April Reflections, part 5, the finale

Day 8 of this roller coaster. I am blogging.
I truly hope, this will be the last of the spring time excitement. I have yet to check, but I think we are probably close to having exhausted our flex account.
Monday morning started with a quick shower, history lesson about Justinian 1 and Theodora. I knew it would be the only lesson I would get done for the day.
Flutter Nutter in his PJs is out the door promptly at 8 am.
Time for ear tubes.
All went well, till the recovery.
I did not expect 30 minutes of crying.
and drama...remember the ER.
DRamA.
Flutter Nutter is king of drama.
Nurse would walk into the recovery area and wailing and sobbing when resume.
Thermometers were as scary as a horror film.
I was compassionate. I was kind. But completely not prepared emotionally for how emotional he was. I mean, I had ear tubes. I remember being a little freaked out by bloody cotton balls laying by my head and the fact I was in bed with a sheet over me and my gown and undies were missing. But then again, that was 30 years ago. I don't remember crying.
I asked him what he wanted to eat.
FN: "I can't eat today!" more sobbing.
Misunderstanding, fasting only until surgery was over.
In that case. McDonald's.
Can do.
Then he remembers the lollipops.
The nurse comes into the room.
FN: "I think that was worth 2"
She looks at me.
I laugh. He thinks what he has been through is worth 2 lollipops. She smiles.
And returns with another lollipop.
So I take him to McDonald's and like any good mother, I remember the Gymboree email I received this morning.
Gymboree is 2 miles away.
I coax him into letting me shop. $2.99 sale! TV, chairs, lounge and rest. Drink your root beer.
YES! He agreed. Turned out to be a good thing. An hour later, he was feeling much better and ready to see his siblings.
I scored some awesome deals.
Casting in the afternoon. More appointments scheduled for the ENT and follow up for the broken arm.
Wiggles, and wiggles and wiggles.
FN: "I am not allowed to hit you guys with my cast!"
That's right. Rule number 1 from the doctor.
Daddy's Buddy is quick to say he would have chosen the neon green. Without thinking, I said, "Well, break your arm and you can have whatever color you want."
Hmmm, running out of humor and patience and little fried.
Doctor was quick to say, "Shhh, don't say that. That one would likely take you up on it!"
CHOKE, GAG, he's right, what was I thinking?
By now, my boys look like they have beaten each other up. But it is all self~inflicted.
Do they slow down? No.
Do they care their mother's nerves are shot? No

Then.... yes, there is a then....
Almost bedtime and FN has a gushing bloody nose. Noticed by Little Princess.
Caused by picking his nose, of course.
Blood everywhere. We are trying to clean him up.
He sobs, dramatically, of course,

"It's just be mean to Flutter Nutter Day!"

and I am sure it very well felt like that. Tubes, fasting, casting, nose bleeds, blankies being washed...

Tomorrow had better be "Pamper the Mom day, cause she needs a vacation!"

April Reflections, part 4...

Easter Morning arrives.
Unfortunately, it didn't have the same bright, sunny outlook in my heart. I love Easter. But after the week I had been having, I was in survival/crisis mode. I just couldn't summon the excitement of the day and the time to celebrate with family. I wanted a quiet place. A place where noone could get hurt. Starting to dread the sound of a whimper, cry or my name being called. When the kids wiggled too much, anxiety was starting to seize me. They just needed to be still.
Of course, Flutter Nutter was still coming off the steroids and that was super difficult for him. AND for ME!
We make it through the morning and lunch no injuries.
Off to my in-laws for the games, hunt, and more food.
Flutter Nutter managed to fall trying to climb over a cinder block. Caught himself with his broken arm, but scraped up his knee pretty good. He fell over the brick that surrounds the fireplace, someone caught him just in time. FINALLY, he fell head first into Grandpa's exterior door. Another good egg on the top of his head. He split the wood on the door.
I wAs DoNE!!
DONE .
There was joking and laughing, warrior stuff, brush it off, haha...
The type of things I say, nOrmAlLY.
But not today.
Not this time.
I very firmly, (probably almost hysterically) told BigODaddyO, Flutter Nutter was going to sit down with an ice pack on his head. I DID NOT CARE what anyone else had to say or think about it. I was DONE and he was going to be iced !
Then, I went and finished my PEPSI.

April Reflections, part 3...

Yep, part 3. I don't know how many parts there are going to be.
So we get the young man splinted up and home.
There wasn't much sleeping that night. The docs failed to give us anything for the pain, his or ours. So I held out till it daylight and paged the doc on call. Sweet Tylenol with Codeine was called out for us! Hope for sleep that night! ! !
Alas, we still have a full day. We don't stop, no siree, this crew just keeps putting one foot in front of the other.
We deliver dad's boat to the marina. We deliver children to the aunt's house to fill Easter eggs. We sneak in a mini nap. Head home, but pick up the TyLeNoL with CODEINE! Feed children. Go over the outdoor play rules.
"MOOOOooooM! ! Daddy's Buddy has a goose egg on his forehead!"

