Essential Oils Work

At the end of the last post, I mentioned that James had a rough weekend sats and heart rate-wise. A couple of compression vest treatments, and he was back to normal…for one night. The following night his pulse ox went off because his sats dropped below 84%. Stacy got up to give him a little bit of suctioning to open up his airways, but she wasn’t getting much out. His sats popped up to 90 and she came back to bed. A few minutes later, his sats were back down to 85. She got up again to give him a little bit of suctioning, but still wasn’t getting much out. He seemed stuffy and dry.

And then it clicked.

She had been using essential oils with James at night and had forgotten about them when she put him to bed. She added a couple of drops of cedarwood oil to the diffuser, put some ‘peace and calming’ oil on his feet, and came back to bed. From our bed we can see his pulse ox across the hall, so she laid there for a bit and watched his sats slowly come up into the 90s before she drifted back off to sleep. Problem solved!

Unfortunately, because of the increased moisture in the room from the diffuser, James was a bit of a snotty mess in the morning. We’ll have to figure out if we can find some happy medium between being too dry, and having the floodgates open, but I think we can agree that essential oils work for James.

Superhero Party Supplies

James’ superhero-themed birthday party is still a few weeks away, but the decorations are already starting to come in.

Thank you, Party with the Warriors, for everything you are doing to put this party together.

Make-a-Wish called this week to tell us that they have approved the cover over the patio and have found someone to build it. They are going to try to have it done by the birthday party, but that only gives them three weeks. We’ll have to wait and see what happens, but I think we may push them back and have them start after the party. We don’t want them to rush and cut corners to get it done in time, and we also don’t want it half done for the party.

New Stander

When James was in EI (early intervention), one of his therapists recommended and got a stander for him. Even though he is no longer in EI, we still have that stander, and he uses it at school.

Someone that we know had a stander that they no longer needed, and they offered it to us. It’s a bit different than the one that he has at school. It almost seems like it’s backwards. In order to get him into the stander he has at school, you put it in a horizontal position, put James in it on his back, strap him in, and then bring it put until he is vertical.

This new one we got also goes into a horizontal position to put James in, but instead of being on his back, you lay him on his stomach and then strap him in.

It looks a bit confusing, I know. Here’s a picture of James in it:

I don’t know how Stacy managed to get James into it by herself, but she did. Did I mention that he weighs 50 pounds?

ENT Appointment

James went to see the ENT about a week ago for a routine appointment. For the most part, everything checks out okay. He does have a little bit of discharge in his left ear, but nothing to be concerned about. He wrote a prescription for eardrops that should treat it.