ita, she does have Noah's picture. it's above her crib and she has another in a toy. Noah has Grace pictures all over the house, but also in 3 of the toys shaped like keys he plays with.

So. tired. But boy is squirming which means a diaper change and a feeding should be in the near future for him.

Also, sorry you are sick. you should take sarameg up on her willingness to take you AND Devi to the vet.

signed,
someone who has gone to the vet to get shots done for herself.

Finally got to the FreeRice site. Cool! I like guessing. I mean, intuiting based on my extensive knowledge of English's many root languages.

That's totally what I meant.

I'm considering breaking up with ER. Not the ER, because that's OTP, baby. But the TV show. It makes me cry at random moments. Like any time anyone gets a line put in, or they have a drug seeker or a chronic pain patient.

Which, like never happens. Except on Thursdays.

I can't imagine what TV must look like to new parents, especially those with kids with medical problems.

eta: Oh, Kat! I now give myself shots. You totally should have let me inject you that one time K and I were offering. I'm a natural.

What kind of shots, ita? Sub-cue or intramuscular. Cause Sub-cue shots are EASY and are for wimps and anyone can do this. IMs hurt like a bitch.

Huh. I have apparently given up on Moonlight. That didn't take long.

Fine. It was subq. And it's the most idiot-proof of mechanisms. But it must count a little, right?

I'm a little hazy on the distinction, actually. Because I've been told I need to get a handful of meds IV, and one subQ. My last visit to CCDH, they mixed up two meds and jabbed them into my asscheek. That's neither subQ or IV, and the meds were supposed to have contradictory deliveries.

Mostly I don't get IM. Had one by mistake. I didn't really work out what was happening. I just kept staring at the IV needle saying "That hurts. That's not supposed to hurt. Ow. That hurts." Whatsisname snagged a nurse who looked, shrugged, and said "Well, can't fix that now. Drugs'll last longer."

Motherfucking hell.

My understanding is that subq shots can be given IM, because subq needles are shorter and they often won't be deep enough for IM anyway so they end up being subq.

IM shots are given because, for whatever reason, the bolus under the skin won't deliver the meds properly. If a med is not in sterile water but in something else, like oil, then it has to be IM to allow for appropriate absorption.

IV meds go directly in the bloodstream and, I'd assume, act faster.

I wish I didn't know any of this.

I'm usually asked how I want most of them: anti-emetic (emesis was a Free Rice word), anti-histamine, anti-inflammatory, and narcotic all go IV, and triptan goes subq, as per specialist's orders. I'm probably going to lose the IV war every now and again, because I'm all scarred up from elbow to knuckle, and it's taking up to half an hour and multiple nurses to get a line in.

I don't want them putting a line into my foot, which is step 2. Maybe for the occasions where they're not also giving me saline they can go IM. I hate knowing this shit too, especially since I clam up and don't articulate to the doctors because it makes me feel uncomfortable. Which is why I like to take informed company.

IV is definitely faster than IM from my experience, but the doctor who insisted on giving me IM narcotics was just giving me the 1mg. My specialist starts me off at 6, and no matter what speed they push I get hit before they've got the needle back out.

Oddly enough, IV benadryl has a very specific taste--kinda like high end vodka. Sometimes the saline flush comes with a taste too, and I'm not really sure why IV meds even do that.

I'm sorry you know this at all.

Going in the foot sounds incredibly painful, but the other options (skull IVs which I cannot stand because... I just can't or a central line, which seems extreme, but you go often enough) are pretty shitty too.

I wish you didn't need to think about any of this at all.

Little Man has been awake since 3:00 when he woke up wet. He has REFUSED to go back to sleep until now. Bless K for staying up with him and letting me mostly sleep.

If one of those implanted access thingies for injections would help mitigate some of the ER stress, I'd be all for it, frankly... but then that would be the same as admitting that ERs are an expected part of your life, you know?

Currently I'm in a break from programming class, which started at 8:30 AM. We're covering interesting stuff and moving right along, but at the same time I'm like 'wanna go out and play on the nice Saturday'. Especially after last night, when I could genuinely feel the house rattling with the force of the wind and the rain.