A Warm Weekend....

We had a nice warm weekend. It was up in the 50's. That might not seem all that warm, but for us it was like a heat wave! The kids went and built snowmen, wearing just sweatshirts and gloves. They had a great time, but when they did come in their clothes were completely soaked. They got some fresh air, though, and a taste a spring!
Noah ended up getting "the rash" last Thursday. He came home from school with it. We called the doctors to ask about it, because it was on his cheeks, too. (the others didn't have it on their face at all) They had a bring him in that afternoon, just to take a look. They told us it was probably the same thing that his brother/sister had.....surprise, surprise! His looked a lot different than theirs, though.

I am still fighting my cold or whatever it is. I've been going back and forth about going to the doctor to make sure it isn't anything more than that. I guess I just don't want to go in and feel silly that it is just a virus. I've been hoarse, coughing, congested, etc for over a week now. Maybe if it's not gone by tomorrow.........my favorite saying for the last week!

All the kids are back in school today, except Noah. He woke up with a headache and coughed hard enough to make himself throw up. I hate to send him to school before he's 100 percent because I know there's so much going around for him to catch, especially if he's not feeling all that great to begin with. But on the other hand, I feel like he's missed lots of school lately and I don't want him to get behind. Vance looked like he was getting a rash on his cheeks this morning, too. I hope it doesn't go around our house again. I sent him to school, though. He's taking MEA's (Maine Education.....whatever tests)

I'm seriously Lysoling my entire house today.........again! If it can/has been touched, it will be Lysoled!

I hate it when the kids are sick! And when I'm sick, it makes it all that much worse! Winter and cold season need to be over! I'm tired of it all this year!

I'm Tired of It All!!!

The only thing that's ever new around here is people getting sick and snow, so I'll give ya a little of both! Chad was feeling fine all day Friday, but by Friday night he was really sick, coughing, aching and congestion. We went to church on Sunday and were all fine, but by Sunday night his icky germs had spread to Myshel, Noah and me! It just seemed to come out of nowhere and hit hard. We're all miserable. I laid in bed last night trying to fall asleep listening to everyone cough. The only ones who aren't sick are Vance and McKaylie. I'm wondering if the virus they had early helped to to build up some immunity to this virus. I hope so, 4 sick people in the house is more than enough!

And to top it all off, they're having another snow day, today. Between last night and today, we're suppose to get an additional 10-15 inches of snow. My kids will be going to school in July at this rate. I'm just hoping that since March in coming in like a lion, it leaves like a lamb! NO MORE SNOW!

McKaylie is home....

Yes, the virus has struck again and McKaylie was it's target! Her rash isn't nearly as bad as Vance's was (not yet, anyway) but she's still at home. It's the strangest thing, really. There's no other symptoms, just a red rash....all over her body. I called the doctor's office to see if they thought I should send her to school. They said it would probably be a good idea to keep her home today, especially since the nurse would probably just send her home anyway. I guess that's true, but if this virus affects her the way it did Vance, it won't clear up until the weekend. Does that mean I keep her home until it clears up? Because that's silly when she feels fine. Am I going to have to get a note from the doctor's office telling the school nurse that it's ok that she's there even though she has the rash, because that's silly, too! Maybe I'll just cover her up really good, long pants, long sleeves and hope that no one notices. :) Kid's and their little "bugs"......they make me crazy!

Hello, Doctor?

Last night Vance came to me, all casual like, and showed me his arms. They were covered in a red rash. It looked like hives. I checked his back and stomach and they were covered in the rash, too. Legs? yep, them, too! I couldn't image what it could be from. I gave him Benadryl and we tried to think of everything that he might have eaten, or been exposed to that might have caused it. We couldn't come up with anything. I figured we'd let the Benadryl do it's thing and see how it looked in the morning. But, it looked even worse the next morning. We gave him some more Benadryl and called the doctor. We couldn't get in until 2:15PM. It didn't surprise me that they couldn't tell me for sure what caused it, but it did surprise me that the doctor told us that it probably wasn't something he'd eaten. She said that she really thought it was from a virus and that it would just have to run it's course like a virus does. So Vance gets to be home for the next few days, feeling groggy because of the Benadryl. I swear, I think that our family must keep the Martin's Point Medical Clinic in business.

Updates.........

McKaylie--Home from school 5 days---diagnosis--sinus infection--currently taking antibiotics
Vance--Home from school 4 days---diagnosis--sinus infection--currently taking antibiotics
Noah--Home from school 2 days--diagnosis--ear infection/wheezing--currently taking antibiotics and inhaler
Chad--Home from work 2 days--shoulder manipulation successful--currently on pain medication
(So that would be 4 out of the 6 people living in this house on medication)


I sent 4 children to school today! YEAH!!!!! ( I think it's unfortunate that they have tomorrow off for Veteran's Day, though. Not that Veteran's Day shouldn't be a holiday, but because I'd rather they were in school) Chad has today and tomorrow off for Veteran's day, so it is nice to have a day off with just him around. He's doing really well and isn't in as much pain as we anticipated. My visiting teacher/friend brought us dinner Friday night, which was so awesome of her and appreciated so much. I can't even begin to tell you how much. Our house is slowly getting back to normal and we're hoping that it will stay that way. Last week was insane and stressful. I can do without them!

