Spring Break Sick Day

The least perfect way to spend a spring break day....laying around sick.  Bobby woke up at 2:00 am burning hot and vomiting.  Fortunately after the early morning vomiting session ended, the high fever left.  He finally fell back to sleep around 6 am but only slept until 8 am.  We got up and I made him his normal breakfast of toast and bacon, which sat there for a few hours until Zoi couldn't stand it anymore and ate it for him.

This was the scene in our house all day yesterday....

He laid around all day watching tv, which is definitely NOT typical Bobby behavior.  One minute he would be watching tv and then I would look over and he would be sleeping.

 Poor Zoi was bored.  "Aren't we gonna go outside and play??  Woof."

Bobby moved around the house all day to find a new place to lay down and watch tv...

Around 4:00 pm, he finally ate 6 mini rice cakes, which was the only thing that he ate all day, and then went to bed...

I usually don't wake Bobby up when he is sick, but at 6:00 pm I decided to wake him up hoping that we would have a better nights sleep.  Boy, talk about a hard task.  The poor kid did NOT want to get up.  So I made him a bed on the couch and he laid around until bedtime...

His symptoms were exactly the same as when he had the flu during Christmas break.  However, on a scale of 1 to 10 his sickness over Christmas was a 9 and yesterday was a 2.  The symptoms were much less severe and much shorter in duration.

He slept well last night.  Woke up a little after 6 and got me up because he wanted to go downstairs.  I made him a soft pretzel and he ate 1/2.  He then ate 2 slices of bacon and drank some water.  He is now playing (well arranging his blocks on the table) in the kitchen...up off of the couch!!  We will see how he feels in a little while and hopefully he can go back to therapy today.

4 days down...6 to go!!

Spring Break 2013-Day 1

We (Mommy and Daddy) picked up Bobby from school on Friday and took him to his daily behavioral therapy before coming home to begin a 10 day spring break from school.  While at therapy, Bobby kept laying his head down on the table...oh no, this only happens when he is sick.  His therapist got him through quickly because this is his typical behavior before he throws up.  We grabbed a bag for the ride home, just in case.  We made it home and he ran into the bathroom as soon as we got through the door.  Poor kid, please don't let this be like Christmas break...if you remember, he was sick with the flu for the entire break.

Please excuse the big rip in the blanket, this is Zoi's one weird vice...she likes to "chew" on this blanket for some crazy reason.

Bobby laid around off and on all evening and was a little more on the grouchy side.  You could tell that he just didn't fell well.  He did, however, continue to have an appetite.  He disappeared upstairs around 8:30, so I went to check on him and he was in bed fast asleep and thankfully he slept until 7 am.

I didn't have much confidence in Saturday, his first full day of spring break.  He still acted like he didn't feel well.  He was still grouchy and kept repeating "Rhino, Rhino, Rhino"....meaning, I want Daddy to take me for a ride in the Rhino.  Daddy complied and while Bobby was sitting in the Rhino waiting to take off, I said "wait."  I went inside and got the good cold medicine that we can't get Bobby to take since it tastes awful (I know because I take it when I'm sick).  I got the medicine, filled up the little medicine cup and said "drink this if you want to go for a ride."  He finally took the cup and drank half of the medicine and shivered as the awful taste went down and then he poured out the rest onto the garage floor.  I said, "that's ok, we have more," went inside and filled the cup half full.  He fussed, but finally drank the rest of the medicine so that he could "ride Rhino."

After riding for a little while, he went and played in the yard...

Then about a half hour later from the time that Bobby took the cold medicine, he decided that it was time to JUMP...

Looks like Mommy knows best.  He was back to normal after the "good stuff."

He had a fun time playing outside, but it was time to go inside to make dinner and wait for our dinner guest to arrive.  I made a knockoff Primanti Bros. sandwich for dinner...

Complete with the internet version of their coleslaw and homemade french fries.  Yum-O!  While having dinner, Bobby snatched Daddy's hat off of his head and decided to wear it himself...

I could not get over the fact that a man's extra large hat fit Bobby this well.  Oh my, where did my baby go.  In a couple of months he is going to be 9...how does this happen???!!!!!

Grandma thought that he looked super cute too and wanted some kisses from Mr. Bobby!!

Bobby loves his Grandma!!

Spring Break count down....One day down, nine to go.  Hopefully we find some fun things to get into. Looks like playing in the snow is in our near future!!!

