insulated immune systems?

I don't know if it is because we now live in a very cold climate or because the big kids now spend the majority of each day in overheated rooms with many other children, but my kids have been sick more this winter than any other. Just like a brand-new teacher has 10 times as many colds that first year teaching and develops immunity over time, my brood has been immersed in a germ-filled world for the first time and it seems that every week one of them is sick. Mary now has the flu, despite receiving the vaccine, and will stay home today. 

In homeschooling the child just picks up where he left off and is usually able to do some small amount of work, even if it is just listening to Mommy read a biography aloud, but in away school, a sick day means making up missed work, which is sometimes a daunting task, especially when recovering from illness. With one of my feet in away school and the other in homeschooling, I don't know if I get to experience the best of both worlds or the worst.

sick, sick, and car sick

This past two weeks have been a little draining. The week before Will went to Boy Scout camp he had  3 days of fever, diarrhea, and a dripping nose. Luckily he recovered enough by Sunday to enjoy a week of camping, canoeing, and orienteering. Julia Ellen came down with the same odd combination of symptoms this Saturday and we decided that Tim would stay home from Mass with the two little ones, there being only room for 4 children in his new car. The van was still at the shop, getting a new transmission installed. After we arrived at the church 30 minutes early, I let Charlie and Maggie go over to the playground while I called Tim on my cell phone.

"The bad news is that Charlie gets car sick in your car."

"Oh my gosh, not my brand new car!"

I couldn't let him suffer too long, "The good news is that Charlie did not get car sick IN your car. We pulled over at Hollywood Casino and he barfed in the bushes."

However, I had to call Tim back a bit later. Within 15 seconds of climbing on the playground equipment he was stung on the cheek by a wasp and started screaming. I piled everyone back in the car, stopped at McDonald's for some ice to put on his face and gave up on anyone in our family attending Mass this week.  

that was short-lived

On Friday night I picked out Karate Kid (the 1987 original version) for movie night. The premise is that bullies can not be pacified, they will continue to come after those they see as weak. One must give them a reason to show the former victim respect, which in the film comes after Daniel defeats his nemesis in a Karate Tournament, despite injury. 

The Susan Komen Foundation could learn a thing or two from young Daniel, that to give into bullies such as Planned Parenthood does not earn respect or show strength. What women who are fighting for their lives desperately need are both of these qualities. If they can't get them by example from a supposedly women's empowerment group, then why does it exist? 

serving penance

I could never be a hypochondriac or suffer from Munchausen syndrome by proxy (when parents make up illnesses in their children for attention). Both are simply too much work when you have more than a couple of kids. Yesterday we had an appointment with a pediatric cardiologist to check out a heart murmur that the nurse-practitioner heard a few weeks ago when we took Timmy in for a checkup. Tim said it would be nothing to worry about and this turned out to be the case, but I felt that we had to go just to be sure. After sitting in a 10' x 10' room with 4 children for well over an hour, I was ready to admit myself to the hospital just for a little peace and quiet. We exhausted all our books that we brought, blew up a "balloon" made out of a laytex glove, and Julia Ellen played "open and close" with every drawer in the room. By the second hour, the little boys were climbing all over the examining table, the chairs, and me. 

Finally the doctor did a quicky ultrasound which showed Timmy's heart pumping away, while the toddler repeated, "Want the lights on," over and over and over. Finally we drove home in the dark and rain with the same 2 year old screaming from boredom and exhaustion. I am so grateful that there is nothing seriously physically wrong with any of our children, since more than one doctor's appointment a year for each is beyond my capability, mentally and physically. My heart goes out to those parents who do have to repeatedly suffer through long waits in the doctor's office with not such happy conclusions and their children are in my prayers.       

an utter whirlwind

The next few weeks seem to be just a list of to-be-checked-off items: piano guild, ballet pictures, Scout crossover, a hospital procedure, a race, fundraisers, recitals, parties, the priest over for supper, and Will's confirmation. Even today, in which I put aside most of the schoolwork, I managed to fill my morning rushing downtown with a moaning Mary in the backseat. Luckily all I had to do was pass her off to Tim at the front door of the hospital, trusting that he can get her some meds for her apparent ear infection before her piano guild audition this afternoon. 

I'm almost glad to be able to take my mind off some of the big issues going on right now in our lives (I'll spill once I hear good or bad news for sure, right now it is just waiting), knowing that Mary's pain is not serious and she will quickly be put to rights with some antibiotics. When I look at the headlines I know that my problems are small potatoes compared with millions of others, so I shall thank God for the blessings I have and not be so upset about what I can not control.      

how many corpsmen does it take to weigh one child?

