All Heck Broke Loose

Today, Susanne had the overall feeling of being overwhelmed. It kind of crept up on her when she least expected it. It started early in the day when she was trying to get Paxton prepared for his appointment and the phone wouldn't quit ringing. How was she supposed to get ready herself if she kept getting pulled in fifty different directions.

Right before Susanne was finished getting ready, the doorbell rang. The therapist arrived just as Susanne finished changing Paxton's diaper. They got started right away. Susanne and his therapist worked on some facial and oral massage first. Paxton tolerated it well and even opened his mouth when prompted. His tongue was moving forward nicely. He even would move it side to side. There was an occassional gag when his tongue would come too far forward. Next, they moved on to working with different types of pacifiers. Susanne found that Paxton accepted the Playtex orthodontic pacifier because of it's thin size and flat shape. He never allowed Susanne to push the pacifier all the way into his mouth, but he would explore it with his tongue. She was able to get it past his gums several times, but with extreme caution. Lastly, they moved on to oral feedings. He did wonderful with the three bites of pureed apples even though it would take him over five minutes per bite to get the courage to swallow. He was starting to look like he was understanding the concept of opening and closing his mouth to move the food around. If he was offered something he didn't like or a texture that was unappealing, then he would not move his mouth or tongue at all. He was one clever little dude. He was apprehensive with the pears at first, but eventually accepted them. He didn't seem to mind the blueberries at all. He may have even smiled a little. Unfortunately, he still had a hang up with bananas. He was less than impressed with them all together. At the end of this session, they finally decided to eliminate bananas from his diet for a while since it always seemed to initiate a gag response. No bananas for the monkey. How sad!

During the therapy session, one of Susanne's favorite people showed up for a little visit. Elissa, a.k.a. Thorny, hadn't seen Paxton for a while and wanted to get a refill on her Paxton fix. She was a nice distraction for Paxton. He stared at her for the last half of the session as if he was lovestruck...and seriously who wouldn't be. She talked to him sweetly and encouraged him along with the rest of them. Susanne thought she was an amazing cheerleader.

After the session was over, Thorny got to snuggle with the bug. She got to really feel how big he had gotten since the last time she saw him. He was laughing a lot and sticking his tongue out to show off. She played a new game with him where she would point the palm of his hand until he would grab her finger tightly. He thought this was pretty fun. Paxton went downhill quickly. He was visibly tired from all of the hardwork this morning. He was yawning and rubbing his eyes in no time. Thorny put him in his bed while Susanne set up his next feeding. Unfortunately, Paxton had something to say about that. Something made him very upset. He got overheated and started sweating to the point of no return. The area around his G-tube site was a little irritated which didn't seem to help the situation. After some loving from his mama, he quieted down and he was off to bed.

Thorny was so thoughtful and brought Susanne some lunch. They caught up on each other's lives over a great meal. The time sped by too quickly and before they knew it Thorny had to head off to work. It was a special visit and both Susanne and Paxton were glad that she stopped by.

Susanne noticed that she had missed four phone calls during his appointment. The first one was the airline informing her that her flight was cancelled for tomorrow. This set her into panic mode because she had to get to Boston some how. Paxton needed to make his appointments that were scheduled. She immediately tried to figure out a solution to the problem. Susanne didn't care if their was snow, sleet, or hail...she was going to get up there somehow. She decided to contact the airline directly to reschedule the flight. Luckily, they had opened up some evening flights that would work out.

One of the other phone calls was from the tenant of Scott and Susanne's townhouse. She was calling with a second major problem, this time she was concerned that the washing machine was leaking. She had noticed that there was water everywhere in the laundry room. Also, there was water dripping down onto the first floor. Susanne called the home warranty company right away to open up a second claim. She described the situation at hand and got set up with a company that could repair the broken washing machine. She called them once she got off the previously made phone call and set up an appointrment. Not even thirty minutes later, she got another phone call from the tenant indicating that she didn't think the leak was from the washer anymore. She now suspected that the problem was the water heater. The tenant was unable to get hot water, which was not a good situation to be in especially during the winter. Susanne had to call the warranty company right back to cancel the previous claim and then open up a new one. Once that was determined, she had to call a different company to set up an appointment to fix the water heater. Afterwards, she had to call to cancel the other appointment for the washing machine. She updated the tenant on the situation. The goal was to have the furnace and the water heater repaired by the following day. The tenant called shortly after they got off the phone to let Susanne know that the water had continued to leak through the ceiling onto the first floor. Susanne informed her to shut off the water until otherwise told. It was mentioned that there was a lot of damage to the ceiling, which was not what Susanne wanted to hear. She felt horrible that things appeared to be falling apart, but there was nothing she could do until the technicians from each company could evaluate each individual problem. Susanne was so upset that this had occurred. It was definitely poor timing. She wanted to be mad at someone or something, but it was no one's fault. Hopefully, the four hours of phone calls would pay off. Susanne was hoping to take the rest of the night off from the world. Unfortunately, she would have to find the energy to pack for the upcoming trip to Boston.