Life Goes On

This round of chemo is now 2/3 over and it hasn't been too bad.  We were really expecting to be hit super hard after what the doctor said.  However, the first week was a little rocky and week two has been okay minus some stomach issues.  Trent's main complaint this week has been fatigue but that is an easy one to fix and not life threatening. When the home health nurse came yesterday all of Trent's vitals were looking pretty good.  His blood pressure was a little low but it always is.  We really noticed how low it was yesterday when Trent was trying to help Zach earn his Carpentry Merit Badge for Scouts.  He was trying to show Zach how to use the chop saw and he was falling all over the place!  I made him sit down and he kept falling onto the work bench and all over me.  I finally made him leave amid his protests.  Kind of scary to have him flopping all over the place and me trying to keep his hands and Zach's hands out of the saw!  We finally got him settled in bed and Zach and I finished a darn good step stool!

Last week Jonathan threw us for a loop when he shoved a popcorn seed up his nose.  He got it lodged up behind the second turbinate.  We tried everything to get it out; saline, crochet hooks, tweezers, and of course, blowing.  That kid blew snot all over all of us as many times as we asked him to but no popcorn seed ever emerged.  We had a nurse from our ward come over and she couldn't get it either.  So the next morning I took him to a family doctor in town.  He put a foley catheter up behind the popcorn seed and blew it up to get it to force out the seed.  Twice.  No luck.  Jonathan was crying and would not look at the doctor.  He said, "Doctor not fun!"  The doctor was nice enough not to charge me for the visit and then referred me to an ENT in Logan.  He told me Jonathan would have to be put under general anesthesia to have the seed removed.   Ugh.  Jonathan's insurance doesn't kick in until January 1.  I was not thrilled, but guess what?  LIFE GOES ON!  No matter what else is on my plate right now, Jonathan is still two and will do two year old things.  Zach needs help with projects, and Mallory wants to be read to, and so forth.  Life still happens to us and everyone else and we just have to keep dealing with it, hopefully with a smile on our faces. 

To continue the Jonathan saga....we starved him for the rest of the morning until the next doctor visit.  It was so sad.  Mallory was having her lunch before school and Jonathan was chasing her around trying to steal her food because we had not given him any.  He was so confused.  While waiting for the doctor he was begging for a drink. I gave in and gave him a little sip.  He was starting to get really agitated and I finally asked the nurse how long it was going to be.  She offered him things to color and I told her he was just hungry.  She was surprised when I told her we had been instructed not to feed him.  She said he was only getting loopy meds, not anesthesia and I was free to feed him.  Hallelujah!  She gave him a little candy bar and I had snacks in my purse-which are normally for Trent.  He horked those things down so fast it wasn't even funny!  Finally we saw the doctor and he was great.  Dr. Bennion at the Cache Valley Specialty Hospital-(shameless plug for an awesome doctor!) was so good with Jonathan.  He was very amused at the popcorn seed.  Said he had never removed one of those before.  Way to go Jonathan!  We like to keep them guessing don't we?!  We slipped over to the pharmacy to get Jonathan some Versed to make him loopy.  While we were there we ran into a good friend from Providence.  Annette hung out with me while Jonathan spit his medicine all over the place and acted like a little twerp.  He didn't get enough medicine down to make him really loopy so we had to give him another 1/2 dose.  Finally it was starting to hit him.  He was being all goofy and barking like a dog while trying to walk backwards.  It was hilarious.   

We got him up on the table and he was crawling all over the place.  Every time the nurse laid out a napkin for him to lay on he would pick it up and blow his nose with it.  He did that three times before the nurse stopped laughing enough to get him situated correctly. 

It took me and two other nurses to hold him down-not because he was moving much, just as a precaution.  He was so loopy by that point that it didn't take much to keep him still.  The doc had to use a few different instruments but pretty soon a $90 popcorn seed popped out of his nose!  I am pretty sure he gave me a discount too.  I am so grateful for his compassion--I am sure it could have been lot worse! :)  As soon as the seed came out Jonathan sat up and said, "Thank you doctor, thank you!"

Once again a shameless plug for Dr. Bennion, I have been to see two of his associates and I will pick Dr. Bennion EVERY time from now on.  Of course, I hope I never have to but you know what I mean!

Just another day in the life of those wacky Rasmussens!