Thursday, May 20, 2010

32 bites and 4 vials of blood

How many hits will I get based on that title alone?

E-baby got into a bunch of chiggers and ticks over the weekend, and poor child has 32 bites that are bad enough to need regular application of caladryl. Most of them are in really inconvenient place-- her toosh, underwear line, armpits, behind the ears, along her hairline in the back. Others are in hard-to-scratch places on her back. What's worse is I can't really tell the difference between the chiggers and the ticks. I know some were ticks because I removed some ticks, but I think that most of the bites are chiggers because of the sheer number and where they're located. Chiggers like warm crevices.

So poor e-baby is really itchy and she takes every opportunity to show people the bites that are waaaay in her buttcrack. I can't move fast enough to stop the drop-trou before it's too late. She even showed the VP of my division some of her most irritating bites in the breakroom at my office. I was sort of frozen to the spot. What do you say when that happens?

Things haven't been much easier for Jambuca. I got a call yesterday from his doc that his hematocrit came back surprisingly low and they wanted a full iron workup on him ASAP. You'll recall how the finger stick went last week--- uh-oh. I brought him in this morning and immediately regretted it because I got the same inept lab tech as last week. She must have read the tentativeness in my voice, and she called in the head technician for the lab. Then they got a third tech and brought us into a separate lab room. I held Jambuca while the lead tech worked the needle, a second tech worked the tubes (they took 4 tubes / vials of blood) and the 3rd tech helped me hold him still. Any of you who are parents know excatly how HORRIBLE it is to hold down a screaming baby who is in pain. It takes a few minutes to get that much blood. By the time they finished, he was hysterical and could barely catch his breath for the next 10 minutes.

I sat outside with him in the meditation garden (one of our perks at work-- along with the health care center) and let him eat a bag of marshmallows. That settled him briefly. Then he cried because he had no more marshmallows.

Well, I just needed to share those sad stories. Really this week is going very well otherwise.

4 comments:

PartnerInCrime said...

Oh man, poor babes! That sucks. Hoping that Mr. Jambuca's bloodwork comes back normal, and that e-baby's bites heal quickly.

I am sorta giggling about her showing off her bite marks, though. That's hilarious.

Cat said...

It is pretty funny, her complete lack of modesty. I can't wait to tell her about that breakroom moon when she's about 14.

LizardBreath said...

Poor kiddos! I know it broke your heart to have to hold him for the blood draws. Hope everything comes out ok with the tests!
Tell e-baby that we are jealous that her immodesty allows her such freedom!
Did you all get the boks we sent?

Cat said...

Yes, we did! I thought I'd sent you a letter-- but most of my letters end up in a pile somewhere unmailed! You'll be getting a package from us soon anyway, and I'll include some artwork from e-baby as a thank-you note! :-)