October 2nd to October 10th: Urgent Care, Robbery, Zoos, and More

Let's see if I can get back in the note taking habit! 

Saturday kicked off with an unexpected run to the urgent care near us with Mason. He woke up with a swollen area the size of my palm on his knee. It was hot to the touch, tight, and you could feel fluid under it. I always hesitate to take him to the local urgent care because he is so complex medically, but I was pretty confident in what needed checked and done temporarily to get us through to Monday when we could check in with his surgeon. 

As any mama with a medically complex child will tell you, you have to be your child's advocate. This held true once again, as the doctor came in, looked (without touching at all) at Mason's knee, and said, "Oh, he probably was walking and fell down and it will be fine in a day or two." To my child who was sitting in his wheelchair, and who we had already explained has no movement or sense of touch/pain from the hips down. I reminded him that it was impossible. He said, "Well, maybe it's just patellar bursitis. Give it a few days." Sigh. 

I informed him that the area feels like it is filling with fluid, and that we needed an x-ray to check for anything unexpected, and a course of antibiotics to address what was most likely an infection until we could see his orthopedic surgeon on Monday. He felt Mason's knee - finally - and ordered the x-ray and antibiotics, because I was right, it did feel like fluid. I told the xray tech what views of the knee to do, and that I wanted to see them on her screen. I'm pretty familiar with Mason's knee/leg xrays. You could see former broken bones that have healed, and a fluid area on the knee, with no unexpected things I could see.  

Two days of antibiotics later, things were looking much better, and our orthopedic surgeon checked the xrays and our report of progress since starting the antibiotics and said to keep doing what we were doing, everything else looked fine. We will check in again after the course of meds is done.

Back to Saturday, we got home from the urgent care and started making cinnamon rolls and setting up the living room for General Conference. It was a wonderful day of music and encouragement! While it sometimes is a bit noisy surrounded by kids of all ages, everyone participated in their own way, listening, watching, drawing, and spinning in circles on the floor until they fell over laughing and listened some more.

Sunday we had two more sessions of Conference. Knowing the kids had already gone through six hours of Conference the day before, we pulled out a surprise to keep hands busy - clay in a rainbow of colors. They molded and cut, twisted and crafted all sorts of little things with that clay, and generally when little hands are busy, little minds are listening. 

Monday was recovery day, catching up on chores, doing projects around the house, and adding papers from the last six weeks of school to each child's portfolio.

Tuesday morning we were getting ready to head out for the day when we realized our detached garage was broken into and things were stolen, as well as damaged. We called the police, filed a report, and then took the kids to the zoo for the day. We saw old favorites like the stingrays (we pet and fed those) and the reptile house. We saw new favorites like the baby elephant. We walked a lot and came home ready for some rest.

Wednesday was more small projects and then Primary and Youth activities in the evening.

Thursday a visit to the wheelchair vendor for new parts, adjustments, and leaving after hours with a few unresolved issues still. Sigh. Going to have to consult with the physical medicine doctor about the best of two not great options equipment-wise. We did more projects today in the afternoon, and Emma had play practice. 

Friday we spent a lot of time playing games together. We also challenged the kids to pull together Birthday/Christmas idea lists for us. Between this week and the end of February we have birthdays for 8 of the kids, as well as Christmas. It is always interesting to read their lists. Some are quick to come up with ideas, while others struggle to put more than two things on the page. 

Saturday my husband was gone for most of the day on a dad's trip to the Air and Space Museum in Dayton. The kids and I played games, I prepared some seminary lessons, Grandma came to visit twice, and the older four kids also had a stake youth bowling activity in the afternoon. 

Sunday we split between church at home and at church, as one child dealt with some medication side effects. We watched the broadcast of church, made grilled cheese and soup for lunch, and have mostly rested and spent time talking together since. It's closing in on bedtime and we'll be back to the work (daddy) and homeschool (everyone else) routine. 

Looking ahead this week, we will be studying the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune), begin the history of astronomy, learn about the Massai people of Tanzania and Kenya in geography, make paper beads, and lots of other things.