Quinner: An update

To nap or not to nap?  That is the question.  At this point, as a two and a half year old we live in an oddly napless word.  Some days you have one willingly.  Other days I force you to rest.  Most days, we just play it by ear and either let you go without one and then you're in bed by 7:30 or so which is pretty great, or, you fall asleep on the floor at 4:30 watching Sponge Bob with your brothers and the rest of the evening is a struggle.  Regardless of your napitude, whether I have to wake you up from a beauty sleep or you don't get adequate rest, you are pretty pleasant and fun to be around.  Your brothers would grump and make me pay for lack of sleep at this age, but you are pretty good to go with the flow.



In addition to issues with naps, there are a few other things where your determined nature is playing a big role and making me rethink who is actually in charge.  Baths and clothes.  Up until about three weeks ago, you were one of those kids who would spent a good 40 minutes in a bath tub singing and playing and splashing around.  But, some switch flipped in your head and in the last few weeks, you've only had 4 real baths.  Everything else, nearly every single night is you standing and screaming and either your dad or I pouring water over your head, scrubbing the bits and pieces that need to be scrubbed and then getting you out.  It's so strange, this anti-bath-ness, but whatever.  You are just lucky that you are the third kid because otherwise, I'd probably be having a cow about it.



And clothes.  The gorilla shirt, the polar bear shirt, the shamu shirt and the dinosaur shirt and the tiger shirt.  That's about it.  And jeans.  And you have to wear the shirt to bed instead of your pajamas and some nights you insist on sleeping in your clothes and maybe last week, when I was tired of fighting with you, and you'd had one of those stand up scream baths, I maybe put real clothes on you as "pajamas" and then let you sleep in the and then wear them for the entire next day because - come on...you're kind of a pain about the clothes.



It's been so long since we have been to the zoo, that you have decided the animals are missing.  We have conversations daily that go like this:  "Mom, where is the giraffe?"  "I think it's at the zoo, Quinn."  "Not at the zoo, giraffe is LOST!" and then you panic a little, go through about 6 other animals and then move on about your day.



You LOVE to jump on the trampoline and will even go out there alone and jump by yourself.  You love to read books, stack Lego blocks, pick your nose and are starting to outgrow some of your plastic animals a little, even though you still generally have a few close by or lined up on a table or counter.  You love to kung fu fight, dance Ganghem Style, and draw.  Mostly, you smash the tips of markers, but you have fun.



You always want me to lift you up to show you what I'm cooking on the stove, help set the table (your job is forks) and even though you don't eat much during the day, you have on several occasions eaten an entire Waffle Love waffle with berries and cream.



Jack is your best friend.  How do I know?  You told me.  You also think that Jack lives at Grandma's house.  And if we even mention Grandma's name, you immediately want to go to her house, ride in her car, find Jack, and play with toys.  Grandma Judy met us for lunch this week and you just about flipped your lid.

You love to go to stores.  For as much as you hated the car as an infant and toddler, you've realized that cars are good for going to stores and getting Slurpee's.  I think that you are my errand kid - the one I'll be able to depend on when we're older to go on a coke run, or a target run, or just drive through a neighborhood to see what's cookin' kind of run.  When we get home from errands, sometimes you cry because you want to go to more stores.  I'm sure it's because you love to look at things and see people and ask me questions - and it's way more fun to do that at IKEA than just at home, the two of us.  I like having you as my buddy.

You are cuddly and tough, strong and snugly.  You will drink a bottle until your 5 and may wear diapers just as long.  For as much as you are a big kid - a grown up kid, you are still my baby.  Even though if I call you my baby you reply, "No.  My Quinn.  My not a baby, my a boy!"

And if I say to you, "What's moms name?" you look at me, smile, laugh out loud and say, "Ross!"

Lost and gone forever...

It's Friday.  It's felt like Friday for about 5 days, maybe?  It's felt like it should be Friday since Monday at least, which means we should already be mid-way through next week perhaps?

I don't know.

A lot is happening and nothing is happening.  That's the way things seem to go usually and then *Poof* your kids are starting high school.

Not really.

My kids are off track.  Being off-track is really a brain melt for this mama.  We've had a busy and fun week, but still.  We've spent countless hours cataloging Pokemon cards, playing MineCraft and watching TV.  The big boys had a sleep over at a hotel with Grandma and Grandpa Howden and went on some adventures.  Quinn didn't get to sleep over, so he and I went on some adventures, too...to Cabella's, which he things is an animal museum (though he says "animal seeum").

We bought a new desktop computer after both the old computer and myself had a meltdown.

We have played with friends.

We saw the Spongebob movie and ate lots of popcorn.  The movie and treats, for an 11:20 movie cost me almost $40 dollars.  Movies are a rip-off.  The concessions kid wouldn't sell me three "kid" popcorn bags, but would sell me a giant tub and then give me the three bags to fill on my own.  He also wouldn't charge me the full price, but fill the three kid bags (which would have been less popcorn), but whatever.  Movies are a rip-off.

Three times this week, by old grandpa type guys I've been called "young lady", "sweetheart" and "darlin".  I'm none of those things, but the sentiment was appreciated.  The over 70 set really dig me.

Thank heavens the weather has been so beautiful that we've been able to spend out time outside.  Lots of trampoline time is good for my children's souls.

I'm worrying about the weather.  I read the other day that we are at the beginning stages of a "mega drought" and that Utah may never see significant snowfall again in my life time - like dust bowl type drought.  That's intense, but it's starting to rain while I write this so, maybe not?

