Making Preparations for the Flu

JUST THE RAMBLINGS OF A FORMER NURSE, MAKING PREPARATIONS FOR FLU

(Mainly for adults, with some things applicable to wittles. 

I’m going to the store for a “YOU MIGHT BE GETTING THE FLU , MORON” preparation kit. It’s subtitled “You are the one who walked RIGHT into that house very well knowing your best friend’s kids had the FLU . This is NOT to be confused with gastroenteritis when some say they have the stomach flu or a mild viral infection or the common cold. This is lab tested positive INFLUENZA. The kind where you have so much fever you think your blood is going to boil all while your eyes feel like they could pop out of socket at any moment, and then the always confusing “My HAIR HURTS?” symptom. Oh, but you LOOOVE these kids. And you just HAD to go and lay hands on them and pray over them, didn’t you. Oh yeah. Couldn’t just pray from, say, Colorado? Well, neener neener. Neener. Now it’s your own fault. 

FOOD SIDE

•Fresh oranges

•Fresh lemons

•Honey (raw, locally sourced)

•Tea bags

•Chicken and fresh vegetables for chicken noodle soup (supposedly has magic healing juju. )

•If I’m a good girl, maybe some cool, soothing, soft ice cream - - just to sooth my throat. I don’t even want any, man. I’m just taking one for the team here. 

PHARMACY SIDE

•Expectorant (PLAIN - not mixed with other meds) get something like guaifenesin (to loosen the thick snot) This MUST be followed with copious amounts of water to achieve a nice, thin, sloosy snot. 

•Antitussive PLAIN dextromethorphan like (Robitussin) to suppress the cough reflex. But if you DO have something to cough up and out of there, see above for sloosy snot. 

FIND AT HOME IF YOU CAN - Or buy

•Nasal irrigator. You know the one where you put the squirt bottle up one side of your nose and GENTLY squeeze the special pH balanced saline into your brain, wait, no, sorry, that’s SINUS cavity and then it runs across the black hole in your head known as a sinus cavity (for clarity, no need to see the dentist to fill it) and miraculously comes out the OTHER nostril. You kind of gag and choke and wee yourself the first time, only to be transported back to your youth when you dove off the high dive for the first time and had chlorinated pool water rocketed through your entire head at 90 mph. WHEEE!!

•Cool mist humidifier 

•Acetaminophen (1) AKA Tylenol

•Ibuprofen (2) AKA Advil

•Very important to set two timers: 

    Tylenol (1) every SIX hours around the clock. Like 12 noon, 6 PM, 12 midnight 6 AM for a total of 4 dosages daily. Dosages depend on age and weight. Healthcare PROFESSIONALS may give you permission to use 4,000 mg a day for adults. However, box warning for every day people say no more than 3,250 mg daily. THIS IS ONE YOU WANT TO PAY ATTENTION TO, PLEASE. TYLENOL/ACETAMINOPHEN WILL TEAR UP YOUR LIVER. SOMETIMES IRREPARABLY.

This is one of the main reasons I advocate single medication bottles of meds. If you give your child a medicine that has 2-4 ingredients, one of these might be Tylenol and you just didn’t catch. I wouldn’t know WHY? I mean, it’s just your KID that’s sick, right? You’re just eating what you want, sleeping all night long without waking up, getting your full 8 in. Hahahahahahahaha.I cracked myself up there. Sorry 

     You alternate the ibuprofen (2) on the same TYPE of schedule, just with a 3 hour lag in starting. If you start acetaminophen at noon, start ibuprofen at 3 PM. Repeat at 9PM, 3 AM, and 9 AM. Again, doses vary a lot between babies and adults. The max does for adults is 1,200 mg a day. Exceeding these dosage recommendation can lead to internal bleeding. 

One of the MOST important things about ibuprofen is it’s drug classification. It’s an NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug). If you choose one of the ibuprofen NSAIDS like Advil or Motrin, DO NOT TAKE another NSAID like naproxen (Aleve). Aleve’s dosing is for 8-12 hours for adults. So it doesn’t fit in the “every 3 hour plan.” Feel free to use this is you want, just disregard this plan of rotating. 

