Well if we ever wondered

if Dovi's Clonidine actually did anything to help him sleep...



it does.



Today, I refilled Dovi's Clonidine. Correction:



I walked into Target and asked the loverly people at the pharmacy (you all recall my love of the Target pharmacy-and if I was snazzy on Blogger I'd have a cutesy link to my previous posts of adoration about the Target pharmacy. But I'm not. So you'll either have to just nod b/c I'm nuts or look back into the archives yourselves) to refill his Clonidine.



I then wandered the Target for about 40 minutes, looking for this sponge holder for my kitchen sink. Yes, you read this correctly. I have this vision in my head of this soft plastic thingy that sits over the middle of my sink divider to hold my meat and dairy sponges. It exists. I've seen it. Somewhere. But evidentally not at Target. It does at Container Store. Here you go. Luckily, there is a Container Store 3 blocks from my office that I will visit tomorrow at lunch. After I go grocery shopping, to the fruit store, and to the auto parts store for a turn signal bulb to con one of the guys at the shop to replace for me. For free.





So I wandered the aisles of Target for, I kid you not, 25 minutes looking for this item. The other 15 minutes I spend actually getting things I needed-including a green and white soccer ball that Elisha requested for a birthday party this afternoon. How on earth Target had the EXACT soccer ball Elisha requested, I will never know. But they did.



So after I unsuccessfully looked for this item for almost half an hour, I got in line to pay, for among other things, my FAKE Sigg water bottle! and the biggest scam ever, "swim" shampoo by Suave for Shana's strawlike hair-I guarantee you it's the same exact shampoo as the regular one, repackaged with a cute dolphin on the bottle for $1 more. Whatever.



I forgot the cardinal rule at my Target-near-my-work:



Watch out for the sloth-like check out girl. There is one girl at my Target, who I'm sure is just a lovely girl. I'm sure she's pleasant as all get-go. But she is possibly the SLOWEST check out girl in the history of the world-it's one of those painful experiences where you just want to reach over the conveyor belt and swipe the shampoo yourself as she slllllloowwwwwllllllllyyyyyyy, cccccaaaaaarrrrreeeeefffffuuuuulllllllyyyyy moves each item over the scanner.



So after I stood in line for 10 minutes (with one girl in front of me. Who spent $166 on random t-shirts and a picture frame for posters!), I was so incredibly annoyed and late that I then rushed out of the store.



And forgot Dovi's Clonidine at the pharmacy.

Happy Birthday, Old Man!

So my bil David (he of the entire baseball uniform, remember?) is 35 today.
Happy Birthday! Glad you enjoyed your pedi :)

On to more exciting notes:

I have finally given away the big blue beanbag. Anyone who has been in my house has commented on the ENORMOUS denimish beanbag on my den floor. My red den. With the brown couch. And red and brown rug. With black painted wood furniture.

We are the third owners of the blessed beanbag. It is big. It is ugly. It is also very comfortable. Dovi loves it. He tends to go to sleep in it in the morning after getting up at 6 am and ripping his BiPap off his face.

But it is also heinous. and HUGE. Hence why my best friend Keren gave it to me-her dh could not cope with the hideousness of it anymore. After her friend could not deal with it anymore.

So I called my lovely neighbor. She has four boys. In five years. I've so far passed on my train table to her. Now she gets the beanbag.

I told them that when they can't cope with it anymore to pass it on to someone else.

Library Report

I just got back from the library.
Overdue fees:

$24.10!!

Ouch. But because I have absolutely no self control, I mosied over to the new releases anyway. Took out 3 books.
Even though I have about 8 books at home.
That I have not read.

I must return them by August 19. Anyone want to take responsibility for this?

I also need to call Dovi's orthodontist. He has wicked mouth sores from the 2 remaining brackets-and no matter how much wax I put on those little suckers he still has little parts of his inner lips rubbed raw. Poor guy :(

What the heck?!?!?!

I just got stung by a bumble bee....

on my forehead by my hairline!

Seriously?

