Our First Doctor's Experience in Paris

Last Tuesday I noticed a small red streak in one of James's eyes and felt a tickle in my throat that had me wishing I had a cough drop.  Allergies, I thought?

Wednesday morning James complained of a headache and didn't have the energy to walk across the room.  I've learned to check his temperature when he starts whining and complaining about everything.  Yep, fever.

After speed-walking a few miles through Paris running late to meet someone, I noticed I felt really tired and my legs were aching.  Am I that out of shape?  Nope, fever.

Personal Medicine Stash

We both had the same symptoms, but by Thursday afternoon James's fever was high, and most concerning, he had one red eye, and both eyes were dripping tears.  I'm used to James contracting viruses and running high fevers, but the eye thing had never happened before this.  He slept with me Thursday night because K.J. was speaking over the weekend at a men's retreat and we wanted to protect his throat.  James's breathing sounded terrible.  Friday morning, with K.J. needing to leave in 5 hours, I knew we needed a doctor.  Thank God for church family!  

The Lord is so kind in His provision.  I was picturing having to drag myself who didn't feel good and my terribly sick child on public transportation to visit a doctor, and that prospect felt so overwhelming.  But by some miracle the lady in our church helping us was able to find an English-speaking doctor just a 4 minute walk away.  We were so thankful.

Amazing Architecture at the Doctor's Office

We had a great experience and got everything we needed.  James and I are both on the mend.  Here are some details that stand out about our experience:

• K.J. shared about having to pay in cash.  I saw he had a question about how much it cost.  She examined both me and James for 80 euros, which translates to about $98 in the U.S. at this point.  As a comparison, with insurance at home, we would have paid $60 in co-pays, so I didn't think that was a bad price.
• One of the prescriptions for me was for Vitamin C.  I've never been prescribed a vitamin before.
• We had to mix up James's antibiotic.  K.J. went to the pharmacy for us, and when he got back and I pulled out the antibiotic the bottle was filled with powder I had to add water to and shake.
• The unit of measurement for James's antibiotic was kilograms.  I'm not a scientist, but I've never seen this used for liquid before.  Is it because it was weighed out as a powder at first?  I don't know.
• The doctor prescribed a steroid for James's throat, and gave us the dosage in the number of drops.  This was a hard one to figure out.  She wrote out 240 drops, and the medicine came with a dropper measured in gtte, which I haven't completely figured out what that meant either.  I ended up counting out 240 drops into a medicine cup, and it came out at about 1 tsp. so I figured that sounded like a normal dose.  She had written out it was 10 gtte per kilogram, and James weighed 24 kg.  

All in all, the hardest thing about the experience was just the confusion of figuring out strange to us dosing in a language we don't read.  I Google-translated the instructions for mixing up the antibiotic.  Thank God for Google translate!  

Shall we have tea?

Most people associate the British with drinking tea, ourselves included.  But this past trip, actually being in the homes of English people we got to experience first hand the ritual of tea-drinking.

I read something in a book once about how it was something the English did when they didn't know what else to do, and our hostess while we were there brought up that very thing.  "You can always make a cup of tea."  No matter the situation, the crisis, the problem, you put the kettle on.  You sit down and figure it out over a hot cup of tea.  

Our host said he probably drank 8 cups a day.  You start the day with a cup, a mid-morning cup, a cup with lunch, after lunch, afternoon, dinner, at the close of day.  It really is a ritual.  It's calming.  It's a nice way to slow down in the middle of a hectic day.  And it's kind of an easy habit to pick up, though we're far from 8 cups a day.

This is the fourth Sunday in a row I'm missing the Sunday service at church. We were gone, I had nursery duty, Ella was sick, and now James is sick.  I treated myself to a slow start to the day that made me smile.

We also picked up the habit of topping off the top quarter of our cup with milk, something I never thought I would do, but I now love the creaminess of it.  It makes it even more of a treat.  This is actually a re-creation of an amazing chai I had in Paris.  Adding milk made it just right.

When it's brewing it smells like Christmas:  ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg.  Sweeten and add milk, and it's not a bad way to start another day home with a sick baby.  Not too bad at all.

"In everything give thanks..."

