Updatapalooza

Bad blogger! Bad!

In my defense, Gary was in the field with the good computer (I had the crappy slow one), then we got sick which led to last week's hospitalization. Am I forgiven?

Last weekend Mia and I were knocked on our backs by some kind of virus. It wasn't even one of those viruses that seem productive, all we had to show for it were fevers and body aches. Gary did a good job playing nurse, keeping me hydrated and Mia entertained. We didn't even realize that she was sick until the end of the day on Saturday. She was quiet but didn't start running a fever until that evening. Once it reached 102.4 we took her to the ER since she is on immunosuppressants. They checked for a urinary tract infection, ear infection, and tried unsuccessfully to draw blood from her port. They took blood from her arm and it didn't grow anything in the cultures by the next day, when we went to the Sunday clinic. The pediatrician who saw her was very thorough and wanted her to come in on Monday to have her regular nurse try to get a blood culture from her port. On Monday the doctor managed to get the clump of earwax out of her ear that was blocking the view of an ear infection. Her nurse got the blood from the port but we figured we already knew what was wrong. The blood work from the previous day showed monocytes which they said indicated she might have had a viral infection with the ear infection. No fun! Doc told me he'd keep me updated on the blood cultures and he wanted to see us again the next day, Tuesday.

By Tuesday morning she seemed to be feeling much better, was chatty with the doctor and acting more like herself. He said that the port culture did grow a bacteria, but it was an odd one to find in a port. Streptoccocus pneumoniae is usually associated with upper respiratory infections in the lungs, not ports so we assumed it was a contaminated culture but nonetheless he would keep us updated. We had our neighbors Brian and Matthew over to play and she was fine until the end of the play date when she started seeming tired. After they left (about 5pm-ish) she was lying on the floor and acting fussy. Shortly after, the doctor called and said that the laboratory was sure that the bacteria was inside the port and that we needed to admit her ASAP to start IV antibiotics. I dropped Mia next door (thank you Tamara!) and went about packing her things. We had quite a time contacting Gary, who thankfully was about to come home anyway but after he cancelled his Alaska cell phone, it has been like finding a needle in a haystack (not anymore!) I left a note, grabbed Mia and we headed to the hospital, all of two minutes down the road.

They started her on some big gun antibiotics, to include Vancomycin which is one they used on her when she had staph sepsis back in April of '07. They alternated it with one I had never heard of, shockingly enough. They took another sample from her port and her arm and we also had to take X-rays of her chest. The X-ray was beyond traumatic. She wouldn't lie down for it and kept kicking and fighting us off. We ended up putting her in this awful contraption that basically holds them still with their arms above their head. Even the nurse who brought us down had never seen it used and said it would horrify him!
The next morning a surgeon talked to me about our options concerning the port and taking it out. We settled on trying to "sterilize" it with a two week run of IV antibiotics since the port makes blood draws MUCH easier. The plan changed when the laboratory contacted the doctors saying that the most recent port culture was growing bugs already, so it was obvious the port needed to come out. She went into surgery that evening and did very well. Her fever dropped within three hours and she just continued to get better. By Thursday we were clawing at the walls!
Helen and John brought the girls to see us and with them came Thanksgiving Dinner! They made some delicious dishes and schlepped it up to us, still warm when it was served! Caden was very proud of her yummy biscuits and Helen's pecan pie was to die for! Every thing was good and it was a nice change from the usual, even though the hospital food wasn't that bad! They brought Mia a present, a board game using ladybugs and aphids. It's so cute and I think we played it from the time they left until we got out of the hospital Saturday morning! Mia was glad to see someone other than nurses and the parents, she started to get down right mouthy by the end of the week.
Now for the pictures:

Right before the surgery

In the recovery unit, sleeping off the anesthesia

Our room service Thanksgiving buffet!

Figuring out the Lady Bug Game

These beds can take a lot of weight!