I sat on my glider (which btw I successfully saved from destruction by my lawn crew with a very rude note this morning) with Shoshana's Cinderella ice pack on my head while ESJ did the slip and slide with our neighbors.

I felt ridiculous.

that was just

My overdue list at the library....
If my math is correct....
20 overdue books * 13 days overdue * $.05 cents per day per book

=

$16 in overdue fines

Ummmm

Time to start using Dovi's library card for a while!!

YIKES

	Title		Due Date
1	The friendship test /		07/28/2008	renew »
2	Loving Frank /		07/28/2008	renew »

Overdue

	Title		Due Date
1	The girl who stopped swimming /		07/15/2008
2	Cocktails for three /		07/15/2008
3	I don't like to read! /		07/15/2008
4	Franklin's school treasury /		07/15/2008
5	The Berenstain Bears go back to school /		07/15/2008
6	George and Martha encore.		07/15/2008
7	George and Martha.		07/15/2008
8	The teddy bear /		07/15/2008
9	Shanna's ballerina show /		07/15/2008
10	Woman in red /		07/15/2008
11	Six silly foxes /		07/15/2008
12	Sam and Jack : three stories /		07/15/2008
13	Popcorn /		07/15/2008
14	Come here, Tiger /		07/15/2008
15	Ella Sarah gets dressed /		07/15/2008
16	Babyville : a novel /		07/15/2008
17	The little lady agency and the prince/		07/15/2008
18	Help wanted, desperately /		07/15/2008
19	Priceless /		07/15/2008
20	Dear Prince Charming /		07/15/2008

Thoughts on the D

So Dovi leaves for Camp Simcha on Aug 14. Hopefully this year I will not get a $250 speeding ticket on my way up to Glen Spey.

He is gone during that difficult time for working moms: between camp and school. Yay! Seriously makes my life soooo much easier-it's very hard to pull off childcare for Mr. Dov.

I just found a backyard camp for ESJ for 1 of the weeks-they have a week and a half off. I posted a request for info on camps on facebook, someone responded with info, I called up the girl who is running the camp, and signed them up. The whole sign-up process took a whopping 4 minutes. For 3 kids. Name, Ages, Phone number, we'll email you the forms. That's all.

It got me thinking just how hard EVERYTHING is with Dovi. Never have I simply called and enrolled him for anything. Every single solitary Dovi endeavor requires umpteen phone calls back and forth, meetings, pages and pages of notes, faxes, and emails. Feeding schedules, med schedules, equipment lists, emergency info, directions on everything, doctor lists, and on and on ad infinitum.

It's never really kit me before how incredibly COMPLICATED everything for the D is. I guess b/c I've been doing it for almost 11 years it just becomes second nature-of course we need to spend 1/2 an hour discussing Dovi's feeding and med schedule. How else would it be?

Well now I know.

SMOs

Well we thought that now that Dovi is almost 11, we had escaped the need for orthotics. No such luck.

If you've been following the blog, you know that Dovi has been having lots of foot/ankle issues-his ankles collapsing, swelling, etc. We have taken umpteen x-rays. Nothing is wrong, but his ankles are just bad-arch collapsing, mobility in the ankle decreasing. Who knows.

So D got casted last night for SMO's-little orthotics which will fit into his shoes and go up right above his ankles, thus giving him the support he seems to be lacking..

Hopefully he will stop walking like a duck :)

RIP

Nebulizer

After 7 long years of service to Dovi, the nebulizer has finally bitten the dust.

I turned it on this morning. It made a pathetic whining noise...and that was it.

Plugged it in to a few more outlets, and nothing.

We figure it was used approximately 5000 times over the 7 years.

RIP, Pari ProNeb Ultra. You served us well.

I'm exhausted!

My sister in law Rochie and I took our kids to the big parking lot behind one of the schools here to teach the kids (my 3 and her 1)to ride without training wheels.

Dovi needs a bigger bike, then we can discuss it-guess we're heading to Toys R Us this weekend.

