Thursday, March 28, 2013
RAD and other things
The other morning (or was it evening?) we were sitting around the kitchen table discussing how seldom any of us has been really sick or injured in the past twenty odd years. What a dumb thing to talk about.
Several days after patting our collective backs on our good fortune of life and health, I found myself riding in an ambulance with my dear little one year old. Don't worry, all's well that ends well. He had a bit of a bout with what they call reactive airway disease (RAD). Basically he had a common, ordinary cold for a few days, and then suddenly woke up one morning struggling to breathe. It's scary how quickly that can happen.
Unfortunately RAD has made it onto our short list of ailments before. Garth (14, almost 15) would get it as a tot, too. Garth had been the only one of our family to ever have it, and he outgrew it about dozen years ago. When he was little we had to be hyper vigilant when he showed even the slightest hint of a cold. He could be sitting there with the sniffles one minute and almost passed out from not being able to breathe the next. Was I ever glad when he finally outgrew that!
It had been so long since I last had to deal with this particular thing that I had stopped being paranoid about the sundry colds the next children would get. You know, children get colds. They get over them in a few days. Usually.
What is RAD? It's one of those broad spectrum terms to describe breathing problems in children up to 5 years old. Basically it's a quick narrowing of your child's airways, making it hard for him to breathe. Sometimes pet dander can trigger it. Sometimes it's second hand smoke. Sometimes, as in our case, it can be triggered by a virus like a cold.
RAD symptoms can occur because of airway swelling. A child's airways are small and narrow, making it easy for them to fill and get blocked with mucus.
The signs and symptoms of RAD aren't so unlike a bad cold: trouble breathing, wheezing, coughing, fast heartbeat, runny nose.
You turn the dark corner to menacing when your child's heart beats rapidly and he starts breathing really fast, his lips and fingernails turn blue, his nostrils flare out as he tries to breathe, and the skin over his ribs draws in deeply with each breath. That last thing is what they call retractions and with it you'll also notice that your child's stomach may sink in with every breath and so will the skin up around his neck. If it gets bad enough, you won't even have to wonder if it is happening. You'll spot it clear across the room.
Definitely abandon all home remedies if your child is blue or experiencing the nasal flaring or retracting. You've got an emergency on your hands at that point.
Thankfully a few breathing treatments and a short hospital stint later, my baby is back to normal. Very normal. You wouldn't even know anything had happened to him. Actually when it's over, you get to wondering if you overreacted. But no. You didn't overreact. It's just one of those things that can strike fast and then that fast it can be gone.
We've moved on from the RAD thing (I hope). Dare I hope this was an isolated event that will never happen again?
Everyone seems to be feeling fine at the moment. We've been gathering maple sap and doing some clean up outside. The children even got to make some snowmen the other day. Wasn't that snow just the perfect snow for snowmen?
We've had a number of birthdays in the family recently. There are several things that make birthdays special at our house. I'll mention them in no particular order of specialness.
Paul's mom makes birthday pies for every one her children and grandchildren. She even lets each person choose their own flavor. Count that up. That is 25 different birthdays that she is making pies for!
Our dear neighbor Ann always remembers each of my children with a birthday card in the mail. They love getting the mail on their birthdays, Ann!
My mom and dad always mail a card to each one on their birthdays and come over for a little party. Only the parties keep getting bigger and bigger because our family seems to keep trying to add people to it!
~Colleen
Several days after patting our collective backs on our good fortune of life and health, I found myself riding in an ambulance with my dear little one year old. Don't worry, all's well that ends well. He had a bit of a bout with what they call reactive airway disease (RAD). Basically he had a common, ordinary cold for a few days, and then suddenly woke up one morning struggling to breathe. It's scary how quickly that can happen.
Unfortunately RAD has made it onto our short list of ailments before. Garth (14, almost 15) would get it as a tot, too. Garth had been the only one of our family to ever have it, and he outgrew it about dozen years ago. When he was little we had to be hyper vigilant when he showed even the slightest hint of a cold. He could be sitting there with the sniffles one minute and almost passed out from not being able to breathe the next. Was I ever glad when he finally outgrew that!
It had been so long since I last had to deal with this particular thing that I had stopped being paranoid about the sundry colds the next children would get. You know, children get colds. They get over them in a few days. Usually.
What is RAD? It's one of those broad spectrum terms to describe breathing problems in children up to 5 years old. Basically it's a quick narrowing of your child's airways, making it hard for him to breathe. Sometimes pet dander can trigger it. Sometimes it's second hand smoke. Sometimes, as in our case, it can be triggered by a virus like a cold.
