Salmonella

I've been sick since Bree was born.  So sick I went to the Emergency Room once.  I would get better then get sick again.  The Er told us that I might need to see a GI if things didn't clear up.  They didn't so I tried to make an appointment with a GI.  They wouldn't see me until I had gotten written clearance from my OBGYN that I wasn't having problems from Bree's birth.  So I went to the doctors last week.  She thought she knew what was going on and had me run some tests.  Sure enough today we got back the tests results which said I had....salmonella.  We have no idea how I got this other than when I was in the hospital I did point out a piece of chicken to Russ that wasn't quite cooked.  I didn't eat it, but apparently I still got it from it.  Were not sure.  I'm on an antibiotic for 10 days.  Hopefully that will clear this up because I have been miserable!

Gastroenteritis

Thursday I began to feel kinda yucky.  My back and stomach were hurting really badly.  I figured I had overdone it because I had lifted Charlotte many times that day even though I wasn't supposed to.  That night Bree was up quite a bit with tummy aches.  Russ took a turn with her and fell asleep holding her.  About this time I started shaking from the chills.  I felt like my teeth were going to chatter out of my head.  Russ woke up about two hours later and came in to find me crying.  I was in so much pain and freezing.  He piled a couple of quilts on me and I finally was able to fall asleep.  For the rest of the night I only got up to feed Bree.  Russ took care of her the rest of the time.

Friday morning we called my OB/GYN to see if I needed to come back into the hospital.  My doctor was out for the day but the on call doctor wanted me to come in and be seen at the hospital treatment center. {We found out later that is fancy name for an ER, booooo!} Russ packed up a bunch of stuff for us to take to the hospital and we headed off.

Arriving there we checked in and the nurses started to check me in.  For some reason they thought it was good idea to take my blood pressure standing up.  Considering I had been wheel chaired in you would think differently.  Things started to get hazy towards the end but I managed not to pass out until they told me to sit. 

The ER doctor came in and ordered a few tests. He also had the nurses start an IV on me, because I was dehydrated.  It took forever to do the IV because I really didn't have many veins left for them to poke.  They had all been poked when I had Bree!  The nurse finally found one in the crook of my elbow but had to dig pretty deep for it.  After awhile of me moaning and groaning from pain Russ went out and told the nurses I needed some pain medicine.  After receiving that I was able to sit easier and not feel like I was going to pass out.  I was feeling more pain now than when I was in labor {without my epidural mind you!}  He aslso insisted they give me a blanket because I was shaking form cold.  They gave me a thin sheet, gee thanks!

As we waited, and waited, and waited Russ started to wonder why we hadn't seen the OB/GYN that had told me to come in.  He questioned the nurses who said they usually page them, but they decided whether to come down or not.  By this time my pain was getting worse, the doctor came in and decided to have a CT done to see if my appendix was bursting.   That test was pure torture I tell you!  I had to drink two huge drinks of medicine, which is not easy when you are feeling like you are going to throw up.  I'll leave the other details out of what happened but lets just say no one wants to have to go through this test.  The best thing about the whole test was that they gave me about six blankets to put on me and I finally stopped shaking from cold.

Back to the room I went.  Awhile later the doctor came in and said he wasn't really 100% sure what was wrong with me.  He was going to send me home with some antibiotics and some other medicine to help with the symptoms.  He was going to call my OB/GYN one more time and then we could go.  He also told me that I wouldn't be able to breastfeed until I was done with the medicine.  Grrr, not happy about that one! The OB doc never came so we checked out, but not without receiving more pain medicine first.

On the way home we called a friend who had posted on Facebook the day before that she had some free samples of Similac to give away.  She graciously agreed to take it to our house right away so that when we arrived home we could feed Bree.  I arrived home and went straight to bed.  Russ took care of Bree all that night.

During the night my dad, my mom, and Russ all came down with similar symptoms to what I had.  Not quite as extreme as mine, but pretty bad.  That morning the four of us woke up and none of us could really move around much.  We needed help, so Russ called a friend and asked if she could take the three older girls for the day.  She did, she is such an angel!  The day was spent with all of us resting.  Russ took care of Bree most of the time, but luckily she mostly ate then slept.  The girls came back to us late Saturday, and our friend gave us the bad news that Lily had come down with a fever and was acting chilled.

The next day we all were able to barely move still.  We again spent most of the day dozing in and out.  Lily was banished to her bed, but never got sick.  We think she may have had a UTI which she routinely gets.  Russ took care of the others girls until naptime and then I relieved him so he could rest.  A friend brought us dinner, which was soooo helpful!  That night most everyone was feeling well enough to eat.    However, I could barely manage a few bites. I still felt awful.

Russ stayed home today and took care of me and the girls.  I've been able to get up and move around.  Mom and dad are pretty much all better.  Russ is doing okay too.  I spent some time looking at the papers the ER doctor gave me and discovered that he diagnosed me with gastroenteritis.  Basically an illness that involves flu like symptoms.  Good to know that he decided what was wrong with me, even though he didn't tell me!  This has definately been the worst illness I have ever had! 

Reactive Airway Disease

***I've been working very hard on getting our whole summer updated on the blog.  It is slow going but I have been making progress.  However, I felt at this time it was very important to record this experience while it is fresh in my mind.  It is also out there for those of you who did not know this happened.  Over the next while I'm going to go back pick up where I left on updating the blog, so you may want to scroll past this post to see if anything new, since this one will stay on top.***

This story begins with me stating once again that Charlotte has pretty much been sick since January.  She'll have a cold or something for two weeks, be free of ailment for one week, and then get sick again starting the process over again.  The doctor has claimed multiple times that most of this is due to teething.  Supposedly she catches things easier because she is constantly teething.