But within 1/2 an hour, Elisha, Shana, and Jakie were all riding without training wheels! I spent the next hour and a half running the equivalent of a city block next to them whooping and cheering.

Then it was time to go home.

Oh My Lord.

We had ridden there (then WITH the training wheels), so obviously we had to ride home. It was 6 blocks-not bad, right?

So I put 1 training wheel back on to each bike b/c they were still riding in that speedy out of control manner-holy cow was it exhausting to get them home!

It took us 1/2 an hour to go 6 blocks! They kept crashing (WITH a training wheel!), falling over, rolling into the grass, running me over (while I was pulling Dovi on his bike b/c he was wiped too), and generally being irritating.

I almost had Rochie come and pick us up it was so insane.

But we made it!

They are very proud. I am very tired.

Family Pictures

Last week, my triplet friend Amy came to visit. Well she's my friend who I happened to meet b/c we both have triplets. I'd like to think that had we met randomly, we'd be friends anyway. But frankly we never would have met had we not had triplets, so I guess she is my triplet friend :)

Amy is also a photographer-and an excellent one at that! I had told her that I wanted lovely pictures of Dovi. Dovi is notoriously hard to photograph-he just looks so....disabled. It's like photographs bring out the worst in him, not the best. He is anti-photogenic (is there a word for that?)

We had a lovely time-hung out, chatted, chatted, etc. I fell asleep all 3 nights mid conversation-I am just not a 1 am gal anymore!

Either way, on day 3 we took family pictures. As I told Amy, they make mt heart happy. Here ya go!

Correction

Dovi is not adjusting to his BiPap. He hates it.
Rats.

Prayers for my mom, please-she is in the hospital with severe headaches and low platelets (long story short, she has been having platelet issues for a few years now and is on medication to lower her high platelet count...it seems to have done it a little too well) but they would like to figure out the cause of the severe headaches-so severe she's on OxyContin today....

A little update

As you all know, last Thursday night, Dovi "slept" (and I use that term loosely) at Children's to get his BiPap titrated. He actually slept for 5 of the 16 hours we were at Children's.

But, Benjie and I have decided that Children's is FAR superior to Evanston for Dovi-they actually STOCK HIS FORMULA!!!! Who knew? Usually we need to bring it from home to Evanston. That alone will make us switch!

But also, now that he's on BiPap, it's possible that he will need to be admitted every time to the PICU-I don't know if they'll administer BiPap on a regular floor-I'm looking into it now...

But to update the Dovi BiPap situation...

He truly looks pathetic. Kinda like Hannibal Lechter to tell the truth! but amazingly, he IS adjusting! The first night, he cried and cried. I felt like a terrible person. But then we looked at the equation:

Dovi + BiPap = Alive

Dovi - BiPap = maybe not

So we forced him. Every night, he's gotten better and better. He's a little trooper-I don't think Benjie had to lie down with him at all last night!

So we're getting there.

But his room is looking more and more like a hospital ward...

Well that was depressing

I just went 2 miles. Unfortunately I cannot say that I ran 2 miles. I actually ran 1/2 a mile, walked 1/2 a mile, ran 1/2 a mile, and walked 1/2 a mile. It's SOOOOO depressing!

I guess that's what I get for not running since March :(

I've come to a conclusion

There are some people for whom life is pretty easy. Things happen as they should, life cycle events come and go, but on the whole it's a relatively simple ride.

There are other people for whom life is a boxing match that leaves you battered and bruised. I've decided that this is my (and Benjie's and Dovi's) lot in life. The pat 24 hours are an excellent illustration of my analogy.

Yesterday at 9 am Dovi had an appointment to get his upper braces on. For those of you who have been reading this lovely blog, you might recall that Dovi has major orthodontic issues which will be hopefully repaired after we pay Dr. Kerzner the entire lifetime income of residents of some Third World Countries (or 1/3 of the JTP, Amy, Gretchen, and Steph if you are reading this....)

