Socially Awkward

Last week we were invited to an Easter block party. It was a pot-luck/egg hunt and we were invited by our neighbors that live two streets behind us. My initial thought was YES, can't wait to go! Everyone in our neighborhood seems nice so far but I would love to actually get to know some of our neighbors better. Mike and I talked it over, we were worried about Olivia being around other people. The party was outside and we decided that if it was too crowded we could just leave.

We packed up and off we went. Olivia and I made cupcakes with bright pink frosting and sprinkles. We were nervous but looking forward to meeting our neighbors. We loaded the kids into the stroller and headed over. We were arriving about half an hour late (Peter had been napping). We walked around the corner to see the very picture of suburban bliss. There was a group of kids happily playing tag, several other kids were drawing with chalk on the sidewalk, another group of kids was blowing bubbles. There were groups of parents talking here and there. It looked like everyone was having so much fun. It was one of those beautiful spring nights. The whole scene could have been a commercial for the perfect neighborhood or something. As we walked up we were graciously greeted by our hosts who welcomed us warmly. We unloaded the kids and went over to the bubbles. The kids watched the other kids blowing bubbles for a bit but then that got old. Mike and I looked around for people to talk to but everyone was already involved in conversations. I bravely waved to a few of the ladies I'd met at Bunko but that was it. The highlight was Peter getting to pet a dog. We stayed for about half an hour, we didn't meet anyone, we didn't talk to a single other person. Mike and I both felt so socially awkward. I hope it gets better, it certainly can't get any worse!

Stretched too thin

This morning as I was scrambling to get Olivia's breathing treatment finished and get everything packed up to head to Duke and the doorbell rang. It wasn't even 8am yet and I had no idea who it could be. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was the babysitter. Last week I could tell that I was being stretched too thin so I emailed our babysitter a tentative schedule for the month of April. I promised that I could guarantee her 20 hours a month. In addition to the occasional evening function for Mike's work or the even more occasional date night I asked if she was available on Wednesday mornings. My plan was for her to watch both kids on days when we do not have to go to Duke for clinic so I could get some errands done. And then for long clinic days I wanted her to watch Peter here at home so that I didn't have to drag him to Duke and make him endure Olivia's doctors appointments. I hadn't heard back from her for sure (at least I don't think I had, my email inbox is out of control) so I was shocked to see her this morning. I hesitated for a split second and then decided to take my blessings as they come. I asked how long she could stay and then decided to leave Peter here with her while Olivia and I headed to her appointment at Duke.

Olivia and I were able to get on the road even earlier than usual and Peter was still sleeping when we left. We got to Duke in record time. They did a "snot test" (aka RVB) to determine if Olivia has RSV, influenza, or parainfluenza. They quickly and efficiently accessed her port and ran her labs. The nurse practitioner and doctor came in and were concerned with some of Olivia's breathing sounds so they sent her down for a chest x-ray and then we headed back up to the clinic for a breathing treatment. By this point I was mildly concerned about Peter and the babysitter because I'd called her cell and the house phone to update her and hadn't heard anything. Just as Olivia's breathing treatment finished my phone rang....the babysitter had taken Peter outside to play as I'd suggested but she didn't realize that the door would lock behind her and she had locked herself and Peter out of the house. She had gone over to a neighbor's house to borrow their phone to call her husband so he could get my number from her email account and call me. We had one of those hidden rock-key things in the yard but during Sunday's Easter egg hunt Olivia found it and opened it and was trying to eat the key so I took it away from her and put it inside the house on the fireplace mantel. GO FIGURE! I frantically called Mike who dropped everything to run home and let them back into the house. Olivia's lab results were back and her white blood count was back down within normal range at 9.6. Her chest x-ray didn't look too bad but there did seem to be a little mucus so they decided to prescribe an antibiotic just in case. The tests for RSV, parainfluenza and influenza were all negative. Since Mike, Peter and I are also sick then it is most likely that this is something viral. Since Olivia seems to be doing better then the treatment plan is to up her breathing treatments to at least 3 times a day, continue the antibiotic for 7 days, and return to clinic next Wednesday.

I arrived home around 2pm to finally relieve the poor babysitter. She felt terrible but I couldn't possibly be mad at her! I locked Olivia inside the house once by herself when were were living in Washington. Accidents happen and she did the best she could. Peter was fine and loved his time outside! He normally wouldn't get so much time outdoors since we have to be careful about Olivia in the sun.

I'm relieved to know that Olivia seems to be on the mend but I'm exhausted. Mike has a challenging work week and I'm feeling terrible so I have no patience. We're not sleeping well so that just adds to the frustration. I really hope that we just get through this week and all start feeling better soon!

Back to Duke....