Recovering + Octobers Past

I like it when autumn arrives, and instead of shutting out the intense heat of summer with my kitchen shades, I open them up and let the light in.  It's really beautiful out there this morning, a faint blue sky and fluffy clouds holding on to a pale pink color.  I can even see hints of autumn color on the trees in the distance! 

Yesterday morning started off just the same, except for around 8:15  Ella woke up unable to breathe in deeply.  She was making horrible noises, so I put her in a hot shower and let the steam open her up a little and calm her down while I hurriedly dressed.  We rushed off to the pediatrician's office by 9 a.m.  

Thankfully, this morning, after 4 days of running a fever, Ella's temperature is normal, and I think the medicine is helping, because her voice doesn't sound quite as hoarse.  It was quite the exciting start to our week.  I'm thankful for my mom who came over to be with James (and washed and folded laundry!).  If by some miracle my little guy can keep from catching Ella's germs, we might be home-free to enjoy fall festivities this week.  I hope so!

Speaking of fall festivities, I started thinking back to the first time Ella went trick-or-treating.  James was less than a month old, and it was one of those things where we just said, "Hey, it's Halloween, I think  Ella would get a big kick out of walking around the neighborhood getting candy."  So we hurriedly dressed her in her favorite attire that year, the Cinderella costume gifted her by Hillary.  I don't think she knew what was going on, but what fun!

She was such a pretty princess, with her fair golden curls.  

For the next two years we never spent any money, just the same, "Hey, Ella, go put on one of your costumes, and we'll get free candy!"

  2010

 2011

(same costume)

Now last year was another matter entirely.  She knew enough from past years to look forward to planning a costume and wore a different one at every event we attended.  

That picture will remain one of my favorites for all time.  I love those kids, and I'm thankful that it's looking like my little princess/Spider-girl will be up to joining the costumed fun again this year.

January: Instagram Style

My iPod takes not-so-very-high quality pictures, but it does capture the little moments that would otherwise go undocumented, the little moments that make up our daily lives.  A good portion of January was spent recovering from the flu.  The birthday party pictures at the top capture the day James was exposed, and my cup of chamomile tea documents the onset for me.  And how awful is that first picture of James and I right in the middle of the worst of it??

Thanks to my iPod, I can always remember the days of lying in bed, watching NetFlix and playing Mario.  Who would want to forget that?

Homecoming

Today is homecoming day.  KJ and Ella are coming home this morning.  When we sent Ella off to spend the night with grandparents last Wednesday night, we had no idea it would turn into a week-long absence.  Likewise, KJ went to work last Thursday morning, and that was the day the flu hit me so hard.  I packed him a bag and told him he couldn't come back home because this was so awful.  

So a full-week later James has been fever-free for 2 days, and I have been fever-free for 1, and I'm going to do one last sweep of the house with a can of Lysol, and perhaps life will return to normal.

Maybe I will even leave my house?  I haven't left it in 9 days.  It might be kind of hard to return to normal life...

My view of last week's snow

But I'm ready to be with my husband again, not just talk to him from a distance through the open front door.  I'm ready to hug Ella and teach her about WWII and plant our bean plant that is sky-high in a paper cup right now.  I'm so thankful it's homecoming day.

P.S.

I completely forgot about sharing this video the other day when I did my back-to-school post.  This was another reason starting back was so encouraging.  A few weeks ago I started trying to get James to repeat after me to learn a Bible verse, because I knew he was capable of remembering, he just needed to understand the concept.  And last week he got it, and he was so proud.  I was, too.  Ella had been learning a couple of verses a week of Psalm 23, and I am so proud of her, too. 



In a health update, our fevers are lower (we both even reached a "normal" temperature this morning!), and we are definitely on an upswing.  We've both got a temperature around 100 now and are coughing like crazy, but we feel like we might live now, so that is an improvement.  Thank you so much for your prayers.

Our Sickness and Starting Back to School

I thought I'd try to write while my fever is a little lower and James is content.  I am quite afraid, my friends, that he and I have the flu.  This is my first time since I was a kid, and it is miserable.  It feels like it will go on forever.  I've discovered that I don't sleep well with a high fever, so I'm going on about 4 hours of sleep right now.  (I actually got a nap this afternoon!  Hallelujah!)