So....we went. We tried. Dovi screamed. We got on 5 brackets in his front upper teeth. Dr. Kerzner did not even attempt the bands at this session. Dovi chose red and blue rubber bands (Cubs colors of course)

I got to work by 11 am. Told them at camp that he might be a little sensitive, etc and to brush his teeth after lunch.

I picked the kids up at 3:30 as normal...decided (not sure why this was a good idea) to use the razor blade I got from work to scrape off my city sticker while parked on the side of camp and the kids ate snacks in the car at 3:35. Not sure why it had to be done then, but it did. Well, in the midst of my scraping, my cell phone fell out of the car and into a puddle.

Shoddily made Razr+Water Puddle=dead phone.

Went home. Everyone went inside. I looked at Dovi's mouth closely. I noticed that 3 of his brackets were no longer adhered to his teeth! They were attached to the wire by the rubber bands, but that was it! Oh and the wire was stuck in his little lip :(

Called Dr. Kerzner. "How quickly can you get here?" It was 4:25. We were on the way by 4:28. Oh I forgot to tell you all that Dovi had to be at Children's Hospital at 6:30 for his overnight sleep study on BiPap to get all the settings correct.

Now don't forget, my cell phone was dead, I had no idea how long this would take, I had all the children, and I had to be at Children's in 2 hours (for you Chicagoans, Dr. Kerzner is in Old Orchard and Children's is in Lincoln Park). I called Benjie and told him to call his mom, ask her if when she finished work she would go to our house and call Benjie and he would tell her what to pack up for the sleep study b/c I had no idea how long we would be.

So off we went. Got to Dr. Kerzner at 5:00, and they got us out by 5:20-they simply removed the wire and unadhered brackets and left on the 2 that were still attached.

Got home by 5:40, dropped the kids with my mil (she was waiting for the babysitter to arrive), and ran by Great Chicago to pick up dinner for me, Benjie, and Dovi.

Got to Children's and they informed us that his room was not going to be ready until 7:30. We went down to the cafeteria and ate our dinner, and got up to the room at 7:45. I left at 8:15, got home by 8:40, cleaned up the disasterous house (it still has not recovered from our weekend away-I have not had an evening to regroup!), and cooked for Shabbos.

Benjie called me at 11 and told me that NO, we were not going to be released at 5 am as the sleep people told us, we'd be released 9ish after the PICU docs rounded. This was completely contrary to what the sleep people said, but what choice did we have? Oh and as opposed to what sleep told us, YES we were taking home a BiPap machine. So basically they reversed all that sleep medicine told us.

At 7 am I called my mil and begged her to come back YET AGAIN to my house so I could run to the hospital so Benjie could come home, shower, and go to work. She got to me by 7:45. and off I went, assuming we'd be released by 9, 9:30, MAYBE 10 the latest.

When I got there, the nurse told me that no, we were not leaving after they rounded. The attending PICU doc wanted to SPEAK to Dr. Sheldon once he got the sleep study results and then we would leave-minimally not before noon. I told the nurse that I was very upset-I had gotten COMPLETELY different info from sleep medicine the day before. By this point it was 10:30. They called sleep medicine-and Genevive (the BiPap coordinator) was shocked to hear that we were still there! As were we...

A few strings were pulled, a few phone calls were made, and we were out at 11-only 6 hours after they originally told us.

I informed both the PICU and the sleep medicine people that they had better get their acts together-this was RIDICULOUS!

Got Dovi to camp by 11:30, and me to work by noon-I'd like you all to know that my office is 7 minutes from Children's-but I had to first drive 1/2 an hour north to take Dovi to camp and then 1/2 an hour back south to work.

Oh and my phone, which seemed to have come back to life briefly last night, is dead again.

And I'm supposed to be getting a call from Home Health to coordinate the BiPap delivery. today. oops.

THE KIDS!!!!

Our lovely weekend revisited

We had such a lovely time in Milwaukee!
We went down on Thursday afternoon. Stayed at the Hilton as we planned-the kids had a BLAST at the water park! It was definately not a park for older kids-but perfect for my crew. We spent 3 hours there on Thursday and 4 hours on Friday! Miracle of miracles, Dovi's oxygen was delivered as ordered and the kids slept well. Shana ASKED to go to bed at 7:30! Since our kids are such party poopers, we missed out on the fireworks for July 4. Such is life.