The Fun Continues......

I am so tired!!!! That's all I can think about today. I am just sooo tired. I'm not grumpy (believe it or not), I'm not in a bad mood, I'm not even all that frustrated. I'm just so very tired!

NOAH: Yesterday I sent Noah to school. He had been rubbing his eyes just before he got on the bus, but I didn't think much about it. I called the schools to let them know that Vance and McKaylie were at home sick and that I wouldn't be able to join Noah for his speech therapy that day. Later that morning I got an email from Noah's speech teacher that she had gone to get him and he was on his way to the nurse, looking rather sick.............So, I waited for a call from the school nurse telling me to come and get him. I called Chad to see if he'd be available to go and get him if I was at the doctor when she called. I waited, but the call didn't come. So, being the mom that I am, I worried about him, but didn't call the school. Since I was trying to get Vance and McKaylie into the doctor, I decided to trust the school nurse and his teachers to make the best decision for him.

When Noah got off the bus, he looked like he'd been in a fight. I couldn't believe it. Apparently he'd spent the whole day rubbing his eyes, until they were red and slightly bruised around them. He looked terrible. (I wish I had thought to take a picture of him) So, I picked him up and carried him home. I asked him how his day was and he said, "not good". He told me that he went to the nurse, but he didn't have a fever and they couldn't find anything in his eyes, which was all true. He actually was fine staying at school, but he just looked so miserable with his big black eyes! I gave him some cold medicine to help with itchy watery eyes and cold rag to put over them. It seemed to help.

MCKAYLIE & VANCE: I did get Vance and Mckaylie to the doctor's office. All the doctors were completely booked, so we ended up seeing the nurse practitioner. I like her, but I'd rather have seen the doctor. She checked them both out, discussed everything and then sat there trying to figure out what, if anything, she should do. She finally decided to put McKaylie on an antibiotic, thinking that she might have a sinus infection (not really sure, though) There was no obvisous reason that she has been running a fever for 5 days. She decided to do some blood work on Vance, thinking that he might have mono, again, really not sure. She said his throat looked terrible, but his strep test was negative and his lymph glands were the size of golf balls. That just can't be good.

So we left, feeling like we hadn't gotten much information, though. Vance reluctantly let them take some blood, we picked up McKaylie's prescription and went home to wait for the blood test results. Around 7PM the nurse called me and told me that Vance's test for mono was negative. They would get the results from his blood count the next day and call me. I'm predicting that they're not going to find much. It's probably a nasty virus strain and we're just going to have to wait it out.

Vance was in bed and asleep at 6:30PM, McKaylie fell asleep on the floor around the same time. Noah fell asleep around 7:30, but his cough woke him up consistently throughout the night.

Today, I have 3 kids home from school. Tomorrow Chad goes into the hospital for his "procedure", so it would be very nice to have everyone healthy enough to go back to school. I wonder what kind of small miracle that would take......

Chad's Going Back.....

Back to the hospital that is. Chad's shoulder is all locked up and the physical therapists just can't get it moving. He can barely lift his arm to should level. So, Friday morning, he'll go back into the hospital, get a nerve block in his shoulder, go under anesthesia, and the doctor will move it for him.

We were told that he's just one of those people that builds up a lot of scar tissue and that scar tissue has healed everything all together and it's keeping him from making any progress in his physical therapy. Basically, the doctor will knock him out and then tear (for lack of a better word) the scar tissue free from his muscle and bone. He told Chad that if he were awake it would sound like pulling apart velcro; doesn't that just give you a warm, happy feeling inside!?! After the doctor does his thing, the physical therapists will come in and move his arm every hour for the first 24 hours. They'll teach us how to move his arm, too, to keep it loose. He'll also have to go to therapy every day for a week and then every 2-3 days for the next 2 weeks after that. The doctor told Chad that it's going to hurt....a lot.....and that he's just going to have to work through it, or his shoulder will freeze up again.

Sounds like lots of fun!

Chad's Update....

Chad's doing pretty good. His surgery went really well. This picture isn't a great one. It makes him looks worse than he actually did. It was taken Friday night after his surgery, before the nerve block wore off. They removed the bone spurs and a lot of scar tissue. The tendons weren't torn, which is really good. They were surprised by how much scar tissue there was, though, and said that that's why he was having so much trouble lifting his arm. The doctor also told him that the bone spurs were really sharp (they're usually smooth) and they got them out just in time. Because, they would have really torn up his rotator cuff if they had been there much longer. He has 9 staples, which Noah and Vance think are so cool. McKaylie thinks they're kinda cool and Myshel refuses to look at them. She says it makes her hurt too much. I don't think it's that bad. They gave him some medicine for the pain, so most of the time he's either in pain, or asleep. I took this picture Saturday afternoon and he asked me on Sunday when I took it. So, that tells you how coherent he is when he's taken them. But most of the time they just knock him out. He's actually cut back on his dose today, so the pain is subsiding, slowly.

He is doing good, though and he's in good spirits. We're both relieved that the surgery part is over and we can just concentrate on the recovery. We're very grateful for all your prayers and thoughts on his behalf and we'll keep you posted on his progress.