Monday, November 19, 2007

Scary....much more scary then a sleepover

This has been the LONGEST week of my life. Last Tuesday evening, my son started to get the symptoms of a cold. Now, for the last year every time he gets a cold, it sets of asthma. They hadn't officially diagnosed it as that, because it had all these stipulations to go with it. Had to be on a steroid a certain number of times, had to have so many attacks, etc. Nothing about it being so bad, that an ER trip was necessary to stop it, and even then, THEY struggled, to get this tiny set of lungs to breathe properly. That all took place in June. Here we are 5 attacks, or colds, later and Tuesday night my son is gasping for breathe and my 8 year old is pointing out the obvious. "MOM, he's turning blue." I gave him 1 treatment, then another, then 2 doses of a steroid, and finally, his light blue hue faded. I had learned not to rush off to the hospital, and just follow the regimen. Yikes. For the next 2 days I counted breathes, checked him temperature, and kept giving him treatments, as I felt he needed them.
Friday morning, he babbled incoherently ( he was sleeping next to me), but didn't move. I thought he was just waking up slowly. I rolled towards him to snuggle him in and saw that his face was flaming red. I tried to wake him. He was barely awake, just muttering things I couldn't understand. I took his temperature and it was 104.5. I'm watching his stomach, as I'm taking his temperature, and he's got a hole so sunken in , on his chest, that I can fit my thumb into it. He was retracting hard. (meaning his diaphragm was working VERY hard to push the breathe in and out of his lungs. I woke Tierney and was out of the house in minutes, dropping her off on my way out for someone else to put her on the bus. We get to the Dr.'s office and low and behold, he's got pneumonia. I feel so guilty. I followed everything to a T! I immediately blame the little girl, that I watch in the morning and afternoon. Her father is newly divorced, a Police Chief, and I feel sorry for her. Except that he's so busy he can't take her to the Dr. and every time she comes over sick, Riley ends up sick and having asthma attacks. She doesn't cover her mouth, plays with his toys, and infests my house with every germ on her. My daughter has become fantastically diligent in hand washing and sanitizing. She hates to see her brother like this. I irritates me to no end, that he uses me like this. (and only pays me at HIS convenience....a whole nother story.) I understand that he has no one else to turn too. But I have explained OVER and OVER the situation with my son. Whatever. Anyway, since Friday, I have administered nebulizer treatments every four hours, even through the night. I feel like a walking zombie. I feel that no amount of sleep could even take me out of this haze. I had a cake to do for someone on Saturday. I made the filling, made the icing, cut the cake into the correct shape, and proceeded to ice and decorate it......without the filling. Thankfully, I knew the family well, and I gave them the filling, on the side and they served it with the cake. And laughed at me. Today we went back, and we have to continue this for a few more days, and then start to decrease it. My own family can't believe that a chef like me hasn't even set the menu for Thanksgiving. You people will be lucky if you even get Turkey. Tease, Tease, Tease...... it's all fun and games until there's nothing to eat! Thankfully, he's on the mend, and we'll be starting a daily treatment to prevent this from progressing to pneumonia again. Sorry about the bitching.....just need to get it all out, and relieve some of the stress and exhaustion. Happy Turkey day, as that's all you'll be getting.

P.s. Damn it! They know I'll pull this fabulous meal out of my ass! Curse the perfectionism in me!!

5 comments:

someGirl said...

awwww. I hope he's feelng better. Asthma sucks. Hugs and kisses for the little guy :)

As for the almost-free-babysitting gig...Not cool. He's using the sympathy card on you. Put your foot down! (perferably on some cash)

Are you hosting the turkey dinner?! How stressful is that!!

chefmom said...

Thanks! Asthma does suck...and he's such a little peanut, that losing a little weight makes him look horrible too.
As for the almost-free-babysitting gig, you are right, he SO plays the sympathy card. My Husband says I need to "grow a pair" and tell him to pay up or I'll start charging him late fees.

And yes, I'm hosting Thanksgiving. Not to stressful for me though...I've done it for thousands, so 10 is pretty easy. The bad part of being a chef is everyone expects this fancy, spectacular dinner. This year, I'm sticking to the traditional stuff and keeping it simple. If they don't like it, don't eat it!! Lol!!

Anonymous said...

nothing is worse than feeling helpless when it comes to your childs health. That is sofa king scary.

and you are HOSTING thanksgiving ONTOP of this?

damn woman.

chefmom said...

Hey, hey now, you're starting to give me a Fembot/Stepford Mom Complex!! LOL!!

Anonymous said...

You a FemBotStepFord? Never!