Quarantine

Carlise tested positive for the flu, but we were fortunately able to get everyone on Tamiflu and nip it in the bud. We still quarantined ourselves to the house to keep from spreading the germs. We finally broke it on Valentines so we could celebrate Josie's birthday. We let our children pick out dinner and she wanted to eat at a restaurant. We picked Cracker Barrel since we've had the most success there. She was so happy. They even brought her out a sundae and sang to her. She loved the attention!

What?

I've had a hearing loss for over a month now. It started shortly after the mucus nastiness. I thought I had fluid in my ear, but a trip to the doctor showed otherwise. Apparently, my eustachian tubes are plugged with mucus. The treatment was Mucinex-D and Nasonex (2 sprays 2x a day). I have finished 2 boxes of Mucinex-D and a bottle of nasonex and still can't hear out of my left ear. I'm very glad to have my right ear hearing again, but I'd really like to hear out of both my ears. picky, picky, I know. Any suggestions- I'm all ears.

Merry Christmas

We went caroling as a family last night to a few homes. We sang "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and "Jingle Bells". The kids did great and even sang along. Then we went to my parent's home and opened gifts with them. The kids kept following Jotty around and if he disappeared from view they would walk in a line calling for him. There was some bad weather last night and we got home just before the worst got here.

Our Christmas started at 2 am when Ben woke me up because he couldn't sleep due to serious pain he was having. We gave him some pain meds and realized a trip to the ER was unavoidable because he needed antibiotics. Ben's very funny on pain meds so I drove him while his Mom slept on our couch. I kept myself entertained by reading friends blogs. This post gave us a great laugh. We got home right when the kids woke up at 6:45.

They were so excited!! They loved their stockings and instantly dumped them and started on the chocolate. We read from Luke 2 and talked about what we're really celebrating today. We followed up with Charlie Brown's Christmas and then opened presents. Our favorite moments: Carlise calling her Barbie - Darbie, Wesley dumping his stocking & getting 3 pieces of chocolate in his mouth with lightning speed, Josie's instant love of her Raggedy Ann doll.

Now, to just get some sleep.

bilateral papilledema update

My vision has gotten so much better. The day I was admitted my vision was 20/60. My two week check-up it was 20/35 and last week it was 20/25. It's still a little hard for me to see letters and numbers clearly because it's so off from my previous 20/13. Dr. Fortin has been taking pictures of my eye each visit and it is resolved except for a small hemorrhage in my left eye (a result from my optic nerve being stretched) and that it should take care of itself.

I fired my neurologist. Waste of my time and money. My physician has agreed to monitor my case.

When I visited my physician last week I expressed my concerns regarding my 500 mg/twice a day dosage of Diamox. While on the higher dosage I had these horrible tingles in my hands and feet all the time. He cut my dosage in half and in 6 months we'll begin weaning me off the Diamox to see if my condition truly was brought on by the steroid and antibiotic I was taking. While this last lumbar puncture was the least risky one I've had and provided almost immediate relief, we hope we don't have to do it again anytime soon.

Ever since I was discharged, it has felt like my Celexa hasn't been working. And I can't be a good mommy if I don't have my mental health. I can handle pain and illness until it prevents me from being a good mommy to these precious little ones entrusted to my care. Apparently the higher dosage of the diuretic was flushing it out of my system too fast. So far, so good on the lower dosage.

Zoey

When Ben & I started dating I was working at a vet clinic. It was one of my favorite jobs because I got to work in the kennel with all the animals and didn't have to adopt any. However, one day before closing some kids brought in a kitten they found in the woods and I ended up taking it home for my Mom, since her cats were seriously old. The kitten had other plans and attached herself to Ben and would come running everyday when he came to see me. Accepting this was his cat, he named her Zoey. She even moved into the apartment with Ben before I did. She always preferred Ben over me and if we were sitting together she would only sit on the opposite side of him, never between us. Once we bought the wrong cat food and she informed us by dumping over the bowl. We didn't want to waste the new bag, so we mixed it in with the correct food. That sassy cat dumped the bowl over and picked the correct pieces out of the food. She definitely helped prepare us for some of the frustrations of parenting.She was a very gentle cat and never hissed or growled even to dogs or other cats. Once she reached adulthood she quickly became known as Fat Cat and would respond to Fatty as well. When Carlise was born she weighed 10 lbs. 4 oz. and Zoey still outweighed her. In fact, Carlise was 3 months old before she outweighed Fat Cat. Zoey enjoyed being around all the children especially if she could tease them. All 3 children started crawling because Zoey would sit just out of reach and when they moved close enough to grab a fistful of fur, she moved again just out of reach. She would play this game for 30 minutes and keep the baby crawling. But she also lovingly endured much abuse from the curious babies.Over the last year, we saw her health decline and slowly lose her Fatty status. She stopped socializing and couldn't jump up on our bed. The day after I was discharged from the hospital this last time I set up a vet appointment. Ben took her and we were informed she was severely jaundiced and was dying. We don't believe in making animals money pits and declined blood tests/treatment since no treatment would return her to her former self. She was 7 years old, disoriented at times, would still purr if I petted her, and wasn't crying in pain. We decided to make her as comfortable as we would and let nature take its course. On September 13th she passed away in a stupid hot pink pet bed that she always refused to be in. Even in her disoriented state, she would almost bolt out of it. But it ended up being her choice for her final moments.
Even though she was a pet, she was still an important member of our family and it's kind of hard to lose someone that you've had longer than your marriage. Sometimes Ben & I will call for her or think she is by our feet before we remember.