On July 16th Charlotte started the process over again.  That morning she had started coughing horribly and had a small runny nose.  We treated it the same as always....a cold.  That night we were up with her the whole night.  She was breathing funny and could only sleep if she was upright on mine or Russ's chest.  We waited until first thing that morning before I took her into the doctors office.  The doctor saw her and because she was "stomach breathing" started her on nebulizer treatments.  She was diagnosed with bronchitis and a sinus infection.  As the week progressed and Charlotte received her breathing treatments I noticed {and Russ agreed with me} that we had never seen Charlotte so happy and so active.  Even though she had bronchitis and a sinus infection she appeared to be feeling better than she had in months.  The week ended and so did the treatments.  She seemed okay for the following week.  She finished her antibiotics Thursday July 26th.  

Sunday{July 29th} Charlotte was a bear at church.  She cried and screamed and both Russ and I wanted to pull our hair out trying to deal with her.  Monday I noticed a small runny nose.  In the pit of my stomach I knew she was getting sick again.  I just couldn't believe it was happening again.  Tuesday we had a well baby checkup with our doctor.  I mentioned to whom the whole situation.  He checked her over thoroughly and declared that she had a runny nose from teething but was perfectly healthy.  I tried again to explain that I really thought she was coming down sick and he said that he couldn't find anything and that it is perfectly normal for kids Char's age to get colds three or 4 times a season.  I left feeling unsettled, but what could I do?!  I told Russ, and in a fit of anger I said, "Well, maybe he will believe me when we are back in his office Thursday with her!"  Russ said I should have told the doctor that, but I'm not that outspoken of a person.  Maybe I should be though....

Wednesday morning Charlotte woke up with a small cough and her nose running more.  AHHHHH!!!  I was mad at the doctor.  We went to playgroup that day and Charlotte was a bear again{screaming, crying, clingy}  I had talked to another mom there about how worn out I was from Charlotte being like this, and she sympathized with me when she saw Charlotte.  

Thursday came and Charlotte's cough and nose was pretty bad.  I spent the morning making her nap because we were going to an awards ceremony for Lily that afternoon.  As we walked in to the ceremony I noticed Charlotte was breathing a little bit with her stomach.  I passed it off as me being paranoid since she was sick.  Charlotte tried her best to be good at the ceremony but she fussed as she tried to go to sleep for her nap.  Her coughing came more and more often.  finally I took her out of her stroller because she seemed miserable, and the ceremony was almost over.  Charlotte coughed once and I knew what was coming.  I left the stroller, my purse, and Allie, and started walking as fast as possible to the restroom.  On the way I saw a friend who said she would take Allie.  I made it halfway to the bathroom when Charlotte threw up all over me....twice.  Then the full blown stomach breathing started, except this time it was worse, much worse.  I cleaned us up the best I could and went to gather up our stuff.

On the way there I ran into Carolyn who said she would bring Lily home for us.  I packed me, Char, and Allie into the car and called the doctors.  They had no appointments for the day, and recommended we go to the ER.  I called Russ and we debated whether I should go to our Urgent Care or if I should go to the ER.  In the end I felt the ER would be best{total whispering of the Spirit, glad I listened!}  We drove the two blocks to the hospital, and arrived there at 3:30.  The receptionist saw Charlotte and declared her a two.  I think one is the worst.  We went and sat down.  Charlotte by this time was laying limply on my chest.  Allie was being amazingly good and was sitting next to me.  I was listening as other people declared they had been there for over three hours and hadn't even been seen yet.  The ER was really full!  My friend Carolyn showed up a few minutes later and Allie{and Lily} home with her.  I found out later that was a good thing since kids under 18 are not allowed in the ER.

At 4:00 we were called back into triage.  The nurse who saw us first comment was, "Wow, she's retracting bad."  She took Charlotte's oxygen level, and it was 77.  Oh my, that is really low!  She then called in another nurse who seemed to either be the head nurse or a pediatric nurse.  The nurse took one look at her and declared she wanted her in a room now, she didn't care that Char hadn't been triaged.  Two minutes later Charlotte was on a hospital bed being wheeled to an ER room where they wheeled some else out to make room for Char.  At that point Char was descended upon by four nurses and a doctor.  They were taking some stats on her and asking lots of questions.  I was just trying to stay holding onto Charlotte's hand so she had some comfort.  Two nurses and a doctor left and then the fun began.

First up was attaching her to oxygen.  She did not want that tube in her nose.  One nurse held her down, and the "head" nurse taped it on her.  She then needed an IV put in.  The nurses wrapped her up "papoose" style, and called in a male nurse to help hold her down.  Char was done by then and laid patiently as they put the IV in.  She did whimper a little when they had dig for the vein since it disappeared on them, but that was it.  They also attached a blood pressure cuff, and an oxygen reader.  It was a good thing she didn't want to move because she would have pulled something out if she did.  Quite a few vials of blood were then drawn.  An IV drip of saline, and an antibiotic followed that.  

For a few minutes things calmed down, and Char and I were left alone.  She fell asleep for just a few minutes before the x-ray guy came in.  He explained he was going to take a chest x-ray and asked if I wanted to help.  I guess I gave him a blank stare because he proceeded to ask, "Do you not want to?  Is there a chance you are pregnant?"  Uh, yeah dude I'm quite a bit pregnant.  I stepped out and another nurse came to hold her, which was unnecessary since Char just looked at them as they moved her around.  With the x-ray done, a respiratory person came in and started a breathing treatment on her.  Coincidentally her name was Charlotte too!  They must have given her a pretty heavy dose of one because it took forever!  I did notice by this time with the combination of the oxygen and the breathing treatment she wasn't retracting so much.  Yay!

Again we were left alone for a bit, and Russ finally showed up.  I was relieved to see him.  He was able to give Charlotte a blessing while we had some solitude.  Russ stayed for a bit then he took off to run some errands, like get me a new shirt and some food.  The nurse came in when he was gone and said that Charlotte's white blood count had come back at 24.  Because it was elevated they were going to admit her into the hospital.  It would probably be a few hours, but we were going to be staying at the hospital.  The nurses switched about this time and we got another fabulous nurse.

