When our pets get sick

This is way off topic but in the context of our lives, it's relevant. I've shared about our cat Cleo, and how she's not been doing so well. We learned last week that she has Crohn's disease. I didn't even know cats could get that.  She's been having issues with diarrhea for a few months and it turns out to be Crohn's. At least there's a treatment and it's relatively inexpensive.  We have to give her steroids every single day and that helps to take down the inflammation and she does better. It's a really good thing until she starts vomiting all the time because of the steroids.  Now we have to force feed her half of a PepcidAC tablet twice a day. These tablets are fucking huge, even when…

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Bad News: Gavin’s not doing well

Gavin was in rough shape on Saturday morning, but felt better as the day moved forward. Unfortunately, as bedtime approached, he began to get sick again.  It's possible that his meds are what is upsetting his stomach tonight. Unfortunately, we had no choice but to give them to him.  We did make sure he ate something prior, without eating too much. We felt it was best that he not take his meds on an empty stomach. It seems that didn't help because he went to bed feeling like he was going to vomit. The last thing in the world we need is for him to go through another night like the last.  At this point, he's sleeping and doing so peacefully. I'm going to count that as a blessing and…

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Things get complicated when Gavin is sick

After about five episodes of vomiting, Gavin is finally back on his feet. Thankfully, nothing was triggered by him being sick. We were worried about the vomiting leading to dehydration, and that leading to his body crashing.  We kept him in bed for most of the day, and that's probably what helped him get through this.  He's currently drinking fluids and he's eaten a banana. He's pestering us for a Swiss Roll but we've told him no way. That's a good sign that he's actually feeling better though. Hopefully, he will continue to improve and tomorrow he'll be back to his old self again.  On a side note, there's another reason for concern that you might not think about.  When he's this sick, he can't take his medication. He was…

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Who’s born hating others? 

I wanted to take a few minutes and reach out to my fellow parents because I think that's the best approach in stopping hate before it begins. Trying to reach those neck deep in hate already, is mostly a fruitless endeavor. With all that's been going on in our country over the last few weeks with nazi groups, white nationalists and the KKK, we need to take a serious look at how we're raising our kids. No one is born hating other people, that's a learned condition. We aren't born inherently hating those who are different than ourselves, we learn to do that.  As parents, it's so important to realize that our kids learn from us. I know that may seem like commonsense, but clearly it's not for everyone.  Our…

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Gavin has become sick and that’s not good

Unfortunately, Gavin has become very sick. About 4 AM this morning, I woke up to him crying and in obvious distress. He ended up in the bathroom, puking.  We aren't sure what's behind this but we are watching him very closely.  This is not a good thing because this could easily trigger a life threatening autonomic crisis. All we can do is keep him hydrated, comfortable and get him to the hospital is he gets worse.  Before I could even finish this post, Gavin was puking a second time. 

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Gavin took a big step forward today 

Gavin has suddenly become more interested in assisting with his own IVIG infusions. He's been putting the equipment together for the longest time but never wanted to draw up the meds and put the pump together.  The last two infusions, he's asked to draw up the medication and prime the pump.  It's not difficult but it does take fine motor proficiency that Gavin simply doesn't have. He struggled with it but finished the job, all by himself. That's awesome, because it's really important for him to learn to do these things on his own.  I'm really proud of him because he didn't get frustrated and just kept working at it until it was done.  I meant to take a picture but forgot. I'll try to remember on Monday.  The last…

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This is a weird way to start the school year 

The boys started back to school yesterday, and I thought that was weird because that makes it a row day week. I'm not sure why they would do that, as it really doesn't make much sense.  Today however, the boys came home with a note saying that Monday is optional because of the eclipse.  So just to recap, they start the school year off with a two day week, a three day weekend, and a four day week. Figuring in the upcoming holiday, I'm not sure, but I think their first full week of school isn't until September.  The reason this seems so weird is because they don't normally start back until after Labor Day. This year however, they started back in the middle of August.  This is going to…

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I’m really excited but at the same time really nervous

Life can be so frustrating sometimes. We have this amazing trip to look forward to, and the idea of going has us sorta freaking out. There's so much to plan for and we're going to be somewhere we've never been, almost 20 hours away from home.  Don't get me wrong, this trip is one of the best things to ever happen to our family. We've never been on a vacation or even travelled more than one hundred miles from home.  The kids are really excited and we are as well. We are just working on the logistics of everything and trying to take everything into account.  I don't think the drive will be too rough. We'll have a nice vehicle with plenty of room and we'll have a hotel stay…

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