Part 86 ~ The Adventures of King Ben & Zeus the Big Dumb Dog

If you missed the start of this series, you can find it here. A lot of things will be the same or very similar.

While Ben was in the tub last night I realized we only had two boxes of juice left. Daughter said the next scheduled delivery wouldn’t be until Monday or Tuesday. Dang! That meant I needed to change clothes, get my mask and put on the dreaded shoes and go out in public to that scariest of all places… the grocery store.

I didn’t want to miss sunset, so I decided to just go then. Ben was clean, he was just lying in the tub, I thought he and Daughter would do okay with bedtime. Off I went.

I had a small list (there’s always a small list) that I remembered to grab and the store had everything on it. I was loading up the car when Daughter texted me that Ben had fallen asleep in the tub, that he was in bed and everything was fine. I texted back that I was headed home. Except for the mask, which I wound up pulling below my nose to keep my glasses unfogged, it was a painless, easy trip. Nice!

I was home, stuff put away, shoes off in time for sunset

Batteries recharged, I scrounged in the fridge for something to eat. I wound up with a piece of cheese pizza from the other day. I just ate it cold. I didn’t feel like eating, but I rarely do. I try to make myself eat at least once a day though, even if it’s just a piece of cold pizza.

Relaxing in bed, sending an email I dozed off and erased a huge chunk of the email. Getting very very sick of that happening. I quickly retyped the important parts and sent it. Then I took my pill, went for a last wee and settled down to sleep… but no. The pill wasn’t taking effect and I was awake. Dang it! I went on WP and caught up on the last few posts and still wasn’t sleepy.

I finally went to sleep sometime after midnight. And the Bounce came, right on time, at 3:30. He got in bed with me long enough to get warm then commanded me to the living room. We got settled and then Daughter was saying “Mom.. Mama wake up…” huh-wha?? It was 6:15 and Ben was asleep on the couch next to me. She sent me back to bed, asking what time he got up, then started waking him up to come to her room.

I uncovered Sven and turned his lights on before I went back to bed. He was still in his “house”

I went right back to sleep until the command to go back to the living room came. I didn’t even check the time until we were on the couch. I figured it was 7:30 or so… WRONG! It was 9:15. NINE FIFTEEN!! Whoa! Daughter came out a few minutes later and told me to go back to my room, she’d get her stuff. I told her it was no biggie, I could stay. She told me to “Scoot!” So I scooted. Ben followed a little while later.

He had his earbuds in and was being pretty mellow. Wait… a little TOO mellow. He had dozed back off. Okay… something wrong! He felt a little warm so I pulled the blankets down to his waist. I rubbed his arm and quietly told him to wake up. His eyes were a little glassy so I went to get the thermometer… 99.4 (37.4c) a little high, but Ben runs a little high anyway.

He came back to the living room while I was talking to Daughter. I told her about the temperature and that I wanted to give him stool softener pills if he would take them. They were gel caps and he took all three, hurray for Ben swallowing pills! He even said “I did it!” We heaped on the praise. Daughter got his 10:30 meds ready, adding an ibuprofen and he took that as well. Then he laid down on the couch and went back to sleep. Yeah, he’s sick. This is Ben… he doesn’t sleep.

At 11:30 Daughter came and told me that he hadn’t started sweating. We were watching to see if the slight rise in temperature was fever and if the ibuprofen would break it. She got the thermometer and because it’s Casa Cuckoo, the batteries had died after the last use, an hour previously. Luckily I had stocked up on the AAAs and new batteries were put in. New reading 98.6 (37c)… “normal”. So he sleeps… we watch and worry.

Ben slept and slept. Even Zeus seemed a little confused by this latest development. At 1:30 Daughter checked his temperature again… 100.8 (38.2c) not good. She woke him up and gave him two ibuprofen (400mg total). He drank some Gatorade and Daughter got a lighter blanket to put over him. He had been under a soft fleece one, but he needed something cooler. He wanted me to sit with him in the living room, which broke Daughter’s heart, but she allowed it for his comfort.

He fell back to sleep and I texted Daughter that she could have the spot. I know how hard it is to be the one left waiting and wondering. When Daughter was one year old she had a fever that caused a seizure. We rushed her to E.R. but they would only let one person be with her. Her father went and I sat in the waiting room and cried. Yeah, I let Daughter sit with Ben.

We took his temperature again at 2:15 and it was down to 99.5 (37.5c) good news! He was waking up so she got his 2:00 meds ready and he went to the bathroom. Then he was gonna come to my room, so Daughter called for me to come sit with him in the AC living room instead.

I took his temperature again at 3:00… 98.0 (36.6c) He was sitting up, earbuds in, watching his tablet and doing his vocalizations. Not quite “Happy Noises” but close. He was a little sweaty too, so the fever had broken. He laid back down and I just goofed around on my phone, occasionally holding one of his feet. (His head was at the other end of the couch)

Ben fell asleep again at some point. Passed out with his bent arm over his head the same way his Mama slept and me too. I have a picture somewhere that the ex took when Older was a toddler and we were napping together… both of us in the same position with the arm over the head. Generational ties…

Anyway, I checked Ben’s temperature again at 4:00… 97.8 (36.5c) still coming down. That’s good. Those temple or forehead thermometers seem to register low. Makes me think that 100.8 was probably a little higher. But, it doesnt matter cuz it’s down now. We’re just wondering if he’s gonna sleep tonight.

Daughter keeps saying it isn’t normal for Ben to sleep all day. While I agree, it’s not “Ben Normal”, it IS normal for someone who is sick and/or fighting an infection to sleep a lot. And if he’s awake all night, how is that different from many, many other nights? We’ll deal with it.

We figure it’s probably one of his ears. When he was younger he used to get ear infections we never knew about until the eardrum burst and fluid started leaking out. He never seemed to feel the pain of it. He’s allergic to penicillin and other antibiotics cause bad side effects, so we’re just going to keep watching him and giving him ibuprofen. He’s not showing any symptoms except the fever and sleeping. Not much else we can do.

Well, it’s the regular posting time, so I guess we’ll stick with that. It’s just so typical of my bizarro life and of life at Casa Cuckoo that I got my break, but poor Ben had to get sick for it to happen.

So, tonight’s song is a favorite, with a message we can all relate to.

Thank you for hanging out and watching Ben sleep today. Watching me sleep too. Something different anyway. We don’t want to always do the same thing all the time, right? And thank you in advance for all your well wishes for Ben. You guys are all so awesome and I really appreciate each and every one of you. I’ll see you tomorrow with an update and I think we’re doing laundry tomorrow. That’s always fun, right?

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HUGS!!

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