Caring For Sick Boy Wears Me Out

Being sick is tiring. The worse the sickness, the more exhausting it is with your body working so hard at germ fighting that it leaves you just drained. Micah has been there. Not in the "drained" land, but definitely in the "tiring" land. He's just not really been himself, and has even just laid down on occasion simply to rest. I feel so bad for him.

Today, his meds kicked in. I'm so grateful that he's feeling better, but my gosh the hyperdrive mode he's in is going to be the death of me. This didn't start until late this evening, and he hasn't stopped yet. It's 10pm. I tried sending him to bed, and nearly ended up shoving/dragging him down the hall to get him there. I'm pretending that he crashed once he finally went vertical but in all honesty I'm too tired to go check. I don't hear him, so I'm assuming he's not dancing a jig on the open window sill or anything else he shouldn't be doing but would think is a good idea while strung out on Albuterol.

The good news is that he's becoming more tolerant of the mask he has to wear to inhale the drugs. It's been a real struggle getting that thing near enough his airways to be effective. I blame the dozen ear tubes he's had. Anything that remotely resembles surgery is just going to freak him out, and the mask he wears to inhale lung-healing drugs is the same kind of mask he has clamped to his face in the OR to knock him out cold. I know. I've been there, holding that mask already, counting with him to calm him. So he's to the point where he can hold his own mask, albeit not touching his face AT ALL, and pretty much gets most of the meds. Sometimes (like every 18 seconds) I have to remind him to hold it closer, but he does. I'm so proud of him.

In order to distract him, and help the time go faster for both of us, I read a book to Micah the first time we did a treatment. It was the Pirate ABC book. Not only did pirates find the entire alphabet, but Micah did as well. And then because we were *so close* to being done with the treatment, I had him count to 20 for me. This has now become routine. It's like we copy and paste every four hours. And I don't mean we read a book, then count. No, I mean we read Pirate ABC and count to 20. I've tried reading other books, and that was very well received, but not until we read Pirate ABC, counted to 20, and turned off the nebulizer. We then read every book we owned. I actually loved that. A lot.

Because of our routine, I cannot skip words in the book. It has to last exactly as long as Micah's treatment, minus him counting to 20, so I can't rush through it or paraphrase. By tomorrow afternoon I will be able to quote that verbatim in my sleep. I have already decided that we need new books for Christmas.

I'm grateful that he sits for the treatments, and that they're working. That poor boy's lungs just sound horrific when he's coughing. And today the school called for an unrelated reason, but the secretary asked how Micah was doing because he was missed. How awesome is that? I know we're a small school, but I also know it's not just any kid that could be out for 3 days running and be so missed that even the school secretary notices that he's gone. What a sweet rainbow in the storm.