A new not fun experience...

(First I want to say that I know that there has been a severe lack of DarTanion on our family site. No worries, he's still around. It's just that he's healthy so very little drama there! And I do have a post that I shall dedicate to him - as soon as I download the pictures / video from about 2 weeks ago... My bad... Sorry.)

But this story is about today. Or tonight really.

I've been a crazy, emotional mess about some unnecessary stupid drama since last night and started feeling better tonight around 5ish (FINALLY!). I came home and just wanted to sleep, but Miah got invited to go play video games with some of his friends in Heber and he REALLY deserves to go do that. (I tell him to all the time, so I'm glad he's finally listening!) Plus, he was really stressed out about stuff too, so he REALLY needed it. ANYWAY...

So I've been looking forward to bed time since waking up this morning. My awesome Visiting Teachers came over and we visited and laughed and had a great old time. When they left, it was about 8:45pm and I still had to get the kids their night time medicines and get them to bed before I could go to sleep. Tanion is sleeping over at the neighbor's house, so it's just me and the youngest two. Archer was playing on one of the preschool games websites and Robyn was watching him. I got the meds together and took them in the computer room - where both kids were. Archer's medicine for his kidney stone stuff has to be mixed with liquid, so his is in a cup of punch (as always) while Robyn's med is still in a dosage syringe. I put them BOTH in the computer room and took Robyn to go to the bathroom so that she doesn't pee the bed. As I leave the computer room with Robyn I tell Archer - "There's your medicine. Make sure you take it all before bed time."

Robyn goes pee and I am helping her wash her hands and Archer comes in the bathroom. He set the syringe on the counter and said "Is this Robyn's medicine?" I told him thanks for bringing it in the bathroom for Robyn's but he needs to go drink his medicine that is in the punch. He gets this totally scared look on his face and informs me that HE just took Robyn's heart medicine because he thought it was his. For some reason, I didn't notice the lack of medicine in the syringe until he says that. I look at the dosage syringe and it's gone. *Crap!* And my hubby isn't home and I'm already emotional today. Super. Not wanting to deal with this.

So I call the husband and interrupt his 'guy time' to inform him of the situation and ask what he thinks. We decide I should call the pharmacist to see what he/she thinks and then, if they don't know, possibly poison control. Pharmacist couldn't help but gives me the number to poison control.

I call Poison Control for the first time ever. (Now, honestly, are you as surprised as me that this is the first time with MY KIDS that I've had to do this?) The lady (Libby!) was fantastic and calm and was telling me what she was doing the whole time. I'm fairly calm, considering the situation, and just keep telling her that it's okay that it's taking a minute to look it up and how appreciative I am that she is just there to help. After giving lots of information off of both medicine bottles (to make sure they aren't a bad combo and such) and getting personal information about Archer's age and size and health and such, she decides that it's probably not enough heart medicine to do any damage, but that I should keep him awake for at least the next hour to make sure. She said I'm lucky that Robyn's heart medicine is a fast acting drug because they can tell sooner, rather than later, if he'd have to go to the hospital. After thanking her again for everything, she says she'll call me in an hour to make sure he still seems ok.

SO, an hour of video games for Archer and prayer / reading scriptures and church magazines for me, I get a call from Libby to check and see how Archer is doing. Archer is still Archer, but perhaps a little tired. It's a little past his weekend bedtime, but pretty much normal for him. She says how glad she is that he seems to be doing fine and he should be okay to go to bed now. But that if he complains of any pain or acts 'funny' to take him to get medical attention. She then asks if she can call again in the morning to check on him and I tell her absolutely.

Ok, so really? Amazing experience. Good job, Utah Poison Control Libby! You kept a slightly panic-y, emotionally drained mom from losing her sanity completely. And you are going to follow up on my little guy in the morning? Really? You're awesome. Thanks for being there so I didn't have to worry other people (family) because of my *not* thinking. Thanks for being there to look up information about medicine that isn't common for little kids - and for apologizing because it's taking 'longer than it should'. To me, 10 minutes is NOT that long when you are helping me out as much as you did.

Now that we've gotten our first Poison Control call out of the way, can you think of any other not so fun experiences we need to go thru? Am I missing anything? I mean, we've done stitches, ER visits, broken bones, surgery, hospitalizations, life flight, heart problems, kidney stones and now Poison Control. Man. I was just thinking as I wrote that out - we have gone thru some crap in this little family, haven't we?! HA!

Love you all. But now, I'm going to go snuggle some babies (okay, so they are 3 and 5 but they are still MY babies) and go to bed.

Archer Update :)

We met with a Pediatric Nephrologist (Kidney Doctor) on Thursday. Dr. Sherbotie told us more about Archer's kind of stones and what he should / shouldn't eat. He also told us an amount on how much sodium is too much (1200mg or less daily).

KEY POINTS:
*Drink at least 50 ounces of fluid daily, avoiding electrolyte containing drinks and sugar drinks - water is always best.
*Limit salt / sodium intake to 1200mg or less daily
*Limit animal protein (eat less meat / dairy) but make sure he still gets enough calcium (800-1000 mg/day)

We'll need to do another 24-hour urine collection to measure the amounts of cystine and creatine in his urine sometime in the next few months. Also, he'll need to take potassium citrate to help make his stones occur less frequently, but will require him to drink lots of water (which he needs to be doing anyway). He recommended that we maybe pack lunches for Archer to be sure to limit his salt intake - and Archer LOVES that idea. :) The boy loves taking home lunch.

Other than that, business as usual. He was sad on Friday when he woke up hurting because it was a party for the 100th day of school. He was crying because of pain and disappointment. But now we know how to combat the pain (ibuprofen) and at about 10am, Archer got to go to class and play on the 100th day of school. He was super excited. :)

It seems like he's having a bad day (which we think means he's passing a stone) about once a week. The one I posted a picture of is the biggest. Most look like a crumb of something. We aren't sure how many he has passed so far because we quit straining his pee. :)

Want to know more about his type of stones / disorder? Check out: http://www.cystinuria.com/what-is-cystinuria/

SO, other than that, life is good. Archer actually lost his first tooth on February 5th. The Tooth Fairy had to rush to a grocery store at about 9pm and they luckily had a golden dollar (because that's what our Tooth Fairy brings for lost teeth). Archer wrote a letter to the Tooth Fairy (I love how he spelled things):

Diiir tootH faiRy, cAN I ceep miy tooth? fRoM ARcheR

...and at the bottom, he drew a picture of him sleeping and the Tooth Fairy coming to visit. And both were farting. Yep. Love that boy. :)

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Thanks to everyone for thoughts and love. He's a strong boy and will learn to live awesomely through all of this! :)