And we're horrible parents because we still haven't told the children! Don't you either!!

the what happened?

So last Friday my vision started going a little funny looking. And it still is, so please forgive any typos The very center of my focal point was swirly and later Friday I started getting a killer migraine. By Saturday morning my focal point was now blurry & swirly and the migrain was from hell , and my neck was killing me. Nothing would shake the migraine, my vision was progressively getting worse, and my head felt too heavy for my neck. And I had no apetite because I was fighting nausea from the migraines. I love phenegrane. It basically just knocked me out so I didn't feel so bad and I slept alot.

Ben had been taking care of the kids for the whole weekend by himself. He was off on Friday, but had to work until 2 on Monday. Monday morning while Leighann watched the kids for me (and read phone numbers for me) I made 3 appts. 1st to an opthamologist Dr. Roten for my eyes 12:45, Chiropractor at 2:15 for my neck, and my internist Dr. Connor at 4pm for the migraines. Aubrey came over to watch the kids while i went to my first appt. and i insisted the kids take their nap (they didn't the day before & were horrid for Ben) and drove myself to my eye appt. That was Stupid! Especially when I easily could've put her kids's carseat in the van and had her drive me. So they do a little looking at my eyes and he noted my left eye was dilating a little funny and off center (what?! my vision has always been excellent. 20/13 to be exact) I ask him what time it is and make mention I have another appt. I need to get to. Then he informs me that I need to skip my next appt. and got straight to an eye specialist because he thinks I have psuedo tumors and my optic nerves are swollen. I agreed to go of course, but I had to wait for them to call Ben so he could drive me. So Dr. Roten called and got an immediate appt. for me with Dr. Fortin at Eye Center South. After getting over there, Dr. Fortin looks in my eyes and immediately says "yup, they're swollen, psuedo tumors, here's a note for your doctor. You must make your appt. and I strongly suggest he consider doing a n MRI." Called Dr. Connor's office and they said come on in early and put me in the hospital.

Apparently a medication I was taking caused an over production of cerebral fluid, it wasn't draining fast enough and created lots of pressure making my Optic nerves swell, migraine headaches, and the back of my neck/head sore & tender. The lumbar puncture was almost immediate relief! now I have to let my eyes heal and hopefully they will get back to normal. Dr. Fortin took pictures of my eyes and I'll see him again in 2 weeks so he can compare and see how they're doing.

Update: Kira

Kira is doing very well.

This is what the doctor is telling us right now...The CT scan came back normal, so no growth of any kind. The lumbar puncture went well. 4 tubes were drained from her spine, relieving the pressure behind her eyes. They did a MRI this morning to confirm the CT scan to double check that nothing is wrong. A neurologist will be coming by sometime today to check her out as well. Dr. Connor thinks that the cause of the accumalated fluid is from a medication that was prescribed to her for a sinus infection. She is on IV fluids for dehydration and we have switched pain medication from morphine to darvacet. That has made a huge change. Her headaches are all but gone and the nausea has subsided so that she can keep food down. He is prescribing a dieuretic to keep any further fluid from accumalating. That should keep this from happening again. Tomorrow they are going to get her up and moving. If all goes well she may get to go home tomorrow if not it will be Friday morning.

Thank you for all your help and prayers through this trying time in our family. It really means a lot to us right now to know that we have lots of support around us.

where did we go?

I've had the sickies, then we had our first family reunion with most of my siblings (we missed you Roy & Sofia!) and I'm still sick.

I hate being sick and I've been at the doctor's office too much lately. I'm finally starting to feel better after a steroid shot and some antibiotics. I'll post about the reunion and all the fun we had with our loved ones later.

among other things

I've been sick this week, so if you call & it sounds like a man other then Ben answers- keep talking, it's just me. Coughing is wreaking havoc on my vocal cords right now.