My husband really likes his new job.  I'm really happy that he likes his new job.  He seems to be going out to lunch a lot, which to be honest, I'm a little jealous about.

Next week, we celebrate ONE YEAR that my brother has been on his mission.  Halfway is a great place to be in.  I'd rather be half way than one week - the stress of one week might kill me when it gets here.  Oh I miss that kid.

I've been sewing, a lot.  I really like to sew.

We tried to plan a "family vacation", only no one is satisfied with the plan, so now there is no family vacation.  We might need to try planning that again.

Elliott's Baptism

Yesterday, on Valentine's Day, Elliott was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church.  We were so happy and proud of him for making the decision to get baptized and happy to have so many family members come to celebrate with us.

Ross' parents and brother's family traveled from Arizona to be with him on his day.

After the baptism, we took immediate family to Mt. Mike's Pizza for lunch and had a lot of fun.

It was really a great, great day.

The answer was in front of me the whole time...

A few weeks ago, I documented, just a little, the ongoing health saga that is my life.  Stomach problems, coughing problems, ultrasounds, HIDA scan and no possible solutions.

Well, I guess it's good when you finally start to figure your problems out.  I guess it's bad when your problems are caused by your health professionals and giving those professionals a little too much trust.

Flash back to three weeks ago - my blood pressure medication was up for a refill and, I refilled it.  I did however, go get it a day late, and missed a day of taking my pill.  I'm on a relatively low dose, had a low stress day, so I just went with it.  I regularly take all my pills in the mornings, and about 2 hours after I would have taken my bp pill, I realized I hadn't coughed all morning.  By the end of the day, when on a "normal" day I'd have coughed myself into gagging and dry heaving at least three times I hadn't coughed once.

Well, I smartened up (ha!) and when I went to pick up my refill the next day I talked to the pharmacist and asked if this pill could make me cough.  He said yes, that it could make me cough and cause a whole slew of other problems, and he wrote some instructions/recommendations on my receipt for me to talk to my doctor with.

Here is an important detail.  I had been on a medication called Linsopril in 2013.  It made me cough like a smoker with lung cancer.  I was on it for three months and in the fall of 2014 switched to a medication called Losartan.  It is significant to note that I assumed I was taking Losartan, and that it had started to make me cough, too.

Back to the story.  I quit taking my blood pressure medication.  I had an appointment with the doctor that prescribes said medication in two weeks and I figured that I could last two weeks without it.

Those two weeks started to take their toll and by Monday of this week, the day of my appointment, I wasn't doing so hot.  Persistent 5 day, moderate migraine headache, and major swelling in my hands and feet - about 5 lbs worth of water retention.  My head hurt, my hands couldn't turn my car key or do zippers on little kid jackets, and my feet were tingling.

I went to my appointment where, completely out of character, they kept me waiting 40 minutes; but that's a story for a different day.

By the time I was called back, I had 15 minutes for my appointment if I wanted to get Elliott from school on time.  We flew through my A1C, reading my meter, evaluating my insulin sliding scale.  My blood pressure came in at 157/98 so I figured that was as good a time as any to quickly bring up the problem with my medication and mentioned that I hadn't taken it for two weeks.  I was reprimanded, of course, but then my doctor told me that Losartan shouldn't be making me cough.  We talked back and forth about potential problems and I mentioned that I've only been taking 20 mg, and that's why I felt okay not taking the pill for two weeks.  She told me that Losartan only comes in 25 and 50 mg and that I was on 50.

Nothing was making sense so I pulled the note from the pharmacist out of my wallet.  I looked at his notes.  Then I looked at the flip side at the actual prescription information.  I had been taking Linsopril - not Losartan.

What the holly hannah hello nurse is going on?

We talked some more, I was furious and immediately put all my blame on the pharmacy for filling a very old prescription.  But, bigger than that, all the puzzle pieces came together.  I didn't know how long I'd been taking the wrong pill, but I was certain that THIS PILL was the culprit for everything that had been wrong with me in the last 6 months.

I left my appointment.  Furious.

I called Ross.  He was furious.

Waiting in line for Elliott at school I started looking up side effects of Linsopril.  The list was hefty and, in the last 6 months, minus erectile dysfunction, I'd had nearly every single side effect of that stupid pill from the most common to the very rare.  And, with more research, I discovered that people who had been taking this pill had the same sorts of stomach problems as me - resulting in gallbladder removals, intestinal surgeries, and misdiagnoses of Chrohn's disease.

I was so mad!

Here's where it gets more interesting.  Ross went to the pharmacy for me on Monday night to talk to them and get a medication history for me.  What he found floored me.  When my medications were all refilled in July 2014, my doctor's office - well, a substitute nurse at my doctor's office, somehow sent the wrong medication to the pharmacy and I'd been taking Linsopril (not Losartan) since July and I never looked closely enough at the label (the pills were the same shape and colors, depending on the generics used), to even question that it was the right (or the wrong) medication.

So, not only was I taking a pill that was making me horribly ill, I wasn't taking enough bp medication to even help me feel better.


Ggggrrrrrrrr!

So, the right medication was filled and I've been on it for a few days, with some pretty intense headaches as I adjust.  No one cares that I've had literal pain and suffering for months and months.  I have no recourse, not that I'd really be looking for any.

But...

BUt....

BUT...

I guess I've learned a valuable lesson.

Read the labels and question everything.