Some people say “It’s now 2:45, and I’m due for the dose of Advil. But I’m/my child’s not hot. If it’s in the first couple of days, GIVE IT. I can promise you when that Tylenol wears off (and it will) you or you baby will be HUUURRRTTING. It’s so much more compassionate to try keep that raging fever DOWN without the high break through spikes that you then have to play catch up to get the fever/pain under control. I’ll address here that I love a little bit of fever. I think the body does a GREAT job of fighting off all the nasty germs we get into our bodies. WITHIN LIMIT. If my fever is say 100.6, I doubt I’d treat that. I’d eat well, drink well, eat that healthy soup I mentioned earlier and REST. But when my/my child’s fever is 103.3, I treat that almost every time. Could my child’s body eventually fight that off? Sure. But it might mean 3-4 OR 6-8 days of extreme discomfort to you or your child. I just can’t do it. 

I will touch only briefly on antibiotics for flu. Influenza is a VIRIS. Antibiotics only kill BACTERIAL illnesses. Healthcare professionals really shouldn’t give antibiotics for viral infections - - unless you are immunocompromised (like my children and I are) or if you develop a SECONDARY BACTERIAL infection at the same time as or from the course of the flu. 

I will also touch briefly on healing oils. You can find them EVERYWHERE now. My PERSONAL belief is that I LOVE them and USE THEM - - - in conjunction with Western medicine. It doesn’t have to be all one way or the other. As I am a casual user of oils, I’m not going to give any specific treatment options. It’s too far out of my wheel house. 

AND FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT’S HOLY, can we somehow teach these people over the age of 30 to STOP COUGHING INTO THEIR HANDS which they then in turn use to open door knobs or shake hands with somebody or use the public pen. Y’all, this is NOT hard. On my arm, it’s a whole 5 inches up my arm to harmlessly sneeze or cough into my clothing. GRRRR 

Disclosures

I am not a doctor. I’ve never played one on TV. And I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express. I was a practicing nurse for over 30 years, but I am disabled and retired now. I have raised two children. So I’m speaking to you as a mom. Please check with your doctor or call her nurse about medications, especially if you are already taking some other medications that could interact with something I’ve listed. I hate to have to say it but we live in a litigious society. So . .. 

The information I submit to you is for entertainment and informational  purposes only and shouldn’t be seen as any kind of advice such as medical, legal, tax, emotional or other types of advice. If you rely on any of the information in this article/blog, you do so at your own risk. 

Here we go again

Oh, boy. I'm not even sure how to start. I keep stopping and starting, backing up and starting again. I have a friend who has a son who was born preterm, and she always shares her heart, good or bad, happy or sad, and so I guess I'll follow her lead and be transparent, too.

And through my tears, I'll just tell you I'm tired of seeing my girl suffer. I'm tired of seeing her pain, both physical and emotional, and I'm tired of surgeries. She is TEN, y'all. And today Barre', McKenna and I met with Dr. Gray and talked about her next THREE surgeries. Dammit.

So. . . her scoliosis has increased to around 55 degrees. *sigh* It just keeps getting higher and higher. And the higher it gets, the harder it will be for Dr. Gray to do her surgery. He had talked at one point about putting in growing rods, but he feels like the best course of action now is to do the spinal fusion with rods. This will, of course, stop any growth in that area, but she will continue to grow above and below the level of fusion. Since she unfortunately grows so slowly, it shouldn't amount to a lot of lost adult height. It will mean though that she won't have to wear a brace anymore (she has worn a brace for approx. 6 years), her shoulders will be symmetrical, and most important of all, she won't have pain in her back, neck and shoulders. She will be in the hospital about a week for this surgery, tentatively planned for June.    

 

She also needs to have the hardware removed from her hips. They have done their job and need to come out before bone starts to form around them. In the past when he talked about doing this, he said she would be in the hospital about 4 days. He said we could probably do this at the same time as the spine. However, I just don't want to do it this way. I know because she is such a tough little thing, she probably COULD handle it. But SHOULD she? I just think it's too much. This is 2 big surgeries at the same time. So unless he can assure me that it's really no big deal, I just think we'll have to come up with another plan. And Barre' agrees with me. I know it will mean anesthesia for an extra time, but I think we just have to think about her little 43 pound body and how much we are asking of it and of her.

Her ankles are looking really good. So good in fact that the screws are probably going to have to come out sooner than we thought. But again, we just have to prioritize things, and right now, they are just at the bottom of the list.

