Sunday, July 15, 2007
drawing blood from a 18 month old
is one of the worse parenting experiences i've had so far. malachi and i went to his routine 18 month old dr.'s appointment on friday. my main concern was the cough he has had the last 3 weeks and figuring out what solution the dr. may suggest.
the appointment went great, even as we waited through the use of their new computer system, the dr. coming in... malachi's lungs sounded great so we are going to wait out the cough for awhile before we try allergy meds. so i'm thinking he is a healthy boy, weight and height are good, he eats well, so lets go.
well then the dr. mentions that when he turned 1 he showed slight (like real slight) anemia. so since then he has been taking a multi-vitamin - good. then the dr. says we should check to see if he is still anemic and also look at his iron, and this time they'll need more blood so they can't just do a finger prick. now at this point i should have asked some questions, but it was the end of the appointment, we had been there an hour already. so to anyone who ever has this experience - maybe ask - what makes you think my child is anemic? what are the signs of this? does my child have them?
but i failed to ask so we went down to the lab after our 2 immunizations to get his blood drawn. we sit down and the tech asks me to place him front of me, ok, my stomach is only sticking out 3 feet so this proves to be a bit difficult but i do it. malachi starts whimpering when the tubing is tied on his arm, kids are so smart. i start to think i hope he isn't like me and faints when he gets his blood drawn because i don't know what i would do. then the tech gives him 3 stickers, this must trigger something in his mind because when you get 1 sticker for 2 shots, 3 stickers must mean this is really going to hurt. he starts screaming. as you know malachi is a pretty low key kid so tears streaming down his face and screaming i attempt to hold him as she draws blood - nope won't work - need another person to come and hold his arm. so three adults, one child, and the blood isn't coming out to the tech's liking. so she stops and says we're going to have to do it on the other arm. i think, are you kidding, at this point i start to think i should just get up and leave now, i can't do this again. so we get a little break and malachi through whimpering and tears drinks some capri sun the tech has given as a peace offering. what he doesn't know is that we are going to do it all over again. round two. proceeds much like the first round although this time they get the blood they need. i notice that during this time they are not drawing anyone else's blood, i'm sure they wanted to spare anyone else from seeing a little boy cry his eyes out.
so his blood is drawn - we're done. i feel like i just tortured my son. but he does stop crying by the time we get to the car. only a few times through out the rest of the day did he point to his arm and say ouch.
now i have the tiniest perspective into how hard it would be to have a sick child who needed to do these kinds of tests regularly. my heart to goes out to all those parents and kids.
the next time they want to draw malachi's blood for something i'm asking some questions about the need to do it and if it needs to be done ryan is coming along too.
the appointment went great, even as we waited through the use of their new computer system, the dr. coming in... malachi's lungs sounded great so we are going to wait out the cough for awhile before we try allergy meds. so i'm thinking he is a healthy boy, weight and height are good, he eats well, so lets go.
well then the dr. mentions that when he turned 1 he showed slight (like real slight) anemia. so since then he has been taking a multi-vitamin - good. then the dr. says we should check to see if he is still anemic and also look at his iron, and this time they'll need more blood so they can't just do a finger prick. now at this point i should have asked some questions, but it was the end of the appointment, we had been there an hour already. so to anyone who ever has this experience - maybe ask - what makes you think my child is anemic? what are the signs of this? does my child have them?
but i failed to ask so we went down to the lab after our 2 immunizations to get his blood drawn. we sit down and the tech asks me to place him front of me, ok, my stomach is only sticking out 3 feet so this proves to be a bit difficult but i do it. malachi starts whimpering when the tubing is tied on his arm, kids are so smart. i start to think i hope he isn't like me and faints when he gets his blood drawn because i don't know what i would do. then the tech gives him 3 stickers, this must trigger something in his mind because when you get 1 sticker for 2 shots, 3 stickers must mean this is really going to hurt. he starts screaming. as you know malachi is a pretty low key kid so tears streaming down his face and screaming i attempt to hold him as she draws blood - nope won't work - need another person to come and hold his arm. so three adults, one child, and the blood isn't coming out to the tech's liking. so she stops and says we're going to have to do it on the other arm. i think, are you kidding, at this point i start to think i should just get up and leave now, i can't do this again. so we get a little break and malachi through whimpering and tears drinks some capri sun the tech has given as a peace offering. what he doesn't know is that we are going to do it all over again. round two. proceeds much like the first round although this time they get the blood they need. i notice that during this time they are not drawing anyone else's blood, i'm sure they wanted to spare anyone else from seeing a little boy cry his eyes out.