To back up a little bit, last Friday KJ told me the most wonderful plans he made for me for my birthday on the coming Tuesday.  He told me he knew all the things I would want for my birthday:  freedom, family, and shopping.  He planned for us to meet my parents Sunday night for dessert and let them take the kids, and I was going to have Monday all to myself.  A whole entire day ALL BY MYSELF.  You know this is unheard of.  Tuesday morning we were going to drive to the Galleria, do some shopping, and meet my parents and the kids and maybe my brother for lunch.  They were the most wonderful plans.  And they were shattered when James woke up from his afternoon nap Sunday with a fever of 103. I was very disappointed, but I think I bore it rather well.

We didn't take him to the doctor right away because a friend who we were with on Friday had her daughter come down with a virus with the exact same symptoms.  She took a flu test on Saturday, and it came back negative, so I felt reassured.  But this thing has just not gone away, and I came down with it, too....on my birthday.  Yes.  

So that is what we've been dealing with this week.  But if this sickness hadn't come upon us, I would have written about how wonderful our first week back to school was last week.  The first two days, especially, were so encouraging to me.  

I put together these pictures Tuesday night when I woke up feverish and couldn't sleep.  :)  

Before Christmas break, I was having the hardest time with James asking to play Mario constantly.  And even when I wouldn't let him play, he stopped playing with his other toys and using his imagination and just lay on the couch staring at the case to the Mario game.  I was really concerned.  It was hard to get him involved in anything else.  

The first week of the new year we started introducing some new guidelines for Wii-playing, though, and the Lord was so gracious to let us see some pretty quick results.  We started explaining that he could not play the Wii until after he ate lunch and then again after supper when KJ came home from work.  That was it.  And I was so thankful when he slowly stopped asking, and when we started school back, he participated in so many things and even told someone at church that he went to school.  Precious boy.  I think he finally started preschool.

Up until last week James hadn't shown much interest in copying letters.  Ella loved doing that at his age.  She would sit and trace them for hours.  But not only was he eager to do it, he did awesome!  Look at how neat of a tracing job that is!  I was so proud.  He made patterns while Ella did math and put together puzzles.  It was such an encouraging day starting back.

Ella did really well, too, and I felt less stressed about teaching.  Before the break my head would be spinning because I felt like I wanted to do everything in the morning:  teach school, household chores, exercise, shower, etc.  I guess I finally came to a good place of doing one thing at a time and using the whole day.  It definitely helps when we don't have anywhere we need to go.  That throws a whole other element into the equation.

So that's the post I would have written earlier in the week if James and I hadn't got sick.  But guess what.  James has been allowed free reign of playing Mario and watching other people play Mario on YouTube because he's had high fevers, and what else can we do?  Plus, when I'd try to tell him "no" and let him do something else, he'd start crying, and the snot would flow, and I caved.  Hopefully, when this passes, we'll get into a good schedule again.       

Christmas Comes Early

This morning my house is quiet, though I've heard the first stirrings in James' room, and I need to go check on him.  His breathing sounds terrible, as well as a cough he woke up with yesterday.  He ran a fever last night, so I need to see if it is still there this morning.  

Today is our family Christmas.

It is several days early, but as I wrote about yesterday, we have a big family wedding this weekend.  I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon to attend a shower before the big day, and KJ and the kids are coming down Friday for the rehearsal.  We'll get back home at bedtime Saturday night, and of course the next day is church, and then Christmas with KJ's family, then off to my family, then another gathering with the other side of KJ's family...  So if we waited we'd have to have our family Christmas next Thursday.  We're not waiting.  :)

So this morning I will dole out Tylenol, and we'll drink chocolate milk from Rudolph mugs, and the kids will open presents, and we'll be so thankful for a morning together.  The afternoon may hold a doctor's visit.  We'll see.

Merry Christmas early from our home to yours!

P.S.  I didn't order nearly enough cards this year.  If you're a close friend who doesn't receive one, this digital greeting is for you!! 

Family Update + A Beautiful Bride

KJ, James, and I made it through the night without incident.  Sickness, are you over?  One of the many things I hate about a stomach virus is how you can never underestimate it.  Are there germs still lurking about?  How long is the incubation period?  Should I go through the trouble of quarantining Ella in her room or just let the chips fall where they may?  I am trusting the Lord, and we shall see.

