Friday Phone Dump

This wasn't a good week for pictures.  My kids have passed on the "crud" that they've been suffering with along to me!  I have had a terrible sore throat and cough for the last 4 days.  I saw my own doctor this week.  She said she wouldn't test me for mono because 95% of adults have already had it.  She said she could see that my throat was very red and inflamed, but since there were no bumps or pustules so she doubted I had strep.  Apparently, I have your "run of the mill" infection and I was out of the office in 15 minutes with a prescription for a Z-pack!  Today will be day 4 of the antibiotic and I feel only slightly better.  Oh woes me!

I haven't used my phone much this week.  I took one picture from Wednesday night.  I was too sick to fix a regular meal....so we had a "munchie night".  This is were I used fruit, crackers and cheese that I had in the fridge and made a platter of food.  I did pick up a seafood dip from the store on my way home from work to add to the goodness!  It certainly wasn't the healthiest meal I've ever made, but since I felt so bad and just wanted to go to bed...I could at least say I fed my kids.

Friday Phone Dump

Right before Christmas, I broke our camera.  Yes, it was totally my fault.  I shoved it into my purse one day and something heavy must have been put on top of my purse (my guess...a backpack full of school books).  It cracked the lens and...we had to lay it to rest. 

Because of this monumental tragedy...the only camera we have now is the one on my phone (and Dan's phone).  Suffice it to say, we haven't taken any decent pictures in nearly 2 months!  Once of these days, we'll get a new camera....preferably before Amelia's First Communion in May.

One of my most favorite bloggers, Kelle Hampton at Enjoying the Small Things, has a weekly post that she calls "Friday Phone Dump".  I figured that since we have no camera at the moment, and since I prefer blog posts with pictures, I may as well adopt this weekly post too.  I guess it's worth mentioning that Kelle is a photographer so there will be NO similarities between her pictures and mine!  After all, Kelle has over 17,000 followers!

Since I've got a ton of pictures on my phone, I just picked a few to share with you for this first week.  Next week.....I'll post them all!  Also, I had trouble trying to get the photos from my phone to my computer.  After an hour of trying different things...I just decided to email them to myself and save them to my gallery that way.  It worked but I was too tired by that point to put them in any kind of order.  So here goes....

These were my "teacher gifts" this year!  Painted and then stenciled hand soap bottles!

Nathan's Westward Expansion project....a Davy Crockett doll...he sewed it himself!

Santa

Assumption Catholic School 5th Grade singing Christmas Carols (in 80 degree weather) in downtown Jacksonville.

Nathan's first NFL game!  Jaguars vs Chargers!  The Chargers won!

Amelia bumped her eye on the corner of a table on Christmas Eve.  Doesn't her shiner look like perfectly applied make up?  This was NOT make up...this was a bruise!

January Little Flowers Girls Club meeting.  These are our themed notebook pages.  For January, we studied the virtue of HOPE!

Our LFGC snack.....Ivy cake!

Our girls coloring their Saint pages!

I was angry at the kids for picking the camellia's too early.  However, when I saw what they did with them...I had to take a step back and enjoy the simplistic beauty.

My mother-in-laws car after the January 26th accident.

They had to cut out the passenger.

Amelia and Olivia ready for the Father/Daughter Dance

Amelia's 8th Birthday party at Chucky Cheese.

Amelia and Kate in the Ticketblaster!

Nathan's HIVES last weekend!

Olivia fixed herself a fort under her puffy chair.....she fell asleep. 

Yesterday's Kindergarten Mother's Tea!

My place setting at the Mother's Tea

A special time for Olivia and Mom!

There may be a light.....

at the end of the tunnel.....but I don't want to speak too soon!

On Monday of this week, we took Nathan back to the doctor.  He had hives all weekend long and was just feeling awful.  Apparently, it was a good thing we went!  They checked his pulse-ox when they got in the office and it was very low (low 80's).  The immediately gave him a nebulizer treatment in the office.  They said that if his pulse-ox didn't improve, they were going to suggest we take him to the E.R. right away.  After two treatments (albuterol/xopenex), his oxygen level was at a place that was acceptable.

She said that his spleen was LESS swollen!  This was wonderful news.  However, they found that he has an ear infection!  Can you believe it?  An ear infection!  So, she loaded us up with scripts for Albuterol, Zithromycin and prednisone, then sent us over to the hospital for a chest xray and lab work.

The doctor called us yesterday afternoon and said that according to the xray report and lab results, he has early pneumonia!  Yes, you heard that right!  Sigh.

We are to continue the nebulizer treatments every 4 hours for the foreseeable future.  We see her again on Friday.

This has been one roller coaster of a week!  I'm ready for it to be over.

