Week ending February 10, 2008: Alex is laying on the floor coughing so often that if you start counting every time he stops coughing, he’d be lucky if you ever get to 30 before another cough comes. He’s coughing much more frequently than every 30 seconds, and this is after 2 days of aggressive medicine. After a while Chloe interrogates him from across the room as to whether he’s covering his mouth when he coughs. I tell her to leave him alone. A few minutes after that she lies down next to him and screams “stop coughing on me!” and starts crying. Such is life in house with two sick kids. I bought some crafts so we’d have something to do that didn’t require a lot of physical energy, but they are lacking mental energy as well.
Alex hadn’t finished his last 30 day treatment of inhaled medicine to relieve the irritation in his lungs (underlying cause of asthma) when this latest round of aggravated coughing started. Within 3 days of the cold’s onset he had a constant barking cough that I’ve learned from experience does not get better on its own, so I took him in to the doctor. The “barking” sound comes from irritation and swelling in his throat. Because we’ve been treating his lungs the doctor suspects a second cause of the irritation which may be acid reflux. The coughing may churn his stomach up which irritates his throat which aggravates the coughing, which churns his stomach up and thus becomes a vicious cycle. So we are trying Alex on a month of Prevacid for acid reflux.
The day before the kids came down with the virus I took Chloe ice skating for the 2nd time this winter. Alex decided he didn’t want to go. I’d asked on a few other days if he’d like to go and he always says “not today”. So this time I said “Yes, today. If you want to sit and watch instead of skating that’s fine, but Chloe and I want to go”. Then Alex said “But I want someone to baby sit me”. I decided that was a reasonable request and Grammy Carole happened to be available. So Chloe and I went to a weekday public skate session and it was much less crowded that the weekend one we went to before. Chloe was very timid at first and seemed to have lost everything she’d learned before. One of the other women skating was a very proficient figure skater and she came over and asked if we’d like some tips. With just a few hints from her, some patience on my part, and some courage on Chloe’s part, Chloe made a great deal of progress and could skate half the length of the area without holding onto my hand. It was like getting a private lesson! It was really thrilling to watch her gain so much confidence. I don’t have any designs on raising super-talented kids, but I do want to raise kids who can face challenges with confidence. Fear just sucks the fun out of life. I couldn’t find my camera that day, so no pictures.
Alex hadn’t finished his last 30 day treatment of inhaled medicine to relieve the irritation in his lungs (underlying cause of asthma) when this latest round of aggravated coughing started. Within 3 days of the cold’s onset he had a constant barking cough that I’ve learned from experience does not get better on its own, so I took him in to the doctor. The “barking” sound comes from irritation and swelling in his throat. Because we’ve been treating his lungs the doctor suspects a second cause of the irritation which may be acid reflux. The coughing may churn his stomach up which irritates his throat which aggravates the coughing, which churns his stomach up and thus becomes a vicious cycle. So we are trying Alex on a month of Prevacid for acid reflux.
The day before the kids came down with the virus I took Chloe ice skating for the 2nd time this winter. Alex decided he didn’t want to go. I’d asked on a few other days if he’d like to go and he always says “not today”. So this time I said “Yes, today. If you want to sit and watch instead of skating that’s fine, but Chloe and I want to go”. Then Alex said “But I want someone to baby sit me”. I decided that was a reasonable request and Grammy Carole happened to be available. So Chloe and I went to a weekday public skate session and it was much less crowded that the weekend one we went to before. Chloe was very timid at first and seemed to have lost everything she’d learned before. One of the other women skating was a very proficient figure skater and she came over and asked if we’d like some tips. With just a few hints from her, some patience on my part, and some courage on Chloe’s part, Chloe made a great deal of progress and could skate half the length of the area without holding onto my hand. It was like getting a private lesson! It was really thrilling to watch her gain so much confidence. I don’t have any designs on raising super-talented kids, but I do want to raise kids who can face challenges with confidence. Fear just sucks the fun out of life. I couldn’t find my camera that day, so no pictures.
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