The Kaiser Years

Getting in a little snuggling and extra
binky time while sick.  

I once joked that when I write a memoir, I will title this chapter of my life: The Kaiser Years.  Between trying to get pregnant 2 times, the wellness baby visits, the endless visits for Mal's allergies and then the every other week visits while I was pregnant with the girls, I am more familiar with the Kaiser Santa Clara campus than a person should be.  That being said, up until about a month and a half ago, I would have described us as a pretty healthy family.  That has not been the case this winter, hitting Jake (the man with the super immune system, and the man who came home today with a fresh case of strep) the hardest.

Our Little man is still down.  When we went on Friday, the doctor did not actually swab Mal's throat for strep.  He was not exactly in the most cooperative mood.  Based on the symptoms and our battle with strep in the house, we all just assumed that was what it was.  We learned that when a doctor says antibiotics don't help a virus, they are actually telling the truth.  All the pains we went through to get him to take his medicine resulted in zero improvement to his condition.

This weekend was not too fun.  Mal was hungry, but practically nothing was comfortable for him to eat.  He would ask for something, we would give it to him, he would take a bite and then cry.  We finally figured out that he could eat mango sorbet.  I let him eat as much as he wanted.  As he was eating his last bowl of ice cream, he called out for his grandpa (who is here visiting).

Ice Cream for every meal

Mal: "Grandpa! Grandpa!"
Howard: "yes Malachy."
Mal: "Grandpa, I'm sorry to call you, but we need to go to the store for more ice cream." (I'm not making this sentence up)

While his grandpa was more than willing to go out and get him more, we decided that the pint he had already eaten was enough for the day.

Future Dr. Sarasohn???

We went back to Kaiser today.  Mal whined, "We already went to the doctor!"  He was a champ this time.  Despite having to wait for an hour to see a doctor that was not even ours, he was totally cooperative.  He opened his mouth so she could check it and let her poke around his feet (he hates people touching his feet).

When the doctor left, I gave him lots of praise so being so good in the office.
He told me, " I opened my mouth for the doctor."
"Yes," I told him. "That was great."
Then he got serious. "But I did not do it for Dr. Gruver."

How does he remember the other doctors name?!?

The new diagnosis is Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease.  Malachy lost 2 pounds between Friday and today. He is uncharacteristically grumpy...and the laying around listing to music phase is over. There is no treatment, so we are just waiting for it to resolve.

In the mean time, I think we need to get to the store for some more ice cream.