Tonsils, Be Gone!

July was a crazy month for us! We passed around strep throat and some of us had it more than once! The last time that I got it I went to the doctor on a Monday morning, had a strep test that was positive and got a shot. Hubby had a sore throat also so he went after me. Since we all had had strep except for him at that point they didn’t do a strep test, just went ahead and treated him for it since we all assumed that’s what it was. Two days later he was still super sick, I’ve NEVER seen him so sick. His temperature was 104 and we couldn’t get it down! I took him back to the doctor, they ran more tests and gave more shots. Two days later he was feeling some better and Reece had her tonsils and adenoids removed…more on that in a minute. The next day Hubby started feeling bad AGAIN. I wanted to pull my hair out because seeing him so sick SUCKED. We went BACK to the doctor, had MORE blood work and were referred to the ENT…who just took Reece’s tonsils out 3 days earlier. He didn’t like the way things looked(inside his throat and also his lymph node was HUGE on the side of his neck) and listened very well to us about how he is never sick and sent Hubs right on over for a CAT scan. It was scary because depending on what that test said we would be headed into surgery or possibly admitted to the hospital for IV meds. HELLO! We already had one patient at home! Hubby was so sick he was ready to just be admitted to the hospital. Seriously, if you know him you KNOW how huge that is. It turned out that there was no abscess and the doctor decided to give him a few days before admitting him. THANKFULLY, after some heavy steroids and antibiotics he turned the corner! He was sick for TWO WEEKS!

So, I mentioned that while all this was going on Reece had her tonsils and adenoids removed. That was a nightmare! I knew it would be bad but really I didn’t prepare myself enough. Let’s mention how bad it was when I had my tonsils removed…I was Reece’s age and I had issues big time with mine! I had to be taken back THREE times to have my throat cauterized because of bleeding. If you have never had this happen… LUCKY YOU! I was terrified this would happen to her.

The morning of her surgery everything went well. She was the first surgery of the day so we didn’t have to wait long and she didn’t have to starve long! What was bad was that she had never had surgery before and coming out of the anesthesia was HELL. She was OUT OF CONTROL. Screaming, crying, thrashing around like a fish out of water. It was like an out of body experience. Neither Josh or I really knew what to do because she never acts like that. It was causing her to cough A LOT. To the point where the nurse was like, “If she doesn’t stop coughing, it’s back to the OR!” Great. She gave her every bit of morphine she could and home girl still wouldn’t calm down! Finally we gave her a breathing treatment and that helped. Then some liquid pain medicine knocked her on out for a few minutes! When she woke up, she was Reece again! PRAISE THE LORD! She was in a great deal of pain for a solid week and a half. It was terrible. She didn’t eat a THING for 6 whole days. She didn’t even want ice cream. And taking pain medicine took 30 minutes because it hurt SO bad…and that was with us staying on top of it! Around the day 10 mark she started eating ice cream and macaroni and cheese and started to act more like herself. She still couldn’t dive in and eat whatever she wanted until day 14 but by then she was ready!

After my two patients were finally feeling better we decided we needed to make one last beach run before school starts this Thursday!

Pre-op Appointment  Before surgery.. Starbucks will make you feel better! Baby goats are growing like weeds!!! Over the summer my big boys have hit growth spurts!!! I just can’t believe they are as big as me! Love them so! It’s day 14 post op..we’re at the beach…and we are about to EAT! Hermit crab race!   Seriously? He’s the coolest dude! WHEW I am WORN OUT! Does summer really have to be over?

Tubes for Brooks!

Our sweet little man got himself a set of tubes in his ears yesterday! His ears have been infected since FEBRUARY and nothing we did cleared them up so we made the decision to get tubes. 

Here he is before surgery, all piled up in the bed with Daddy!

Griffin also had tubes when he was a baby at 15 months old(Peyton was born the VERY next day) so I knew what to expect. Babies generally scream for a LONG time after waking up from anesthesia and every nurse reminded us of that before taking him back. So when they called us to go back and get him I fully expected a crying baby. We were told to go down this hall and then another and then by that time we would hear him screaming so we would know where he was. Well we walked and walked and heard nothing. I glanced over to my right and in a little dark room behind a glass door I saw my little toot! He was piled up in his nurses lap…NOT CRYING. That little baby did not shed not one tear. He is SUCH a good baby.

When I got my hands on him I couldn’t help but cry. Not because of his surgery but because of all the mommies and daddies that have to do this for WAY more serious surgeries. I can’t imagine.

Other than drainage all day yesterday he was completely fine! We even went to brother’s baseball game last night!

I’m so thankful for healthy kids!

