Off-Kilter with Sickness barf relay

Hmm... I thought about changing the title of this post to "Off-Kilter with Symptoms of regaining health" - but it's otherwise known to people being sick.

It's been a little challenging the last few weeks to find the momentum that I was riding with Remy's Son-Rise Program.  Early last week, Remy and I spent most of the morning in his playroom doing "quiet" things such as scratching the floor with hard objects (sticks, for example).  We did that the whole morning.  Then, the wouldn't eat lunch yet was not upset about it.  The afternoon we just lying quietly on the playroom floor until I decided that he might want to lie down in my bed and perhaps for the first time in years (unless he was sick), take a nap!

Oh, the possibilities of what I could do if he actually slept!  So I put him in my bed, lay down beside him.  Oh, I also put on a CD of Gregorian Chants to help sooth him.  He actually fell asleep!  That evening, he also skipped supper.  Hm, yes the indications were there:  a nap and skipped meals with no fuss was pointing at some sort of bug.

What do you do when your kid is sick?  In a way, I think that our program is like attending school.  If you're not well, you take a break until you're up to getting back into the routine.  As you know from my previous, post, the guy also skipped his birthday and opted to go to bed.

The weekend seemed okay on and off.  It was then his sister who become sick with vomit during the night.  This meant that she couldn't go to school on Monday... which also meant no Remy's Room.  She continued to barf for the next three days during bed time and once during supper.  Tuesday the was all limp and silent.  Finally, Wednesday we sent back to school.  It was also the first day in weeks that it didn't rain so I quickly took Remy out to double dig (actually, I cheated and didn't do it thoroughly) two begs to start my seedlings.  So, Thursday was to be the day to go back into Remy's Room...

Or was it?

DH came down with some sort of bug that kept him throwing up from about midnight until early afternoon the next day.  So to give him some quiet space and time to sleep (since he lost sleep during the night), I took Remy for a couple of necessary errands.  Poor Remy.  I didn't know he was sick until he barfed up his breakfast at Value Village.

Well, what was I to do?  My hands were full of vomit, toilet not close by, and no one seemed to notice.  I saw an employee passing by and asked for some assistance.  Finally, someone came with a mop.  I think she was very grateful when I told her that I could clean everything up if she just provided me with some (a lot of) paper towel.

Always, I ask myself:  what are you grateful for?  I was grateful he barfed in a clean area, away from merchandise.  I was grateful that he was able to hold it in while we drove home.  I was grateful that his body knew to detoxify.

We made it home with a new pair of pants for him.  Soon after we arrived home, he went to bed.  DH was now sleeping in my daughter's bed.  Our bed was stripped from vomit, I had pillows to still be washed.  Ah, but I did find the quietness and peace when the two were asleep.  I made my salad, ate it without anyone bothering me before I got to cleaning up.  Just before I could brush my teeth, I heard Remy throw up again.  It was all over his face and neck.  To my appreciation, only the pillow was soiled.  He would barf again a little later when I had to strip his bed again.

What am I grateful for?  My own set of washer and dryer, a clotheslines, sun - uh-oh, I hear Remy coughing right now - better go.

Happy and healthy day to all!

Celebrating Remy's Birthday in 2011

Every year since his diagnosis, I've been making Remy a raw vegan cake for this birthday. Every time that we've had a raw cake, he's pushed it away. Last year his sister forced him to eat some of his. This year, I decided at the last minute that it would okay for him to receive a conventional cake: a cake made with sugar, wheat, oil and eggs. It possibly also contained artificial vanilla (I didn't even think about that until now!). In any case, I was very grateful to his Auntie Dee for making it.

The words were made from perfectly cut and arranged dried cranberries.  The "5th" and the stems of the flower were made from watercress stems :)  The clementine segments balance off the colours nicely on my raw cashew cream icing.

DH had the great idea of surprising the little guy by rolling a new bike out right after we would sing "Happy Birthday".  It's always a good idea to see if we could ellicit emotions from the guy :)

Well, it turned out that the little guy was so unwell that he ended up putting himself to bed before supper was ready.  When it came time to eat, everyone ate except him.  He was tucked under his covers shaking to generate a fever.  I made sure that no one would force him to stay up to eat if he felt that he had to lie down.  I'm glad that he was able to rest.

Although, Remy was in bed, the nicely decorated cake was waiting for mouths to bite into it.  I had not had a conventional cake for (I don't even recall how long), but I certainly wanted a piece.  After a bit of thought and hesitation, my sister and I decided to cut the cake in half via a co-operational cake surgery technique.  Since we still wanted to take a picture of Remy eating or looking at his cake, we decided to keep the top part intact  while splitting the bottom half amongst us.  Even DH ate piece!

The next day, Remy was running around and babbling by 6:30 AM.  In the afternoon. we finally decided that we should sing him "Happy Birthday", present him with the cake with the nearly dried up cashew cream icing, and also roll out the bike.

He didn't seem to impressed at first, but as we all put in the enthusiam and excitement, the guy started to show signs of glee.  Just look at the photos:

Now this is what he looked like with the new bike:

Thank you to Everyone for your warm and cheerful birthday wishes for Remy.  And thank you so much for your generous and thoughtful gifts.  Remy sends you his virtual kisses.  Have a magnificent day!