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So not excited. I mean, they didn't say he fell out of the fort. How bad could it be?

Oh my stinking WORD! It was the size of the Easter eggs they had been filling!
What did HE DO? ? ?

"I hit my head like this.." (he nods his head forward)

Really??? Just to hit your head? WHY? ? ?

DB: "NOOoooo, we were wrestling up in the fort and I fell like this (forward) into that piece of wood (2X4), like this (nod)"

Somehow in all of that these words came trickling out of my mouth..
"Really? ! ? ! ?"
"Wrestling in the fort?"
"After your brother just fell and broke his arm?"
"What on earth?"
"That's it, everyone in!"
"Showers! BED! I AM DoNe, DONE, DONE!!!!
I wish I could say the story ended there.
You see, earlier in the day, we were alerted to some very red hands. VERY RED Hands! Bright red. There was a time before, when we couldn't identify the source of the red color. Well thankfully, God reminded me of the koolaid packets I had discovered in the back of the suburban while we were hooking up the boat.
NoT bLoOd this time.
So it is bath time for Daddy's Buddy. He likes showers, but his hands are still dyed red and I sentenced him to a long soak to get his hands back to their normal color. Easter is the next day and Mom would like the kids to look somwhat nice considering the goose eggs, black eyes, scrapes, stitches and broken arm.
Bath is over and Daddy's Buddy comes crying. "My hand still stings."
What? ? Why would his hand be stinging?
First thought, he was messing with the razors...
I ask to see his hand.
Sure enough, superficial (doesn't need stitches) slice from the palm to the first knuckle on the finger.
"What did you do?" I asked.
DB: "When I hit my head, I went like this. (Caught himself with his hands.) There was big pieces of wood in my hand, but (with some enthusiasm here) I pulled them out."
** SIGH **
Neosporin, band aides, eczema creams, bed.

April Reflections, part 2...

So, I am thinking, I should know by now there will be at least 1 week of roller coasting every spring and fall. Something about the change of seasons and activity level of my children. I am never prepared for it.

So in my last post I discussed Daddy's Buddy adventure. I completely forgot to mention we were at the dr. office on Monday for Flutter Nutter. Simple sinus infection...nope, sinus infection with bronchitis developing and wheezing. Dr. decided breathing was an important thing for the kid so he put him on STEROIDS and ALBUTEROL breathing treatments. Sounds like the dr. doesn't like me. We are sent to the ENT the next day.

ENT says lots of fluid and diminished hearing. TuBeS will be needed. OK...I am OK, I can deal with this.

So I spend the afternoon making phone calls and setting up appointments for the oral surgeon and ear tube surgery. (Yes, oral surgeon. I have 2 girls who will get to have oral surgery this spring/summer.)

Normal Wednesday after stitches and phone calls on Tues. Relatively normal Thursday.

Friday evening.

"Flutter Nutter fell, he is crying!"

"Flutter Nutter fell, from the fort!"

I have to make sense of 3 children ages 9, 7, and 6 as they tell stories of what happened and try to coax a sobbing 5 year old to tell me what hurts and what happened. Apparently, only the 6 yr. old saw what happened, and only briefly as she went about playing. Flutter Nutter was too preoccuppied crying to be able to tell me much. I did manage to discover he could not hold a bowl with his left hand. His eyes appeared to be equal and reacting to light appropiately. From what I could piece together, he fell about 8 feet onto a 2x4. His face was scraped pretty good, a few scrapes on his neck and back. But his arm.... not so good.

Into the car. Hockey Player went with us. Needed someone to keep an eye on him in the back seat. Good thing.

All was fine. Immediate Care could see him. Then he fell asleep. FELL ASLEEP. Couldn't hold his head up as we tried to talk to him fall asleep. He did cry really hard for 30 minutes. There was a huge adrenaline rush, and exhaustion tends to follow after that. BUT, he did fall 8 feet and he did hit his head. So the dr. office sent us to the ER. Hockey Player sat with him and tried to keep him awake. About a mile from the ER he gets Flutter Nutter to play I SPY. Checked in, he's counting to 15 and remembers 2 months ago we were there in the ER and he got a popsicle. Does he get another one??? he wants to know. Concussion ruled out.

Xrays, more tears, a buckle fracture of the wrist.

I try to wipe his face clean and discover splinters sticking in his cheek. I ask for tweezers and get a doctor. I hold him down and dr. removes splinters. Arm gets splinted, we get sent home.

Friday night! As we leave, Flutter Nutter is being a bit dramatic. Even the doctor commented on his drama skills. I lovingly encouraged FN to try out the children's theatre. Wouldn't be wonderful if one day he was accepting an Oscar, and was able to thank his mother for the time we were in the ER and she encouraged him to pour that passion and emotion into theatre. He didn't think that was such a great idea.

Webinz manages to be a wonderful distraction. How I am able to respond so calmly? It is only by the Grace of God. My sense of humor, again, the Grace of God.