Kiss The Fiddler

Ramblings, moments of humor, random thoughts, experiences, insights, simple wisdom, and whatever else I feel like sharing.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

103

That's how many degrees Fahrenheit Luken is. I thought he felt warm.

HBK

Thursday, January 28, 2010

CPR

Yay! I actually made it to Fire Training tonight! It felt good.

We did CPR refresher. I looked at my CPR card and realized that mine expired in 2008. I guess I've been kinda out of the loop for awhile. It feels good to be getting back into things. I passed both the written test and the "doing" test. Doh. The test situation is so different that actually doing CPR on a real person in the field. Still, it's good to remember what the book says and look at the charts that depict cleanly dressed rescue personnel and perfectly positioned airways with no teeth, puke, or blood getting in the way.

Anyway . . . it was a good training. I'm glad that I went.

HBK

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

MRI

I woke Luken up at 3 last night so I could give him his last drink before he couldn't have anything else. After he drank some apple juice and water, he went back to sleep. I didn't. I got up, peed, let the dog out, let the dog in, checked the weather, checked my email, watched some middle-of-the-night news, got a drink, went pee again, etc. Anything but sleep.

At 5 my alarm went off and I got up and ate breakfast. I got dressed and ot ready to go. I packed Luken's things. I went out and started my car in the snow. Then I came in and got Luken up and changed his diaper and put on his coat and slippers. We were ready to go.

Kara followed me into town. The roads were snowy and wet. Traffic was sparse and slow. It was hard to see with the snow coming down in the dark. I was stressed about driving in on the winter roads. All the way into town, Luken talked about the snow. It was cute and helped me calm down.

When we got to the hospital, we got Luken checked in. Then we were sent to wait in the main waiting room. After a bit, a pre-op nurse came and got us. We followed her into Luken's "stall" of the pre-post op day surgery area. We changed him out of him pj's and into a little hospital gown. At that point, I think he realized that we weren't just there for fun. He became at once hyper and clingy. Poor kid. He raised such a ruckus that the nurse took us to a play room for the remainder of the pre-op questions.







After all the questions, we met with the Anesthesiologist. He told us what would happen and answered our questions. He was kind and reassuring.

When the Anesthesiologist left, Luken was given an oral dose of versed to help him be calm and not afraid and to help him not remember. I was glad that he wasn't going to be afraid of Kara and me not being with him. The versed kicked in pretty quickly and when it did, Luken's eyelids kinda closed half-way and he thought that everything was funny. He was a hoot!





The nurse invited me to climb onto the bed with Luken so he wouldn't be afraid being wheeled through the hospital. He wasn't afraid at all. He laughed at every turn and kept saying, "Go, go, go!" How cute!

At the waiting room near the MRI place, we had to leave Luken with the nurse. I heard him laughing with her and was glad that he wasn't afraid. It was hard to leave him and walk away though.



The waiting room was stocked with coffee, fresh cinnamon rolls, and cookies from Great Harvest. Yummy! Kara and I hung out there for about an hour and a half. For me, the time went quickly. It didn't seem like long at all before the nurse came and told us to go back to the main waiting room to wait for them to take Luken to recovery.

There is a gift shop at the main waiting room. I poked around in there while we waited. After about 20 minutes, we were called back to the recovery room. Luken seemed so small on the bed. He had oxygen blowing at his face. He was sound asleep and hooked up to an IV and monitors. He slept like that for nearly an hour before he started to wake up. When he woke up, he was afraid so the nurse let me climb onto his bed again. I cuddled him as she wheeled us back to his "stall" in the pre/post-op area.







The post-op nurse brought Luken some juice and we hung out, giving his sips until he'd had enough for the nurse to feel comfortable taking his IV out. He didn't like that part at all.






After an hour in the post-op area, the nurse told us that we could get ready to go. Yay! We got Luken dressed and he sat on Kara's lap as the nurse pushed them in a wheel chair out to the front door.

I took Luken home to a day of naps and cuddling and Kara went to work. Luken seemed tired for the rest of the day. He went to bed early.

I am glad to have the MRI behind us. Luken did so well. I'm proud of him. He's such a cool little guy.

HBK

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Fu-computer

Awhile back, one of my dear feline friends emptied the contents of her stomach onto my laptop keyboard. $120 later, my computer is back to it's normal happy self.

Today, I walked in to my room and found this.





Hmmmmm. . .

HBK

Pux

I made pux. They're kinda like little hockey pucks. So I'm going to call them pux.

Kara and I have been discussing how we can feed Luken less sugar and still keep it easy. So I called on my SDA history and came up with pux.



I mixed together quick oats, raw sesame seeds, toasted hemp seeds, beef broth seasoning and eggs. I dropped a tablespoon of this glop at a time in hot oil and fried them. They're surprisingly tasty! Luken loves them! They're just the right size for him to hold in his hand and eat. I can easily put a few of them in a baggie for going out. And, they're healthy!

I also made knox blox out of organic apple juice. I know, sugar but at least it's natural sugar.

HBK

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Chickens!