So for now, the plan is to return to Cooks in Ft. Worth in March during Spring Break to have several MRIs in preparation for this summer's surgery. This will be the third year in a row she has had surgery. This is getting old.

I was asking her if she was scared about the surgery, and she gave me her usual non-commital shrug. (Getting her to talk about her feelings is hard.) As she is SUCH a big reader, I asked her if she were a chapter book, would she be scared like maybe one chapter? And she looked at me a little bit and said, "Maybe one page."

Well, Mom is probably scared a whole chapter. . . .


.

A New Church Home

I gave my heart to the Lord and was baptized on Saturday, May 19, 2001, in my hometown of Keyes, OK.  On Sunday, May 27th, 2001, I found my first true church home at Amarillo South Church.  I learned what it was to KNOW the Lord and to really love His people there.  I served at one time or another as a greeter, a ministry leader in the nursery (yikes!), an adult small group co-leader with my husband, a member of the women's ministry council, and as a small group leader in youth ministry. 

But far and away my greatest joy was serving the women of my church (and community) as a Bible study leader.  For many years I spent Tuesday nights with "my girls" breaking open the Word of God, usually with the help of Beth Moore, soaking up as much knowledge as I could from a Book that had become magical too me.  I hadn't grown up in church, and so it was all brand new to me.  Stories that most people heard as children were awesome new revelations for me!  When God patiently wooed me and I blindly took that leap of faith with Him, I literally didn't know what the Holy Spirit was.  How sweet and precious our Savior is to bless me and rescue me and redeem me when I didn't even understand!  I can't even begin to imagine what my life would be like now without Him and subsequently, without Amarillo South.

But after a blessed 12 years at South, my husband and I have made the difficult decision to leave.  I will not go into the reasons why, but please know that this was NOT an easy decision, and it was made after many prayers and many tears by me. 

And so. . . where are we now?  Many of you have asked where we have gone!  After trying a few places (which I will add is a difficult, uncomfortable process), we have found a home at Family Life Church.  There are so many things that we like about FLC, the first being the size.  We have about 1,000 people each weekend (I think), and I really like that.  It's not small but it's not super big either.  The praise music is AWESOME!  It's current and heartfelt.  The senior minister is Dale Travis.  He is a very friendly, approachable guy who calls me by name every single time he sees me, even after the very first visit.  His messages are Bible-based, and even though he has a Master's Degree, they are easy to understand.  The vision of the church is to reach unchurched people, and I love that.  There are many, many wonderful churches in Amarillo (South being one of them), and so I love that they aren't interested in stealing people away from where they are.  And neither am I.  If you are happy where you are, STAY!!!!!  But if you are looking as we were, I would love to see you come for a visit to Family Life Church and say hello.  http://www.familylife.tv/ 

And I'll end with a sweet note about McKenna.  They were having a little Christmas trivia game at school (gotta love living in the Bible belt!).  Why were Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem?  And our girl who has known nothing but going to church every Sunday has apparently been listening!  She was the only one in her class who knew!!!  Yay McKenna!!

Love and blessings to you all this CHRISTmas season!

Kelly

Nina Beth Hargrove

I remember when we first met.  You were leading the day group for the Beth Moore Bible studies, and I was doing the evening group.  We would meet for meetings and talk about what we would do.  And then the church decided we should "FORMALIZE" our women's ministry, and so they developed a Women's Ministry Counsel and we became part of that first, formative council together.  We and the other ladies set a mission statement, a vision statement, set goals, etc.  I don’t know how many times we met over those months.  I DO know that I began to look forward to those lunch meetings. 

I learned so much from you Nina Beth.  I learned what it looked like to be an intelligent, loving, kind, STRONG Christian woman.  I saw how you loved your ladies and how you stood up for them when necessary.  As I began to be your friend, I saw the love you have for your family, too. 

But above all, I saw in everything that you did, every decision, every meeting, every worship session, everyTHING about you, you were completely FILLED and SEALED with the Holy Spirit, surrounded by the LOVE of our Lord Jesus as Savior and always LOOKING TO and LEARNING FROM the God Most High.  And I know that I am just one story out of so many.  You touched so VERY many lives.  Your servant heart was such a blessing at Amarillo South. 