Caden showed Mia where to move her pawn

Feeling perky today!

The surgical incision, glued together! The surgeon said that it ended up being an"S" shaped scar so he straightened it out in case she wanted a strapless prom dress! Mia was upset at first when I told her that they had to take her port out. She's very possessive of her hardware and they've been with her for as long as she's had a decent memory. I explained that it was sick, and it was getting her sick and the doctor took it out to make her feel better. She got used to the idea and now she tells everyone that the doctor took her port.

When we went home on Saturday morning, Brian and Matthew brought her a Thanksgiving card and hat that they made. Candy apples for mommy and daddy!

Her response to the card was, "Oh for CUTE!"

Gary and I have been the crazy people who love snow, always placing the order! Last night the sky finally delivered! I woke up and it took about twenty minutes before I realised that there was snow on the ground. We put Mia straight into her snow suit and headed outside to play.

Mia wanted a snowball, so the girl made a SNOWBALL!

She really enjoyed playing snow soccer

Our neighbors Treena and Jimmy have a great sledding hill behind their house so we brought the kids around and they had a blast trying out the different sleds.

We tried to get a picture with all three, but Jamie wasn't interested and eventually rolled off.

There was *just* enough snow to pull the wood sled, and it did okay for one run down the hill but once you have the grass and dirt coming through it doesn't work so well!

After the sledding fun, we decided it was time to decorate the tree. We had Brian and Matthew over to help. We meant to do it yesterday but ended up going to town. They were all such good helpers, and Brian was so quick that we didn't even get a picture of him!

Mia inspecting every one's hard work

Halloween and On

I haven't been a good little blogger lately. Everyone is under the weather in one way or another!
I think we're all succumbing to the dry fall/winter air, waking up with the awfully sore throat and the dry nasal passages. Mia has a humidifier that we just cranked up again. We were contemplating selling the thing because the filters cost as much as the machine! I'm not joking. I'll never get another Bionaire. We paid around $50-$60 for the machine at Costco in Alaska and when we finally found the replacement filters, they were $40!! I just take them out an bleach them and lay them in the sun occasionally but they gunk up fast.

Mia has started her immunosuppressant. We're using Imuran instead of 6MP, they are the same kind of drug though. For some reason the pharmacy couldn't compound 6MP. They list all of the same uses and side effects, it's just a matter of brand name. We're on day five. She's being odd, but that isn't really anything new lately. She's odd on medication. We actually had to skip preschool on Friday because she threw up in the parking lot. She told me when she got up that she didn't feel good. I had to dress her and put her shoes on; all she wanted to do was lay on the ground propped up against her bed. I should have believed her, because I spent an hour cleaning the sick out of the car when we got home! She snuggled on the couch with Daddy and watched a movie and felt much better. I'm sure it was the Imuran, the nausea and vomiting are one of the side effects listed. We're going to see the hematologist in Denver tomorrow, might get a blood workup. We have orders to do it on Wednesday or Thursday anyhow, she's just looking peaked and it worries me. She's extremely emotional, too. I hear her just tearing up and crying over something like dropping a book.



Halloween was fun! She insisted on being Tinkerbell. So we put the dress that Mimmy bought to good use! She's been wearing it every day for nearly two weeks. She got a kick out of dressing up with her friends and even told people "No peanuts please!" So we ended up with hardly any directly peanut products, though a couple of snickers bars managed to get in there. Thank goodness she isn't anaphylactic to things just being in her space!
We could NOT get the child to say "trick or treat" but she did thank them when they put something in the bag. We ended up using most of it in our own bowl of candy to hand out. It sounds cheap, but really we did it so we wouldn't feel obligated to eat it!

That is when she started saying "trick or treat!" She would haul the bowl out before the kids could even get to the garage and yell, "TRICKERTREET!!" She had been collecting only one kind of candy in her hand, so some poor little kids got a wad of pixie sticks! She stood at the door just waiting! It was quite a show trying to get her out of the costume to take her bath and do night time things. She really wanted to stay in their costume! It went back on first thing the next morning!

