[/caption]Tuesday morning, Thom was awakened by much noise from our chicken coup. He went to investigate and discovered that a raccoon had eaten two of our four chickens. The raccoon was escaping over the fence with a third chicken when Thom ran to the rescue. Thom said the raccoon dropped the chicken and continued to look at him from the fence as if to say, "Hey could you hand me that chicken and I'll be on my way?" Ben and I have the movie "Over the Hedge" checked out from the library so I explained that the raccoon was just like the raccoon in the movie, hungry and looking for food. When Thom told me how the raccoon stopped as if asking for more chicken, I laughed thinking of how that is exactly like, RJ the raccoon in the movie (played by Bruce Willis). Ben thought the whole thing was quite an adventure, imagining his favorite chicken (Chip aka Daphne) and his father battling the raccoon. He and Thom worked on a super duper trap together to keep more chickens from becoming dinner.
[caption id="attachment_2739" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Ellie with funny hat from Jenny."]
[/caption]A blood draw on Monday discovered that Ellie's sodium is once again on the rise (it was 153, normal is 135-145). Thursday's blood draw revealed the same number and a higher BUN which measures how dehydrated the body is. This may explain why Ellie has been more tired, less coherent and less stable the last few days. Driving me a bit loco not knowing why Ellie is becoming dryer as we give her more water.
Probably the highlight of our week, having Ms. Mack and Ms. Zwart stop by on Monday bringing us dinner which made me feel as if I'd won the lotto. What a treat to not even have to think about dinner just have it show up on our front stoop delivered by two smiling faces. Ellie decided to start a joy/happy club and invited her teachers to join.
Tuesday I took Ben to the pediatrician because he had a suspicious looking bull's eye type rash where a tick had bit him. That kept getting bigger by the day. The pediatrician even had to measure it because she was so amazed at how big it was. It turns out Ben had strep throat and by treating the strep we would also be treating possible lyme's disease. On Friday, we discovered that the initial blood test was positive for Lyme's, the blood will go on to another lab for verification of this diagnosis.
[caption id="attachment_2740" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Ben when he felt as if he could eat foods that required chewing with our friend Bella."]
[/caption]Then Thursday,Ben and I went to the dentist because he had a hurty tooth. Well they discovered 8 cavities, including one that was about to abscess. Fortunately for us that can also be helped by the antibiotic we started this morning. The dentist suggested we have all the cavities filled at the hospital as an outpatient surgery. The great thing about that is that we will get it all down in one day AND our insurance will pay more for that type of treatment than a regular dental visit. The downside is he isn't scheduled until September 3rd. The dentist told us that the antibiotic will help the tooth to be less painful, so hopefully, we won't have to go through 2 months of soft food or chewing only on one side.
The thing that amazed me, once again, is the widely varying reactions from Ben and Ellie towards medical interventions. When Ellie has been hurt in the past by a nurse or doctor, she once asked me if they meant to hurt her. It was as if she recognized that the nurse or doctor had not intended to hurt her. And so often whenever the hurt is done, Ellie is ready to be friends, give out hugs, tit tat (talk + chit chat). Ben however, after the strep swab test thingy, looked at the doctor accusingly, and said, "She HURT me!!" Then after the plebotomist took his blood, Ben just started kicking. Which in a way I could understand, because in his mind here were these people who had hurt him and he needed to do what he needed to do to keep himself safe. And whereas Ellie is typically not interested in any prize she might be given for her trouble (unless they are giving out crayons), Ben is all over the prize, whatever it may be.
[caption id="attachment_2742" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="They both look as if they are anticipating some medical intervention here..."]
[/caption]I was way nervous about starting the antibiotic and whether or not we would be able to get Ben to take it easily. With Ellie any oral meds were usually thrown up, with much crying. Not fun. So Thursday morning I slowly started squirting the antibiotic in Ben's mouth. At first he was reluctant, then he decided that the med (grape flavored) tasted so good, he was wondering when he would get to take it again. Yeah! Then Friday morning, Ben decided he did not in fact enjoy the medication. So, then the "Hey you get to take this for 14 days!! Twice a day!!" transformed into, "We only have to take it for 13 more days!"
Totals this week thus far:
153 sodium level, holding steady
2 dead chickens, 2 live ones
8 cavities
1 crazy very pregnant mamma
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