You have been such a wonderful example and mentor to so many of us.  I know I will miss seeing your face when I turn my head to the right just a little bit, to the chair just across from me where you usually sit.  But I know that your family will be missing you in such a great way, and I will be praying for them.  But I am no longer praying for YOU, my sweet friend, as I know that you are HEALED and WHOLE and dancing for the Lord on streets of gold!    

My Man and My Dog

Here is a little background for you. 

This is My Man:

This is My Man’s Man Cave:

It is a large Man Cave, about 12' by 16’.  He drew up the plans and built it all, by himself. 

This is my dog Yuki: 

We rescued her from a shelter a couple of months ago.  She has likely been abused and has never completely settled into our home.  She has, however, bonded with ME and is my new baby.  She will spend her days in the far corner of my closet if I am not around.  I usually won’t let her stay there though.  I make her at least come out and lay on my bed.   

On Saturday afternoon, Yuki got under the Man Cave somehow, which is really not that uncommon, but this time, she got WAY under.  I had been gone for quite a while in the afternoon and evening, and so it was after dark when I realized that she was still outside.  So I called for her to come out, but she didn’t come out.  A little later, I tried again.  No luck.  So I got a flashlight and looked under the Man Cave.  The Man Cave sits on a “grid” for lack of a better term, like a tic-tac-toe thing, and she had gotten into the “center square.”   And she couldn’t get out.  So I called Barre’ out to assess this situation with me.  His response:  She got in there; she can get out.  Hmmm.  Well, I didn’t think so.  So I sat out there and called for her over and over.  I lay down on the ground with a flashlight and looked at her.  I tried to get her out by offering her lunch meat.  I called and called.  And then she started to whine for me.  And then I started to cry.  And I mean CRY.  I just KNEW that she would come out to me if she could.  So I went back in to get Barre’ to come out again.  He still thought that she could get out but conceded that if she was still there in the morning, he would go borrow a floor jack from his friend and lift up the house and get her.  WHAT?  It was supposed to get down to 36 degrees.  She’s an INDOOR dog.  So I begged, “PLEASE go now!”  So at 9:30 at night, he went to get the jack.  I’ll be honest and say that I don’t think he was too happy with me when he left.  But My Man did it anyway.  So when he got back, he jacked up his Man Cave enough for her to get out.  My poor Yuki!  She was so cold and scared.  So I let her go into the closet with her comforter, and I just lay there on the floor with her. 

Oh, My Man!!  I love him so much!

So, Sunday morning, he let Yuki out, and she, well, dropped a dooki and promptly WENT RIGHT BACK UNDER THE MAN CAVE.  You have GOT to be kidding me. 

So, I began AGAIN to try to get her out, with just a little bit less compassion this time.  And I, too, am starting to think that she can just get herself out.  But alas, she couldn’t get out.  So after church, I tried some more, AGAIN laying on the grass, and now she is in the left middle square.  I was able to get her leash on her and then tossed it to the top middle square.  So then I go to THAT side of the Man Cave and lay down, and I stuck my hand way in there and grabbed her leash.  She started to come to me, but when she got to the edge, she was stuck.  (I could picture her saying I TOLD YOU SO!)  But I just kind of pulled on her, and she lay on her side, and she was pushing with her feet and she FINALLY got out!  Thank You LORD!!!!

And this is lattice: 

And it is now all the way around the bottom of the Man Cave.

Happy Birthday Grunt!!

Today is my Grandma Fretia’s birthday.   She would have been 91 years old.  I still can’t believe how much I miss her, every single day.  If you were blessed to know her, you would know that she was a truly amazing woman.  So in honor of this incredible, talented, awesome woman, I’d like to share some memories.

I can’t remember a time when my Grandma didn’t take me camping. 

Sometimes it would just be Clayton Lake; other times it would be Cimarron Canyon.  Usually my brother Brent was with us and most often Kenny.  I know my parents went some times too, but not always.  As I think back now, I wonder if she didn’t take us to the lake to give them a break!  I remember her washing dishes with that smelly old green Palmolive dish soap and boiling water!!!  She and I usually had to share a bed, and I have always been a restless sleeper.  So I would be tossing and turning, trying to get to sleep, and she’d finally say in frustration, “Dammit Kelly Jo!  I’m going to get up and smoke a cigarette until you can get to sleep!”  I remember taking cold baths in the stream and sitting by the fire at night.  And then when I was older, I remember she would stop by a liquor store in Clayton and get a bottle of Boons Farm Strawberry Hill and let Brent and me have a glass!  And she would always say, “But we don’t need to tell your Dad!” 