In other news, the newest member of our family was born last night!  I wish she wasn't a 13-hour drive away.  

I also thought I would share some pictures I took back in March but never got around to posting.  KJ officiated Cody and Melanie's wedding, and Melanie was kind enough to allow me to be with her and her bridesmaids as they prepared for her big day.  They stayed at a really lovely bed and breakfast, and as can only happen in the south, it was a beautiful spring day in March with flowers already in full bloom, absolute perfection.

 An awesome bathroom to get ready in, yes?

 Melanie was stunning.

 What's really special about their wedding bands?

Cody made them himself.

 And there you have it...my first go at bridal portraits.  It was a lot of fun and so special to be part of such a beautiful day.

Sickness on the Horizon

This little pirate woke up this morning with a stomach virus.  We didn't see that coming.  Thankfully, Ella was able to spend the day away from home, and KJ and I are hoping we don't catch it.  I've been spraying Lysol like a mad woman.  I've been a mother for 6 years, and this is the first time one of my children has a stomach virus.  It's not fun, but I'm kind of glad it's James and not Ella.  He's much less dramatic.  He cries when he gets sick but recovers pretty quickly.  Pray for us.

Her Birthday

It's been such a silent week on the old blog...but not silent in the house where we live.  We've had school-work, and party-planning, and a James-with-a-fever to occupy our time.  And things have felt kind of crazy, and I have felt kind of crazy with the pressures of motherhood and really feeling the passage of time.  

James isn't awake yet for his morning fever-check (he's had one since Wednesday but thankfully hasn't felt too badly), so I'm not even sure if the friend part of Ella's party is going to happen.  It may need to be postponed.  Sickness has hit the houses of a couple of her friends she invited, as well.  So we're in a state of just going with it and making the call when we know what James' temperature is this morning.  He still had a low fever around 4:30 yesterday afternoon.

But today is Ella's birthday.  She just woke up and has a stuffy nose, but said, "I think I'm still good for my party."  Sweet girl.  

We'll be celebrating her 6 years today.

An account of my day from a somewhat feverish mind

I am siiiccckkk....ugh.  My fever is spiking again.  It did this last night, too.  It stays in the 99.somethings all day long and under control but for some reason at night moves into the 100s and even went to 101 last night.  Writing about being sick is almost as boring as writing about the weather, so...I'll move on.

Maybe you'd like to hear about what I did today while I was sick?

• Worked on potty-training James  I've been setting the timer and sitting him on the toilet regularly, trying to catch him at the moment of needing to go so I could praise him and reinforce what he was supposed to do.  I never succeeded in catching him at the right moment, but...
• We read a lot of books today.  Instead of turning a movie on for him while we waited for him to go, I decided to read him a few books.  This was a good idea because he wanted to sit up on the potty and read all day.  It was also a bad idea because he wanted to sit up on the potty and read all day.  He would run up to me, grab my hand, and pull me into the bathroom, saying, "Book!  Book!"  I persevered in reading because I'm happy to encourage his love of reading, and now he obviously thinks the toilet is the place to do that.
• I took Tylenol every four hours.
• I took Mucinex for chest congestion every four hours.  
• I coughed a lot.
• I blew my nose.
• I finished a birthday DVD for Hillary!  Her birthday is Friday.
• I washed the dishes.  Dishes still have to be washed even when you're sick.
• I made the bed and cleaned up the den.  It felt good to move around a bit even though I felt bad.
• I put in a load of laundry.
• I've read some of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Maybe that's it?  Maybe that's slightly boring, but we're surviving around here and hoping I'll be feeling even better tomorrow.  I have a birthday to celebrate!

More Unexpectedness

Today is starting to feel like a repeat of last week, except this time it is me with the fever and not James.  That's right.  I took him to the doctor Friday, and she told me James had an ear infection that was the cause of his fever.  After thinking about certain signs, I could believe he had an ear infection, but I was still wondering about the fact that he had a cough that sounded just like one Ella had earlier in the week.  

