He Got Lost!

No, no, not Little Man. But our beloved Percy!

For my newer readers, this is a pic of Percival the Pump, our newest family member and quite necessary for the health and welfare of the boy.

Percy is especially needed since last Friday, eating has gone down the tubes and the boy is currently orally intaking less than 100 calories a day. Sigh.

Yesterday was a comedy of errors. And you see, it is all my fault because I went grocery shopping. I am sure you are wondering how going grocery shopping could lose a pump, but ultimately it did.
I went grocery shopping, I wasn't done yet, so I called Bald Man to see if he would be home when the boy arrived so I could finish up. The answer was affirmative, so I finished my shopping. I arrived home about 1/2 hour after Little Man did. He (Little Man, not Bald Man) was pretty angry that I hadn't been home when he got there, but we went and played at the water park and didn't think a thing about it. About 8 oclock, after we had gotten back home, Bald Man came in and said, "uh, I can't find Little Man's pump backpack." All I could think, was "oh flipping fetch, I wonder where it is??" Normally when I am home and Little Man gets dropped off, I ALWAYS check to make sure Percy made it home. Even if Bald Man had thought to do that, (he didn't) he couldn't have, because Little Man was really upset that I wasn't home and took off running up the street to go look for me. So Bald Man had to go chase him down and never even though of checking on Percy's whereabouts. Percy is so incredibly necessary right now, because the boy isn't eating! Add the fact that I think he costs like 1500$ and I was panicked.
First, Little Man goes to a special summer kids for other kids with special needs, but after, at about 3, he is picked up by an aide and he goes to a therapeutic after school program. So I called the After school program first, figuring they had picked it up, but not left it with us. 2 hours later, I still hadn't heard back, so I called the guys cell phone again, and he finally said he thinks it got left at the Summer programs. I was super annoyed that I had to call him back and he hadn't seen fit to call me back and tell me this... grrr....
So I called the lady who runs the summer program, it is 10 at night by now and way past my comfort zone for making calls at night. (I won't call people after about 9 unless I have permission, my mother's teachings hammered that bit of etiquette into my brain as a child!)But this was a desperate mom! And it isn't so much that he needs the weight as he just needs some calories to function. We just don't need to add to the foulness by letting him go hungry. The lady at the summer program had no idea, she isn't the one who walked Little Man out that day and his aide was a new guy who obviously isn't familiar with all this. His summer program is renting space from a local church, so I spent the next 45 minutes on the internet and hunting through the phone book for a number to find someone who could open up the space they use and have us get his backpack. Finally, success. I am apologizing all over myself for dragging this guy out at almost 11 to help me find the pump. It was supposed to bein Little Man's locker, I found the right one, opened it and there it WASN'T!!! Ack, now I am feeing pretty darn frustrated and anxious. The only other thing I could think was maybe I could call the Home Health Care company and see if they would be willing to drive a replacement out for the night. The nice guy from the church though was smarter and braver than me, and he started looking in the other lockers. Taaa Daaaa! Percy was in another kid's locker. I would have never looked there. So it wasn't all the new aide's fault. Even if he knew to take the stuff out of Little Man's locker, Percy wasn't where he should have been. So finally at about 11:15, we had Percy hooked up to Little Man, feeding him what he needs.
AND, you can see how my going grocery shopping ultimately led to a feeding pump being lost. And the moral of this story is: if my family would all stop eating, I wouldn't need to go grocery shopping and we would have found Percy much sooner. The End. Don't you just love happy endings? Me too!
P.S. The Zevex company, maker of Percy, is in Salt Lake City. I was able to finangle a field trip there today. I am such a geek, because I am over the moon excited to go!