The neighborhood friends: My friend Marissa and her little girl were a pair! She's the banana holding the baby monkey! We had a ninja, a Cat in the Hat, a baby dinosaur, a Tinkerbell and a cheerleader that was camera shy!

This house scared the daylights out of her. They had a motion activated witch, and she stood at the corner of the garage, already nervous about the inflated moving decoration! The man passing out the candy was very nice and brought the bowl to her!


And no, we didn't have any nightmares to contend with.

Mia's First Baking Experience

When you are determined that your kid is going to eat the same thing her friends are eating, you have to get creative where Mia is concerned! It started with a recipe that was sent by someone in our local support group for a banana muffin recipe that had minimal ingredients. I usually ignore any recipe swaps, even through allergy groups because it's depressing to see great ideas...if you aren't Mia! This one looked promising so I read one of my allergy cookbooks on flour substitutions, then read my sheet on high altitude baking. I made the first batch by myself, after she went to bed. They weren't bad at all! I tweaked the recipe a little more the next day and let her help me. We made enough to take to preschool the next day since we were the parent helpers. All but one kid ate them! Even her teachers seemed to enjoy, or they were being very nice! My only gripe is that they are slightly gritty from the quinoa flour. I could probably do away with it all together and may try using only the rice flour next time.

She loved "stomping" the bananas! Very enthusiastic.

Those little legs needed a boost

She could barely see into the bowl!

Now for the test...

Mikey likes it!

8 out of 10 preschoolers can't be wrong, right? That stat is only because a little girl was not there!

Daddy is back from The Field for a week or so, I don't know when they are going back out again. Mia really misses him when he's away, I'm not sure how she will handle the deployment. I'm fully expecting behavior problems, that seems to be the universal reaction for the kids of deployed parents. She threw another hissy on Friday but it was significantly shorter. Next time, the teachers and I agreed that we'll just do the normal routine to get ready for school and I'll leave, hissy fit or not. She's beginning to see that it gets results.

We spent the weekend trying to knock some things out that have been patiently waiting for our spare time. I managed to get all of her prescriptions from her old compounding pharmacy in Alaska copied and typed up with their appropriate refund form. They swore up and down (and left, right for that matter) that for compounds I'd have to submit a claim on my own. Our new CP tech said she had no idea why they couldn't do it. I thought it was because they didn't cover the meds we needed, but it's possible they were just ignorant. The doctors didn't like dealing with this pharmacy (they always managed to screw something up, and our nurse had to fix it). I did try to submit them before we left, but they were returned because I actually put the wrong birthday. I can't believe I did that. So, this time everything is typed neatly and accurately!

Today is a lazy-ish day, not by choice! We're waiting for one of the workmen from the housing office to come and take a look at our thermostat. Everything else is working, the furnace, the screen on the thermostat... We think it's the switch. We are "scheduled" loosely for the afternoon. The lady on the phone said they would be there somewhere between 12 and 4. Nice, huh?

Oh the THREES!

In the Blister News, it lanced itself today and now looks more like a burn, which just makes it that much more pitiful. She yelled for me this morning before preschool and holds up the finger and says, "What's that?" It was weeping fluid so we put a band aid over it.

Today is the first time she threw a cattywompus about going into her preschool classroom. She did it twice for the PT as I wrote earlier, but NEVER for preschool. She howled for a good 20 minutes at least, stuck to me like a koala with gorilla glue. We sat in the library rocking chair where I asked questions:
"Do you hurt?" "No."
"Does your finger hurt?" "No."
"Are you scared?" "No."
"Are you afraid of leaving Mommy?" (nods head "yes")
Once I figured out what was bothering her, I told her that I'd stay with her and we'd do art together and play on the playground, but she had to use her own body and I had to use mine. That worked for about two steps before she was attached again. We sat down at the art table, Mia in my lap, where they were making very cool tile paint prints. She stayed in my lap until I used washing the tile as an excuse to get up. I moved her to a seat in front of a clean tile board. That was the beginning of her normal preschool day. Everyone was so very kind about the wailing! No one suggested that she go home, they just let her get it out and tried to divert her attention. Tomorrow we're parent helping, and I'm expecting another fit (just so I'm not as surprised and thrown off as I was today!)