Since ear infections aren't contagious, we welcomed baby Luke into our home yesterday.  After his mama picked him up and KJ brought Ella home from school I went out to walk/jog.  I knew that I had started feeling hot, but I just thought it was because the temperature had risen in the house because of our mild weather.  I came back in and showered, and as I was getting ready for a little Alabama party, started feeling achy, but I just thought I was tired.  A little food and water would perk me up, I thought.  

 

I just noticed his football socks.  How cute are they?

Food and water perked me up, but at the party I noticed myself needing to cough more and feeling like I was losing my voice.  We got back in the car, and I just got this feeling...what if...I have a fever?  

After taking James' temperature under his arm for the seemingly-forever 3 minutes last week, KJ ordered us a new ear thermometer that gives you the temperature after 3 seconds.  Katie had one at Christmas, and KJ was all, "We need that."  He called me last week and said it was coming via two-day shipping and that he bought me the most expensive one so I knew I could trust it.  Sweet husband and daddy.

I came home and used this wonder, and in 3 seconds found my temperature was 100.6.  I really hated that.  I hated to have to make alternate arrangements for baby Luke AGAIN.  I haven't had a fever in years.  I haven't had anything other than a stomach virus in years, and my last stomach virus was September of 2010.  (The date stays with me...)

a Bama boy who cooks

So here I am sick, having woke up early alternating between hot and cold.  It is my comfort that God is in control, and He orders all things.  I am hopeful that baby Luke will remain well.  I feel that it makes sense that I got something from James.  He drools on me, and I wipe his nose.  And though I wash my hands and use "hanitizer" (as Ella calls it) after these activities, I mean...have you seen my boy drool?  

These pretty princesses had so much fun together last night.

I had all kinds of blogging ideas yesterday that I didn't get to...such as maybe a list of highlights from my 20s.  I'm turning 30 on Sunday.  That's a big deal.  Maybe since today will be a day of rest and recovery there will be time for such things.  I woke up at 5:15 so I'm really tired already, but James just got up so it will be awhile until nap time.  Here's to a day of unexpected mercies.

The Unexpected

I was awakened out of a sound sleep this morning at 4:15 a.m.  Ella was at KJ's side saying that her ear hurt and she needed to go to the bathroom.  She was also hot, she said.  I let her go to the bathroom, checked her ears, gave her some water and ibuprofen just in case something was wrong and put her back to bed.  She told me this morning that she went back to sleep quickly.  I was glad because she had to go back to school today.  I, on the other hand, did not go back to sleep.  

At 6:30 my alarm rang (or should I say sang since I was using a cell phone?), and I crawled out of bed in a fog, trying to accept what God had ordained without becoming bitter over my lack of sleep.  As I stumbled into the kitchen to find something caffeinated, I heard James whimpering in his room.  It was early for him to be awake, and when I lifted him out of his bed I said, "Oh, no...".  He was hot with fever.  I took his temperature, and 101.3 earned him some ibuprofen as well.  It was hard getting Ella up and going.  She was sleeping hard, but when it came down to it, she was excited about going back to school and cheerfully ate and dressed quickly.  I was thankful for that.

So day 2 of my job is postponed, and I'm so thankful to my mother-in-law for stepping in on that front.  James temperature has soared to 103 for the second time in a month, and I am so sad for him.  He is drinking and ate something this morning so for that, too, I give thanks.  And though I didn't think I needed it, I'm receiving a low-key day with gratefulness.  It just dawned on me that perhaps I should take a nap, but if I nap now when will I exercise?  Maybe when KJ brings Ella home...perhaps a nap will be in my future after all.  

In the meantime, I've been reading online photography tutorials and picking different pictures to try new things on.  Here are the results of my work thus far:

That's C.S. Lewis' grave in the foreground.

Two cool dudes at KJ's birthday party

Our friend Jeffrey actually took this picture, I think.

Unexpected as this day has turned out, I am enjoying the quiet.  Do pray for James' fever to go down, though.  I really don't like it when it gets this high.

Christmas time is here.

We just came home from celebrating Christmas with all the Pugh family.

Hopefully the celebration will continue through the weekend, and perhaps there

will be time to share more pictures.  It was a wonderful time with brothers, sisters,

and cousins, and we are now thoroughly exhausted.

