Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Keto Krazy Weekend


I was all ready to take to Facebook this morning and rant about our home health company. They really messed up this time and my precious daughter was going to pay for it. That is not okay with this Mama Bear. But then something amazing happened that deflated my anger-filled balloon.

Recently, our home health care company switched over to a different company. Becca gets her emergency oxygen supply (used to make sure she gets enough oxygen during a seizure) and her diapers from their office in Lindon. That's about 15 minutes down the road. She gets her food and supplies for tube feeding from their offices in Salt Lake, about 40 minutes the other direction. However, the food itself, KetoCal, the delicately balanced nutrition that has kept seizures at bay for so long, comes from Arizona first and then routes through Salt Lake to our house. We have been getting all of her orders on time or early for over a year now. Just when we start to run out, another order comes. Each can does about 2 1/3 days' worth of liquid formula.



Last week, long about Friday, we noticed that we were unusually low and that a new batch had not yet arrived. We had had calls from the new company double checking things and we thought we were set for the roll over. I made several phone calls and received several and they told me it would probably be here Monday, Tuesday at the latest. We had enough to get to Tuesday and so we kept on as usual.

Saturday we went to Taylorsville to visit my Mom for Mother's Day and Sunday we were preparing to go to Tooele to visit with Geoff's Mom. As we were getting kids in the car, the baby knocked over the pitcher of Becca's food for the day all over the garage floor. Okay, so now we didn't have enough for a whole day on Tuesday, but we would be fine if the formula showed up on Monday. As these things go, the formula of course did NOT show up on Monday. We used what we had and made more phone calls as now we had approximately 1 serving out of 5 for Tuesday. And that wouldn't be so bad, but her class was going on a field trip and it wasn't like I could just run stuff over to the school when it came. Everything that comes for her comes through UPS and they always deliver in the afternoon. Always.

So, here we were on Tuesday morning talking to people on the phone who were telling us they were doing the best they could. I wanted to scream, "NO! If you were doing the best you could, this would never have happened! We would not be the family that is out on a limb now with no food to feed their daughter!" Geoff made a mad dash to the nearest grocery store to buy heavy cream and egg substitute to make a "Ketogenic-friendly egg nog" that doesn't do the job quite as well as the formula, but is way better than nothing. She is given 2 of her feedings at school, so we put the last serving of KetoCal in one bottle and one serving of "egg nog" in the other bottle and sent her on her way.



Lo and behold, after everyone was gone for the day the doorbell rang! Either someone gave him a heads up or our knight in shining brown shirt and shorts decided to do his route backwards today, but there was that great big brown UPS truck in front of our house bringing Becca her food! I shouted Thank You and he had to stick his head back out of the truck and so I shouted it again, "Thank you SO much!!" I went back in and hit my knees and after many many 'Thank Thees,' I prayed for that delivery man to be blessed proportionately to how much he had blessed us! I know he was the face I saw at the end of the line of people who tried to help us over the past few days. I'm still a little miffed that it had to happen in the first place, I must say. But I guess all's well that ends well.

Becca went on a fishing field trip and brought back a real, used-to-be-alive fish in her bag! :D That was a new one! Her Intervener (Aide) wrote this in her journal:

Becca had a great time fishing today. She laughed all the way to Salem on the bus. She got to hold the fishing pole and reel her own real fish in. Her fish is in a plastic bag in her backpack. We ate in a big room there. Becca was looking around the whole time with a smile on her face. She smiled all the way home!


Indeed, all IS well that ends well! :)

2 comments:

Carissa said...

Phew! That was a close call! I can't even imagine the stresses you have with your passel of children, let alone taking care of Becca's needs. You're awesome! :)

Grandma Turtle said...

.....And you wonder why the rest of us think you are amazing! Re-read your own post and you will see why. Makes you wonder if Becca's Fisherman Great-Grandpas were in that big room to enjoy her fishing experience with her. :)