Sickies

Baby Brooks has been SO sick. For 9 days now it’s been rough. I can’t remember any of the kids ever being sick this long. He started out having a cough last Tuesday. The next day my little nephew was diagnosed with RSV and a double ear infection. That same night Brooks started to wheeze. I will say I am a pro at knowing the wheeze and knew very early that Brooks was wheezing because Griffin had HORRIBLE breathing issues when he was a baby. We have a nebulizer for this very reason. So the next morning I went ahead and took him in to the doctor. He tested negative for RSV but he was, in fact, wheezing. The doctor told me that the RSV test may be wrong and he could still have it, if not he definitely had some sort of respiratory virus. We got our prescription for albuterol and were on our way. Up until this point he had no fever. Well, that afternoon the fever started and by the next day(Friday) it was 102.4. The weekend was BAD. Tylenol/Motrin ALL weekend. And when they wore off, the 102 fever was back. First thing Monday I had him back at the doctor annnnnddddd, you guessed it, double ear infection. And they looked “horrible” said his doctor. We received our very first antibiotic(I’d say that’s pretty good at 9 months old!). I started him on the antibiotic that day. Over the next two days he maintained the fever. Seriously. On Wednesday morning it was 103.3. Off to the doctor AGAIN to find out that his antibiotic was not working. His ears looked no better. We got an antibiotic shot and a new antibiotic to take by mouth. His doctor ran a test that takes a few days to process to find out for sure if it was RSV, the flu or something else. She called last night to say that he does have RSV. FINALLY today I think he’s on the mend. He seems to feel better, although he is SUPER ill which is not like him! Hopefully he’ll be all better SOON!

Roll Tide’s All I Got!

Can’t think of a blog title because this town is ONLY focused on tomorrow’s big game.

Seriously people. Seriously. And if you aren’t nervous or anxious then you aren’t a real fan. The.end.

You see those little bumps??? They are really all down the side of his face and on his eyelid! It started with a fever blister type of thing in the corner of his mouth. I get those when the weather starts changing so I assumed that it was the same thing. Griffin is the male version of me so I really thought that was what it was. Then yesterday morning when he woke up he had a few little bumps around it. I thought that was weird so I put some medicine on it and sent him to school. When I got home from work it had spread all over his face. Peachy. So I put some different medicine on it and decided to visit the doc this morning.

In the waiting room.. See, I told you we eat, sleep and breathe Alabama Football in this town! :)

Turns out, we’re not real sure what Griff has. Could be a number of things. The medicine that I put on it last night started drying it out so I’m just going to keep that up, hopefully, if not the doctor gave me something else to try!

We decided that he shouldn’t go to school today just in case. So on the way home we spotted the ESPN Game Day bus. He INSISTED that we stalk it down! ha! And he wasn’t going to be happy until we were RIGHT behind it! He wanted to follow it until it stopped to see if he could see anyone that he knew but I had to get to work!

I hope you all have a fantabulous weekend and ROLL TIDE ROLL! :)

I rang in the new year…

…with the flu AND pneumonia! And Josh had the flu. It was horrible, horrible, horrible! I don’t think I have EVER been so sick. I actually started feeling bad the week before Christmas..just didn’t have a whole lot of energy and didn’t feel like myself. I ignored it because I was bound and determined to have a non-sick Christmas! Our Christmas was fabulous and I’ll post a gagillion pictures as soon as I can!

Griffin also had the flu last week and I’m so thankful that kids feel better fast!

I feel so behind! I have so much to blog about..Christmas, Josh picked up Niko, and I’m sure something that I can’t think of right at the moment!

xoxo,

DUDE! I’m behind!

Gosh. I don’t even know where to start! I’m very well aware that I’ve only blogged like 2.2 times the entire month of November. Officer Hubby was on evening shift for two weeks and it really got me out of whack. Not to mention I about went whack. For real. I don’t know how single mom’s do it. Taking care of all the kiddos by myself was not really hard…it was just that there’s only one me and there needed to be 57! Plus I was lonely without my other half!

