various things

Ricky continues to do very well in Kindergarten. We had a momentary panic yesterday with the after-school day care because they never received his folder (with doctor's forms, medication order, you know, all that important stuff) from the center that had him for the summer. Apparently no one had bothered to call the director at the other center, because when I called her she said, "Oh yeah, it's right here!" I volunteered to pick it up and run it over to the center he's at now. She couldn't run it over herself because of the required staff to child ratios. So I ran it over (in my oodles of spare time, don't you know) and it's all good now.

I got my final permanent crown put on yesterday after work. That's five I've gotten this year, and that's apparently all I need for now! Hooray! I actually have more now than my husband, the man with the bad teeth. It all comes from being a grinder/clencher... A subconscious habit I still catch myself doing -- drives me nuts!

Rick took Ricky up to Stanford for what we hoped would be the last segment of his cognitive testing -- he seems to wear out and not pay attention after awhile. It didn't get completed yet again and he'll have to go back for more.

Ricky's first day of kindergarten

It really went quite well, much to my relief! We had orientation and got to go to the classroom with him, where I had the opportunity to speak with his teacher (who is great) about him having CF, and gave her some literature. She'd had a student a long time ago with CF.

After a while, the teacher (Mrs. Makin) came over and asked me if there was anything she needed to know right away before she could read the literature. I just told her he'd been in the hospital a few weeks ago, could be as active as he felt like being, and needed pills. And that he might cough a little and go to the bathroom more often than other kids. We told Ricky to remind her about the pills today as it was hectic. He did, and it all went okay! He got his pills, had a great day, and said he had "a million of fun"!

Today we found out about a change in schedule. This is the first year the Kindergarten is 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (used to be 8:30 a.m. till 12:30 I think) So he eats lunch in his classroom. And the days I work, he goes to after school day care that is on campus. That will start tomorrow.

Ricky's in the hospital

Gonna make this quick...

Ricky is in the hospital.

Friday night he threw up all night and ran a temperature most of Saturday. We figured it was the stomach flu, and he was fine by Saturday afternoon. Yesterday he started having severe abdominal pain in and so we went to our local hospital (he was screaming in pain and I didn't want to take any chances) at about 3:30 p.m. They did a chest x-ray and an abdominal x-ray and decided that though he was full of stool (which might possibly mean a bowel blockage, which can happen with CF), he also seemed to have pneumonia in two lobes.

He started running a rather high temperature which wasn't brought down even with Tylenol. He slept off and on and was really being good, considering everything. He was started on an IV because his heart rate was fast, indicating possible dehydration.

Eventually we got the pediatrician in there, and he decided (with me) that Ricky should be transferred to Packard Children's Hospital to be treated (that's where he goes for CF treatment, and the local hospital doesn't know much about CF anyhow). FINALLY at 12:30 a.m. this morning we got the ambulance after the docs and charge nurse went back and forth about whether we'd be allowed to transfer him ourselves and finally decided against it. By this time Ricky had fallen deep asleep and ended up being asleep for the whole ambulance ride!

We got here and were finally checked in by 3 a.m. He was started on ceftazidime (antibiotic) by IV. This morning he had x-rays and they were talking enema, and then he pooped (pooped again this evening). The abdominal x-ray apparently looked much better, and I FINALLY found out that the chest x-ray wasn't bad either. So depending on how he does tonight we *might* go home tomorrow. Woo hoo!

Just wanted to update everyone as to why I've been rather absent. I'm going to take a while to catch up on email but I will be able to do it eventually!

Talk to you all later!

Note: Ricky came home on August 10.