Saturday, September 13, 2008

Tent City

Well, here it is now -over two days that Kurtis has been back in the hospital -Mandy has had to stay there with him the entire time too -and all that has left me at home, in charge of dealing with -you guessed it -Miss Maya!

Aside from the mess the other night with the salad oil and ginger and my having to try to sop up, then mop up that lovely combination, the worst she's done since then was a couple small deals with the markers and pens -nothing drastic there though but this morning, her dad was beginning to think she was trying to poison him!

He heats his hot water in the morning for his "wake-up" cup of hot tea in the tea kettle and this morning things appeared -on the surface -to be the same old-same old -water in the kettle, heat it, make tea deal. However, when he poured the hot water into his cup, there were these red flecks floating around there. Hmmm. What the heck is that? Turns out, Miss Maya had sprinkled his water in the tea kettle, quite generously too, with hot red pepper flakes! And, let me tell you this, hot red pepper flakes is one substance her dad keeps very, very clear of, unless there is already a very tiny amount I've added to something while it is cooking. It''s definitely not something he uses at the table as a little bit of an additive like I'm often inclined to do.

One thing that did help to keep her somewhat occupied yesterday afternoon and evening as well as today though would be a set of four tents for kids that our friend, Patti, brought down here yesterday. They had been her kids and they are cute tents -a firehouse, a garage, a castle and I can't remember now what the fourth one is but Maya really liked them anyway.

Here's Maya in the one she considers to be just hers though -I know, big surprise that it is the castle one, huh?
Here's the firehouse tent -unopened -and which Maya has stated already that it is Kurt's tent -along with the garage tent too.


Here's the garage tent -unopened -that she says is also Kurt's tent.

Here's Maya's tent.

Here's Maya sitting inside her tent -a view from the top, down in.

Here she is -standing up inside her tent. It's just big enough for her to enjoy crawling in there, hiding out a bit, playing with a couple of her toys, too.
And last night, she insisted that she had to sleep in it! So, with a little car pillow of Kurt's, a little blanket on the floor and one, pulled over her, that's exactly what she did too. Within ten minutes after she crawled in there to go to bed, she was conked out -like the proverbial light ya know!

Yay, Yay! Let's here it for these indoor tents!

Now the latest on Kurtis is that finally this afternoon he actually took some fluid by mouth! He's been on iv's since Thursday evening since he stopped drinking anything at all Thursday morning! Why? We have no idea nor do the doctors or the nurses for that matter! Granted, he hadn't been drinking in the normal quantities he usually takes in prior to Thursday, but he had at least been trying to drink. He would eat bread and butter -pull the crusts off, of course, but still, he would eat that and also the graduates soft raspberry bars were acceptable to him but hand him a bottle and no way would he even try to suck anything down!

Mandy said this afternoon, she and Kurtis had a visitor -our minister, Pastor Carrie. Right after Pastor Carrie left, Mandy had a bottle of some type of flavored milk-type drink which she opened in front of him and poured it into a bottle and gave it to him -6 ounces worth -and he took it and drank it down!

So because as Pastor Carrie was leavng, Mandy had told her to tell the congregation tomorrow morning to pray for Kurtis to please drink, and right after her departure, he started to follow through on that, she says it can't be anything else at work there except "the power of prayer!" And you know what, I think she very well may have a good point too -don't you?

So, since he started to accept fluids again now, they began to drop back on his iv's and if he continues like this over night then tomorrow she and Kurtis should be discharged and on their way back home!

Trust me when I tell you this too that Mandy expecially will be very, very happy to be back in her home -where she can talk on the phone, use the bathroom, take a shower, sleep in her own bed, play on the computer, read, heck -even do laundry and housework too if she's of that mindset for a change, without having to go fetch someone to stay in the room with him while she would get a breather and a break from the monotony of the room! She said it feels like being in a jail cell -locked away with a 2 year-old, who is non-verbal!

And I think even Maya will probably be as relieved and happy as the rest of us to have little Kurtis back home too! She knows Mommy and Kurtis are in the hospital and that she can't go there -don't know exactly now how we got that across to her without her having a major meltdown, but she's actually dealt with the situation fairly well. Only one time that she started to pitch a bit of a fit, wanting her Mommy, but then it sort of fizzled right out -much to my relief on that count!

The bad part though really has been that as much as Mandy wanted to see Maya or to even talk to her on the phone, we didn't dare let her speak to her Mommy on the phone as that would have set her off and there is no way I would have dared to take her over there either as that would have brought on a major meltdown, kicking and screaming in the hospital, leaving the hospital and probably kicking, screaming and carrying on in the back seat of my jeep the entire 45 miles drive home from the hospital too. So we just plodded along this way and now, hopefully -come tomorrow now -this ordeal will all come to an end!

And now, with my little princess sound asleep -out in my bed, in my room, I think I'm going to relax for a short time here -maybe get a couple more stitches in on the tablecloth I'm working on and then, I'm gonna join Maya to go to sleep.

Big day ahead tomorrow -with Maya and I having to get up early and ready to go to church -and hopefully then to welcome the other little monkey-shiner back home. Oh yeah, and Mandy too! LOL

6 comments:

Debo Blue said...

Yay for Kurtis, Mandy and the whole family. And to the power of prayer. Hope Kurt is released tomorrow and peace reigns throughout.

PS-I forgot to thank you for the VERY inspiring email you sent about being a special woman. I sent it to my sister and nieces. Thanks for including me in that distribution. It was so right on time:-)

dr sardonicus said...

Never a dull moment at your house, is there? I'll be saying some prayers for Kurtis too.

fermicat said...

I'm guessing that hot red pepper coffee is not quite the pick-me-up that most people desire!

I hope Kurtis gets back to normal very soon.

Linda Murphy said...

Keep up the progress, Kurtis! I am sure it will be nice to have them both back at home.

Mandy sounds like she could use a spa day. What a trooper.

Connor usually prefers Mommy to Daddy at 5:00am. He gets angry if I am not the one getting up and getting him breakfast. YAWN!

Keith said...

Ah yes! The power of prayer! Glad to hear that Kurtis is on the mend and that him and Mandy can come home soon.

Awesome that Pastor Carrie dropped in to visit too. She sounds like a wonderful person.

Peace to you and yours!
Keith

terri said...

My kids had one of those tents when they were younger too and had hours of fun in that thing!

So glad to hear Kurtis is drinking and seems to be on the road to recovery.