THE "F" WORD

No, not THAT "F" word, get your dang mind out of the gutter. These "F" words:

FOOTBALL - Anyone who knows me knows I get giddy when football season rolls around. Not many sports to watch during the summer - baseball, golf, tennis. Eh, no thanks. Give me touchdowns, helmets, the Colts (they won today by the way), and a TV remote and I'm good for a whole weekend.  

FALL - Happy Fall is Officially Here Day! Absolutely love this time of year, my favorite season by far. Goodbye hot, humid, sticky, nasty weather. Hello crisp, cool temperatures, sweatshirts, Halloween, bonfires (somebody needs to invite me to one just sayin), pumpkin and apple-flavored food and drinks. It all brings me much happiness.

FRIENDS AND FUN - My BFF and I packed up and headed to Lexington (about 80 miles away) yesterday for the Blake Shelton concert. Had an absolute blast. Met some friends for drinks and dinner before the show. They dropped us off at Rupp. It was an awesome concert, Blake put on a good show. Met up with some other friends after the show for more drinks. Got a taxi back to the hotel. Yep, that's right, I left Colby overnight again. Two times in 2.5 months, that's just crazy talk. It was so nice spending time with my bestie. Just the 2 of us, being our usual goofy selves. Ready to do it again soon!

FIVE - The number of days in a week Colby has gone to school the past 2 weeks. All 5 days, Colby you are so awesome. He had a really good week at school this past week. I never thought I'd see the day when he could go to school this much. There are some nights he's definitely tired, but not over-the-top tired/exhausted. Such a big boy. Very, very proud of him. Another F - FUNNY eye gaze story. They were in class one day, and one of Colby's classmates, well, no other way to say it, farted. The kid passed gas right in the middle of class time. Colby looked at his eye gaze and said, "really?" Is that not hilarious?! I said oh he did not, and his nurse said, yep, he certainly did. Never a dull moment in that classroom for sure.  

FORWARD - The direction I wanted Colby to drive his chair today.  As in okay Colby, you are to follow directions and drive straight ahead to the end of the parking lot. What Colby chose to do was right turns, left turns and playing with the recline and leg rest functions. He was told ahead of time, look Colby, you have a choice. Do what's asked of you, drive forward, plain and simple. If you make the choice not to do it, your punishment will be no Spongebob for the rest of the night. Thank goodness Colby's nurse is here because we're kind of making her out to be the bad guy. Colby had 20 or so chances to drive forward, he chose to do the other stuff. Hence, therefore, as a result, no Spongebob for you, little mister. Then on his eye gaze he said, "come, dad, dad, dad, Spongebob." I'm like oh heck no, Colby. There is no going to your daddy and getting out of this one. This is the decision you made, deal with the consequences. This child's stubbornness is wearing this mama out!  

Time for me to get to watching the football game. More in a few days when I get some time or something worth blogging about occurs, haha.

HAPPY DAYS LATELY

I have good news to share. Isn't that a relief?! You can read a nice, peaceful blog update from me for a change.

So I guess in some cases the squeaky wheel really does get the oil. Or in this case, the bitchy mom gets the supplies. After many unpleasant phone calls and stern voicemails, the trachs that I ordered for Colby on August 16th were delivered yesterday. Yep, a full month later. Oh Apria, how I love dealing with your constant screw-ups. But, we do have them in our possession and can use them for Colby's biweekly trach change tomorrow. My mom wants to do his trach change this time, just in case she would ever have to watch Colby in case all 5 nurses were unavailable. Hey, believe me, that has happened. Go Linda, you'll be fine!

There was a screw up getting the saline bullets for Colby's nebulizer and IPV treatments. Insurance didn't approve them, but Passport did, but not for the total number we need monthly. So I was having to buy the remainder out of pocket. Then it seemed like we were getting fewer and fewer paid for. Just a mess. So I called insurance and said yo, what's up, why are you not covering this expense? Stupid ass customer service rep proceeds to tell me sterile saline packaged in 3 mL individual capsules is an over-the-counter medication. What a moron. I simply said, I assure you they are not. I cannot walk into my local Kroger and buy these off the shelves. She continued to argue with me, which only pissed me off royally. I had not only the pulmonary nurse call her back, but also a pharmacist at Kroger to get the crap straight. The crap is now straight J Went to Kroger and picked up 450 saline bullets for the month ahead. Aaaaah, it's the little victories that bring me such joy.

And last but not least, we are now getting Colby's Mepilex Lite covered by insurance. This is a biggie. The stuff is major expensive and Colby uses the crap out of it. But of course it didn't come without several problems, too. Called insurance (you seeing a pattern of how I spend a great deal of my time?) and said hey, is this covered or not? Insurance customer service rep dude says yes, I say great. There was an issue on whether or not we would have to pay co-insurance on it. Another couple of phone calls. Was finally told yes, Mepilex Lite is covered by Colby's insurance, and no, we wouldn't owe anything. Good gravy, finally! Would you just ship the stuff already?! Oh, they sent a shipment…of regular Mepilex, not the Lite. Well shit the bed. Called again, said this isn't correct. They said they would ship out Mepilex Lite. Super duper. The next shipment we got was for Mepilex Lite Border, not just plain Mepilex Lite. I'm not making this crap up, I swear this is exactly what happened. So, 3rd time is a charm, we received a shipment of plain old Mepilex Lite a couple days ago. For the love of corn, how hard can it be?