Usually it only takes one, but if you are having all three daughters seen at once, it takes 4 to take all their vitals. One each to record the numbers and one female to protect against sexual harassment accusations. The result was 8 people all crammed into one little room, but I certainly didn't mind. When I called the appointment line a few weeks ago it was deemed impossible to have more than one child be seen on the same day so I was forced to schedule us to drive downtown to the local military hospital 6 Fridays in a row so the children could visit the doctor. Everyone had one little issue that needed to be dealt with, Mary and her newly found antibiotic allergy, Charlie's need for a EpiPen, Maggie's complaint about her eyesight... but after the first appointment in which we didn't even have the chance to sit down in the waiting room, the staff was gracious and made accommodations so we could squeeze in all the children in 2 visits.

So now we have it noted in Mary's chart not to give her amoxocillin, Maggie's vision is deemed 20/20, we no longer need to fear death the next time Charlie stumbles across a yellow jacket nest, and Will has his physical completed for camp. And little babydoodle, Julia Ellen, has been pronounced to be the sweetest, most developmentally on-task toddler known to man. This has been the most pleasant experience at a military hospital I have encountered in my 14 years of delivering babies (unlike this episode at Bethesda), dragging children to the pediatrician, and my own infrequent medical issues. I have to give kudos to the staff at the Family Practice clinic at NMCP for all their helpfulness and accommodation to my large brood.    

I got scanned today

This afternoon I hauled some of the children to the Navy Hospital and got my first mammogram. Since my grandmother has had breast cancer and my mother died of ovarian cancer, I've been a little stressed out over getting some variety of cancer myself and leaving Tim to raise 6 children alone. But, after enduring smushed bosoms, I got to see the images and didn't detect any glaring abnormalities. I have great faith in the protective power of nursing since studies show a 10% decrease in risk (pre-menopausal) of breast cancer for every year of breastfeeding. I have nursed a total of almost 8 years, so my risk should be pretty close to zero.

Yeah, you thought I went through the TSA harassment at the airport, didn't you? After doing umpteen trans-Atlantic flights with infants and toddlers, the airline would have to pay me a lot of $$ to get me on a airplane.

that Boy Scout training paid off

While Will doesn't qualify to receive a Medal of Heroism, he does get kudos for responding to my shrieks and his excellent first aid skills. I wasn't being the smartest mother on the planet when I pressed on the foot pedal while threading the needle of my sewing machine and the needle went right through my index finger nail. He raced upstairs and saw me sitting on the floor looking very pale and yelling for him to get the pliers. After he yanked the needle out, he patched me up with antibiotic ointment and a bandaid.

I did sit back down at the machine later in the afternoon and finish making his St. Benedict costume for the All Saint's Day party as well as sheepskin looking vests for two future shepherds in the Christmas pageant. I'm not so sure I need a tetanus shot since it wasn't rusty, but I'll go get one anyway because Will is so insistent.

terror in the fields

About 2 hours ago, while I was starting to mow the edges of the fields, the boys were trailing at a distance behind me. All of a sudden I heard screaming and I looked behind me to find the boys racing around, waving their arms. I knew immediately what had happened and turned off the PTO, pushed the throttle down, put it into neutral, and jumped off the tractor. Timmy and Charlie were covered with dozens of yellow jackets, crawling all over their shorts, going up their shirts, and all over their socks. The scene was reminiscent of the drawing in Little House in the Big Woods when naughty Charlie the cousin got stung by a swarm of yellow jackets.

I couldn't brush them off fast enough, but dragged them away from the swarm, stripped them down to their underwear, and started back to the house. The builder had heard the screams and came to help me. Together we got the boys to safety with a few more stings along the way. I stuck them in the tub with about a quart of baking soda and applied a poultice of baking soda to each sting. Timmy had about 10 stings, while Charlie got it worse with about 20 welts. He also got stung on his lip, which swelled to twice its normal size within a few minutes.