I've felt like the world's worst mother this week. I normally refuse to get in a pool with all 3 kids by myself just due to safety concerns. But I braved it (with my insta babysitter neice Leighann) and went to an in-laws pool for swim day on Wednesday. Carlise ended up getting a 2nd degree sunburn. I did use sunscreen, but forgot to re-apply after drying her off for a snack & more swimming. I think it looks worse simply because she has porcelain white skin. I'm very grateful for Silvadene cream (Thank you Mom!!!!). But I still hate that it happened & due to my stupidity. Poor kid.

Oh, and I finally posted something on my private blog.

the sickies

We've all been sick around here pretty much since Carlise's Princess Party on the 13th. I'm really tired of EVERYONE being sick, ok so the dog isn't sick. I can even deal with all 3 kids being sick at once or one of us being sick w/ all kids healthy, but this is miserable. Finally took the kids to the dr today and got them a z-pack because apparently Carlise has a double ear infection, Wesley's left ear is infected & Josie's right ear is infected. So after dropping $75 today just on medical, I better start seeing some improvements around here soon. I need my smiling babies back! They make everything better. =]

It All Worked Out

thanks for all the well wishes. I'm not sick anymore and it ended up not being too bad of a day. Since Saturday was originally planned to be a house project day, I had already set up for some help with the kiddos. And my wonderful niece Leighann was willing to still come over and watch the kids while I slept and recuperated. She had to leave only 30 minutes before Ben got home. I'm so grateful how it all worked out.

Ugh!

Ben is out of town with work. Hopefully he'll be done this afternoon & won't have to stay until Sunday. And since he's gone I made a project list for myself. Only Carlise & Wesley woke me up at 5:3o this morning. They didn't like my reasoning of "it's still dark outside so you need to go back to bed." Thankfully we all went back to sleep quickly & easily. However, I woke up 30 minutes later feeling very sick and haven't improved much. Of course this doesn't happen until I have things I need to get done & Ben isn't available to take care of the children.

A night without children

otherwise known as our 6th Anniversary!!! =]

Last Friday, we stayed the night at a hotel to celebrate our anniversary. Yes, we actually went a whole night without our children with us. (very hard for some of you to believe, I know) But, it was a nice break. We acted silly and were at Wal-Mart at 2am shopping for ice cream & soda. Ahhh, just like old times. But come 10am we were very ready to see our little ones and be Mom & Dad.

And I didn't have much time to blog during that week since I was cleaning like a mad woman so we could come back to a nice clean home. It's such a nice feeling.

However since it's gotten chilly this week, so I haven't kept up the clean home I had last weekend at all. That whole "having to cross the carport to wash clothes" gets me everytime it's cold. We will have it clean in time for the Thanksgiving holiday but for right now Ben & I are sick with some kind of bug.

One Week

Today is the 3rd day Ben has been home sick from work. He's one of those that practically NEVER gets sick (as in he didn't get sick at all last year), but when he does- it's BAD! He finally decided he felt bad enough to go see the doctor. We have to have him better by Wednesday! He has all the symptoms of the flu, but tested negative for it. So, the doctor is treating him like he has strep. Which is good news for the rest of us in the house. Having him home has made it practically impossible to get stuff crossed off my list. Instead of working on that, I'm focused on keeping the kids from waking him up and sanitizing everything. Only one week, what am I going to do? I really hope he feels better by Saturday so we can go out and celebrate Valentine's Day. Poor guy, he keeps apologizing about the timing of it and that I have to get everything for him. He promises he'll make it up to me. I know he will, he makes it up to me everytime I'm recovering from having a baby. And yes, the timing stinks, but he has no control over it, no need to apologize. He's sick, but still sweet.

So is Anna. My poor wheelchair bound sister who shops all over to find a shirt for Wesley to wear in the Valentine's picture with his sisters. Because stupid stores in my area don't have ANYTHING for little boys for Valentine's Day. And my friend Holly is making matching hairbows for the girls.

Wesley had his 15 month check-up yesterday. He was such a big boy and only cried with the needles. As soon as it was all done, he stopped. He's so different from Carlise. You just mention shots and she screams. We're going to go tour the birthing center with them sometime this weekend so they can understand a little more about where we'll be.

Christmas Follow-up

Christmas was wonderfully spent with our families. Unfortunately we have two little sick ones and no available appts. at the pediatrician's. Guess we'll just try again tomorrow. Wesley either has an ear infection or molars coming in. Carlise is miserable with a hacking cough and very lethargic from the lack of sleep caused by her cough. We have a cool mist humidifier running in their room, baby Vicks on their chests, and ibuprofen for the pain. And because they share a room, Wesley isn't getting good sleep, either. (so neither are we) Hopefully, we can get an appt with someone tomorrow. All 10 doctors and 3 Nurse practitioners were full today. We just want to make sure that if Wesley does have an ear infection, we can catch it early. There's nothing to do for Carlise except a cough suppressant at night, which we already have for her. Forgot about it last night, though. Here's hoping for some good sleep tonight.