RAD symptoms can occur because of airway swelling. A child's airways are small and narrow, making it easy for them to fill and get blocked with mucus.
The signs and symptoms of RAD aren't so unlike a bad cold: trouble breathing, wheezing, coughing, fast heartbeat, runny nose.
You turn the dark corner to menacing when your child's heart beats rapidly and he starts breathing really fast, his lips and fingernails turn blue, his nostrils flare out as he tries to breathe, and the skin over his ribs draws in deeply with each breath. That last thing is what they call retractions and with it you'll also notice that your child's stomach may sink in with every breath and so will the skin up around his neck. If it gets bad enough, you won't even have to wonder if it is happening. You'll spot it clear across the room.
Definitely abandon all home remedies if your child is blue or experiencing the nasal flaring or retracting. You've got an emergency on your hands at that point.
Thankfully a few breathing treatments and a short hospital stint later, my baby is back to normal. Very normal. You wouldn't even know anything had happened to him. Actually when it's over, you get to wondering if you overreacted. But no. You didn't overreact. It's just one of those things that can strike fast and then that fast it can be gone.
We've moved on from the RAD thing (I hope). Dare I hope this was an isolated event that will never happen again?
Everyone seems to be feeling fine at the moment. We've been gathering maple sap and doing some clean up outside. The children even got to make some snowmen the other day. Wasn't that snow just the perfect snow for snowmen?
We've had a number of birthdays in the family recently. There are several things that make birthdays special at our house. I'll mention them in no particular order of specialness.
Paul's mom makes birthday pies for every one her children and grandchildren. She even lets each person choose their own flavor. Count that up. That is 25 different birthdays that she is making pies for!
Our dear neighbor Ann always remembers each of my children with a birthday card in the mail. They love getting the mail on their birthdays, Ann!
My mom and dad always mail a card to each one on their birthdays and come over for a little party. Only the parties keep getting bigger and bigger because our family seems to keep trying to add people to it!
~Colleen
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Trevor turns 4!!!
Yesterday was Trevor's 4th birthday. Some of his little friends got to come over for cake and ice cream.
:: Clay ::
:: Shan ::
:: Mom with the birthday boy ::
:: Trev and Kylie ::
:: Mom and Mia ::
:: The kids' table ::
:: Mia and Kylie
::Trev and Kurt (Trev's best friend) ::
:: Cake and ice cream!!!
:: Thanks to Grandma and Poppy for coming over and bringing the cake! ::
:: They were are yelling "CHEESE!!!" at the top of their lungs. ::
:: All of the 4 year olds. (Or close to 4 yr. olds); Kylie, Trev, Joe and Kurt ::
Monday, March 18, 2013
Weekend
On Saturday was the wedding of friends of ours. Here are some pictures Shan snapped.
:: The yummy dessert ::
:: Shan got some good pictures of Marvin and Aud ::
:: Mia and Shar ::
:: Watching the photographer take pictures ::
:: Visiting friends ::
:: CONGRATULATIONS Caleb and Roshena!!! ::
There was a party on Sunday night.
:: Playing the corn hole game: Logan and Jeremy ::
:: Maria and Sandy ::
:: Volley ball of course! ::
:: Sue ::
:: Sylvia with her coffee::
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Happy Birthday, Miles!
Miley's turned 8 on the 12th!
Cute little ice cream cone cakes Grandma made...
Our Anniversary: Expanded
Paul and I just celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary. Everyone agreed that we ought to go out and "do something special". Paul suggested we go pick up a counter weight for the skid steer that a guy was selling on Craigslist.
I said, "Ok, sure." I told him I would go if we'd also stop at a store to buy some pants for the boys. Sounds like it was shaping up to be the most romantic anniversary ever, huh?
It didn't end up working out about the skid steer counter weight. We were going to be too late getting there, so we decided to just do the shopping instead.
We ended up at a couple different thrift stores and then one "discount" store that has all sorts of odds and ends close outs and such. We filled the cart with a non-descript number of t-shirts because they were on sale. I picked only the dark colored ones because they are destined to get greasy and dirty from use anyhow. I also found a limited number of jeans.
We left the store with the rain falling on our heads. As it turns out, the key on the ring really did NOT unlock the truck door and, as this happened to be the first time we had actually locked the door on this excursion, we had to figure out how to get into the truck again.