One of Charlotte's machines went off about this time and she freaked out big time.  I don't think she knew where she was and it scared her.  I was trying to calm her but it was so hard to contain her with my belly.  The nurse tried to get cartoons on but there aren't many on at that time of night.  Finally, I asked if she could find a pacifier.  She sent a security guard to labor and deliver.  They came back with a tiny newborn one and Char had a hard time keeping it in her mouth but it worked like a charm.  Soon enough she was calmed down and I could set her back on the bed.

Russ came back and we ate our food.  Charlotte sat up and started demanding fries.  What a good sign!  While we were eating the nurse came in and explained all that was going on.  Charlotte had bronchitis, possibly pneumonia, hence the elevated white blood count.  Because she couldn't keep her oxygen level up by herself they were admitting her until she could breath on her own.  Also, the hospital was completely full, so instead being put in a room there we would be spending the night in the room we were in.  Apparently the nurse got nasty with whoever told her that and she demanded that a crib and a bed be brought down for us.  She was a great nurse!

After Russ and Char were settled I headed to get Lily and Allie.  We had decided Russ would stay with Charlotte since I just couldn't control her.  I picked up the girls, who had been having a great time with their friends.  They asked about Char and daddy, to which I explained they were at the hospital but Charlotte would get better soon.  We got home and I quickly put the girls to bed, since it was nearly 10:00.

That night was very rough for Char and Russ.  They got moved to their own room around 10:00, but poor Char just couldn't sleep.  Russ held held most of the night.  When he was able to get her to sleep and lay her down she would get woken up by another thing they had to do...blood draw, another x-ray, breathing treatments, etc.  The doctor also decided to come in at 4:00 in the morning.  Russ tried his best to remember what was said, but he was barely functional at that point.

Friday morning I woke up early took care of the dog, and then ushered the girls out the door.  I dropped them off at a ladies house in our ward with hopes of being back to get them around noon.  When I arrived at the hospital Char was just finishing up breakfast.  She saw me, waved, and said, "Hi!"  Oh it felt sooooo good to see her happy and doing better.  She was very jittery and excitable though.  She kept playing with her toys in her bed but in overly fast way.  She was shaky too.  After awhile I was able to help get Charlotte to sleep, and Russ took a nap at the same time.  An hour later I accidentally woke her up when I tried to cover her up since she had no clothes on and the air conditioning was going.  She freaked out again and I had to wake Russ up to help care for her.  

She calmed down shortly and had another breathing treatment.  Again she seemed to be wired.  Lunch came and she ate while shaking.  She eventually threw up some of her food, so Russ got the nurse to check on her.  Apparently she was fine, just extremely hyper from the medicine.  She was jumping all over the place in her crib, and walking shakily, but she was fine.  Around 2:00 I went and picked up the girls from the Oden's house.  We went home and they played while I dozed in the chair.  While gone the respiratory specialist took Char off the oxygen.  I was worried she would have trouble breathing again, but she did just fine.  We went and got some dinner at Chick-Fil-A since I couldn't bring myself to cook.  After dinner we headed to the hospital.  I wanted the girls to see Charlotte, so she knew that she was okay, and also to see Russ because they were missing their daddy.  We got there and the girls spent most of their time watching Toy Story 3 with daddy while I tried to care for Char.  Around 9:00 I left Char with Russ, and took the girls home and put them to bed.  Around midnight I got a text from Russ telling me that Char's IV had broke.  They had four nurses hold her down to try and restart it but they couldn't find a vein.  They decided to leave it and try it again later in the morning.

Early Saturday morning I dropped the girls off at the Meservy's and headed out to the hospital.  Again Charlotte was quite frantic when I got there, just coming off a breathing treatment.  A short while later two nurses came in and gave Charlotte a shot in both legs.  Since wasn't getting her antibiotics through IV they had to give to her through shots.  Afterwards, she spent some time playing with me before getting droopy eyed.  I struggled for quite awhile with her to get her to sleep, but eventually she laid down.  Russ was out prior to me struggling with her.  They both slept until lunch time.  Shortly after lunch the doctor came in to talk to us.  He first explained to me that Charlotte had bronchitis, and possibly pneumonia.  The pneumonia wasn't showing up on the x-ray's but he felt that it still could be that.  He said she also had an upper respiratory infection.  He also took time to explain that Char had Reactive Airway Disease.  Basically this is where a young child displays asthmatic instances.  They hesitate to label young kids with asthma because it follows them their whole life, when these instances could be isolated and never happen again.  He went through and answered many of our questions.  He also checked Charlotte out, and said she was doing well enough to be released.  She was going to have to continue doing breathing treatments at home and take an antibiotic as well, but who cares we got to go home!

We were super excited to have her coming home and we packed up the room quickly.  Turns out we didn't need to.  The doctor had said we would be out in an hour, it took almost three.  We put Charlotte to sleep because she was crashing again, and about 15 minutes into her nap was when the nurse decided to come in and release us.  We quickly went and got the girls and all of us went home.

We've now spent a few days doing breathing treatments and Charlotte is doing sooooo much better!  I went with her to the doctor this morning for a follow up.  He agreed that Charlotte had Reactive Airway Disease and that if it occurs again then we will need to go see a pulmonary specialist.  He however did not agree with the doctor at the hospital that she had bronchitis and upper respiratory infection.  He felt some kind of irritant was causing all the problem.  At this point I'm a bit perturbed with our pediatrician because he keeps insisting that Charlotte isn't sick and blames it on something else.  I'm sure when we are back in his office in two weeks with the same problem he MIGHT listen to us then.  He didn't change much of Char's medicine.  He just took her off her cough syrup since she hasn't really been coughing, and he also gave her a inhaled steroid to take.

I really want to be hopeful that once she is done with this round of medicine Char will be better, but I just have this gut feeling that we haven't heard the last of this.  I guess all we can do is wait....

Scary Fever...

Riding bikes after dinner has been the norm for us lately.  Since Charlotte can't participate she just runs around in the road having fun.  Don't worry we live on a very non busy cul-de-sac, and I typically follow a few feet behind. 