We're heading back to Duke tomorrow and hopefully it will just be a quick trip. We're pretty unimpressed with the care we received at Ft. Bragg today and the Duke doctors are unimpressed with the communication that they've had with Olivia's doctor at Ft. Bragg so we're heading to clinic at Duke Wednesday morning. The bad news is that I had to wait for over an hour before the doctor came in to see us and that was after he'd walked by the open door to the room where we were waiting at least 18 times (yes I counted!). After about an hour and a half I flagged down a nurse to see what was going on. She told me they were waiting on the pharmacy to prepare the heparin. I asked if they could do a finger poke instead she insisted that they could not and got visibly irritated when I asked to speak to the doctor. The doctor finally made his way into the room and I asked him what the plan was. He said they were going to do a blood draw to determine her white count and that he wouldn't make us wait around for the results. He said he would call if Olivia's white count was higher than it had been on Monday. He said he would call the doctors at Duke and discuss the plan. I asked about the finger stick and he said that we could do that instead of having her port accessed but we would have to head down to the lab. The doctor that ordered a chest *ray yesterday did not even listen to Olivia's breathing today. Of course I didn't realize this until after we'd left or I absolutely would have made him do a physical e*am. We headed down to the lab where they quickly did the finger stick and ran the labs. We headed home and I put both kids down for naps. I called the doctor twice this afternoon but didn't speak with him. At 7:30 this evening I got a call from the nurse practitioner at Duke, she was wondering if I'd heard from our Ft. Bragg doctor as she was planning on hearing from him today and had not. The nurse practitioner and I discussed our visit today at Ft. Bragg and decided it would be better if Olivia went in to Duke for an appointment on Wednesday. Especially since other members of the family (myself and Peter were also feeling sick--did I mention that, I feel terrible and I know Peter does too). The good news of the day is that Olivia does seem to be feeling a bit better and Mike was able to leave work early so he was home by 5:30 to take care of the kids.

Unplanned Doctor Visit and Interesting New Reading Material

When we woke up this morning I knew we weren't feeling our best. Peter and Olivia both had coughs and runny noses. I didn't feel great but it didn't seem to serious. I thought it might be allergies because everything around here is covered in pollen! Olivia was happy and talkative and her appetite was good so I wasn't too concerned. We settled in on the couch for Olivia's breathing treatment. I noticed that she felt a little warm, she hadn't felt warm at all when she woke up. I was surprised to see a change so quickly. I got out the thermometer, her temp was up to 100.5. I called her doctor at Ft. Bragg and he told us to come in at 1pm. I called the PBMT clinic at Duke to tell them that Olivia had a fever and we were going to be going to our local doctor for the first time. We talked about Olivia's symptoms and which tests they might run. They gave me several pager numbers and promised to follow up with the doctor at Ft. Bragg. I was also given the ok to give Olivia a stress-dose of hydrocortisone. They told me that we could go to Duke if we felt more comfortable but we wouldn't have arrived there any sooner than 1pm. We have to start seeing doctors at Ft. Bragg eventually so we might as well start making the transition. I took Olivia's temp again a couple of times and it was still going up. Before we left the house it was all the way up to 101.6!

Mike was able to meet us at the doctor's office at Ft. Bragg (a pro for Ft. Bragg vs. Duke). When we checked in Olivia's temp had already started to go down a bit. We saw the doctor right away. Initially he was very impressed with how well Olivia looked, she was happy and singing. Then he listened to her lungs and asked if she had been coughing. Yes, she has, she's already had her breathing treatment for the day but she is coughing occasionally. He sent us down the hall for a chest ray (I'm on the netbook so I can't type the letter between "w" and "y"). We headed back to the pediatrician's office. He walked us down the hall so that Olivia's port could be accessed. They actually shut down one of the two rooms that they normally use for well-child immunizations so that we could have a clean area to wait in. There was plenty of room (which was a plus since we would end up being in that room for hours). They had the head nurse for the entire peds clinic access Olivia's port. She was really nice but it was obvious that she hadn't accessed a port in years and I'm sure it didn't help that she didn't have any of the right supplies (I'll have to see if I can pick up a few items when we're at Duke in 2 weeks). Those Duke nurses really are the "Best in the World" (that's one of the sayings around Duke Hospital). Of course they access ports 15 times a day so it's almost second nature to them. Olivia was an absolute champ, she actually fell asleep while they were accessing the port but that was the most nerve wracking part of the day for me. All the nurses at Duke follow the same procedure EVERY SINGLE time they access Olivia's port so it was very scary to see it being done so differently and by someone who clearly wasn't as comfortable doing it.

They did a culture to see if Olivia has an infection but he labs looked pretty good considering her fever. Her white count was only 15 (normal range is between 5 and 12) so its good it wasn't too high. Olivia's fever also broke. The chest *-ray looked good so that was a big relief. They decided to give Olivia a dose of IV antibiotics and we headed on our way. The pharmacy in the Ft. Bragg hospital doesn't prepare a lot of IV meds to be administered outpatient so it took quite a while for the medication to be ready. We finally headed out of the hospital a little after 6pm. Mike wasn't able to stay the entire time, once we knew that it wasn't super serious he was able to head back to work. Peter was only able to nap for about 30 minutes today and he was an absolute angel today! We did leave Ft. Bragg with several new books to add to our library at home. They insisted that we take them with us and they are the most random assortment I just have to share, to be clear these are all children's books. The newest titles in our library include:

• The History of Monster Trucks (probably 3rd or 4th grade level, it has chapters but Peter loved the pictures)
• The Little Red Hen
• If You're Happy and You Know It
• Careers for Women in Computer Science (4th or 5th grade level)
• Cooking on 16th Century Whaling Ships

We're heading back in tomorrow and we're hoping that we won't have to get another dose of antibiotics. Olivia was very happy to get home and she happily went to bed at 8pm.