Nathan seems to be better...he's beginning to annoy me so that must be a good sign!  The nebulizer treatments really hype him up!  He gets really pale and shaky for about 30 minutes afterwards.  They told us that would be normal with the albuterol.

In other news, my mother-in-law is doing better.  She still has both arms in casts but she is moving around more.  Her mood has also improved.  She sees the doctor at the end of this month and hopefully they will remove the left cast/brace.  This will give her much more independence and much more mobility.

Although I have been really stressed and tired these last two weeks, I have felt better than I have in weeks.  I think it's because my focus has not been on myself.  I've focused my attention on Nathan and Dan's mom...and of course, on keeping my house together as we deal with all of this.  I guess wallowing in your sorrows can tend to make things worse.  I'm not happy that Dan's mom, or Nathan have had to go through so much these last few weeks....I am glad in God's wisdom, he's given me a chance to serve others and to stop focusing on me and my problems.

I so appreciate all of the comments, emails, phone calls and prayers that you have sent my way.  I really could not have gotten through all of this without you!  Love you guys.

Mono 101

I have definitely had an education this week!  I've learned some things that I never really wanted to know!  Just like most everyone I know, I grew up thinking of mononucleosis as the "kissing disease".  I literally thought that you got mono anytime you kissed someone who was not your husband!  How naive I was.  I know for sure that Nathan has not kissed anyone but me...so far!  He still ended up with this dreadful virus....and it's worse than anything we've experienced before!  Here are some of the things I NOW know about mono.....

1.  Your body cooks it for a long time before you actually have symptoms!  They tell me it's been percolating in his system for 30-50 days!  During this time, Nathan was exposed to a ton of other crud (pneumonia, strep, gastroenteritis...etc....).  This means that he very well could have mono AND something else.  This is just disturbing to me!

2.  His doctor said that the most likely culprit for acquiring this awful thing is.....drum roll please......the drinking fountain at school.  Apparently, kids are not very good at avoiding the water spout itself!  This....is just gross!  Please send your kids bottled water to school...or a few bucks to buy a bottle here and there!  Allowing them to rely on the drinking fountains is just asking for trouble.

3.  The symptoms of mono mimics the symptoms of strep throat and consequently, many people are misdiagnosed.  It's sad to think that you could be taking an antibiotic needlessly (heellllooooo, isn't that rampant these days?) , especially since there really is no way to "get rid" of mono.  It is self limiting and must just run it's course.

4.  While we had some symptoms resolving....there were others waiting just around the corner to jump out at you.  For example.  His first symptom was a very sore throat.  About the time that was starting to ease up...he was slung with a heavy duty fever (>102).  The fever started to go away after about 5 days into it...and then he developed a pretty nasty cough.  He was coughing so hard, his left eyeball was all red from the blood vessels breaking.  When his cough had slowed down some....he got hives!  HUGE HIVES ALL OVER HIS BODY!  They were itchy and uncomfortable.  Benadryl worked for about 3 hours and then the hives would return.

5.  Hives are pretty much gone now, but today, he had some wheezing and breathing problems.  I brought him into the doctor today and she immediately gave him two breathing treatments.  She said his pulse ox was low and that if it didn't improve after the treatment, we needed to go to the emergency room!  This scared me to death!  After his exam today, we find that the HIVES have resolved but he now has an ear infection and has completely lost his appetite!  They sent him for some lab work and a chest xray!  Thankfully, there is no pneumonia!

6.  If you were not a crazy nut before for your child gets mono, you will definitely become one after about one week of this awful, awful disease.

7.  Most of the annoying symptoms will eventually resolve...but the fatigue can last for up to two months!

8.  Even when you are all better and feeling great....you can still pass this one on to your friends for about 18 months! 

9.  It's a very expensive disease....$25 co pays each for two doctor visits....$69 for the chest xray (incorrectly processed....our xrays should be covered at 100%...but I'm going to have to fight with my HR department to resolve this one).....$85 for prescriptions and about $30 for over the counter meds.  In addition, there is a rental cost for the nebulizer machine but I'm not sure how much that will be yet.

10.  Even though a child with mono might technically "look" like they are OK...chances are....they are NOT ready to try doing homework.  When their face is pale and his eyes look a little sunken in...that's your clue to NOT force the math issue.

11.  Last year, when we homeschooled the kids.....we had ZERO, NADA, ZILCHO illnesses!  So far this year...it's been a disaster.

12.  When you are paying a ton of attention to your really sick son....your daughters will feel jealous and will begin to act out....like writing on the wall and throwing a Dora chair at her sister.

13.  Your laundry won't get done.

Add a near fatal car accident where your mother-in-laws arms are broken....and you have yourself a situation that could involve a straight jacket.....or lots of alcohol.....maybe both!

Please pray for my poor Nathan as he recovers from this awful, awful virus!

Thanks!