Wednesday night was no exception.  She was out there laughing, giggling, and scraping her knees as she fell down.  We came in around 7:30 and she was out immediately.  Around 10:30{?} we woke up to Charlotte screaming.  Since her teeth have been bothering her it wasn't too surprising.  Russ finally went in to check on her then whispered me awake through the monitor.  He needed me to take her temperature.  She had a fever of about 101.9.   High enough for Tylenol but not really enough for me to get concerned.  I figured it was her teething.  Russ tried to get her to sleep but every time he laid her down, she would wake up screaming.  Again nothing unusual about this.  When Char has a fever she likes to be held.  Russ brought her into me and I held her next to me in bed while I rocked side to side. 

I drifted in out of sleep.  I woke to her fussing a lot, and also the heat from her made me to hot to sleep well.  I mean I already have one baby inside me making me hot, the second baby on me just made it intolerable.  Around 3:00 I nudged  Russ awake to go get more Tylenol.  He came back and gave it to her.  In his slightly more coherent state he asked, "Can you feel that?  She's trembling...shaking."  I woke up a bit more, but by that time if she had been shaking she was done.  My mom radar went a little bit higher.  This didn't really seem like just teething anymore.

Thursday was miserable for Char.  She spent most of it sleeping with Tylenol in her system.  After a four hour morning nap I knew something was wrong.  She likes her naps and all, but that is WAY long even for her.  I went in and got her for lunch and she was just so sad.  I had to set her down to get something, and she freaked out.  She started crying and tried to make it to me, but her legs started shaking and she couldn't move right.  She tried to grab the table to help her but she ended up falling on her bum and staying there crying until I picked her up.  She ate a few pieces of food at lunch.  Afterwards she curled up on my lap and promptly fell asleep.   I called the doctors and crossed my fingers that they would have something the same day.  Of course they didn't....Friday morning was the earliest.  I went with it since I had noticed Char's fever coming down slightly.  I was optimistic that she was getting better on her own.

Thursday night she was able to stay in her bed by herself for most of it, but she still woke up frequently.  Friday morning we made it into the drs to receive the news.  A very bad ear infection.  The doctor even showed me her good ear and her bad ear.  Let's just say....ewwww!  The cause for this ear infection?  Massive teething.  Doc said there was no doubt that since she was getting all four molars at once, and by all the congestion manifesting, that it had to be chalked up to the teeth.  He did keep quizzing me about how long she had been pulling her ear, which I replied that she hadn't been.  He was shocked that she went from being congested to having a fever and not walking without any other signs.  I wasn't shocked my girls tend to do that.  Lily and Allie would be healthy one day and the next have double ear infections that doctors would declare "the worst they'd ever seen". 

With the medicine allergies running around in our family the doc took the time to check what she had been on and put her on a different antibiotic.  So grateful for this!  I don't want another Allie situation on our hands again.  After getting Char on her medicine she spent most of Saturday being shaky and complainy still.  By night time she was shaping up and her fever was gone.  Today she still is grumpy but can walk again without being shaky.

It kills me how worse Char's ear infection was than my other two girls.  Allie and Lily have never stopped walking because of their infections, even though theirs have been more severe.  This is just a good reminder to me how different each child is and how we need to treat each one according to their needs.

Just like daddy?!

***Long post about Lily being ill....skip it if you choose!***

Heredity has been a bit of a scary thing to me.  My family has some very scary track records as far as health goes.  Some of those things can be avoided by living a healthy lifestyle which I haven't been, but I'm working on now.  Upon marrying Russell I knew our kids were doomed to have some kind of heredity item passed on to them.  His family has quite the health history as well.  

One particular part of Russ's health history that has always been a worry is that quite a few of his family {him included} have kidney issues.  I've always worried about whether any of the girls have these problems, but our doctor has taken the stance that "if nothing is wrong don't bother it".  In other words he won't do any tests to see if their are problems until something manifests itself. 

Well, something manifested itself in Lily.  It started with Lily going to bed Wednesday night and instantly falling asleep.  It didn't occur to me then that something was wrong but it should have.  Lily usually stays up for quite some time after going to bed.  When Lily gets sick she sleeps.  Later that night around 1:00am Lily came in complaining that her back hurt.  I was groggy and just checked for knots in her back.  I didn't feel anything so I sent her back to bed and said I would look at it more in the morning.  After she left and I was drifting to sleep I remember thinking "hmmm...I wonder if something is wrong with her kidneys" and then I was asleep.  

About an hour later Lily came in and said,"Mommy I had an accident and couldn't make it to the potty"  I remember sighing and telling her to just get new undies on and go to bed.  Lily trooped off to bed and I didn't hear from her again.  I slept blissfully until 7:00 and then freaked out realizing I had slept in.  Lily tends to be my alarm since she gets up at 6:15 or so.  I walked in to her room and she was still sleeping.  I reached up and shook her awake and upon touching her I knew she had a fever.  It wasn't a high fever, but any fever means no school.  Lily insisted that she needed to go to the bathroom so I sent her in there while starting to get Allie dressed.  Lily then whimpered from the bathroom.  I asked if it hurt to go the bathroom and she nodded miserably.  Everything then clicked in my brain....she had a UTI and/or a kidney infection, I just knew it!

I got Lily settled on the couch with some blankets since she was shivering now. I waited 1.5 hours until the doctors office opened.  Surprisingly we were able to get in 40 mins later.  I ran around frantically making sure I had everything needed to haul all three girls to the doctors and then headed out the door.  When we arrived at the office Lily announced she was going to be sick, luckily after I sat her down for awhile she didn't.  But the poor thing was getting worse by the minute....shivering with fever, chalky white face, doubled over in pain, and unfocused eyes that seemed to cause dizziness as well.

Quickly we got called back to a room and Lily fell asleep sitting in the chair next to me almost immediately.  While sitting there they took Lily's temperature....99.7.  We saw the PA whom I adore...she really knows her stuff.  She started asking questions and determined that Lily needed give them a "sample".  This freaked Lily out and I had to do a lot of calm talking to her in order to get it all taken care.  I never want to have to do that again!  Our doctors office doesn't have a full lab but they can tell from samples if they need to be further tested.  Lily's of course came back needing the testing.  The PA explained to me that they were 99% that Lily had a UTI and most likely a kidney infection too.  I audibly let out a sigh....and not one of relief.