For the last several months, Kara and I have been talking about sustainable living. One of the things we've talked about is getting chickens. Good fresh eggs are expensive. And I think that chickens will give Luken a great learning opportunity. We have the perfect spot for them too. So, we decided to get some pullets. I told Kara that I don't really want to raise peeps. I already have a baby. I don't want to have to keep chicken babies safe from the cats and dog.

Kara called me from work yesterday and said that she'd gotten a great deal on peeps. Ok. I made them a home in a box.

Here are some pictures of my brood.







Aren't they cute?

HBK

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Epileptologist

Today we met with Dr. Tom Swanson. He's an Epileptologist. He read Luken's EEG which showed no indication of seizure activity. He talked to us about the "spells" that Luken has had and gave us a journal to note any further "spells". He ordered an MRI of Luken's brain. The MRI is scheduled for the morning of January 27th. Dr. Swanson said that Luken's "spells" sound like seizures. He does not want to medicate at this point. If the MRI does not show us anything of note and Luken has no further "spells" then we do nothing. If the MRI is clear and Luken continues to have "spells", Dr. Swanson might send us to the Epilepsy unit at Benefis Hospital in Great Falls for an EEG that's done over the period of days rather than minutes. So, there you have it. We still don't know anything. I like Dr. Swanson though. He tells it like it is and he took us seriously. I feel good about our visit.

HBK

Monday, January 18, 2010

EEG Number Two

Today's EEG went so much more smoothly than the first try. Luken took the sedation like a dream! There were two techs placing the electrodes and they finished quite quickly. He was absolutely still during the entire thing. It was like day and night, comparing today to last Thursday. Wow!

We'll learn the results tomorrow.

Luken was fascinated by Earl, the eel. Here is Earl.



HBK

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Tomorrow

Tomorrow I will get up at 4 o'clock. I will wake my baby up and we'll make coffee and hang out for awhile. Then, at 6, I will drive him into town to check into the hospital for another try at the EEG. I hope this time goes better than the last time did.

HBK

Saturday, January 16, 2010

More Cuteness

Here is more cuteness from baby gym.
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There was a small blow up castle there. It had several colored balls in it. Luken had lots of fun flopping and playing in the castle.
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He also had fun climbing on the outside of the castle.
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It was a great day!

HBK

New Blog

I've started a new blog. Don't worry, I'll keep this blog. The new blog will be a place for me to track my journey toward health and fitness. If you wanna read it, be my guest.

New Blog

ETA: because the links don't seem to work, here is the address for the new blog.

heidishealthandfitnessblog.blogspot.com

HBK

Friday, January 15, 2010

Baby Gym

I take Luken to baby gym in Hamilton. He has a blast!

The Pit.
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He jumps in and crawls/rolls around in there.
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It's hard to get a good picture of him in there because he moves so fast.
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He goes so hard when he's there that he always falls asleep on the way home.

HBK

Thursday, January 14, 2010

EEG

Today I got Luken up at 545. I gave him a bottle with pedialyte and water. We hung out in the big bed together for a little while. He didn't understand why I'd made him get up so early. We took a bath together and I washed his hair. Then I got him dressed and put him in his crib so that I could eat breakfast without having to eat in front of him since he couldn't eat. I got dressed and we brushed our teeth. I got some of his things together, put on his coat and packed him into the car. Off we went, in the dark of the early morning, to the hospital for his EEG.

Getting to the hospital took a long time. The roads were covered in frozen rain. It took us 30 minutes to get around an accident scene north of Lolo. We made it safely to the hospital only a few minutes late. After checking in, we were taken upstairs to the Pediatric unit and shown to our room. Here is the view from his room.

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Once there, Luken was weighed. He weighs 28 pounds and 3 ounces bare naked. The nurse and doctor asked lots of questions and told me what would happen.

While we were waiting for the medicine to come from the pharmacy, Luken enjoyed the balloons and fish in the playroom.




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When the medication arrived, it was given to Luken. Within minutes, it began to take affect. Luken began to flop his head around and thrash and flail. It took about a half hour of this before he relaxed into a deep sleep.

The entire time Luken was asleep, he was attached to monitors.

An EKG was done.



We were moved to the adjacent room to begin the EEG.

The tech put BraiNet on Luken to help her to properly position the electrodes.
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She first cleaned the skin where the electrodes were going to be places with this scrubby green stuff. Then she put conductive paste on the electrode and pressed that onto Luken's scalp and taped over it.
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Only half the electrodes were placed when Luken opened his eyes and said he was hungry. He began to thrash and scream. The nurse got him a bottle and the tech was able to place the remaining electrodes.






He would not be still or calm so the tech could not complete the test. With Luken screaming, they removed the electrodes. All that paste had given him an impressive hair do.

They ordered up lunch for Luken - mac and cheese. He ate it ALL. After awhile, we went home. Luken fell asleep on the way home but then did not want to nap. He thrashed and acted drugged and crazy for a couple hours before he finally fell asleep. Poor kiddo. Since they were unable to complete the test, we have to go back on Monday to try again.

HBK