My mind was filled with the memory of my aunt's friend who died last month after being stung by a single bee. However, I didn't detect any breathing difficulties, I got them dressed, wrapped each in a blanket, and gave them cups of iced lemonade, and read them a few stories. Tim was consulted and so I dabbed each red dot with Benedryl and dosed them with grape flavored Tylenol. They both seem to be back to their normal selves, but the memories of being covered with stinging insects will likely never leave them. I hope this episode does not make them frightened of running free on the farm, but it might make them a little hesitant to trail behind the tractor for a while.

grocery shopping

Usually I like going to the commissary, the prices are good and they have good sales on after-Easter candy, but yesterday's visit was the pits. There were only a few bags of sugar, no high efficiency laundry detergent, and no sausage on the shelves. The contrast between the government run grocery and your average chain store is striking- the commissary features boxes down the middle of every aisle so you can't pick up items from the opposite shelves or get around anyone else's cart, I have had to throw away jugs of milk that weren't even close to the expiration date because they were sour, surly cashiers who don't swipe all the coupons, and foods in the most bizarre locations with frequent placement changes. For example, baking items such as spices, cocoa, flour, and chocolate chips are all on different aisles. The self check-out machines take twice as long because they require you to track down an employee to show your ID, weigh produce, and then tote up the total.

Think of shopping at "government foods" with the same efficiency and customer service as the Post Office, the DMV, and any public school system. I ask you to project into the future and see that Obamacare will turn the health care system into: long waits, limited services, and a bloated bureaucracy filled with people who have no incentive to be pleasant.

prayers please

Tim got home in time for my dentist appointment only to hear, "Julia Ellen swallowed a (tiny watch) battery!" He wasn't home 10 minutes before he took her to the Emergency Room.

who will be wearing that stethoscope in the future?

An excellent article over at American Thinker about how difficult and expensive it is to become a doctor.

This was my comment:

An acquaintance was lauding the passage of Obamacare, "If doctors don't like getting paid less then they can find something else to do. My husband is a lawyer and he has 6 years of post-graduate training and we are barely making ends meet. Why should doctors get paid so much?"

I toted it up in my head that my husband has spent 14 years in post-graduate training and we are now facing what we can do if he can't find a job in medicine (after military retirement). I just can't fathom how people can begrudge someone a professional living when they have studied, trained, and worked for years to specialize in some branch of medicine that most people can't even spell. Can a lawyer, garbage man, or teacher replace your heart? Can a union auto worker diagnose your child with one of the myriad of types of lymphoma? Do you want a congressman standing there in scrubs if your husband gets shot at the mini-mart by a robber?

If we expect competence and expert skill then we must be prepared to pay for it. Right now there are fewer people going into medicine than ever before, many of the smart ones see the writing on the wall and are turning to some other way of pursing the American Dream. Medicine is no longer the route to a good life. It is instead the path to huge debt, crushing working hours, and the opportunity to be sued and lose everything at any moment.

call your Congressman and say NO!

I highly recommend reading this entire piece by Ken Blackwell, but here is enough to make you pick up the phone and call your Rep. I recommend calling a local office rather than the Capitol number, the people tend to be nicer and you are more likely to get through.

It's all supposed to be voluntary, those "home visits" that are tucked into the mammoth ObamaCare bill. If you have a strong stomach, and stronger bottom, you can find home visitation on pages 568-595. That's Section 2951 of H.R. 3590, the Senate bill that Harry Reid brought down the chimney on Christmas Eve.

Is your family being "targeted" for such home visitations? Let's see if you fit into one of these very broad categories:

•Families where Mom is not yet 21.

•Families where someone is a tobacco user.

•Families where children have low student achievement, developmental delays, or disabilities.

•Families with individuals who are serving or formerly served in the armed forces, including such families that have members of the armed forces who have had multiple deployments outside the United States.

Who will sit atop the federal pyramid that runs this vast new invasion of family privacy? Why, it will be Sec. of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius.

Do you spank your children? You should know that HHS bureaucrats think you are an abuser. Do you support the Second Amendment? How would you like HHS bureaucrats asking your children if you maintain firearms in the home for family protection? Do you home school your kids? Take care. Members of Congress who have tried to abolish home schooling are big backers of this health care bill.

a must read

This is a fabulous article about the future of health care by Thomas Sowell, entitled Getting Out of Medicine, stating the obvious, that with increasing regulation and bureaucracy America will have fewer doctors.

"Paying doctors less and hassling them more may be some people’s idea of “lowering the cost of medical care,” but it is really just refusing to pay the costs — and taking the consequences."

what was I thinking?

This morning Tim and I were trying to hash out this afternoon's logistical nightmare of trying to be in 3 places at the same time. Once upon a time I decided not to attempt more than one outing per day, but that doesn't work fitting in 6 children's activities. But I should have picked a different day to schedule a dentist appointment for myself than the busiest day of the week with co-op, piano, and ballet. I can barely remember where we have to be when and was actually 20 minutes late to piano last week after looking at my watch and saying, "We have to be there NOW!" and fighting with the horrible DC traffic.