It was then my turn to explain Russ's kidney issues.  Upon hearing this the PA said Lily needed to get some testing done to rule out the possibility that she had the same issues as Russ.  She wrapped up her visit with us listing out the actions we needed to take to get Lily over her current infection. 

Since Lily is allergic to amoxicillian and the infection had already reached her kidneys they wanted to get some strong antibiotics in her quickly so they opted for the shot method.  Normally Lily doesn't mind shots but this one she did!  The needle was huge and she bled quite profusely after getting it.  To make sure she wasn't allergic to this antibiotic we had to wait in the room for 15 minutes.  Allie and Charlotte were getting restless and I was wanting out of there. Finally the nurse came in and took Lily's temperature again and it had spiked to 103.7 in just thirty minutes!  With that we were not allowed to leave.  Lily had to get stripped down to her undies and given a dose of medicine to see if we could get it to come down....and we had to wait another 15 minutes.  Luckily the fever went down and we were allowed to go, but of course our adventure wasn't over there!

I first had to go order Lily's 2nd antibiotic regime, and then go take her sample to the lab so it could get tested.  After dropping it off I gave Lily some children's Advil per instructions of the nurse to help continue to bring her fever down.  She took, sat down, and gave me a funny look.  I asked her what was wrong and she said her breath was stuck in her throat.  What?!  The nurse had told me to watch for unusual breathing because that would mean allergic reaction.  I was about ready to rush to the ER when Lily grabbed her mouth.  I dove at her with her jacket in my hands just in time for her to get sick in it. Washing an article of clothing is soooo much easier than washing the van's floor. After that Lily said she felt fine so we headed home.

After a few hours of rest Lily started to look and feel better.  That super antibiotic sure works fast!  Friday she was forced to sit on the couch most of the day even though she was feeling better.  By Saturday you wouldn't have even known that she had been horribly ill two days earlier.

We followed our pediatricians advice and have scheduled an appointment with a urologist.  That will happen next month.  We are hoping this was just a fluke infection, instead of finding out that Lily is just like her daddy.  When we do go I will try and keep everyone informed on what we find. 

Get Well Allie!

 Allie's nursery leader is quite an amazing lady.  Allie adores Sister Pam and cries huge tears when she isn't there.  Well, since Allie had hand foot mouth we kept her home from church.  She was sooooo sad that she didn't get to go see Sister Pam and her "fwends"

Russ let Pam know why Allie wasn't there when asked.  On the way out of church Pam caught Lily and gave her a card for Allie.  Pam and all Allie's nursery friends made her a get well card!  Allie has loved this card to death since getting it.  We put it up on the fridge and repeatedly throughout the day she will go read it and look at it.  It has made a bleak circumstance a bit more bearable.

Front

Inside

Back

Sick again....

Yesterday Russ had to stay home from work.  I was sooooo sick again.  It all started Sunday night when I started to get cold.  I remember thinking how odd that was considering my computer said it was still in the 80s outside.  Then my neck started to hurt.  At 9:30 I decided to call it quits and go to bed early.  The shivers and aches started soon after.  I knew the tale-tell signs.   I was getting an infection.

I spent all of Sunday night cringing every time I moved and the sheets brushed my skin.  This was quite often since I was shivering uncontrollably.  At 5:00 Monday morning Russ asked if he should stay home.  Groggy from no sleep I confirmed that he should.  I was in and out of consciousness until 1:00 in the afternoon.  At that point in time the chills and aches had stopped but I felt like I had been hit by semi.  I migrated from my bed to the couch where I stayed for the rest of the day.

Today is better.  My body is still sore and the aches somehow managed to dislodge my hips again so that with each step my left hip pops.  A bit painful but mostly annoying.  My mind is made up that what I thought had been a 24 hour flu bug a month or so ago was in fact an infection too.  With Lily and Allie I always had to get medication to fight these infections but apparently with Charlotte I can muddle through it.  But  I'm scared to think how many of these I'm going to get if in the first two months of Charlotte's life I've gotten one each month.  Yikes!

On a side note I must give props to my husband for yesterday.  He managed to get Lily to school with only having me do her hair {which he would have done himself, but I volunteered since he was making her lunch, needless to say it was curly hair day!}, call my VT to tell them I was too sick to have them visit{I don't remember telling him to do this, he just did it!}, took care Charlotte {minus feeding her}, took care of Allie, did about 5 or 6 loads of laundry, finished painting our bean stalk, and made dinner.  He is amazing!  Thanks for taking such good care of me honey!

Golfballs and Nasty Medicine

 Lily has been having some allergies problems the past week.  IT started with a headache.  Then her histamine bump swelled up.   Lastly I noticed that her eyes were sunken and blood shot.  None of these really occured at the same time so I kept second guessing myself whether I should take her in to the doctors.  She of course has been acting fine so that too led me to believe that I was being an overreactive mother.

Yesterday I got a call from the school nurse requesting that I come pick Lily up because she had a fever of 102.  YIKES!  While picking Lily up the nurse showed me that she also had swollen glands.  I decided that I would take her in to the doctors after hearing that.  Of course there were no appointments available until today.  So I mad Lily rest all day yesterday on the couch which she didn't protest much.  However her glands got worse.  Both swelled up to the size of a golfball.  Poor thing looked a bit like Frankenstein with the bolts coming out of his neck.  We kept a pretty good eye on her all night after seeing those things swell.

Russ took a personal  leave today so that I wouldn't have to haul Charlotte into the doctors office with all the nasty germs going around.  Upon visiting the doctors we found out that Lily has a VERY bad sinus infection that could be related to allergies.  The swollen lymph nodes are from some sort of infection that she is fighting, but not from the sinus infection.  Because she is allergic to amoxicilian they gave her a super aggressive antibiotic that covered both infections.  The medicine is horrible though.  Lily pulls faces when she takes it, and I pull faces from the smell of it as I measure it out.  Hopefully, it works better than it smells and tastes!

