From pneumonia to nothing?

Liam has had a cough for about 3 weeks now.  At first it seemed more like a throat clearing habit, but in the past few days it had gotten worse, to the point that he was coughing during his sleep.  Since he and Hilary are leaving for B.C. tomorrow, we decided to head to the walk-in clinic this morning.

The Doctor was great - friendly, listened well, attentive to Liam.  After listening to his lungs for a seemingly long time, he declared a concern at some "tightness" he was hearing in the bottom lobes, and felt it was pneumonia.

Parenting fail.

My poor kid has pneumonia and I didn't even think he was all that sick?  Just a bit of annoying cough?  Did I ever feel great.

The doctor ordered a chest x-ray, as it's the only reliable way to diagnose pneumonia.  So with a prescription for antibiotics, a puffer and an x-ray in hand, we headed off to the children's hospital.

Of course it's Saturday.

The x-ray department is closed to doctor referrals on Saturdays.  They are only available for ER patients.

Since I already felt like the worst parent ever, I couldn't very well let him fly off to another province with un-diagnosed pneumonia.  So we headed to the ER.

Luckily it was mid morning, and a beautiful Saturday, so it wasn't very busy and we got seen quickly.

2 medical students and the head ER doctor gave him the once, twice, three times over.  None of them could hear a thing in Liam's lungs.  No wheeze, no crackles, no tightness.  His oxygen saturation was 100%. They all concurred that it was NOT pneumonia and that he didn't need an x-ray.

Parenting win.

They gave 2 opinions for the cause of the cough.

1) 3 weeks ago his throat got a little bit irritated and he coughed to clear it.  The coughing irritated his throat.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  So the cough is the cause of the cough.

2) it's an asthma like episode.

The fix for #1 is to stop coughing.  Helpful advice, isn't it?  Use lozenges, tea with honey, lots to drink.  The fix for #2 is a ventolin inhaler.  Since there isn't a test to tell which one we were dealing with, we are going with both fixes.

They gave him a dose of the ventolin before we left to see if it helped.  Once I was able to wrestle Liam still and the nurse was able to administer it, it did indeed help.  So it looks like we will be giving him puffers till this clears up.  The problem?  He HATED it and fought it tooth and nail.  The next dose is in about an hour... should be interesting.

Colours

While Liam is away in BC with Hilary next week I will be staying home and redoing his room for him.  This will be a surprise 10th birthday present.  I'm doing up a Lego room, complete with each of the walls being painted a main Lego colour.

Part of redoing his room is moving him to a new room, on the main floor.  Our house is a storey and a half, which means the ceilings in the bedrooms upstairs are slopped.  This doesn't work out so well in Liam's room since he's in a bunk bed.  So I'm going to move him to what used to be my office on the main floor, a room that has a  proper height ceiling.  So the first thing I have to do is empty out the room.  Which will be no small task since it has been the dumping ground for all things for almost a year.

So feel free to follow my progress as I turn the room from a very dull and boring beige overgrown storage closet to a cool and brightly coloured Lego room!  I'll try to post often so that Hilary can keep an eye on how it's going (and so she can prod me to make sure I get it done before they get home!)

An early birthday gift

Since Mom is visiting so close to Liam's birthday, we had a tiny celebration so that she could give him his gift in person.

 

 

 

 

 

That is a very excited pre-teen, soon to be 10 year old!

A Rockin' Grandma!

 

Daring Kitchen - Canneloni

Blog-checking lines: Manu from Manu’s Menu was our Daring Cooks lovely June hostess and has challenged us to make traditional Italian cannelloni from scratch! We were taught how to make the pasta, filling, and sauces shared with us from her own and her family’s treasured recipes!

Having made pasta once before for another Daring Kitchen Challenge, I was not freaked out by the idea of making home made Canneloni.  I dove right into it one Sunday afternoon and had it all ready to go in no time. I'm not a huge fan of tomato sauce, so I'm all for any pasta dish that is made with Béchamel sauce.  It has such a fancy name for being just flour and butter with a hint of nutmeg.

I kept things simple and traditional and made a spinach and ricotta cheese filling.

 

I like to have friends over to enjoy my challenges (or not as is sometimes the case!) but the timing of this challenge just didn't work out.  So I'm going to make it again this weekend!  My Mom arrives on Friday and we are having 2 other couples over for dinner.  So I will be making cannelloni for 7 this time....with a twist.  One of our friends has Celiac Disease, so I will be making a batch of Gluten Free Pasta.  I found a recipe from Gluten Free Girl that has some good comments and looks pretty yummy.  Here's hoping!

A boy and his Mama (1860's style)

 

 

We spent the weekend on a 3-day class trip to Sherbrooke Village a heritage museum set in the 1860's.  We dressed up in period clothes and experienced life as it was in the olden days.  

Can I say that I'm really glad that women's fashion has evolved?  After spending the day in a full length dress, petticoat, snood and bonnet, I had a new found appreciation for what my ancestors endured. Especially when it rained all afternoon and I was trudging through the puddles. No prince on a white horse ever came to lay down his coat for me.  Oh well, maybe next time.

Sun Catchers

I love quick and easy crafts, so Pinterest is one of my new favorite time wasters places.  I came across this Pin and thought I would give it a try.  It was so easy and the results are beautiful.

 1) Buy some plastic beads.  I wasn't sure that these ones would work, but they did.  Just make sure to stand them all up so that you don't have the holes facing up.  Also make sure that it is only 1 layer thick.  Any oven proof container will do, and then you can experiment with different sizes and shapes

2) Put them in a pre-heated oven (400°).  These ones took about 15 minutes each, but keep a close eye on them, since I don't think burnt plastic would smell very good.  As it was, melting plastic didn't smell all that great.  Let them cool before you try to take them out of the container.  They didn't stick and popped right out for me.

3) Tie a ribbon to them and hang!  I was lucky that each of the 4 I made had a ready made space to put my ribbon through.  If they hadn't I would have had to drill a whole which I was glad I didn't have to do.  Once they cool down they have the texture of glass and I worried that I would shatter it.

I think these will make great gifts and plan on making more!