Like a Monk's Prayer
Jan. 16th, 2009 08:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisnewdayHaving taken care of a sick little boy for the better part of two weeks, including navigation of the social services system to confirm medical insurance and two trips to St. Joe's pediatric outpatient clinic, I'm now hoping to resume a couple projects at the house. As I understand it, Little J will be headed to his mom's around mid-morning and will stay with her for the weekend. She missed him, of course, and when she stopped by to visit last week, was astonished at his appearance.
Somewhere in his travels, he had picked up a nasty herpes simplex virus which caused his lips to swell, blister, and bleed. The virus is related to chicken pox and the clinic said they've been seeing a lot of it in school-age and younger children. As with a lot of kids his age, his hands are constantly going to his eyes and nose and face and the "did you wash your hands?" mantra drones on and on around here like a monk's prayer. Mostly to no avail.
Needless to say, he was miserable most of the time. After his first visit to the doc, he was on an anti-viral administered every 8 hours. Which meant that every midnight, for nearly a week, I had to wake up a miserable little kid to take the a-v, a dose of children's ibuprophen for the pain, and a coating of Vaseline so his lips weren't sealed together and/or bleeding in the morning. During the day, it was a constant battle to maintain liquid intake, so the drug didn't harm his kidneys, and to get him to eat.
A week after his first visit to the doctor, and the day before his medication was to be finished, I took him back. It seemed to me that, although there was some improvement, his progress had been marginal. His dad disagreed but gave me permission to take him. In fact, the viral infection was nearly gone but, as often happens with kids his age, busy little fingers had introduced a bacterial infection which now had to be treated with a ten day run of Keflex.
Over the past couple of days, his appetite has come back, his energy level is up, and his appearance is almost back to normal. By Tuesday, provided he hasn't come back from his mom's with some other exotic ailment or traumatic injury, he should be back in school. (Monday is Martin Luther King Day - God bless the man, his earthly trials, his legacy of good works.)
Hopefully, by that time, my own energy will have returned and I'll have gotten back into some of my recently postponed projects. In the meantime, repeat after me, "Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash...your...hands...
Somewhere in his travels, he had picked up a nasty herpes simplex virus which caused his lips to swell, blister, and bleed. The virus is related to chicken pox and the clinic said they've been seeing a lot of it in school-age and younger children. As with a lot of kids his age, his hands are constantly going to his eyes and nose and face and the "did you wash your hands?" mantra drones on and on around here like a monk's prayer. Mostly to no avail.
Needless to say, he was miserable most of the time. After his first visit to the doc, he was on an anti-viral administered every 8 hours. Which meant that every midnight, for nearly a week, I had to wake up a miserable little kid to take the a-v, a dose of children's ibuprophen for the pain, and a coating of Vaseline so his lips weren't sealed together and/or bleeding in the morning. During the day, it was a constant battle to maintain liquid intake, so the drug didn't harm his kidneys, and to get him to eat.
A week after his first visit to the doctor, and the day before his medication was to be finished, I took him back. It seemed to me that, although there was some improvement, his progress had been marginal. His dad disagreed but gave me permission to take him. In fact, the viral infection was nearly gone but, as often happens with kids his age, busy little fingers had introduced a bacterial infection which now had to be treated with a ten day run of Keflex.
Over the past couple of days, his appetite has come back, his energy level is up, and his appearance is almost back to normal. By Tuesday, provided he hasn't come back from his mom's with some other exotic ailment or traumatic injury, he should be back in school. (Monday is Martin Luther King Day - God bless the man, his earthly trials, his legacy of good works.)
Hopefully, by that time, my own energy will have returned and I'll have gotten back into some of my recently postponed projects. In the meantime, repeat after me, "Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash...your...hands...