Today has been harder to keep Lily resting.  She feels okay except that she can't turn her neck.  She has wanted to play and run around but I keep forcing her to rest.  She has to stay home tomorrow so I'm not sure who is going to be tortured more by this, me or her. 

This is a shot of her swollen lymph node.  It is a bit blurry.  The second photo has red ring circling the node so it stands out a bit more.  Pretty big, huh?!

Ickie Sickies

Unsure of what hit me last night but an hour or so before getting into bed a started shivering and couldn't stop.  Russ ended up piling four blankets on me and I still wasn't warm.  My body also ached all over.  I ran through a couple of things it could be in my head while I laid awake shivering but ruled all of them out. 

Today has been nightmarish.  Allie is in a mood where she cries over everything.  Since I was stuck on the couch shivering to death I couldn't do much for her.  She didn't like that mommy just looked at her when she was on the floor crying about something.  Every time Charlotte woke up a cringed with the thought of feeding her. Having her against me just made the aches and chills worse. She was wonderful though and slept most the day, so at least I didn't have to take care of her.

Today was also shopping day, which means we are out of essentials like bread, cheese, and fruit.  My wonderful hubby volunteered to go shopping for me after he got home for work.  This is a huge sacrifice for him considering he only gets to see the girls for two hours upon getting home.  He only got to see them for 30 minutes this evening and that was when they were eating.  Oh did I mention he made dinner too?!  Okay he went to McDonald's on his way home but that is because I made him.  There was no way he was going to have time to make dinner and go shopping.

After all that the good news is that the chills and aches have left.  I still have a massive headache that I'm a bit week from.  Hopefully tomorrow all will be well, I'm not sure I can suffer through another day of listening to Allie watch Mickey Mouse.

Flee, Fly, Flu?

Lily got over her mysterious illness around last Friday.  Her fever went away and was replaced by one bloodshot eye and some stuffiness.  The bloodshot eye went away on Monday but the stuffiness still remains. I ALMOST believed that the whole thing has been some weird case of allergies except that Friday night at dinner Allie did the tale-tell gagging sound.   The second gag and we were cleaning up a mess.  

We raced Allie to the bathtub where she promptly felt better and had a Popsicle.  All day Saturday Allie was a bit cranky but otherwise healthy and active.  So we risked feeding her "real" food.  Again that didn't go over well.  After cleaning THAT mess up Allie was as good as new.  We made her rest Sunday and Monday with a light diet of water, crackers, bananas, etc.  All week she has been doing okay and has even shrugged off the grumpiness for the most part.  I'm now just waiting for round two to start.  Bring on the fever!!! LOL!

This mysterious illness really has me stumped considering the doctor swore up and down that it wasn't the flu, and honestly I believe him.  Who gets the flu where you have 24 hours of feeling "fine" in between potty runs? Hmph! At least Russ and I have escaped the illness :)

Sickies

Kindergarten has brought all kind of new adventures into our life.  It has all brought one adventure that I wish we could get rid of...sickies.  Every week Lily has brought home some new kind of illness.  Last week was a mystery illness.  Our doctor told us it couldn't be the flu because she was so inconsistently sick.  one day she would be fine the next day her and the potty were best friends.

With the long weekend I had been hoping that she would be able to rest and get better.  It appeared like she was on the mend until Monday morning.  A virus of some sort had been lurking within her all weekend and manifested itself with a 103 degree fever.  Tuesday and Wednesday were spent home with a high fever and a slight runny nose.  I never thought I would hear the end of complaints from Lily about how she wanted to go to school and didn't care if she was sick.

This morning Lily's fever was gone so I sent her joyfully off to school with a runny nose.  I gave strict instructions that if she began to feel hot she needed to tell her teacher.  She happily agreed.  After school I went to pick Lily up from school and from one look I could tell that the fever was back.  AGH!  Lily claimed that she had wanted me to come get her all day but didn't want to tell her teacher.  Double AGH!!

Now I am at a loss of whether do send her tomorrow or not.  These sickies are driving me crazy with how inconsistent they are.  I hate to send her and get others sick, but at the same time I hate to keep her home and have her go stir crazy.

Shrug it off

 ***This post involves numerous mentions of the joys of being sick.  Read no further if you are squeamish!***

It was one of those days where being pregnant just adds fuel to a roaring fire.  I keep telling myself that I need to shrug it off and move on, but I'm having a hard time with that.  So I'm going to write it out in the hopes that it will help me feel better.

Things started out fairly normal with us getting up and having breakfast so we could go to swim lessons.  While I was rounding up swimsuits and towels I heard Allie coughing from the kitchen.  Then Lily chimed in, "Eew!  Moooommmm, Allie threw up!"

Great, not what I wanted to hear.  I check and sure enough Allie had been sick.  She was fine though and insisted on more cheerios.  I figured her cold she had made her cough and gag reflex kicked in.  Nothing to worry about right?!

Merrily we got ready and headed to swim lessons.  No problems there.  Directly after we headed to playgroup that was at a small splash fountain.  No problems there other than Lily scraped her arm on the sidewalk, and preceded to show everyone her boo-boo.  By this time I was exhausted.  Swimming and sun always were me out.  So I took the lazy rode and went to McDonald's.

I got home got the kids all settled with their food when I noticed water spilled on the floor.  I shook my head in frustration because three times earlier today and yesterday I had cleaned up water in the exact same spot.  I thought I was going crazy.  I mopped it up, sat down next to Allie just in time to here... cough, couch, gag, gag.  This time though it was on my pretty beige carpet because mommy thought it would be fun to have a picnic....without a blanket.  Oh, and lets not forget that Allie had eaten a TON of watermelon at playgroup that another mom had brought for the kids.  In case you don't know...red watermelon stains beige carpet.  GAH!!!

