Coughing

I can't believe the difference. I asked my girlfriend if they were using the air filter I gave them. They had said their son didn't like the noise initially. If they weren't using it, I wanted it back. Riley's fluid in his lungs with that awful deep cough, I wanted to filter the air in his room. this house has been empty for so long it smells musty at times.

I went into Riley's room while he was sleeping and started to cut out the carpet. I just cut around the furniture and shoved the clothes on the floor into a pile next to his bed. I removed a huge chunk of carpet. The dust and sand underneath the carpet and pad made me feel more confident on my choice. I removed all the staples that were securing the pad.

Riley finally woke from his codeine induced sleep and rolled over. He was amazed. "What the heck!!!". He hadn't even known I was working. He loved the carpet gone as much as I did. He said it looked better. I warned him not to role his office chair around the room as the noise could be heard in the office below and now there was no padding. I still have to move the furniture and get the carpet under the bed. It may just be psychological but I think his room smells better already. Even Tom who gave me the green light to rip it out said he figures the carpets contribute to the musty smell.

My girlfriend dropped by with the air filter. She said she had been talking to her husband about getting it back to me as soon as she read that Riley was sick. I plugged it back in and changed the filter. I could tell it needed a new filter with the dust trapped inside.

Last night, second day of antibiotics with a double dose the first day to get us started, Riley slept soundly. This morning I went into his room. He was so still that I reached down and felt his forehead to see if he was still warm and breathing. Between the air filter in his room again and the antibiotics, this bug has been knocked out of the park.

Baseball season playoffs are going and its pretty exciting. Tom has the TV on the game while we work on the floor. We are trying to get a rhythm going. We are both critical of each other's ideas and work as we both have differing ideas on how things should be done. But we are learning how to politely share ideas without offending or being negative about the other ones.

The problem is that bull nose right at the stair. How do we meld the floor with it. I wish we had waited to start at that point first. But we didn't, so now we have to deal with blending the floor in at that joint. Two thoughts are nail down right there at the joint having cut all the pieces coming into it, or randomly blend out in the floor area and face nail at random lengths each strip where we have to cut to make the tight fit in the run. It wont be covered by molding. Another way to do it is with a transition piece, but we like that smooth line we have created.

The floors look fantastic. We have about a quarter done. We lost two days of work dwelling on the bull nose. Today our goal is to get it permanently installed so we can continue. Each row builds on the last so you can only go six inches close to the end of the last row, until we cut for the very end. The bull nose has held up the whole room as a result.

We did establish our roles while Tom helps and does the hard cuts. He wants it done perfectly so the easiest way to achieve that is to have him do those hard cuts. I get the boards and lay them out in the random pattern hammering them in place, while he hammers them in place permanently with the air compressor nail gun.

Tom said he ran into someone at work. He was shared the install story. The guy said he had an nail gun we could use. Tom said too late we had already bought one and were committed. The guy had figured out the same issue, that the floors really take a couple of weeks doing it yourself. At the rental price, you might as well buy the tool rather than rent it. The convenience and time is worth the cost.

Once the bull nose is in, I can work on the floors while Tom is at work. Meanwhile I can work on removing the rest of the carpets in Riley's room as a distraction. I will have to move the furniture to get the rest of the carpet out. I was just amazed at the health difference the air filter and the carpets are making.

I did feel bad about asking for the filter back, but their son's numbers are better than ours now. They may go get a filter themselves. Since they have been using the filter their son has not had any serious complications, no more new infections to slow his progress. They can get a filter delivered in a couple of days.

We talked when they dropped off the filter. Riley coughs and coughs, I tell them about how the doctor and Riley got a good laugh at my expense about putting Riley in a bubble. I point out that by taking him out of his sanitary bubble this is what happens, he gets seriously sick. I am building the bubble in his room again.

The dad shared a story about some poisonous mushrooms found in a planter at work. One of the staff threw them away in the trash right next to where he works. He left the office went home and stripped at the door, leaving his shoes outside to be washed off. He showered and tossed everything into the laundry immediately. This is the extent we go to keep our immune suppressed children safe. They totally understood my paranoia. It is lovely to have friends that get it and understand.

My sister had also called earlier this week. she had given me the air filter initially. Her son has a compromised immune system. She told me to put the filter back in Riley's room when she heard he was sick. She now has a whole house water filter she wanted to tell me about. She said her son was doing even better with the filtered water. They live in a community that last year had a contaminated water warning go out city wide. Everyone was told to boil their drinking water for five minutes for a week.

I just can't get over how quickly Riley improved with the filter in his room. He slept soundly all night. I still haven't heard him cough yet this morning. He is not up yet. No one is. But we are expecting a local interior decorator to come and talk kitchen ideas and other projects to us this morning. So I will have to wake everyone soon.

I need to tidy up. It is amazing how messy we are with just one day of everyone home.