I've had a great birthday today. Got lots of calls, cards and texts, which all made me smile. I'm surrounded by a lot of people who truly care about and love me. Good grief, what more could I possibly ever want/need? Okay, not going to lie, I bought some lottery tickets, because I want/need money, any form or any amount. Colby's nurse brought me a big birthday cupcake, and my boss at work got me some banana pudding. Went to Smokey Bones with my BFF Kim. Colby gave me a beautiful bracelet and a super big, cool coffee mug. Aaaaah, such a sweet boy. Got a mani/pedi from my dad, and my mom is getting me a much-needed pair of tennis shoes. Mine have had the lick. Oh yeah, and my stepdad took me to Red Lobster the other night for endless shrimp. Me, spoiled? Maybe just a tad. But I'm worth it, dangit.

I'm tired. So tired I'm not even going to stay up and watch Duck Dynasty. Off to bed I go. Must be on my toes for another day of training at the new job tomorrow.  

QUICK UPDATE, CUZ I NEED SLEEP

Why don't I just do blogs every day, or at least every other day? It's so much easier for me that way. I haven't blogged in over a week, so I'm sitting here thinking, what should I talk about? What should I talk about the most? What should I talk about the least? Do I start from last week and work my way forward, or update from today and work my way backward. Yes, this really IS how my brain works. As one of my BFFs put on Facebook a couple weeks ago: sometimes I feel more confused than a mood ring on a schizophrenic chameleon in a bag of Skittles. That cracks me up, it's so me! You know, our lives are so stinking exciting, there's sooooo much to discuss (sarcasm). So here comes an update, in no particular order, no rhyme or reason.

I survived new employee orientation last week. Barely, but I did. It was excruciatingly painful. Anyone who has been forced to go through these stupid things knows exactly what I'm talking about. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, wants to play get-to-know-you bingo at 7:30 in the morning. But I did it, and now I'm an official employee of the hospital. The best way to summarize my new job is holy shit. Very fast paced, very detail oriented, a lot to learn, and on my feet all day. OMG what have I gotten myself into?

Took Colby to the Center for Courageous Kids camp this past weekend. We love this place. This was our 3rd time going. Honestly, we were this close to not going. Another lovely requirement with my new job was I had to have a Tdap booster shot, which made me feel extremely yucky for about 36 hours. Flu-like symptoms and very lethargic. I thought there is no way I can get this kid to camp. Plus my BFF Kim was going with us, as she has all the other times, and she had to work later than expected. But we rallied. Loaded up the van and headed to Scottsville, KY for camp. It's a major amount of work, but it was so worth it. On Saturday, Colby got to visit with friends. We went to arts and crafts where he made a Spongebob sponge character. How fitting for him, huh? Then we off to horseback riding. This was also Colby's 3rd time for that, but I'm telling you, it's nerve-wracking. He did great though. Then it was off to the lodge for lunch, then nap time. Any camp that has a built-in nap time is okie-dokie by me! After siesta Colby had his 1st fishing adventure. Look at the fish he/we caught! Then we went bowling. Headed back to the lodge for supper. They had a movie night afterward, but we were just to pooped to pop. We went to bed instead. Got up the next morning, had breakfast at the lodge. Colby played his 1st game of Yahtzee. Then we packed up and headed out, got home about 4:00. It was a busy, exhausting weekend, but it was AWESOME. Colby did so well. Can't wait for next year's camp to roll around.  

Okay, it's after 11:00 and I'm tired. Very tired. And 5:45 will be rolling around before I know it. G'nite, chaps, and toodles for now.

 

MONDAY'S MEMO

Going to try and do an update. Forgive me if I'm even more scatterbrained than usual. Actually even a good bit nervous at the moment. More about that later, though.

Our weekend was decent. Nothing earth shattering. I worked Saturday during the day. My brother, sis-in-law, nephew and niece were in town for my nephew's cross country meet, so they stopped by for a visit. This was a perfect opportunity for Colby to use his eye gaze. They had never seen him use it before. I was encouraging Colby to say conversation-appropriate things on the eye gaze - what's up, hi, how are you, etc. He didn't really do a lot of that, but he did use it, and that was just fine with me. All in good time, I'm convinced.

Sunday I had Colby all to myself. Aaaaaaah, peace and quiet, my FAVORITE times nowadays, Colby and Mama time. Colby's dad was out of town, so he wasn't here for his weekly 3-hour visit with Colby. I told the nursing agency, no need for a nurse either. He has been gunky as all get out lately. He's at the end of taking his antibiotic, so you would think he'd be all better. I came to the conclusion that it was time to start the Robinol back. Oh boy, here we go again. But I really didn't have a choice. He has been struggling to sit up without choking, and his secretions are everywhere. So I'm starting out a very small dosage, 0.5 mL 4x daily, and we'll see how it goes. Just can't find that balance between drying up Colby's oral secretions and not drying up Colby's trach secretions. The fun never ends around here.

Today I worked. Nothing like laboring on Labor Day I suppose. Then the night nurse and I gave Colby a bath. Can't have him stinky you know. Tomorrow I start a new adventure. Here's where the nervous part comes into play. I'm starting a new job at the hospital. Not giving up my part time pre-pack job. This is in addition. Super excited about it, yet super nervous at the same time. As long as Colby stays healthy enough, I'll be able to do it. All day tomorrow and Wednesday I have orientation. Yuck. I mean super yuck. I went through it 5 years ago when I was hired for the pre-pack technician job. It's super sucky. But I'm not looking at it that way. I'm going into this with a good attitude. First of all, I'm getting paid for going to orientation. Second of all, this is a very good step in the right direction to make a better life for Colby and me. Thirdly, I'm getting paid for going to orientation. I can do this! New adventure, here I come! Send some good luck vibes my way if you have time. I'll let you know how it goes.