I am a medicine man, I do a medicine dance-- Bobby McFerrin
I am a medicine man, I sing a medicine chant
I am a medicine man, I have a medicine tale
I am a medicine man, I walk a medicine trail
Couldn't figure a way to embed the song as background music for the post, but it's available for a free listen at this link (click the play button on the widget on the right of the page you come to).
Medicine. Hoo boy, do we got medicine at this house. Here's the dosing that I'm responsible for:
- For JoyMama first thing in the morning: swallow 3 pills, inhale one dose.
- For Joy at breakfast: one oral syringe, four chewable pills, one powdered dose mixed in yogurt.
- For Rose at breakfast: one oral syringe
- For Joy at lunch: one oral syringe (Lynda administers this on daycare days)
- For Rose at lunch: one capsule mixed into yogurt (on school days we move this to breakfast or dinner)
- For Rose at dinner: one oral syringe
- For Joy half an hour before bedtime: one oral syringe, four chewable tablets, three tablets crushed and mixed with jam.
- For JoyMama at bedtime: Inhale one dose.
It's a lot to keep track of, and I imagine some of you have meds routines that are more complicated still than this!
Unfortunately Rose & Joy's meds don't lend themselves to pre-loading into those daily pill-boxes, since so much is powder and liquid.
Fortunately all the Rose dosing will drop out in a couple of days -- she's getting antibiotics for strep, and acidophilus to try and keep some good bugs in her. (As an entomologist-in-training, she loves the terminology "good bugs / bad bugs" though she knows we're not really talking about insects. After all, her doses don't have an exoskeleton, six legs, and three body parts...)
You know, this recent series of posts reminds me of one of my fascinations as a grade-schooler. I used to love the anatomy pages in our Compton's Encyclopedia set (I think that was the one; we acquired a more up-to-date Collier's set later on, if I recall correctly. As if that matters, other than to a librarian!) Instead of the regular paper, these were transparent overlays, building a human being from the back to the front. Each overlay added more organs and bones and whatnot, all with terminology and descriptions. I remember that's how I learned the word "esophagus," because I had to ask a parent how to pronounce it!
Anyway. It strikes me that with these recent posts, I'm building an anatomy of our days, one overlay at a time. I've still got a few more overlays to go before the post of what a House Blend session looks like. This meds-dosage overlay doesn't apply to that, but does of course apply to the anatomy of the daily routine here.
1 comment:
That is definitely a complex medicine schedule to keep! I'm glad that some of the meds, at least for Rose, will only be temporary. As for Joy, that will be a challenge for her for a long time if not for her whole life. At some point, far in the future, you will need to deal with the issue of whether or not Joy can take responsibility for taking her own meds. But for now, at least, it is totally the responsibility of you and JoyDad. Hopefully, though, as she gets older, you will be able to get away from the liquids and powders and more towards pills which will allow you to use pill cases to keep track. We use them around here for our various meds (not as complex as your schedule) because I often can't seem to remember if pills have been taken that day or not! And, although Joy's cousin MWJ is responsible for taking his own meds when he is away at college, I do still seem to somehow step right back into the role of "supervisor" when he is home for breaks. I find myself checking the pill case each day to see if he has taken his meds and if not, I remind him until he does!(Okay, he might describe this as "nagging!") So, I guess the mom responsibilities don't really ever go away completely for any kids!! LOL!
ARatK
Post a Comment