Now for a dose of irony! We were behind in tuition payments while searching for renters and waiting for the credit card machine installation to be completed at the school. The very day the credit card machine went up, I paid in cash. I must have bugged the daylights out of them asking when the machine would be up so we wouldn't get further behind. Last week we finally got the rent deposit. It sounds like the rent will be a week after our mortgage is actually due for some reason. So instead of the end of the month being tight like everyone else, the first of the month is our crunch!

No pictures for today because she is laying down for a very long nap. I'm not entirely sure she's feeling 100% yet, after getting off of the steroids. Now that she's on antibiotics it's just further messing with her lower GI. The nap will be good for her. It made time for me to FINALLY test this banana muffin recipe that was passed around the local allergy group email ring. I had to modify it for both Mia's restrictions and high altitude cooking, but so far so good! They look and smell good....I just tasted one and WOW! My FIRST allergy recipe that requires mixing and baking and MIA CAN EAT IT!!! It's actually very yummy, so I won't feel like I'm torturing kids when I bring them for snack tomorrow. I'm glad I mixed the flours up, I don't think it would have turned out as well with just rice or just quinoa. I also added in some oats. I used organic apple juice instead of water for more flavor, which was another good idea. Neat. I think the only tweak I'll make for next time is less quinoa flour and more rice flour so it isn't so grainy.

Poor little finger!

Mia's finger looked worse today. Usually the swelling goes down over night with an extra dose of Atarax, but it turned red around the perimeter and it seemed to me that it was a travelling red, so I called her nurse and managed to get squeezed in after OT. Her PCM wasn't there but the doc who saw us gave her Keflex, saying he had no idea what it could have been but that it did look like it was infected. We hung out in the Peds lobby after the first dose of Keflex just to be safe. All was well! I remember her handling Keflex better than any of the other antibiotics.

The doctor was also amused that she actually uses a Nettie Pot for sinus flushing. It's weird, she actually reminds me and seems to enjoy it. I wasn't so sure of the idea until I got a whopper of a head cold or allergies when we were visiting Virginia. My mother in law said that it would help and bought a sinus rinse kit. I tried it and she wasn't kidding! So I just showed Mia how I did it emphasizing that it feels weird but that it's so funny that water comes out of your nose. She got a kick out of it and wanted to try, and that was that.

I controlled myself at Joanns today, in case you were wondering. Those beautiful little ceramic birds and metal bird wall thingies were still there, but I kept going! They also have some gorgeous dark wood box trunks that were great, but I bought my patterns that I picked out the night before and we left. Yay for self control!

What a day.

For the past two PT visits, Mia has melted into a puddle of tears and I-don't-know-what. It was sudden, like she just realised that Mommy wasn't with her. I have gone back to the rooms with her the past two times, thinking that it could be a separation anxiety that just kicked in VERY late. When your kids go back with the therapists, they are never really alone. They share rooms and use the hallway and stairway for the most part. We have no clue what clicked in her head, but it doesn't happen to that degree for feeding therapy. Maybe she knows that I'm coming back with her without fail...I don't know. We're puzzled. She did better today than she did lasts week. Last Tuesday we barely got her to do one activity and she was tearing up and on the verge of crying the whole time. This morning we were able to get her to do a puzzle with a magnetic fishing pole (she would then carry the puzzle piece over a step stool and to a designated spot, rinse and repeat). After the puzzle she started crying and ran to me, stuck like a fly on flypaper. We tried to get her to do her favorite things like running and the ball pit but she didn't want to do either. I ended up taking her to the ball pit room where another little guy was getting his therapy and we managed to ease her in. It seems like it's just overload to her little system.

