Oh the joys of winter...

Sorry that all of my posts have been about sick kids and dads. But, that seems like all I have been up to lately. After Jaxson's trip to the ER late Sunday night I thought things were going to start looking better. I should know by now that I am not that lucky. A couple days later Brooklynn started with the horrible cough and then it moved to Kayson. Brooklynn woke up at about 3 in the morning on Monday and was just screaming with pain and holding her ear with an extreme fever to boot. We gave her some Motrin and a cool rag and finally got her to sleep. I called the doctor to get all my kids in but she is sooooo busy with all of Evanston's sick kids that she only had room for one. Brooklynn seemed the sickest so I made one for her (with the plan of taking Kayson and making them squeeze him in too.) And the day went on. I had a meeting with Mason's pre-school and they couldn't be happier with his progress. They say he is doing soooo well, he listens and plays well with all the kids. His speech is still not at the normal levels, so they are keeping him in speech therapy until he starts Kindergarten. I asked them if they had any concerns about ADD or ADHD and they didn't seem like they even understood why I would ask. I guess he is a completely different kid when Mom and Dad aren't there. So, that was the little bit of good news we got yesterday. About 1 pm I got a call from Jaxson's school saying he was in the nurse's office with a fever of 102.5 so I went and picked him up from school, he looked miserable. By that point it was time for Brooklynn's doctor appointment. I took her in and they did all the norms...weight, oxygen, pulse, and temp (which happened to be 101.5) They could see she wasn't well and I told them all my kids had the same stuff but her and the baby were the worst. They decided to do RSV tests and since the baby had a bad cough and fever they decided to test him too. Annette, RSV tests are just like Flu tests, big cotton swab up the nose :( Needless to say they were not happy. We sat there for a few waiting for the tests to be done and when the results were in.....RSV :( So, Brooklynn and Kayson are on some heavy antibiotics and steroids and breathing treatments and Motrin to keep the fever down. They have to go back to the doctor Thursday to make sure their oxygen stats stay above 90 or they have to be put in the hospital. Dr. Ching said the older boys probably have it too but it doesn't affect older kids like it does toddlers and babies so they would be ok with just breathing treatments and Motrin. So, looks like it's going to be another busy week at our house. It's still a good thing I haven't gotten sick...yet. If I do this house in going to be going down just like the Titanic. We could use all your prayers and thoughts to help these kids get better. I hope this doesn't last too long, we can't have them around other little kids or people with weakened immune systems until they are complete better. So, pray that we will be able to come up when Brian and Joy get here.

New section to the blog...

Well, everyone that had kids was doing it so I decided to join in on the fun. I added a section to the blog about what my kids are saying these days. Most of the posts will be stories the kids have told me or funny little things that shoot out of their mouths. But one thing is for sure, they will at least make you smile. :)

Another Crazy Week!

Well, another crazy week in the books. I wish we could have one back to normal week. It seems like we have had nothing but chaos and disorder the past month or two. Brooklynn seems to be all recovered and back to her normal bossy self since having her tubes done last Friday. Mason is continuing to recover, he hasn't bounced back as quick as I thought he would. He seems so resilient at times, I naturally assumed that he would feel a thing. This however, let me know that he is indeed a little boy and still needs his mommy. We had picked up Valentine's for his class last week sometime and he was soooo excited to take them to school, I was hesitant to let him go to school so soon after surgery but he wanted to go to his party. So, we got up and got ready and I took him into preschool and no sooner than we walked in the door he was crying saying he wanted to go home. We turned back around and headed home (we left the Valentine's for his class though and he was happy.) He is working on getting healthy and seems to be on his way up! Daddy, on the other had is sick again, I just can't seem to keep him healthy. He is always sick it seems. I want him to get to the doctor, but you know guys, they are too manly to do that. Jaxson has been participating in after school activities, he loves them but it makes for an extremely long day. He gets on the bus at 8:30am and Mon-Thurs he doesn't get home until 6:00pm. He is tired and ready for bed by the time he gets home, but says he has fun so I let him do the activities. I'm not sure whether it was his dad or just getting run down from school but Jaxson got soooo sick last night. He was fine, just hoarse and coughing when we put him to bed last night and at about 11:30pm he woke up and couldn't breath. So, I threw him in the van and him and I took off to the ER. When we got there they did a chest xray and the doctor said he didn't have fluid in his lungs but they did look junky. So, they gave him a breathing treatment and a shot and ran some more tests. When the results were in it was croop. So, we were sent home with antibiotics and a nebulizer of our very own! Now we can do treatments whenever we need to. So, Jaxson and daddy have been sitting together doing treatments and trying to get better. I hope this is over soon!

Still Recovering

So, Friday is over with and I honestly couldn't be happier that it now a distant memory. We went into the hospital at about 7:30am and got the kids registered and everything. We were back in the OR waiting area by 8:00 and they had the kids ready to go by 8:30. Brooklynn was first and they took her back and she was in and out in just a few minutes. She was still asleep when they brought her to me and advised me to be ready for the cranky wake up at any minute. Well.....she never even made so much as a whimper. She woke up, wanted some juice and her baby back and she was ready to go. Mason was pretty, well, Mason for the morning and being extremely uncooperative. They decided to give him a hefty dose of versed and it made him so loopy it was funny. He zonked out and they wheeled him back. He was in there for about 35 minutes and then they came wheeling him out and something wasn't right, you could see it in their faces. He was gasping for air and wasn't breathing like he should, they hooked him up to the pulse/ox and his oxygen stats were in the 70s (and that's not good). They had the oxygen mask on him and nothing was happening, so they bagged him and gave him air the old fashioned way. He still wasn't breathing well so they decided to give him a breathing treatment and a shot of a medicine that would reverse the effects of the anesthesia. He started to wake up and they gave him a chest x-ray and noticed some fluid in his lungs. We had to spend most of the day in the hospital being monitored and just making sure he was going to be fine. Well, he is and I am so relieved. It is so scary to sit there a watch them work over your child. It probably wasn't as bad as it felt at the time but I have to give you a back story on why I was so scared. Last Saturday one of my good friends here lost her little 3 month old nephew. They are still not quite sure why. They put him down for a nap and they all fell asleep for about 30 minutes and when they woke up he was blue. Her and her sister worked on him until the paramedics got there and then they took over. The hospital here worked on him for 3 hours and then finally decided it wasn't helping and they pronounced him dead at 2:24 pm. We were and still are so heartbroken that he isn't here longer. They are not LDS and don't have the same perspective that we do. I have tried to comfort them and relay the hope and faith I have that he is now with his Father in Heaven and that Tyrell was needed there for reasons we may not understand at this point. His funeral was today and it is just too hard to think of him. So, as Mason was lying there, not breathing as he should my mind thought of Tyrell and I prayed that my son would be allowed to stay here with me. I know my prayers were answered because as soon as I got off my knees Mason began to cough and breath on his own. I am so grateful that it turned out fine and he is doing good. He has a sore throat and he doesn't like taking his medicine, but I am glad to fight him knowing that he is here and well. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.

Friday is gonna be no fun....

So, just an update on things over in our neck of the woods. We took the two middle kids to the ENT yesterday and it was what we thought it would be. Mason is getting his tonsils out and Brooklynn is getting tubes put in on Friday. I am glad we are gettting this taken care of and that we could get it scheduled so quickly, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't a nervous wreck. But I know things will be ok, mostly I am not looking forward to the aftermath of Friday's events. I am glad that Jon has some knowledge of the OR staff and we asked for the "good" anestesiologist and the ENT is in our ward so I have complete confidence in him. I will keep you updated on how things go.