(Maybe that's partly because James ran a 103 degree fever last night?)

He seems better now, though, and we are thankful.

(and hopeful that Ella and the cousins will be spared the fever)

A little sickness, a little fun

Oh my, oh my, the dreaded stomach virus has come to our house.  Poor KJ got sick yesterday afternoon and is currently quarantined in our bedroom.  He did request some bread this morning, so perhaps that is a good sign.  I'm so sorry that he's sick.  

I slept on the couch last night, so I didn't have the best of sleeps.  Everyone slept in a bit, and I decided to keep Ella home as a precautionary measure.  I am hoping no one else gets sick, but I would hate for her to get hit with this at school.  Not only would it be awful for her, it would then spread around to her entire class. If we can all make it through until tomorrow morning, maybe we will be in the clear.

Meanwhile, as long as we're feeling okay, it's kind of like a mini-holiday to have both my children at home.  It has been so, so fun watching Ella and James play together this weekend.  They are so precious.  Friday night we played a family game of hide and seek.  At first, Ella and KJ were a team, and I was teamed up with James.  James loves to hide.  He stays pretty quiet but also giggles periodically and whispers, "Hide."  His favorite hiding places are in the bath tub and in dark closets.  

KJ suggested switching partners, so Ella picked James.  It was fun following the sounds of their laughter.  Here's a few other things they've been doing together this weekend:

I LOVE these children.

James said his first sentence yesterday, incorporating one of his new words.  He climbed the 18 stairs in our church and then hit his head on the rail as he stood back up, and I said, "Ooohhh," and James said, "I'm okay."  He then went full speed ahead into the sanctuary.  

I need to make a grocery list and a meal plan.  I'm also in need of some more medicine for allergy-related stuff.  My throat is a bit sore this morning.  It's that time of year!  

Today has been an unexpected start to our week.  In fact, yesterday right before KJ got sick, I was asking him about each day and what we had coming up.  Monday didn't include keeping Ella home from school and KJ having a virus, but I must admit, after two weeks away from home, I will take a day of everyone being at home, even if it involves a little sickness.

This and That

Ella woke up this morning running a 102-degree temperature.  She crept into our bed at 4:30 a.m., whereupon KJ took her back to her bed.  We didn't know anything was wrong at this point.  At 6:20 she was back in our room, and she had taken off her pajamas.  


"Ella, what are you doing without your pajamas?"


"I was so hot."


"You know you don't need to get up this early."

"I was just so hot I didn't know what to do."


I still didn't know anything was wrong with her, except for the fact that it was an hour earlier than she usually wakes up in the morning.  She crawled in our bed (without pajamas), and I got up to get her some Benadryl (because she has been coughing and stuffy, not because I wanted to knock her out).  When I gave her the medicine my hand brushed her cheek.


"Ella, you are really hot!"

"I know!!"


She'd been trying to tell me the best way she knew how.  It was then that I took her temp.  I'm pretty sure she probably has what James had.  I'm not sure if James ever had a fever.  I thought he felt warm a couple of times, but it wasn't high enough to make me want to go through the wrestling match of trying to take his temperature.  Today has been a relaxing, movie day for Ella for sure.  She's a precious girl.


In other news, look at my boy on Monday after I turned on the sprinkler in the backyard for he and Ella.  He's the cutest boy on the block.  Hands down.

Just Another Update

Things have been very interesting around our house during the past week.  Thankfully, if James did indeed catch my stomach virus, it was a much lighter version because he exhibited no other symptoms after Sunday afternoon.  KJ stayed home to rest and recuperate Monday and Tuesday.  He returned to work today and is on the mend.  His shingles are still painful but look better, and the swelling in his face has gone down.  And it looks like Ella has escaped all sickness, for which I am very grateful.  


Despite all the sicknesses we have been very happy to be at home together the past couple of days.  My children continue to be the cutest ever.  They wear me out, but I love them anyway.  I started reading The Hobbit again.   Tolkien's writing is just so good.  Besides, how can you not respect someone who created hobbits?  


"...what is a hobbit?  ...they are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded Dwarves.  Hobbits have no beards.  There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort...They are inclined to be fat in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is curly); have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it). "