it was due to a fever rather than something else.

At any rate, the girl is a total ham.

Robin's Latest Rash A.K.A. poor kid can't catch a break!

It started on her trunk, on the left side.  It spread to her back.  It didn't seem to bother her, but because it was spreading we took her in to her doc. 

Looks like it's a reaction, somewhat rare, to the Chickenpox vaccine she received on her 15 month checkup.  It began 10 or so days after the vaccine.  Currently it's also on her arms and legs, with her scratching her trunk. 

We were assured it's not contagious, and it will go away soon.  Anyone have this happen? It's been nearly 3 weeks now, so it may be here to stay for awhile. 

Poor kid.  At least we have tons of cortisone cream from a few months ago.

Robin update: home!

Robin is home! She got discharged around 2:30pm today.



Magic occurred overnight: the lesions are much much lighter, she is eating well, drinking at least some, is comfortable to the point of minimal medication.  As you can see from the photo, she was her normal playful self when Erin and I got to the hospital this morning.

She will probably still have a fever, and will still have the rash for a long time, but hopefully the itchiness will continue to ease.

Everyone is happy to be home.

Robin update: disturbing photos

Here's how things looked Friday morning.


Notice the weird lesions in her skin folds:


Here's how she looked by the afternoon. Notice how the lesions had grown and darkened.


You can see some of the lesions on her side have started to coalesce.




I left the camera with Ashleigh at the hospital tonight, so you can't see her current state, but those target lesions have grown and spread, now her entire torso has coalesced so that there's just giant areas of lesions covering her entire trunk, and most of her arms and legs. She's miserable. She feels like shit, she's swollen, she itches and itches, and she's had a low fever now for three days.

Although there's lesions on her eyelids, still nothing in her eye (for some reason having lesions on your eyelids is fine (?!)), and nothing in her mouth or privates or other mucous membranes. But keep your fingers crossed -- moving to mucous membranes is apparently even more serious business.

Robin Rash Update

Part III, and hopefully the last, in this rash-related blogfest.

Robin is currently admitted to Children's hospital.  Yesterday, after a frantic late-afternoon trip to her pediatrician, the allergist, one ER (we were sent to the wrong one) and a second ER, Robin was transferred here last night.  There was some concern the rash, now covering nearly her entire trunk, arms, legs to her knees, neck, parts of her face, around her eyes, might also enter the mucous membranes, which would be so bad we won't even talk about it.

She's feverish, itchy, and looks like a textbook case of Erythema multiforme.  So textbook, the attending doc last night in the ER wanted to take pictures to show residents.  We signed a waiver and everything.

We'll be here one more night and will likely be going home tomorrow morning.  They're not super concerned about the rash going in the wrong place, they're mostly concerned with making sure she starts eating/drinking again, and is more comfortable.  In other news, Erin got to have her first sleep-over at a friend's house last night and got to play all day with Grandma and Grandpa.

The verdict

Robin has a penicillin allergy.  Her entire body from head to knee is covered in red hives, some just a blush of pink, some a deep, angry crimson and threatening to burst.  She may shed skin.  She has a fever ranging between 99 and 101.  She itches all over.  She's barely eaten, nurses like mad (good thing since she's not showing any signs of dehydration), and refuses all but the merest sips of water or juice.  Yet her spirit is, as ever, irrepressible, exuberant, curious.  And extra cuddly.  She's also doped out; Benadryl and ibuprofen are her current two new friends.

Too young for pimples. . .

. . .but hives?  Or contact dermatitis?

She woke up with some red on her neck and was scratching the bejesus behind her ears. She's on antibiotics for an ear infection (day 6 of 10) and it's her second round in the last two weeks. I also put some very old sunscreen on her face and neck two days ago. Called the doctor, they said if it was antibiotics it would be more wide-spread. By this afternoon/evening, her arm pits were covered, with some red areas looking raised. She also had scattered spots on her trunk, her arms, and two bands on her legs, right at mid-thigh level. I gave her some antihistamines so she would stop pulling off her skin, so she wasn't itchy anymore, but the bumps!!!

Poor kiddo.  At least she got to watch Elmo (maybe her second time ever) and eat a Nilla Wafer. OK, two wafers.

Robin - 40 weeks and adenoids!

Today Robin is 40 weeks old. This is the "standard" time it takes to grow a baby from one diploid cell to a breathing person. So, it was only fitting that we celebrate by another trip to the hospital.

 Robin has always been a snorty, snoring baby. She snores louder than anyone else in the family, and often will pause in her breathing during sleep only to cry. She does this every 40 minutes to an hour. All night. Nearly every night. Often, I have her sleep on my chest, with me propped in an upright position. Many nights, Brian will take her in the early morning hours in the Ergo so I can get some sleep. I know babies sleep, well, like babies, but we thought this was a bit extreme. A quick trip to the ENT confirmed our suspicions: the kid has enlarged adenoids. Well, really I should say "had" because this morning the nice doctor took them out.  As she was coming out of her sleepy anesthesia, we immediately noticed her little snorty breathing sound now sounds clear.  We're hoping to all get much more sleep.  And Brian is looking forward to resuming his title as "loudest snorer in the house".

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Starting out to be a rough week

Erin woke up this morning in a strange mood, quite unhappy, complaining that her feet hurt. She was very warm. Yup, the kid had her second fever of her life. It's thrown her for a loop and we hope she feels better soon. In the meantime, she's surviving by repeated Sesame Street and Sid the Science Kid shows, milkshakes, water from Brian's running hydration pack, and her "nest".

Vajayjay

Erin has a little redness in her lady business, so I told her "Oh, sweetie... you've got some redness on your vajayjay.  Let's good look on the intertubes to see how we can fix it."

So, I grabbed the laptop, did some searching, all the while Erin pointed to each page of text saying: "Is [that] my beh-day-day?"  To which, of course, I responded, "Um, yes."

Erin is currently running around the room singing: "My beh-day-day! My buh-day-day!  My buh-day-day!  My beh-day-day."

Girl!

So the ultrasound went smoothly -- all the limbs and such were of the right number and in the right places. I had assumed that the tech would let us know the gender right when he figured it out. However, after the ultrasound, the tech left the room to get the guy who was going to do the amnio. When the tech returned, we had this little exchange:

Me: "Um, sooo, could you determine the gender?"
Lame-o ultrasound tech: "Oh, it was a girl." (spoken as "It was obvious to the trained eye. Couldn't you tell?" )
Me: "..."

Good news: everything checked out OK as far as they could tell. The actual amnio took only about 90 seconds. The needle was much smaller than we thought.

Yay, John!

Yay John! Yay Shannon!

Party Animal

Steve and I went to the vet today for a cut on his ear.

The vet, excited about New Year's Eve, decided Steve needed a party hat. As you can see, Steve looks quite dashing.

Steve is a trooper, but something tells me he's not in a party mood. Poor kitty.

Speaking of Dāna

This time of year is always ripe with opportunities for generosity, kindness and love.  So howza bout a little metta for this guy too as he begins his road towards healing?