fatherly "duties"

so, as i may have mentioned, aiden has been suffering from nightly high fevers. and tonight, i may have cleared out one aspect of the problem: literally. in chinese medicine (and, i believe, some strands of western medicine), fevers are related to constipation. in chinese parlance, the fevers "evaporate" the liquid from the stool, hardening it, and preventing its natural "flow." and it works the other way too. one of the quickest means by which heat is "ejected" from the body is through the stool; thus, in treating high fevers, oftentimes a formula will have herbs that "purge the bowels," like da huang (rhizome rhei) or mang xiao (mirabilitum?)...

so anyway, aiden was having a difficult time "passing..." actually, he initially just presented with yet another high fever, and as we had already administered a dose of tylenol meltaways, i was about to "give him another bath." but as he lay soaking, he told me he had to go. so i lifted him onto the toilet... and that's when it became (painfully) apparent that he was terribly constipated...

i know this may gross some people out, but... his stools were so compacted and misshapen, that it was IMPOSSIBLE for him to pass them without some assistance. i initially tried to help him by pressing around his anus, to "give more room," so to speak... but that didn't work, the stool was "coming out at the wrong angle..." so, in desperation, i started to actually "scrape" some of the stool out with my fingers. honestly, it was SO hard, it was like compacted clay. i managed to dislodge a few fragments, but the larger body was unaltered... i called to lynn, asked for any utensils that she had handy... she brought in a few metal measuring spoons. and i had to use the smallest, perhaps the teaspoon, to gradually and progressively scrape at aiden's stool. between that and encouraging him to "push," we finally managed to get him to pass a MONSTER... it's hard to imagine something that large and solid to have come out of him...

disgusting, sure, but it is all in a day's work for a father...

now, not surprisingly, he is feeling pretty normal, no fever, playing with his cars, calling me over occasionally to show me the patterns he has made with them...

i hope that this is the turning point for his nightly disorder. and that lynn and i can get some sleep!