Minor panic ensued when we realized that we (ok I) forgot Dovi's feeding pump in Chicago, but Aliza's friend Sharrone was coming in on Friday morning and she graciously swung by my in-laws to pick it up.

Friday afternoon we went to visit my father for a bit, and then continued on to Glendale, with a detour through The East Side to show the kids where Mommy grew up...it was so bittersweet! The East Side is so absolutely beautiful-gorgeous houses, land, parks, etc. Unlike stinky West Rogers Park. Well whatever.

Then we went up to Glendale for Shabbos. We stayed at a family we've known my entire life-the Teppers. OMG they were so lovely! We had 3 spacious bedrooms and a bathroom all to ourselves. They live on a pond, and the kids were obsessed with looking for tadpoles and frogs-which they found.

Shabbos was absolutely lovely. We ate both meals at the Glaser's house. The amazing Milwaukee caterer Patrick (of Terrence and Patrick fame-unfortunately Terrence passed away 8 years ago from melanoma) did Friday night-I was completely returning to my youth seeing him! Food was spectacular, and everyone was just so HAPPY.

Our Friday night walk home from the Glasers was a little harrowing-Glendale, lovely suburban area that it is, has neither sidewalks nor streetlights. Elisha and Shana had both fallen asleep at the Glasers. So....Benjie wore reflective gear. He carried Elisha the 20 minute walk. Shana rode on Dovi's wheelchair on his lap! Jacob, little trooper that he is, walked the entire way!

Shabbos was very nice-the kids had fun playing with Bug and Bella, Aliza's sister's dogs. They loved the shnoodle so much that we are ever so slightly tempted....someone bop me on the head! I do NOT need a dog-but they sure did love them-especially Dovi!

The Shabbos Kallah was lovely-I ended up speaking, a bit unplanned-evidentally Aliza asked me weeks ago to speak-but I sompletely forgot-but I pulled it together!

Now, onto the wedding...it was absolutely AMAZING. Everyone who was there was jsut so HAPPY to be there. ALiza looked amazing, Hillel was over the moon, and everyone had a blast!

I saw tons and tons of people from my past-my kindergarten, 4th and 6th grade teachers, as well as almost half of my childhood classmates.

Dancing was amazing-everyone jut had a blast.

And my kids.....pics to follow.

Off to Millie-wau-kay

We're off to Milwaukee in the morning-Sunday is
ALIZA AND HILLEL'S WEDDING!!!!!
Yes, we're rather excited-expecially Miss Shoshana in her fancy shmancy gown and Dovi in his new suit. And the boys are rather thrilled about their tuxedos.

Now hopefully Elisha will kick the bug he has and no one else will get it.

We decided to make a little vacay of it and we're going to the Hilton Paradise Landing-it's a water park hotel www.paradiselanding.com the kids are thrilled-but frankly have no idea what they are in for (and neither do Benjie and I). We'll sleep there tomorrow night and go to Glendale for Shabbos on Friday afternoon.

Now, to hope that Dovi's oxygen concentrator gets delivered as Walgreens has promised...I'm not hopeful after this week's debacle of a supply delivery...

Either way, Happy 4th of July, everyone!!

Oh and Amy, if you're reading, I got noodles and water wings-make both of us happy :)

Rant Update

The camp director called me back yesterday and was suitably appalled. She
1) asked me who it was (yes, I told her)
2) told me she'll write a blurb in the newsletter
3) told me she'd stake out the lot this morning and put notes on people's windshields.

Sure enough, when I pulled up this morning, there was a car in the yellow crosshatch spaces. It was a different person today than yesterday! I pulled up and told Wendy. Off she went!

Oh and on the topic of the Dirty Dancing post (no relation to this post :) ):
I WAS JOKING, MOMMY!!!!