I also remember that my Grandma was just always with us.  She went on all our vacations with us, to California or Yellowstone.  And when we all took our very first cruise, in 1985, she was with us.  I think we must have all gotten our love of traveling from her.  In the 70’s, she led tour groups in the Middle East.  She was such an open, friendly person.  She never met a stranger.  And she stayed friends with many of the people she met. 

She used to take my friends and me skiing in the winter, to Red River.  One year, the weather was kind of getting bad, and so we were trying to get out of town before my Dad shut down our trip.  We made it to the west side of Boise City, and while I was trying to pass a farm truck, my 1976 Ford Thunderbird spun out of control, slamming into a ditch, packing us into the snow drift.  We hadn’t been traveling very fast, so no one was hurt, but man we were shaken.  After our heart beats returned to normal, a friend pulled us out, and as we were about to get back on the road, Grandma quietly said, “Now we don’t need to tell your Dad about that!” 

Grandma Fretia was also the very first independent business woman that I ever knew.  You see, she divorced when it was NOT a common thing, and she used the amazing talent the Lord gave her as an artist to support herself.  She taught oil painting in a room in her home, at one time having as many as 60 students a week taking lessons.  She taught us all to see the beauty in everything, to see the subtle changes in the colors of a sunset, to look at nature with a sense of awe.  My Uncle Terry turned this love into photography and takes amazing pictures.  We all have pictures that she has painted hanging in our homes, as do many of her students.  She was able to support herself, always remaining independent.  I remember she used to talk about how she would want to be alone at the end of the week.  As a young girl, I thought this was the silliest thing I ever heard.  NOW I completely understand!!  She loved her students so much, but she also loved the sanctuary of her home.

And OH, her home!  There was probably not a square foot of wall space in her entire home that wasn’t covered!  She had paintings and pictures and things she had accumulated from her travels.  And later in life, she had hundreds and hundreds of movies!  She loved to watch mysteries and Westerns and Sam Elliott!  And if she found a movie (like “Last of the Dogmen”) she would watch it over and over.  We didn’t often watch TV with her though because the volume was so loud you could hear it from the driveway!

She was such an awesome Great-Grandma to my daughter Bethany.  She thought that Bethany was the funniest thing ever.  She would often pick her up (at age 2 and 3) and take her to The Cove for coffee!  I am so sorry that McKenna didn’t get to know her, and my husband Barre’. 

I also remember going to church with my Grandma.  At times when my parents didn’t go to church, my Grandma would take me.  We would sit at “our” spot in the back, ready to make our getaway at noon!   I am so very glad to know that she had accepted Christ because I very much want to see her again. 

As I sit here remembering Grunt (that’s short for Granny Grunt, by the way!), I realize I could write all day long about the wonderful memories I have of her and how she shaped who I am today.  Tears fill my eyes as I write because I miss her so much.  But she loved us all well, and we loved her well, too.  I know that I will continue to miss her and I will continue to love her, until we meet again . . . .

A prayer on 9/11

O Father, the evil that invaded our country that day 10 years ago was just pure satan.  Our country has been forever changed from that day forward.  Our country was attacked in such a brutal way and so many, many people died.  So many people were lost.  But so many heroes rose up, too, that day, and in all the battles since.  We are so thankful for the people who rushed inTO buildings that were on fire, for the men and women who are still to this day fighting for freedom and against evil all over the world.  But You, Father, know all about evil and satan and how he destroys.  But before 9/11, all those years ago, our Hero rose, saving us all.  And because of Jesus, this sad, tragic day that we remember with such sorrow is filled also with such HOPE and glory, in Jesus alone!  Thank You Father!!  Thank You Jesus!!!  We cry today and we REMEMBER, but we also think of You and the sacrifice You made for us, Your children, and we say thank you to YOU, too.  Protect our country, Lord, from attacks in the future, and please, please Lord protect our servicemen and women, with Your mighty hedge of protection.  I thank You, Lord Jesus, and it is in Your holy and precious and worthy name I pray, Amen.