It is too late to change my appointment, but hopefully I will recall this day next time I am on the phone with a doctor's office, "No, I can't do it that day, I can't lie still and watch 6 kids all at the same time."

reading assignment

Tim wrote a piece The Pill and Breast Cancer, of which I've cut and pasted a snippet:

Which brings us to the crux of the issue. There is evidence that birth control pills, especially when used by young women, increase a woman's risk of breast cancer[ix]. Given that we're talking about the most widely used class of drugs on the planet, and one of the commonest forms of malignancy in women, the implications are not trivial. But the spin of the medical establishment, as well as cancer charities including the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, and Susan Komen Foundation, is to push these findings under the rug.

The whole thing was published today in American Thinker. Go check it out!

relief

There are few things more likely to put me on pins and needles right now than a 44 day cycle. Gosh, I'm so bad at this NFP thing, especially while nursing.

snaggletooth grins

For at least 5 months people have been telling me whenever they see Julia Ellen with her fingers in her mouth, "Oh, she must be teething!" But I knew better since none of my children had their first tooth emerge before 9 months of age. Will was the latest at 11.5 months, leaving me to endure well meaning Italian grandmother's advice for ages. Our household was starting to take bets as to whether Julia Ellen was going to eat her birthday cake with no teeth, when at supper last night I slid my finger along her bottom gum. When I grinned and said, "It's here!" Will crowed with delight at retaining his much coveted record.

Not 5 minutes later we were subjected to Maggie complaining that she couldn't blow a bubble with her Valentine Day gum because of her super duper wiggly front tooth. "I'll get a bit of gauze and see if we can get it out," I said as I pulled down the wooden box in which we store medical supplies on the top of the fridge. It only took a mere touch to extract her dangling tooth, but then she found she couldn't blow a bubble because she doesn't have enough teeth left to pull the gum back over her tongue. Apparently those same genes which drags out seeing that first baby tooth are also responsible for their adult teeth to slowly emerge from the gums. Not one of Maggie's 5 lost baby teeth over the past year has fully come in. As a result, the poor child looks like she was recently in a bar fight with a brawling biker named Otto. I am grateful for the umpteenth time that we homeschool and my poor child doesn't have to put up with horrible little boys calling her names. But in the name of socialization we will tease her a little. A very little, for she is still a beautiful child, despite the gap tooth grin.

Was I spared?

Tim and Mary and Maggie came down with a particularly nasty stomach bug Tuesday night and were sick in bed all day Wednesday during the blizzard. On Thursday morning it hit Charlie and Will, and then last night Timmy and Julia Ellen were vomiting. I had to change my pajamas as the baby threw up down my front. "Can you please put her in the bath?" I pleaded with sleeping Tim, "I can't go in the hall bathroom naked!" (it looks out onto the street, not that anyone would be standing out there in the snow at midnight, but...)

School has been suspended for at least one child the past few days, but they all seem to have recovered and today most of them are back in their snow gear and sinking up to their waists in the fluffy stuff. I haven't had a twinge so either God deemed it necessary for me to stay well just to nurse everyone else or I have the constitution of an ox. I can say that things go precariously downhill when Mommy gets sick as I recall a day in Italy when I came down with the flu and Tim was TDY in Sicily. When he got home that night it was not a pretty or pleasantly fragrant scene. So, whatever the reason, I am grateful this day for children who can eat more than Rice Krispies, electricity, and at least one healthy parent in the house (and doubly glad it is me).

plague central

This was supposed to be a lovely day, at least the way I planned it weeks ago. We were to go to co-op bearing cupcakes and have everyone sing Happy Birthday to Mary at lunchtime. We were to have presents and a trip up to Auntie Melinda and Uncle Mark's house on Saturday for more cake and several long walks in the fields.

However, Maggie and Mary started throwing up right around bedtime and then Tim started in at midnight. My morning has been running to put laundry in, filling glasses with ice water, and holding basins under chins. The little boys are on their own and Will is in charge of the baby. Even if we were feeling up to it, the blizzard outside would prevent us from venturing any farther than the driveway. The family party has been postponed and I haven't even been able to buy Mary a gift.

If you could, a Hail Mary for our crew would be appreciated, for a return to health for the invalids and especially that no one else comes down with the crud.