Friday, June 6, 2014

7 Quick Takes Friday: In Which We Narrowly Miss Being Sent Back to the ER...




What a week this has been.

Since the weekend I'd been so worried about Mae that I hadn't even been able to write about it (if you know me you know how rare that is).

After her ER and doctor's appointment last week Mae basically couldn't be persuaded to drink more than a couple of sips a day of any sort of liquid.  After a day with a dry diaper, having just slept 15 hours and going back to sleep less than seven hours after waking up, I called the doctor again because handing her a sippie cup every two minutes obviously wasn't working.

They had us come straight in.... and that is when Mae's sensory issues and autism, alongside the general view of "what dehydration looks like" began to cause problems.  By the time we saw the doctor we were looking at two not totally wet diapers in about 36 hours, alongside no food and about five sips of water.

But the moment we stepped into that doctor's office Mae was hyper stimulated.  She was bouncing off the walls.  She kept turning the tap water on to make her sister's doll swim in the sink and kept trying to climb up into the sink to splash.

The doctor took one look at her and told me that she was perfectly healthy, she couldn't be dehydrated.  Dehydration leads to fatigue.  She obviously wasn't fatigued...


So I was sent home to watch her and attempt to coax her to drink more... worrying that the fact that she wasn't having typical responses to being sick (while in the doctor's office) had created a dangerous situation.

The doctor who first diagnosed Mae, the one who I trusted so much, finished the residency program and moved on to open her own office way, way down south, and while I do like the new doctor we've been seeing during this illness, I don't think she has quite the same understanding of autism (or the chance to read up and research like Mae's former doctor did).

It can be really hard for people to understand that as often as not when Mae gets hurt she laughs loudly instead of crying.  She might have a tiny ouchie that brings on tears, but bigger things, like being bit by a child on a swing and thrown ten feet, often result in laughter.  It's one reason why in the past it has been hard to know when she's sick until she's really, very sick.  So while her bouncing off the walls told the doctor that she wasn't lethargic, it didn't inspire me with the same confidence that everything was normal and that she was healthy.

I was told that her white blood count and potassium were low and to bring her to the ER if her diaper stayed dry... and we went on our way.

Thankfully she ate to popcicles that night, had yogurt and an apple and some g.f. bread with peanut butter the next day and finally yesterday, after four full days of not drinking, drank three glasses of almond milk and happily acted as though she'd never been sick (and finally stayed up past 3 pm!  The sleeping from 3 pm until 6 or 7 am was one of my biggest concerns).

I'm praying this means she's finally beat whatever virus, or series of viruses has plagued her these last two months.


Yesterday, after she drank and ate and seemed to be feeling better, I took the kids out into the backyard for another "pool party."  This series of pictures of Mae and Sadie playing together are some of my all time favorites.  They are so sweet together:

Playing with the sprinkler...

Sister Hugs.

More hugs...

Playing!




Patch has taken to calling Paul by his first name.  It started because Patch thinks it's hilarious when I call to Paul when he's in a different part of the house to ask him to help me with something and it has turned into Patrick walking around the house, or sitting at the dinner table, or waiting at the bottom of the stairs while yelling "Paul!" over and over again in the cutest little voice.

If Paul's in the room and responds he bounces up and down and giggles, incredibly proud of himself for being able to get Daddy's attention.



During therapy earlier this week one of Mae's therapists asked me what she had named the doll she was carrying around, because it most definitely had a name and she'd been using that name throughout her session.  I looked over and saw that it was Sadie's doll, which Mae has absconded with and been holding hostage these last few days.  I had no idea what she'd named it and I couldn't make out what she was saying.

Later I saw her playing with the doll and heard her singing some words quietly to herself:  I snuck forward and listened.  "My-nah!  My-nah!  My-nah!"

Was that the name?

It wasn't until I was lying in bed later that night that it came to me.  I don't think she was saying a name, but I am 99% certain that she was letting us know that she thinks that doll is "Mine!  Mine!  Mine!"




Patch is perfecting the art of being a little brother.  Earlier in the week I heard shrieking from Sadie and came out to find that Patch was standing over her, covered in banana, giggling, threatening to wipe his banana covered hands on her.



Sadie's wheat allergy has gotten more and more severe to the point when she can no longer have anything with wheat without a fairly disastrous 24 hours following (when the test results first came back the only effect we'd seen was a "tummy ache" and her doctor had actually said it would probably be okay for her to have it occasionally... but we seem to be past that point now...).

She's also been begging for doughnuts.  But gluten free dairy free doughnuts are not inexpensive (or easy to find).  So last week I went on Amazon and looked at doughnut tins, determined to find a way to make her gluten free dairy free doughnuts.  After finding a Donut Pan (it's the exact one I just linked too) that shipped for less than $10 I decided to give it a try.

I decided to try out a gluten free cake mix I'd had lying around that I knew the kids liked.  Twenty minutes later we had success!  The doughnuts were devoured by all three of them... and I was so happy to see Sadie have a treat that she normally can't have!


Now to experiment with some homemade recipes (I tried one yesterday and ended up with a caramel burn and doughnuts that wouldn't stay together... so on to another recipe!)!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

3 comments:

  1. My Little Crow is very much the boy. I have never seen a child who can get so dirty so FAST. And he really does torment his older sister. Not that she didn't set herself up for it. ah well, it is normal.

    My hubby teases any child who uses his name by giving them a name that is not their name-- it is funny.

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  2. So very glad Mae is on the mend! I hope you have a great weekend!

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  3. Have you tried the Babycakes cookbooks? Gluten free, vegan recipes. They use a lot of flours and are tricky the first few times, but suddenly cookies, cupcakes, brownies, doughnuts, pies, cobblers, etc will be back on the menu! Our family is not even gluten free and we use some of those recipes in place of "standard" baking.

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