memory.lane

Let's take a break from talking about sickness.

I was lying in bed this morning thinking about answering machines (because we don't have one). It's a little weird, I know.

We used to have one that Josh probably had when he was in college. It was awful. So, in the middle of the move, it kind of came up missing. (In other words, I threw it away thinking we would get another one.)

Well, we moved 15 months ago, and we still don't have one.

This isn't all that bad because my thought process has been, "You know, if we don't have an answering machine, we don't ever have calls to return when we get home." It's actually been kind of nice to not return calls.

I'm sure people on the other line are like, "Seriously? No answering machine? Are you living in 1975?"

My logic is that we have cell phones (of course) and anyone who NEEDS to get a hold of us will be able to.

So...back to my point....it takes me awhile sometimes, I know.

I was thinking (again) that we should get one. And...what should our message sound like? I was thinking about the one we had at the other house, the one my parents have, my other family members', etc.

uh oh...everyone just woke up. To be continued....I can tell that everyone is on the edge of their seats with this one.

10:19 a.m.

Josh just called and said that Claire gets to come home!

Her temp spiked up again last night, but I guess it's just something that we'll need to keep under control while she's home. This does not bother me at all since I felt like we were just beginning to take up space at the hospital.

Her temps keep spiking, but I am completely able to give her the meds she needs and take her temp at home! And we would all rather be at home than at the hospital.

And, as funny as it is, I'm excited to have her home so that she can watch our digital PBS kids chanel at home. They don't have our local digital channels at the hospital (just the main channels), and I'm not a big fan of the cartoons on Cartoon Network and Nikelodeon (I don't even know if I spelled that right). I never thought I would be thankful for our budget-friendly televison stations!

So, yay for the good news!

11:06 p.m.

Well, I'm at home, and Josh is at the hospital. Claire slept most of the late afternoon/early evening and woke up as sweaty as could be. She was drenched....and pleasant (really). :)

I'm guessing that her antibiotic is going to have to start taking over these fever spells pretty quickly. She's been on it for over 24 hours at this point. Hopefully she will have had (or will soon have) her last round with it.

I'm going to be praying for no more fevers and a good report from the doctor in the a.m. Maybe they'll be able to come home by lunch.

7:16 p.m.

Claire's temperature went up again.

Thankfully, she took her medicine extremely well.

We found out that we have to stay another night. I'm a bit bummed about this, but Josh is going to take the day off tomorrow and stay with her. I'm going a little bit stir crazy...and I need a shower. :)

2:41 p.m.

The fever broke about an hour and a half ago. They unhooked her i.v. since her face was starting to poof up because of all of the fluids she was getting.

She was excited about this until they wanted to take the i.v. out of her arm. The way she was screaming and fighting, I couldn't tell if they were removing the i.v. or her fingernails.

She's pretty perky right now as she's eating her applesauce and drinking a milkshake....being sick isn't ALL bad, you know.

12:13 p.m.

temperature 104.8

With high temperatures comes the taking of medicine, which is always a treat. :) Claire gets extremely cranky when she has to take the medicine. Like I said before, it's borderline comical.

So, in the midst of the medicine debate, the nurse walks in with the two syringes of medicine that she needs to drink. Each syringe has a small cap on the top. The nurse takes one cap off and hands the syringe to me. She takes the other cap off (without Claire seeing her) and keeps it for herself.

So, Claire (in her cranky, everything-bugs-me attitude) purses her lips, deepens her voice, gets a mean look on her face and says, "Why doesn't she take both caps off at the same time?"

I said, "She did."

"Oh...." she says.

9:04 a.m.

All is going well. The doctor stopped by and gave Claire a pretty good report.

They are going to cut her antibiotics out of her IV and give them to her orally. If she can keep them down and keep her temps down, we can probably go home this afternoon.