TV Time

What do you do for an uber-cranky boy with an upper respiratory infection....well, make him his very own "tv area" in the living room...

Bob and I had about enough of watching Blue's Clues and Elmo's World and Bobby didn't want to hang out upstairs by himself, so Bob brought down our old tv and dvd player and I grabbed Bobby's new beanbag and all of the bed pillows and a tv room was made!!

Looks like he likes it!!

Poor Zoi is like a jealous sibling...."this boy gets everything!!"  The doctor said no school for Bobby tomorrow.  Hopefully we will get back to normal by Tuesday.  Fingers crossed!!!!!

Enough Already

My poor little boy has had more sickness in the past 2 months than in the past 3 years combined.  This winter has consisted of sick days, cancelling therapy appointments, me cancelling plans with friends/family, medicine, naps, watching it snow from the window instead of outside playing in the snow.  Well, in all fairness, the absolutely freezing temps have helped contribute to not playing in the snow.  This has become the norm in our house...

Instead of this...

To top it off one of the headlines in the news...Stomach bug storming the country.  Yes, we are praying hard, "Please don't let the stomach flu hit this household and if it does, please spare Bobby!!"

No more of this...

Instead, we want this...

But for today, Bobby is coughing away in the background.  So more medicine, naps,  Jack's Big Music Show, Blue's Clues.....

We Wish You A Merry....Sickness

We figured out the perfect way to spend Christmas Eve day....a trip to the WVU Urgent Care.  Yeah, let the holiday fun begin!!  Bobby woke up Saturday morning with a very high fever, vomiting, lethargy, congestion and a horrible cough.  He slept all day, didn't eat or drink.  Since I had been reading about all of these same symptoms from other parents on facebook, I knew that he had the flu.  After 36 hours of no food, drink and a lot of vomiting, I started forcing him to take some sips of fluid using his least favorite behavioral techniques.  One of the perks of a 4 day a week behavioral therapy program...he is used to doing things that he doesn't want to do.  He finally took a few bites of food Sunday evening and had about 30 oz of electrolyte fluids.  But the cough was horrible.  Christmas Eve morning when he got out of bed, we decided to take him to urgent care because I was sure that he had pneumonia or bronchitis because his cough was sooooo bad.  Taking Bobby to the doctor, especially one that is not his normal doctor, is on the lowest rung of my favorite things to do with Bobby.  We only go when it is absolutely necessary.

 I was hoping that when we drove in front of the Urgent Care building that I would see an empty waiting room inside, but that definitely was not the case.  Bobby and Daddy stayed in the car while I went inside, checked him in and waited for him to be called back.  During the 20 minute wait every mom in Mon Co. brought her brood of sick children to the urgent care so that they could get their medicine before Santa arrived later that night.  It was a full house.

They finally called  Bobby back.  I went up to the nurse and explained that he is in the car with his Dad, he has autism and that his cooperation level isn't the greatest and that we are going to get through this together!!  I went and got Bob and Bobby and we lead him right back to the exam room area.  I'm not sure if it was because he felt HORRIBLE, but this ended up being his best medical visit ever.  When we got into the exam room Bobby walked over to the big window and opened the blinds.  Instead of fighting with this blind throughout the entire visit, I left it opened and tucked the cords up high so that he couldn't reach them.  He pulled the doctor's spinning stool over to the window and put his iPad in the window seal, sat down and played with his iPad.  He got up and ran around the room multiple times, but overall he did a great job.

One of the reasons for the success is that the nurse let me give Bobby his tests instead of a stranger trying to do them on him.  Mommy took his temp, etc.  The most fun test that Mommy got to administer was the actual flu swabbing.  She demonstrated on herself and then handed me two swabs, one for each nostril.  I came towards Bobby he kept backing up, luckily right into his Daddy's arms.  Bob held him and I swabbed away.  Here's a little too much info coming your way, but it was funny in the moment.  Me:  "Oh no Bobby, Mommy caught a boogie," as I pulled a big ol boogie from his nose.     Nurse:  "Perfect.  There are more than enough cells for both swabs."  Off she went with the swabs.

