The Field of Medicine

One of the areas where we've been making slow if not backwards strides at times with the boys is with needing to take medicine.

Their orphanage did not have access to a lot of things one of those being medicines that most of us take for granted. Medicines they did have were used sparingly and some out there may argue that we'd all do better if we didn't rely on over the counter meds as we do....debateable for sure.

We talk and talk to the boys about the need for them to let us know when they aren't feeling well. I hate walking in to tuck them in at night to find Lucas crying cause he has a nasty headache or the knot on his shin from baseball has doubled in size since I'd looked at it earlier. They cover any illness or injury very well. What we've learned over time from Lucas is that when you were sick in the orphanage the sick one would have to go to the infirmary which was not a good place and they were split up, they never knew for how long. It must have scared them to death because we have to play 400 questions to figure out the problem (that's assuming we catch that they aren't feeling well.)

We are making progress, Lucas now knows that a headache won't mean he suffers in silence, Tylenol is his friend and Aleve helps with muscle pain. He's not a frequent requester by any means but he no longer suffers in silence. Band aids are another matter, I'm investing in stock.

Eli....not so much progress.....the quickest way to know he doesn't feel good; he either ends up sitting as close to you as possible or has a pinched looking face. That is until the middle of supper the other night. He looked up from his plate...that by itself should have warned me.....to announce, "Mom. I need that medicine. My arm no good from baseball. I cannot move it right. I need it to feel better." We did try some ice and a warm shower which alleviated the need for a pill but hey it's progress in the field of medicine.