The Diary of A Simple Man

We made these videos a few weeks ago, before he caught pneumonia. On the plus side, the antibiotic IV he got in the hospital cleared up that lip infection, too.

It's probably obvious that these were totally unscripted?

We're coming along nicely on The Return of the King, now. Merry is about to meet Dernhelm soon. Just for the record, he hasn't seen the movies at all - thank goodness!

Sebastian's been sick for the past few days. He's had a sore throat, an intermittant temperature just under 101, and complains of nausea sometimes. His doctor doesn't think it's swine flu (although nearly half of his school has swine flu now), more likely a cold; but he's had to stay home the past couple of days.

Tonight he asked me to go upstairs early. He'd found Pitter-Pat, the stuffed toy ant that I'd bought for him a while ago; he'd been lost under the bed. He set up Pitter-Pat's bed in a little box, with an old Spider-man mask for a blanket.

Once we got upstairs, he wanted to lie down and rest in his bed. This was EXTREMELY unusual, because it was nearly three hours before his bedtime! We lay down, and after a few minutes I found myself thinking that some music would be nice. I didn't say a word, but he got up. I asked what he was doing, and he said he was going to go turn on the TV in our bedroom and turn it to the New Age channel. I was amazed, because that was just what I'd been thinking of doing!

So we went to the bedroom and turned on the music. We chatted a little; he said how nice it was to relax. And then we both fell asleep.

Fortunately it wasn't hard at all to wake up up just enough to get him back into his own bed a few hours later, when Teri came upstairs. And he fell asleep again almost instantly. What a good boy!

Yesterday they took off Sebastian's cast. Teri thinks he was a little nervous when they were sawing (I'd stupidly mentioned that they'd touched my arm with the saw when they cut mine off, giving me a friction burn), but he seemed fine to me. His arm is fine, and he had a bit of the enhanced sensation I remember after the cast came off. He'll go back in two weeks for a final check, but all seems to be fine!

It was an eventful three days.

Saturday

On Saturday, we'd been asked to be designated drivers to King Richard's Faire for Teri's brother and his wife and friends. We did that last year, too.
( Read more... )

Sebastian's cast Here it is. He picked the color, of course. It's signed now - he asked me to be the first.

Two days ago I was holding our cat, Sarah. Sebastian asked me to pass her to him, so I did - but not carefully enough. She pierced him in the shoulder with one of her hind claws. It was a small deep piercing rather than a scratch.

He screamed. The clawed spot instantly turned black and looked bruised. Teri took him into the bathroom, wiped the spot down with a baby wipe, put antibacterial ointment on the scratch, and put a Spongebob Squarepants band-aid on it.

Last night she took off the band-aid. The entire area where the band-aid had been stuck was bright red and splotchy. The injury itself was clearly infected; he had a perfectly round spot about the size of a dime that had turned darkish and swollen.

After a bit of arguing (Teri sometimes seems to think that I don't know what I'm talking about) I used some hydrogen peroxide on the infection. A small scab had formed, but after several applications the scab dissolved, and the peroxide foamed up quite a bit. Sebastian was very scared, but relieved that the peroxide didn't really hurt. I kept applying peroxide until it stopped foaming.

As far as I could tell, the peroxide had affected the center of the infection; a spot in the center about the size of a large pencil eraser had visibly improved. The swelling basically disappeared. But there's still a circle around the perimeter that's dark and infected. My guess is that the peroxide couldn't penetrate that far under the skin from the central entry point.

We're going to check it again tonight. If it's not visibly better, we'll call his doctor; he may need antibiotics. I'm hoping we can avoid the necessity of having it lanced, since that would scare him very much. But unless it's swollen again, I don't think lancing will be necessary.

As for the band-aid, I checked the packaging. Sure enough, it was a latex bandage. I don't know that Sebastian is allergic to latex, but it seemed a reasonable possibility. So I put on antibacterial ointment, got a sheer latex-free band-aid (without Spongebob, but that's life), and put it on perpendicular to the orientation of the original band-aid. If he has a reaction to this one, he'll end up with a red plus-sign on his shoulder.

I'm really dead tired. But let me see...

Lots of handywork lately. I replaced the light switch inside a ceiling fan in the kitchen. I helped (a bit) Teri's brother and his wife as they put drywall up on our dining room ceiling. I helped put joint compound on the drywall. And I installed a steel floor jack in the basement.

Our living room floor had always had a tendency to shake a bit, particularly when Sebastian jumps up and down. It was a little scary. My Dad had put a 2x4 in the basement a few years ago, but it was starting to splinter. So I picked up a steel floor jack at Lowes for $40. It wasn't too hard to install, and now the floor is nice and steady.

Okay, it still creaks here and there, but it's much more solid-feeling.

And today, I did something quixotic: I bought a Wii Fit. They had a fresh shipment at Best Buy in the lobby at work, and I had some extra money, so I said "what the hell". Maybe it will help us lose weight, all three of us. I'd read mixed reviews, but it seemed worth it to spend $89 on the possibility of getting Sebastian into better shape. I worry about his weight.

It turned out well, at least tonight. We all played it, even Teri, and I worked up a damned good sweat. It's surprisingly solid and strong; I'd heard that it was only good for up to 250 lbs. (I'm over that, unfortunately), but I did some research and found out today that the American model can handle up to 330. So I can use it.

And it's fun! It's an accurate electronic scale, and it tracks our weight and BMI. I'm going to try to use it every night. It can't hurt, right?

Update: I forgot to say, the whole thing was rather synchonicity-ous. If I hadn't put the floor jack under the living room two days before, right where the Wii balance board HAD to be, the whole house would have shook when we played Wii Fit.

I took today as a v-day because we had an appointment to take Sebastian for a follow-up with a gastroenterologist in Providence this afternoon. He'd been complaining about stomach pains for years, and we'd taken him in a couple of months ago. They recommended a high-fiber diet; we hadn't been great about following it, but we did increase his fiber intake.

He's fine. The pain had pretty much disappeared over the past two months, so the doctor was pleased. He has gained five pounds, though, which isn't good. I've been nagging and nagging Teri about more fruits and vegetables, and I think that we really need to DO it now.

But anyway, let me get back to the subject.

Since the appointment was in the afternoon, Sebastian went to school today. Teri normally volunteers as a lunch lady on Tuesdays. I've never had a chance to try that, and since I was home, I figured "why not?".

It was pretty neat! It's only three grades, and the building they're in has an incredible amount of character. It's an old parochial school for grades K-3, quite small, and they're closing it down at the end of the school year. I'm afraid that they'll probably demolish it, which would be a terrible pity. Walking into that building is like walking into the 1950s or early 1960s. The sink is a real museum piece, with a round Insinkerator in the center. The room itself...well, I think I got a snapshot or two from the first time that I was there.

The kids ate quickly. We brought pizza to the kids that had tickets for it, and helped any kid who needed it. They were all awfully nice and sweet. It was over very quickly, in less than half an hour, and cleanup only took a few minutes. I really liked the whole experience. It makes me a little sad, though, because it won't be long before it's all gone.

According to an article in the Washington Post today, scientists expect to be able to regrow parts of teeth relatively soon.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/04/AR2009010401941_pf.html

It's bad.

His tooth has been capped, or something, with composite, but it's much weaker than the natural tooth. He can't bite anything firm like an apple or even a candy bar for the rest of his life. He'll have problems with it for the rest of his life, and will probably end up needing a root canal, crown, veneer, perhaps even a complete replacement.

My heart is broken. And how are we going to keep him from ever eating anything crunchy? They told him he can't even eat cookies or crunchy chicken nuggets!