I stripped Allie down sat her on a towel and let her resume eating.  She was hungry even after that!  I washed her clothes out and sat down to my cold lunch.  Russ would have to steam clean the carpet, i just wasn't up to that.  Rest assured though I did wipe up most of the....ummmm...gunk.  After sitting down Allie promptly turns to me and says, "Need to go potty"  I being the wonderful {and lazy} mom that I am tell her to go.  See the thing is, whenever the girl gets declothed she feels like she should try and go potty.  As of yet, not successful attempts, so I figured she could go by herself.

Happily she runs off and I hear a tremendous SPLASH!  In my mind I think, that was too fast to be pee.  Sure enough it wasn't.  She had messed all over the floor.  By this time I also recollected that she had already messed her diaper 3 times this morning.  By now I was starting to realize maybe this wasn't just a cold Allie had.  I was also eternally grateful to Allie for messing on tile NOT carpet.

Dutifully I cleaned up Allie and the mess.  I made sure to get a diaper on her so we didn't have splash accident number 2!  By this time I had given up on the idea of  eating so I went into the kitchen to throw away my food.  I looked down and there was that stinking puddle of water again!  Except this time it looked white not clear.  I sat there and stared at the water for awhile until I noticed the whit drip marks all down my cabinets.  Then I saw the "explosion!"  A watermelon that I hadn't quite got around to cutting up had exploded on my counter top!  There were holes in it seeping with....ooze.  And it was EVERYWHERE!!!!

I turned went to the couch and began to cry.  I managed to call Russ and sob out the story.  He asked if I was trying to make him want to stay at work.  Hmph!  "He then gave me the encouraging words of clean up what you can and I'll help with the rest when I get home" After getting off the phone I felt a little bit better, but those stupid pregnancy hormones kept me thinking awful things about the kind of mother/wife I am.  On a normal day I could have handled this, on a pregnant day...not so much.

I did my best to clean some of the watermelon up but it stank so bad {apparently it had gone rotten and I hadn't noticed} that I had to stop or get sick myself.  By this time Allie was screaming bloody murder about something and I went to check on her.  The poor girl had messed her diaper again and a nasty blistery rash was taking over her bum.

I hauled her into the bath where she cried for the first ten minutes of the bath then apparently received some relief.  The rest of the day was spent with me trying to rest {remember I was tired from swimming?} between screams from Allie.  I finally called the doctors to see if they could give any suggestions to help her out, but they weren't helpful at all.

Russ came home a few hours later and saved my sanity.  I don't know what I would do without him.  He cleaned the carpets, mopped up some of the watermelon explosion, carried around a screaming Allie, and worked on killing an ant nest{that is a story for another time}.  Typing this all out has helped me "shrug off" the bad day and bad feelings.  

Still sick....

This flu whipped me!  I was officially in bed{or our recliner} from Saturday until Monday. Russ was so good about taking caring of me.  He took care of the girls, fed them, played with them, got me Sprite, and even cleaned up my one trip I didn't make to the bathroom.{Sidenote: Our bathroom is REALLY far from the living room when you are sick.  Just sayin....}He even took Monday off to stay home with me because I still couldn't move from the chair.  Tuesday he went back to work with me still not moving much.  My chest and back felt like someone REALLY HEAVY had sat on me and bounced up and down.  It was painful to breathe, talk, laugh, even to sit.  Tuesday afternoon I moved around enough to get a simple frozen meal out of the freezer for dinner.  I was still on the "no food" diet but I knew the girls and Russ needed to eat.  Then Russ texted me and said, "Put away dinner I'm coming home"  Since it was 3:00 in the afternoon and he doesn't get off until 5:00, I knew what that meant.  He had caught the flu :(  The poor guy apparently had been "toughing it out" since lunch but didn't make till the end of the day.  Russ is over the worst of it today, he's just got the aches and the "someone sat on me" syndrome but feels like he can go to work tomorrow.  I felt a lot less pain today but after going shopping for food that we desperately needed I was exhausted, sweating, and getting fuzzy spots in front of my eyes.  Apparently I'm not 100% yet.  We have all this fun thanks to Lily.  I have no idea where she picked this up from, but I'm sure it will be the first of many flu bugs she brings to our house. The good news is.....Allie hasn't gotten it yet.  I got her a flu shot back in October and I'm crossing my fingers that it is keeping her healthy.  Well that and the fact that she isn't allowed within a five foot radius of the sickly parent.  Beware of this nasty flu bug going around, it knocks you flat on your back!

FHE: Week 4

Didn't happen.  Lily decided to add on another level to our sickness.  At 2:00 in the morning she wandered into my room complaining her feet were cold.  What?!  I was sweating because I was too freaked out to have the window open or the fan on.  {Irrational fears I have when Russ is out of town, enough said}  So I have her crawl in bed with me thinking maybe her feet had not been covered by her blanket.

As I drifted off to sleep Lily begged for me to snuggle with her.  Reluctantly I woke up, rolled over, and stuck out my arm.  She rolled over onto my arm and I was instantly awake like I had been burned.  She was flaming hot!  Comes to find out that she had a temperature of 103, and had the chills from it.  I of course had thrown my expired children's Tylenol right before Christmas and hadn't replaced it yet.  Normally I would send Russ to Walmart to get some, but he's in California.  Crapola!

I spent the rest of the night waking up every 15 min to readjust the cool rag on her head, or to fight with Lily that "YES she had to keep it on her head!!!"  I slept very little.  With me still feeling like someone put a branding iron up my nose, and having got no sleep I just didn't have the energy to pull FHE together.  Frustrating.

I'm going to try for tomorrow, because as of right now {10:47 CST} I am feeling significantly better. Like 98% pain free. Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but hopefully it is a productive day ending with FHE.

{PS...sorry about all the sickness posts, but I'm trying to keep Russ updated on just how much FUN he is missing while he is away}

More Crud...

Argh!  Things have gotten worse, MUCH worse.  Monday morning Lily woke up and her eye seemed to be doing okay.  I made a "lets save some money" decision and decided to just keep doing the eye drops.  As the day progressed her other eye started to get pink.  Then right before bed time she looked like this...