I was soaked through. I figured Paul didn't need my advice, so I went to sit on a bench inside the store while he worked out a plan. The obnoxious arcade game next to me was trying for the twentieth time to beckon some optimistic soul to come feed cash into its belly when Paul popped his head in the door to let me know I could now be of some assistance to him.
He had pried one of the back wing windows open and was showing me the stick that he somehow managed to produce from the truck bed. All I had to do was shove my arm up into the slightly opened window, align my stick with the back window latch and give it a push. Without my jacket sleeve in the way and with some scrapes to my upper arm, I was able to effect this very maneuver.
Paul volunteered to shinny through the back window and unlock my door. In this way we paid homage to the many years of working together through thick and thin. Who needs AAA when we have each other? Ironically, we do have AAA. We just seem figure it out before we have to resort to calling them.
By this time, we were both pretty hungry, he more than me, so we set off to find a place to eat. It was getting late enough that there weren't many options left, so we chose a sandwich type place with few cars in the parking lot. The only other patrons in the place was a couple even older than we are.
We sat down and began spending a quiet, leisurely meal together. And then the door opened and in filed approximately fifty teenagers. Literally. And none of them were the quiet variety.
They swarmed in and sat at all the surrounding tables, including the one the other old couple had recently vacated. Paul and I looked at each other from across the table and laughed. We couldn't even hear each other talk! Mathematically speaking, we were in a place with about four times as many young people as we had just left at home, so a quiet evening out together wasn't to be had.
To the credit of those young people, we didn't hear a single curse word. Unfortunately the English language seems to have taken on quite a few words that formerly would've never been uttered in polite company. These young people didn't seem to use those sorts of words and expressions, so I'd say overall it was just an amusing way to spend the evening.
There were no further mishaps on the way home, which is good. We have the habit of falling into minor calamities wherever we go. Like the pigs Paul roped me into going to pick up with him lately.
When he told me to make sure I was dressed warmly enough, I knew that I would not be sitting in the truck while he loaded them.
We had gotten a call from someone we didn't know who was referred to us by our butcher. The lady on the phone was quite desperate to rid herself of her pigs because a neighbor kept calling the cops on them. Oh great. Pigs with their own police records. Do we never get subtle hints?
The family who had the pigs were newbie farmers, fresh out of the city. Well, really, their tract of land is barely out of the city even now, but apparently it was an improvement over their former home. Even in the dark you could tell that the soil was the rich dark kind of the celery bog it once was. Let me tell you, celery bogs aren't merciful even to 4x4 pick up trucks.
After a neighbor came over to give us a pull----not the neighbor with a hotline to the sheriff's department---we were parked a considerable distance from the pigpen. This posed a myriad of problems to solve, not the least of which was ferrying fourteen unwilling piggies from their pasture paradise slightly uphill in the dark. It didn't work out very well to just casually walk them along and into the trailer. Ha. Who thought that was going to be a good idea? Paul's second idea was to procure a big blue plastic barrel. Each pig got its own ride in it with the aid of a two wheeled dolly cart.
Some of them resisted a lot more than the others, and a few of them escaped. Several hours later, all of them were on the trailer.
The wife confided to me that the pigs were her idea to start with. Her husband just went along with the idea as a kindness to her. What a guy. Empowered with the desperation to rid themselves of those hogs and his apparent love for his wife, that man wrestled for hours with fourteen squealing hogs in a muddy pigsty and never let out a single complaint that I ever picked up on. They were a joy to work with----the people, not the pigs.....
~Colleen
I said, "Ok, sure." I told him I would go if we'd also stop at a store to buy some pants for the boys. Sounds like it was shaping up to be the most romantic anniversary ever, huh?
It didn't end up working out about the skid steer counter weight. We were going to be too late getting there, so we decided to just do the shopping instead.
We ended up at a couple different thrift stores and then one "discount" store that has all sorts of odds and ends close outs and such. We filled the cart with a non-descript number of t-shirts because they were on sale. I picked only the dark colored ones because they are destined to get greasy and dirty from use anyhow. I also found a limited number of jeans.
We left the store with the rain falling on our heads. As it turns out, the key on the ring really did NOT unlock the truck door and, as this happened to be the first time we had actually locked the door on this excursion, we had to figure out how to get into the truck again.
I was soaked through. I figured Paul didn't need my advice, so I went to sit on a bench inside the store while he worked out a plan. The obnoxious arcade game next to me was trying for the twentieth time to beckon some optimistic soul to come feed cash into its belly when Paul popped his head in the door to let me know I could now be of some assistance to him.