Close to the end of the two weeks Reece got REALLY sick. Started with a low grade fever. No biggie. Then on last Thursday night we fell asleep on the couch together. I woke up with her trembling in my arms…I knew her temp had to be sky high. I was still half asleep and couldn’t think straight. I called Hubby who told me to get her in the bath tub. I did, but she was shaking so bad I couldn’t even hold on to her. OH I forgot to mention that we fell asleep two hours after I had given her Motrin. I didn’t keep her in the bath long because I couldn’t hold on to her. Once she was out I just kept her naked hoping that would help. I gave her Tylenol. After about 20 minutes she was still shaking. I called hubby again and we decided that we should get her to the emergency room. I really freaked my freak on the phone with him…I’ve dealt with high fevers before but I’ve always been able to manage them better than this. It was really scary. I called Allison to get her to stay with the boys…

Which is a whole other story! She jumped out of bed and headed to our house…about 5 miles or so away from hers. State Troopers have bean rampant in our area lately and of course she was speeding. And she got pulled over. She explained what was going on and he told her she was going really fast. He asked for her license and insurance card…she could not find the insurance card and freaked! If you know her in real life you have got to get her to tell you this story! I about peed on myself! Anyway, the trooper ever so nicely got her to calm down and only wrote her a ticket for the insurance…which will be thrown out! Whew!

Once Allison got to our house we headed to the ER. Reece had finally stopped shaking but we decided that unless we wanted to do this again at 3am we better go ahead and go. Also on this night was a ballgame. Stupidest thing ever to have a game on a weeknight. HATED it! The game was over around the time we were heading to the hospital, which is super close to campus and the stadium. Josh was driving like a bat outta hell…and I fussed but he ever so politely told me and I quote,” I drive like this for a living!” Whatever.

We thankfully made it in one piece to the ER and got Reecey Bug checked in. And then we got to sit in the ever so lovely waiting room where we saw all kinds of things…drunk boy that was half dressed in his bama gear that had been stabbed or something…that was the most interesting. So we sat there for TWO hours and nobody was even being called back! We got one of the nurses to take Reece’s temp. It was down to 100.2 and we left! I planned on having her at the pediatrician first thing the next morning…or the same morning because by this time it was after 12:00!

So, what caused the high fever?

Urinary Tract Infection.

We think. The urine specimen that the doctor’s office sent off came back inconclusive. So, we’ve been on antibiotics for a week plus a few days now. No more fever! yay! And we go back Tuesday to recheck and make sure the urine is all clear!

I still need to catch up on Peyton’s zoo field trip! Hopefully tomorrow! I’m being optimistic!

xoxo,

Sick

Well, I'm sick. I've had a sore throat on and off for about a week. Sunday night it was chilly and windy when I ran. Monday my throat was sore all day but I just tried to ignore it. I'm not a very good sick person. I have too many people to take care of and I'm always taking care of any family member that's sick....I DO NOT HAVE TIME TO BE SICK!!

I'll be the first to admit that I am a whiny titty baby anytime I am sick.

Poor Josh.

So this morning when I woke up at 3am and couldn't swollow my own spit, I decided that I better go get some shots. I don't have strep. I have some unknown something that I get about this time every year. My throat is covered, I mean COVERED in ulcers....it's red and inflammed and the doctor said it was almost completely swollen shut. Great. Just give me as many shots as you can! I got two, one in each cheek and almost couldn't walk out of there! I came home after dropping my prescriptions off...one was a pain med if that tells you how sorry the doctor felt for me..I crashed and took a three hour nap! I woke up feeling like a new woman and cooked homeade chicken enchiladas for dinner! I'll share that recipe soon along with that cake! Throat is still a little sore but nothing like the trobbing pain from this morning!

Remember I was supposed to have jury duty this week? Well I got a letter Thursday saying it was postponed until the 11th. Thank goodness!

Josh started his new job yesterday. I think he's bored and ready to hit the streets. The other two people that were hired with him have to go to the academy in January..and will be doing in-house training until then. We are not sure if Josh will be doing that much in-house training or not. It seems things are kind of not organized or something. The only thing we're worried about now is what shift he is going to be on. They only do shift change twice a year so if he gets put on evening shift now, he won't be able to change until January. And that means that me and the kiddos won't see him at all on his workdays! :( boo. BUT since it's already OCTOBER....January is not that far away! We'll manage!

That's all for now, I'm off to let Hubby pet me since I'm still sick!(gotta milk it!haha)

xoxo,

Heeeyyyy!

I'm alive. I really am. Just been to busy to get on here and blog and put Christmas pics up!

AND...

I was sick as a dog yesterday. Sick, sick, sick. Barf. Like, I couldn't even work. I think I have an ulcer in my stomach. None the less, I puked all day yesterday. So, now I am double behind at work, which I am sure is not good for the tummy....

I'll be back soon!

xoxo

Sick as a Dog

Actually, how sick is a dog anyway?? I've had bronchitis or somethingorother all week. Knocked me flat on my tail ya'll! I can usually work when I am sick...not this time.

Time-out

I'm about to do some really syrupy bragging on my hubs. So, if you tend to be jealous, hit that little x in the top right of your screen!

Time-in!