The doctor came back in minutes later..."He has the flu."  He listened to his lungs earlier and reported that they were clear.  We had also already discussed Bobby's seizure history.  One of the successes from this flu bug....Bobby made it through an extremely high fever with no seizures!!  Yeah Bobby.  However, since Bobby has had the flu for more than 48 hours, there is no medicine available for him. The doctor went on to say that Bobby is not a good candidate for tamiflu anyway because of his seizure history.  Don't want to open that can of worms again, it is just better for him to let it run its course and use OTC cough/cold/flu meds to help lessen his symptoms.  I was happy that his lungs were clear.

He felt much better through the day and ate and drank well on his own.  But the cough is still horrible, and all of the time!!  We flip flopped on the decision all day...should Santa come tonight or wait a couple of days (since Bobby doesn't really know about Santa anyway.  He definitely wouldn't be upset if there were no presents in the morning).  Mommy decided that Christmas will happen tonight!!  I called Grandma Carolyn and she is coming to spend the night when she gets off of work.  Time to go make Christmas dinner....

I brought out the first gift...a family gift to help make Christmas dinner just a little more fun.  Bobby got right in and opened up the gift.

Daddy took Bobby for a nice long "ride in car" that Bobby had been asking for while I worked on dinner.

When they came back from their ride, Bobby noticed a present under the tree, sat down and started opening (Yeah, he finally gets this present thing!!).

Daddy got to work building the train set but Bobby couldn't wait and started eating.  Since he hadn't eaten much in days, it was more important that he actually eat than it was to work on meal time appropriate behavior.  So iPad at the table and eating Christmas dinner in your underwear it is!!!

Dinner is ready:  prime rib, au jus, garlic mashed potatoes, green beans, dinner rolls and the most important fresh cut french fries for Bobby.

After everyone's bellies were full it was time to play train.  Bobby played very well with his new train set.

He even puts the train back on the track when it falls off.

He was grouchy from not feeling well and kept saying "car" over and over and over.  Buddy, Daddy just drove you around for well over an hour, we are not going back out in the car.  At least Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune were on to occupy him for another hour.  He was still being much more grouchy than normal so his stocking made an early appearance to give him something new to do...

 Zoi is just like a sibling!!  Why does he get his stocking and I don't????!!!!!?????

She is not going to leave this alone!!!

 Fine Zoi, you can have your stocking too...

 Ahhhh, all is right with the world...at least for the next 5 minutes!

Alright kids, time for bed, Santa can't come until you are both sleeping.

Santa came!!!  Bobby sat down and checked out the new scenery for a while.

Finally, someone handed him a present.  He immediately started opening...

New road signs...Santa knows what Bobby likes!!

He opened the box and started lining them up!!  He was happy, he only really needed one gift.

Bobby is having fun now!!

A little later, he sat down (with a little prompting) and started opening the rest of the gifts.  He didn't stop until they were all opened.  A Bobby first.  In the past it has taken days to get his presents open.

A flip remote control car.  He wanted it out of the box now, so Daddy to the rescue.

He opened a Grandma present...the homemade star blanket in the background.  Then some musical instruments.  Hope Santa doesn't regret this decision too much.

He had to have this out of the box ASAP too.  After all he has always been a "Little Drummer Boy."

Even more musical instruments.  Santa must have been drinking when he got Bobby's toys together.

Another Grandma Carolyn present...

 A car from Santa...

 He actually has a smile on his face while opening presents....

 More cars...

 A Hot Wheels race track...

 I just love finally having pictures of Bobby sitting in a mess of wrapping paper and presents...

 Last but not least tubes of cars and trucks...

 Had to throw in one picture where he is coughing, since the coughing was happening every other minute...

 Alright cars, line up....

 Even though it really is not depicted in any of these pictures, Bobby still felt yucky.  Much more grouchy than normal.  All he wanted over and over all day long was to go for a car ride.  I drove him around for over an hour, but he would have stayed in the car all day.  He laid down on the couch and fell asleep Christmas evening at 7:30.  I woke him up to go to bed around 10:30 and he fell right back to sleep.  Was up for an hour through the night with a major coughing fit, but fell back asleep and didn't wake up until 8:30 am.  Not typical Bobby behavior at all.  He's been up for a few hours now and still has a very limited appetite, congestion and nasty cough.  Looks like we have a few more days to go before the flu leaves Bobby alone.

If you are wondering what Bobby got me for Christmas this year, well I have been coughing too.  So thank you Bobby for giving Mommy the flu.  The gift that keeps on giving!!!!  Bobby was being very quiet, so I went to check on him.....

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM BOBBY'S WORLD!!!