It didn't help that she also had a big owie on her finger. It's definitely an allergic reaction, but it happened between the front door and the clinic. It had to have happened in the car, because her hands were fine when we washed them before leaving. As you can see from the first picture, it's a whopper. She had a little spot that blistered on Sunday and we never figured that one out either.

This one does a better job conveying the size. Keep in mind it's a petite 3 year old finger!

From this angle it just looks like a gray spot, but it's actually a giant blister that looks like it has some pus inside.

All of this happened as I had become more nonchalant about the allergies. Not that I'm letting her play catch with a can of mixed nuts, but I seem to have come down a notch on the vigilance when I clearly shouldn't have. After she goes to bed, I'm scouring the already clean looking kitchen (again) in case I missed some onion or milk or what ever it could be. Tomorrow after OT/FT, I should probably do the same for the car (again). Martha aint got nuthin on me.

The wind is howling outside. There is some scuttlebutt in the weather forecast about snow, but it won't stick. The temperatures aren't consistently low enough for it to stay. My friend Sierra in Anchorage says they already have 4 inches! I guess I do miss that part, having the snow. But this place is still awesome.

I found some great fabric on sale at JoAnns today. I have one of their magazines that has reusable coupons, and they aren't wussy little 10% coupons, either! I also found the most beautiful findings for jewelry making. BIRDS and NESTS! I don't know what it is about birds and nests but I'm so excited that they are the "in" decor right now. I think they are actually on their way out, because the bird decor is on 60% clearance at JoAnns right now. I controlled myself today, but I can't make a promise for tomorrow! They are doing a super sale that is insane, and since crafting isn't for everyone, it isn't loaded with too many people in the store. It's borderline, actually. The patterns are .99 so I'll be going back!

Yes, she is stuck in the window of her castle. I had an interesting time getting her out.

Showing Daddy how to build a garage shelf

BABY DRAGON! The flavor of the month as far as companions go.

The 1st Annual Ruth Washburn Harvest Festival

It started with a pumpkin heist and ended with a festival.

The preschool has it's own garden where the children learn about planting and growing, responsibility and so forth. Back in Spring they planted pumpkin seeds and they had grown into very nice pumpkins that they planned to turn into projects and baked goods. A few weeks ago, it was discovered that the pumpkins had been stolen in the night. I'm not talking about a teen prank with two or three pumpkins gone, but somewhere between 20-30. After the community replenished the pumpkins and then some (as blogged earlier) the teachers put a few out in the patch to show the kids. THOSE were stolen as well, along with the very expensive copper irrigation system. The festival was still on.
The need for a sponsor for the festival was great, and a local Whole Foods store quickly stepped up, providing a tent that served free fresh fruits, veggies, fruit leather, cookies and drinks. In addition to the food, they handed out their reusable shopping bags and said that RW is the school of choice for the donations that are given when people use their own bags. The food and bags were great, but they also hired security guards for the school through Halloween. The guards are SWELL, but they also bought a new irrigation system. Now, irrigation systems rock, but they are having a day in February where 5% of the entire day's proceeds go to Ruth Washburn Cooperative Nursery School. I hear that they are also sponsoring or donating to the silent auction that we're having on November 15th. If this hasn't at least dinged your view of corporate food chains, something is missing in your heart!

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!

Why, those ARE Zebra's hoofbeats!

Doing my volunteer hour at the WF tent

Who doesn't love a smiling kid on a tire swing?

Contemplating the questions of life atop the crowes nest

Gary says she was really good at the bean toss game, getting the bags in the holes quite a few times.

Festivals will wear you out!

A view from one of the playground hills

Why do I bother with cute clothes? Because I love Spray-N-Wash.