Kate Warren

It's been a difficult few days.  I've been having odd itching episodes.  Not the usual ones where you put your hands in the dishwater and your nose starts itching.  It was more palms and soles of feet.  Then Sunday night I felt like something was stuck in my throat. Didn't sleep well that night.  Next morning it was worse.  I could breath and talk, but it was very uncomfortable, especially when swallowing.  

So after getting the kids off to school we went to the clinic for walk-in hours.  They sent me over to the hospital where I was diagnosed with a nasty allergy to...something.

Don't officially know what I'm allergic to but we do have a short list of possible ones.  They mentioned epinephrine but as I could breath and don't like intra-muscular injections I opted for prednisone instead, along with a dose of benadryl.  Interesting note: I wasn't aware that hives can show up after the itching, brought on by scratching.  I always thought they came first or on their own.

Two days later I'm still itching but my throat is back to normal.  Trying to take only non-drowsy antihistamines, but they don't work as well as the ones that make me sleepy.  I'll see an allergist next week and hopefully we'll find out that my allergen(s) can be easily avoided.  


I was ahead for NaNo before this hit.  Now I'm back to just keeping pace, but that's ok.  I'm going to take some more medicine now. 

Kate

It's your friendly Mayo Clinic, St. Mary's Hospital food critic coming to you live from the second floor atrium of, well I'm not quite sure which building I'm in.  Today's topic is food.  Why?  Partly because my son has started eating.  It's primarily Goldfish crackers, but it's a start.  If only we could get him to drink...  That's one of the hang-ups on getting him back home.  They can't determine his insulin dosage until he's eating at least semi-normally.

One other tiny thing is the 4 mm adenoma they found in his brain.  I've noticed that some of the doctors don't like to use the word tumor.  Probably because it scares people.  And it scares people even more when combined with the word brain.  The good news is, besides being in the tumor pee-wee league, this type of tumor is almost always harmless--heck, sometimes they even go away on their own.  The not so good news is that because of its location it could be causing or poised to cause a boatload of trouble.

The overall mood of the day has been a positive one.  And I'm pleased to report that Ben is happily watching SpongeBob DVDs from the Patient and Visitor Library, and even singing along with thte theme song.  I also found a fantastic children's book called Taming the Diabetes Dragon by Anne Dennis.  Her son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age two, and the book does a wonderful job of explaining the necessary care measures in a way children can understand.  Whether Ben will let me read it to him or not, I'm getting a copy.  It could help his siblings understand, and maybe his classmates.

On to the cafeteria food.  Pretty satisfied.  The pizza varies, depending on when you get there.  The pumpkin pie was a disappointment, but I do admit to being spoiled in that regard by a very old family recipe that leaves all challengers writhing in agony on buffet tables of despair.  The donuts are amazing.  Here at Mayo they apparently know that the secret to the world's best donut is to take your average, ordinary yeast donut, cover it with a thin film of standard glaze, and then add chocolate frosting. 

Concious of my decreased activity and my wish to be able to continue fitting into my clothes, I'm trying to make healthy choices (except for the occasional heavenly donut).  The produce here is great.  I ate broccoli the other day.  That's a big deal for me.  I have fruit every day, and I've been eating salad without being forced.  The nice ladies who work during the week have been rather unhelpful about the calories by heaping my plate and asking me if I'm sure I don't want something more.  I don't know where they got the idea that I need to gain weight, but their concern is touching.  Actually I think it might be the same lady each time, and it might be more of a "you're paying full price, you might as well get a full plate" mentality.  But I like to think she cares.

I'm getting tired and I've forgotten whether I actually had a point other than that the cafeteria food is pretty good, and things are probably looking up.  Still no word on discharge.  That all depends on Ben's stomach, and his head.  I'll keep the updates coming as I can.

From the second floor atrium, I'm Kate Warren with half-rambling news.

This will be a brief post in part because my internet time is limited and in part because I'm exhausted.  The danger is past.  Ben is more himself which is great, except for the not being able to understand why we can't go home.  If you've ever tried to explain to a hungry boy with autism that he can't eat until after a scan in the morning, you know how my last hour has gone. 

Looks like we'll be in Rochester for several more days.  We're still in PICU but may move to the general ward tomorrow.  The catheter came out this afternoon.  After asking to use the potty for so long it was surprising that Ben wouldn't go when we finally got him there.  He wouldn't use the bottle they had for the purpose.  Finally I put extra disposable pants on him and told him he could just go in them, hoping he would.  I'm happy to report that he had an accident.  Never thought I'd say or type those words.  We were starting to worry, but we know he'll be ok as far as that goes.

Tomorrow will be eventful.  Hoping his esophogram is early in the morning so that he can eat.  The chest tube will come out tomorrow unless the xrays show something they haven't been showing.

That's all I can think of other than to mention that hospital gift shop and cafeteria prices are unreal (not in a good way), and that if I had it to do over again, I would have asked my husband to send pajamas.

Kate

P.S.  I'm remembering to eat and brush my teeth and all of those things.  Thanks so much for your concern and comments.  I appreciate it, as does my family.