What that isn't close enough to see? Okay how bout this?

Swollen eye, big purple bruise-looking skin, and one big wopping piece of CRUD!  Russ started calling her Igor because her eye was almost popping out of her head.  He's so mean!  That night Lily came into our multiple times.  Each time she was crying because her eye had crusted shut and she couldn't get it open.  Poor thing was is so much pain as I cleaned it all out.

Tuesday I started her on more eyedrops.  I spent the whole day on the couch withering in pain.  If I tried to move from the couch I got all tipsy and felt like my head was rolling around on the floor instead of firmly planted on my neck.  Apparently I had caught the girls cold, and for some reason didn't realize I had a migraine on top of it.  You would think after having migraines since I was NINE I would recognize the symptoms of one and take medicine for it.  But noooooooo.....I chose to think that it was part of the "cold"  Anyway that night as I crawled into bed I realized what was going on and took some medicine.  30 mins later I was blissfully sleeping painfree.  Gotta love heavy duty medicine.

Wednesday and Thursday passed with me and the girls having the sniffles.  The girls seemed to be on the mend.  Eye goopiness was gone, runny noses slowing, and coughs....well they were still there.  I on the other hand was slowly but surely going downhill.  First my migraine never quite went away.  I persistently had a sore head.  Then my throat started hurting.

Friday I woke up feeling better.  I managed to go to walking group.  Shortly after that though my ear started hurting.  Just a dull throb.  I kept wondering should I go to the doctors?  Nah it is just a cold....and maybe allergies.  Then this morning I decided to take a nice long shower to feel better.  Showers always make you feel better, right?!  I got in and stood there for about 10 secs and then my ear flared up with such intense pain my eyes teared up and things went a little tipsy on me again.  I was miserable!

Russ convinced me to go the Urgent care 20 mins away.  I'm glad I did.  After a few of the doctors normal "hmmms, oh that's different.  Ahhhh!" I was diagnosed with an ear infection and a sinus infection.  No wonder I've been so loopy all week!

Of course I couldn't get the prescription filled until 4:00, the precise time Russ and I were supposed to be on our way to see Avatar.  After I bit of speeding, hurriedly medicating myself, and rushing the concessions guy Russ and I plopped into the last two seats of the packed theater. All was going good until the guns started going off towards the end of the movie.  I don't know if the loudness of it all hurt my tender ear or the dry popcorn had scratched my throat, but everytime I swallowed a horrible shooting pain went down my throat and up into my ear.  Then it throbbed in pain until I swallowed again, and started the process all over.  I was in tears by the end of the movie, and barely able to walk from the severity of the pain.

Russ ushered me to our car, and headed home.  While he took the babysitter home I rested on the couch with the girls jumping on me.  I realized that yet again I'm going to be sick while he is gone.  Yep, he is leaving for California tomorrow.  My tears turned from pain to frustration for a few seconds, but I quickly got over it.  I chided myself and said "you'll get through this.  This isn't the worst thing to have happened while he's been gone."  That cheered me up {weird, I know!} and I waited for him to come home.  My sweetie took the girls and put them to bed, and sent me off to bed. 

Here I am laying in bed and typing sideways so my ear feels better, which it does....at least a little bit.  I'm so sick of CRUD and all it's varrying forms!  But on a funny note, I e-mailed a friend about my sickness and she replied with, "Get better, and don't breathe on your e-mails!"  ROFL!  So, in return, I promise not breathe on this blog post so all of you won't get the crud passed on to you! 

Crud....

I've been soooo careful with Allie's eye infection.  I've washed my hands, I've washed her hands, no wash clothes being dragged around the house, no sharing food, etc.  With that said imagine my dissapoint when getting ready for church I see crud all over Lily's left cheek.  At first I figured she had made a mess with her pb sandwich.  But on closer inspection I see the tell-tale signs.  Swollen bloodshot eye with crud coming out the corner.  We tried giving her some of Allie's eyedrops, because of how obvious it is that she has same thing.  They aren't working, so it appears I will be going to the doctor tomorrow {If they're open, it's a holiday ya know!}

Seriously?! Again?!

Allie is a happy baby.  I get told this over and over, and truthfully I agree.  However, when she is sick she is terribly fussy.  {Just ask my in-laws, Allie was fussy all Christmas because she was sick} On Wednesday I noticed Allie was a little whiny. On Thursday she was a little more whiny and had a cough.  Friday everything went downhill.  Her cough had become that scary wet sound that makes you worry about things like RSV, pneumonia, and severe cases of croup.  Of course by the time it really manifested itself it was 4:00 and the doctors close at 5:00.  There was no way we were getting in.  I decided to hope for the best that she could make it through the weekend, and I could get an appointment early Monday morning. 

A few hours later I noticed her eyes were bright red and goop was pouring out of them.  "Oh great!  We've got pink eye in both eyes, and pneumonia" kept running through my mind.  Russ and I dug out our humidifier that doesn't work and got in running.  Coincidentally I don't know if humidifiers work down here, because it is already humid. Anyway, we decided to go to an urgent care first thing Saturday morning.

After wasting all morning finding one that was open Russ talk Allie to the doctors while I took Lily to ballet.  Russ called me as soon as he got out.  Diagnosis:  one major EAR infection causing drainage in all areas connected to the ear canal {aka lungs, eyes, and nose} Seriously?!  Again?!  Just last Thursday while at her well baby check the doctor was telling me how wonderful her ears looked.  In a one year period she has had SIX ear infections.  In the end we've got Allie doped up on a relative to amoxicillian and some pink eye eyedrops {apparently she might have that too, but it is unclear}.  Allie screamed when we put in the eyedrops and I felt so bad for her.  She gave me that, "Why do you torture me" look while clinging to Russ after I was finished giving them to her.  Mom's always get the crappy jobs.

Now I we get to wait until Monday to report this to our "real" doctor.  Since Allie's infection number keeps going up they've wanted her to be "watched'.  Cross some fingers and toes for her that this is the last ear infection for awhile.  I REALLY don't want her to have to get tubes put in.