The last few days

Well, I have spent the last three days coughing up yucky stuff and fighting a fever. I had to work today, but I managed with lots of over the counter medication. But it sure was a long day.

I don't usually mention my patients, but there is one I'd like for you all to keep in your thoughts. He's 22 years old with two small children. He has an auto immune disease that attacked his kidneys. He is now on dialysis and we are hoping that his kidneys will function again. The doctors are going to give him 6 months on dialysis before they decide if he needs a kidney transplant. At this point he will have to quit working. He is glad he will be able to spend more time with his kids. He seems to have a really good attitude, and I just want the best possible outcome for him. That would be that his kidneys start working on their own. If you could all keep him in your thoughts I would really appreciate it. I will probably never see him again, and will never know how he does, but I will always remember him. Thank you.

On to more cheerful news. Eric said he was trying to cut Rowan's hair, since it was getting in his eyes again. Rowan wouldn't let him near him with the scissors. Eric got out the clippers and put a long comb on it and gave him a buzz cut. Apparently, he doesn't mind the clippers at all. Here he is with his new hair cut. Eric says at least he looks like someone cares about him now :)

Red cheeks

Here's a picture that Eric sent to me. You can see the bright red cheek that's only on the right side. As far as we can tell, it seems to be associated with teething, but it comes and goes. He gets a low grade fever that peaks about once a day. When his temp goes up, he gets short tempered and cranky.
So far he has 8 teeth on the bottom and at least 6 on the top.
Has anyone else seen this phenomenon?

back from the cold

Well, I'm back in Texas after having spent nearly two weeks at home in Idaho. Rowan was pretty happy to see me, although I think it took him a minute to realize who the crazy person hugging his daddy was. He had changed quite a bit and looks less like a baby. He's very much full of energy. He runs everywhere he goes. Eric calls him "a very tidy child". He picks up the smallest piece of dirt off the floor and hands it to Eric or me. He expects you to throw it away now. If you put back on the floor, he gets very upset.
He also watches Eric work out with the Bowflex and listens to him grunt. So now you can ask "are you strong?" and he puts his fists in the air and grunts really loud :) His eating habits are frustrating. He really only eats fruit and bread. I guess thats ok, but he often won't eat what you're serving for dinner.
Here is a picture of him sleeping one night. I still have to get a look at him every night before I go to bed. He's just too cute. :)

While I was there, it snowed every night the last week I was there and all day one day. I was able to get my snow fix. I really missed the snow down here in Texas. At least it's now almost cold enough to call winter.
Just before I went back to Idaho, We celebrated Dad's 70th birthday. We went out to dinner and then went to Uncle Jack and Aunt Vivian's house for cake and ice cream. Yummy!
We gave Dad a hard time, cuz he went to a funeral for his birthday. Ha ha. Told him he was just getting ideas. It was a good time.
Now that I'm back, I went to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. They called me in early on Tuesday and I worked late both Tuesday and Wednesday, so it was a long three days. I spent a lot of time resting up today. I'm not sure I accomplished anything at all today. Hopefully tomorrow will be more productive.
Oh, one of the new pictures on Rowan's website is Eric holding a wild woodpecker that got into the house. Rowan loved it and kept signing "bird". Eric put it into a box for a little while to make sure it wasn't hurt and Rowan signed "bird" everytime it rustled in the box. The bird seemed to suffer no lasting harm and was released later that day.