so his blood is drawn - we're done. i feel like i just tortured my son. but he does stop crying by the time we get to the car. only a few times through out the rest of the day did he point to his arm and say ouch.
now i have the tiniest perspective into how hard it would be to have a sick child who needed to do these kinds of tests regularly. my heart to goes out to all those parents and kids.
the next time they want to draw malachi's blood for something i'm asking some questions about the need to do it and if it needs to be done ryan is coming along too.
MI adventures
i am giving myself the grace to ease back into the reality of life post vacation. i think i need as many days as we were away to get everything back in order at home. so with that in mind i have another week to catch up on going through the mail, unpacking, doing laundry...
we had a great time in mi with our family and friends. photos will follow when i am able to post them. it was good to escape from ca to the green land of mi. to see real rain drops fall and drench our clothes and cool our skin. a good storm is just one pleasure we miss when living in the desert of california.
we were blessed to share time with the whole verwys family for a few days. the matching t-shirts were once again a hit. now that there are 8 great grandkids under 3 everything involved some type of adventure with one child or another. life from a child's perspective is always fun, humorous and brings you down a road you may not expect to take. it was so good to experience the richness of four generations being together in one place and the fruit of blessing falling on each day because of the faith and grace that has been passed along. we were again reminded how amazing it is to be a part of the verwys, van grouw, knibbe and vander plas families who all share an incredible testimony of faith passed one from generation to the next. it makes family gatherings a blessing, ok we know we all have our quirks, but really we do actually have fun family reunions.
after our big family shin dig we spent the rest of the time at the cottage in Grand Haven. we were able to hang out, relax and have people come over to connect. Malachi was a little more active than last year, aka we ran around a lot with him. he loved jumping off the paddle boat into the water. he thought is was great when ryan and a friend jumped off the bridge into the water from way up high, he showed this action over and over by raising his hand and making a splashing sound with his eyes wide open. the family of swans was once again thriving so ryan and malachi got to know the daddy swan well by following him in the kayak as the swan voiced his disgust at them. thankfully the swan did not feel the need to attack and protect his famiy. but according to ryan there was a plan of action if that happened.
we love mi in the summer and plan on making our summer trips a tradition to share with our boys. pics will soon show our adventures.
we had a great time in mi with our family and friends. photos will follow when i am able to post them. it was good to escape from ca to the green land of mi. to see real rain drops fall and drench our clothes and cool our skin. a good storm is just one pleasure we miss when living in the desert of california.
we were blessed to share time with the whole verwys family for a few days. the matching t-shirts were once again a hit. now that there are 8 great grandkids under 3 everything involved some type of adventure with one child or another. life from a child's perspective is always fun, humorous and brings you down a road you may not expect to take. it was so good to experience the richness of four generations being together in one place and the fruit of blessing falling on each day because of the faith and grace that has been passed along. we were again reminded how amazing it is to be a part of the verwys, van grouw, knibbe and vander plas families who all share an incredible testimony of faith passed one from generation to the next. it makes family gatherings a blessing, ok we know we all have our quirks, but really we do actually have fun family reunions.
after our big family shin dig we spent the rest of the time at the cottage in Grand Haven. we were able to hang out, relax and have people come over to connect. Malachi was a little more active than last year, aka we ran around a lot with him. he loved jumping off the paddle boat into the water. he thought is was great when ryan and a friend jumped off the bridge into the water from way up high, he showed this action over and over by raising his hand and making a splashing sound with his eyes wide open. the family of swans was once again thriving so ryan and malachi got to know the daddy swan well by following him in the kayak as the swan voiced his disgust at them. thankfully the swan did not feel the need to attack and protect his famiy. but according to ryan there was a plan of action if that happened.
we love mi in the summer and plan on making our summer trips a tradition to share with our boys. pics will soon show our adventures.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
R&R
here are a few highlights of our time in mi. i'll have to write more when i have time just thought we'd show you all our cool family reunion shirts.
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