March 20, 2009
Ok, I've decided that it isn't easy being on popsicle patrol! First you have to get out of a very groggy, speak in whisper voice what kind of popsicle.....then when you stumble out to the kitchen at 2am (only about 1/4 awake yourself), you tend to open the freezer drawer to far and it rolls on your swollen toe! Then you need ice yourself, but there isn't enough because old whisper voice may need it for her snowcone in an hour! Anyone who wants a stock tip, buy blue snow cone syrup stock...we seem to be buying it ALL this week! Sorry, got a bit distracted there...lack of sleep...anyway, then you stumble back into the bedroom and you have to wake up the popsicle queen one more time. It's amazing what phenergan and tylenol with codeine will do to a kid. You go to the bathroom, a quick trip, and return to the bed to find the popsicle slowing beginning to melt having fallen out of the cup you brought with it because the patient has again fallen asleep. At least it's on Dad's side of the bed! And he is in San Diego. And the Patient doesn't wake enough to know the difference. Just wipe it with a rag and get on with the business at hand. Then when you do get the patient to be coherent, she doesn't want that kind of popsicle, she wants the Sister Weinken rainbow one! Bless Sister Weinken for bringing them, and since they are almost gone, I will have to actually put on my clothes and go to Kroger and buy another box....(there's another stock tip!) There is one benefit to being popsicle patrol....jammie days! SO, after all this drama at 2am, we finally get some popsicle and ice water down the patient, and Cooper hand feeds her from her water....she tries to lay down and sip water, another true adventure in keeping the sheets dry! Thank goodness for beach towels. At least we use them for something because we rarely go to the beach. We give her more codeine and reset the alarm for another 4 hours, and everyone settles in to try to get back to sleep....not a problem for the whisper kid. However, for the rest of the popsicle patrol, we are now WIDE AWAKE, so we turn on the TV and watch George Lopez, and Home Improvement until we fall asleep which happens to be about 3 1/2 hours after our ordeal started! Then in 30 very short, quick minutes, that dumb alarms rings to start the ENTIRE process over again. At 6am, we do the snowcone routine, and that works a bit better, but we are still hand feeding the little invalid....could she possible be any more sleepy....and where is that surgeon who decided that we have to keep her eating and drinking all this clear stuff anyway. Does he not realize, while he's home sleeping away, that we are torturing ourselves trying to follow his instructions? Does he even have children to realize just what his instructions entail? This has been going on since Tuesday! We are hoping for a reprieve when Dad gets home tonight....although I just looked at his travel plans, and he won't even get back to Houston until after 10pm. By then the little patient will be firmly ensconced on his side of the bed with all her rhinos. If he's smart, he won't uproot them...he might get stabbed! I don't know, but Cooper and I think Dad gets to be popsicle patrol tomorrow!
Just another funny story....Cymbre started throwing up last night, and since the surgeon didn't want her to do that, I called the phone number he gave me. The lady who answered, after I explained my problem and that she just had surgery, put me on hold and got the doctor on the phone. It's not our personal surgeon, but one in his office. So then we are having a conference call, me, the lady who answered, and the surgeon. We tell him what's going on, and he decides that we need some phenergan. He said he would call in some oral medicine, to which I ask, how is that going to stay down when I can't get water to stay down? Duh! Well, then he says, "Scratch that, I'll call in some suppositories. Go get in your car, I'll tell them you are on your way." So then I have a problem, I'm NOT taking a throwing up kid in the car and driving 40 minutes to a 24 hours pharmacy (because of course, we couldn't do this during office hours!), and Dad is out of town....or he would be going to the pharmacy! SO, I call the neighbor around the block who called and wanted to help. She came right over to stay with Cooper and Cymbre, and I got some clothes on and went to the pharmacy. First obstacle hurdled! Then because I was sure the surgeon didn't get the spelling of the Cymbre's name, I was sure that they wouldn't have started processing the medicine. I was right, I walked up to the counter, and told them who I was. The pharmacist tells me he was sure I would be coming to them since he was sure that the paitent wasn't named SIMBA! Oh my goodness! We were both laughing as I gave him the right name, insurance info, and address, phone number. Then he says, "you look really sleepy" I told him that I hadn't slept much in a couple of nights, and would probably fall asleep while I waited the 20 minutes for him to fill the perscription. He said he would page me when they had it ready. So, I go wandering around the store just to keep myself awake, knowing if I sit down and sit still, it will be all over! After about 20 minutes, I hear this page: "Mrs. Flanagan, if you are still awake, we have your perscription ready!" It was SO HILARIOUS! The entire pharmacy staff and myself were laughing when I got back to the counter and told them my name! I paid for my medicine, and my dry roasted peanuts, and left the store. Second obstacle hurdled! Now the biggest problem was convincing the patient that we needed to do the medicine to settle her stomach so that she could keep her popsicles down....after much convincing we managed, and about 1/2 hour later the popsicle patrol had to swing into action! All this is going on after 10 pm. So really I should have typed this story before the other one, but lack of sleep is obviously affecting my writing abilities! Oh well, you'll just have to deal with it. Or you can come be on the popsicle patrol yourself.
Me