THANK GOD for my super duper hubby! I seriously couldn't take care of myself all week let alone 3 kids! He cooked, he cleaned, he did everything! I love him. And he must love me too!

And speaking of my fab husband, he has lost 22 pounds in about a month! He runs about 2.5-4 miles a day and has really changed his eating habits. I'm so proud of him! I'll keep you updated on his progress!

xoxo

Round Two

As it turns out, my measly two hour visit with Peyton to the doctor was cake compared to the 4 hours that Josh had with Griffin at the doctor! Same diagnosis. Same shot. But, apparently Griffin's shot hurt worse. Actually, he's just REALLY dramatic!

Josh had been up for 27 hours by the time they got home from the doctor. Have I mentioned that he is the best?? Needless to say, he crashed when he got home! About 4 hours after Griff got the shot I asked him to see where he got it. Well, there were about 4-5 little bug bite looking spots around it. So I thought he must be having some type of reaction to it. I called the doctor's office and after about 20 minutes they told me I was right and to just watch it. No more penicillin for him!

Supposedly if you are under the age of 2 you can't get strep throat. We are SOOOOOOO putting that theory to the test right now!

xoxo

Talk about a "Labor" Day!

I sure hope ya'lls weekend was stress free, relaxing, care free and all that jazz. I hope your favorite team won their season openers. I hope your kids didn't drive you nuts. I hope you got plenty of extra rest on your day off.

'Cause we didn't.

Friday night was good. We hung out and I don't really remember that much of it.... until bedtime. Peyton was in the kitchen getting his 15th bedtime snack, we were in the living room watching TV when we heard the little man say, "My throat hurts." I won't tell you what motherly instinct said because it wasn't blog appropriate! He didn't have a fever and his throat didn't look red so we sent him on to bed.

The next morning he woke up and complained about it again. It still wasn't red and he still didn't have a temp. About 30 minutes later he was fine and said it didn't hurt. So, we went about our day, it rained and rained and rained, which left us stuck in the house. The day was pretty much uneventful, until about an hour before game time! He then started throwing up....puke, puke, puke, puke.....poor baby! He was so sick. At that point he couldn't swallow ANYTHING and was walking around with a cup to spit in, couldn't even swallow spit! I got some Motrin down him and he was out for the count.

Now for the game. That down right sucked. Too many penalties and too many stupid mistakes. Ahem, McClain...for one. I would hate to be on that team in practice this week. Saban's gonna get 'em! Don't get me wrong, I'm super glad that we won, but it made me a nervous wreck to watch! Griffin stayed up and watched the entire game with me. Sweetness. Josh had to work. :( Around 10:30 Griffin looked at me and said, "You see my eyes, you see the way they look right now?" I said, "um, yes." He said, "They only look like this in the morning! God gave me special powers to stay up late and watch the game!" HA! He is so funny!

Moving on.

Sunday morning rolled around after a lot of puking during the night. I decided our best bet was to be at Medsouth at around 12:15 so that we could be the first in line(they open at 1:00). I dropped Reece and Griffin off at Mom's around 11:45 and headed that way. I stopped by the gas station and got him a Gatorade. As I was driving I heard him gulping it in the backseat....I never even thought to tell him to sip it because he couldn't swallow! We pulled up at the doc's office and I opened the door for him to get out when he looked at me with a funny look and started puking EVERRRRYYYYWHERE! I had no extra clothes with me. Crap. He was covered. There were already 4 people in line. But, I had no choice but to run back home and change him(and grab an extra change of clothes this time!) So we did. By the time we got back we were the 11th person in line. Not so bad, but we were there until 2:45. Diagnosis: Strep Throat, the puking kind. No, really??

As soon as Josh's parents found out about Peyton being sick, they came and got the other two. So, I spent the rest of the day taking care of my sick baby and giving him my full attention. He slept alot and while he slept I scrubbed every inch of our house! I was really hoping that none of the rest of us would get it. Well at 3:00 this morning, I heard Griff in the kitchen,

"My throat hurts."

Ding ding ding, round 2...

ugh.

xoxo

Pneumonia

Sigh.

Sweet Griffin has the nasty pneumonia. :( It's no fun. He's just laying around watching cartoons and has no energy whatsoever.....VERY unlike him! He won't eat, not even Taco Casa. He can't sleep because of the cough. He is very on edge about everything and moody as all get out! Don't look at him wrong, he may bite!(not really!) I really hate that he is sick, but I am loving the fact that he just wants to pile in my lap all the time right now! Hopefully the anibiotics will kick in today and he will feel better by tomorrow. I know that if he is not better by Sunday he may be admitted to the hospital so let's all hope and pray that he is better quick!

xoxo