He had pried one of the back wing windows open and was showing me the stick that he somehow managed to produce from the truck bed. All I had to do was shove my arm up into the slightly opened window, align my stick with the back window latch and give it a push. Without my jacket sleeve in the way and with some scrapes to my upper arm, I was able to effect this very maneuver.
Paul volunteered to shinny through the back window and unlock my door. In this way we paid homage to the many years of working together through thick and thin. Who needs AAA when we have each other? Ironically, we do have AAA. We just seem figure it out before we have to resort to calling them.
By this time, we were both pretty hungry, he more than me, so we set off to find a place to eat. It was getting late enough that there weren't many options left, so we chose a sandwich type place with few cars in the parking lot. The only other patrons in the place was a couple even older than we are.
We sat down and began spending a quiet, leisurely meal together. And then the door opened and in filed approximately fifty teenagers. Literally. And none of them were the quiet variety.
They swarmed in and sat at all the surrounding tables, including the one the other old couple had recently vacated. Paul and I looked at each other from across the table and laughed. We couldn't even hear each other talk! Mathematically speaking, we were in a place with about four times as many young people as we had just left at home, so a quiet evening out together wasn't to be had.
To the credit of those young people, we didn't hear a single curse word. Unfortunately the English language seems to have taken on quite a few words that formerly would've never been uttered in polite company. These young people didn't seem to use those sorts of words and expressions, so I'd say overall it was just an amusing way to spend the evening.
There were no further mishaps on the way home, which is good. We have the habit of falling into minor calamities wherever we go. Like the pigs Paul roped me into going to pick up with him lately.
When he told me to make sure I was dressed warmly enough, I knew that I would not be sitting in the truck while he loaded them.
We had gotten a call from someone we didn't know who was referred to us by our butcher. The lady on the phone was quite desperate to rid herself of her pigs because a neighbor kept calling the cops on them. Oh great. Pigs with their own police records. Do we never get subtle hints?
The family who had the pigs were newbie farmers, fresh out of the city. Well, really, their tract of land is barely out of the city even now, but apparently it was an improvement over their former home. Even in the dark you could tell that the soil was the rich dark kind of the celery bog it once was. Let me tell you, celery bogs aren't merciful even to 4x4 pick up trucks.
After a neighbor came over to give us a pull----not the neighbor with a hotline to the sheriff's department---we were parked a considerable distance from the pigpen. This posed a myriad of problems to solve, not the least of which was ferrying fourteen unwilling piggies from their pasture paradise slightly uphill in the dark. It didn't work out very well to just casually walk them along and into the trailer. Ha. Who thought that was going to be a good idea? Paul's second idea was to procure a big blue plastic barrel. Each pig got its own ride in it with the aid of a two wheeled dolly cart.
Some of them resisted a lot more than the others, and a few of them escaped. Several hours later, all of them were on the trailer.
The wife confided to me that the pigs were her idea to start with. Her husband just went along with the idea as a kindness to her. What a guy. Empowered with the desperation to rid themselves of those hogs and his apparent love for his wife, that man wrestled for hours with fourteen squealing hogs in a muddy pigsty and never let out a single complaint that I ever picked up on. They were a joy to work with----the people, not the pigs.....
~Colleen
Monday, March 11, 2013
Happy Anniversary to the Parents!!!
Last night we went to game night with some people who we've just recently become acquainted
with. There was volley ball and basketball and card games and food. We loved it!!!
In other news...it is Dad and Mom's 24th anniversary today. Shan didn't get a picture of them before they left on their wonderfully fun date. (They went shopping for clothes for the little kids.) Since they were gone for the evening we kids dug into the ice cream for supper. Shhh. Don't tell them.
Friend Visit
My good friend Amy from NY spent some time at our place this past week.
~We went fabric shopping. Didn't get any because all the nice fabric was above what we thought was reasonable. We DID spend a lot of time admiring it in the store.
~We watched October Baby. REALLY good movie!!!
~We stayed up till 2 AM talking. Um. Yeah. Amy and I both like to talk and we don't see each other very often.
~We went to a cool bakery and tried all of their samples and bought doughnuts. MMM!!!
Saturday, March 09, 2013
3-9-13
Here are a whole bunch of pictures from the other day. A whole group of the kids went out and tapped maple trees.
:: The tapping crew ::
:: UH.OH. I don't know the story to this picture, but I think it's safe to assume that the field was a bit damp. ::
:: I did hear that Trent was the brainy guy who got the tractor into that mess ::
:: This looks flat out nightmarish ::
:: TO THE RESCUE!!! ::
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