It's been a while since I last posted on here. Life has been busy! My two littles are like energetic puppies. I was raised with five brothers, so I am familiar with boys, but man, these two...they make me tired just watching them! Crawling, jumping, climbing, tumbling, tugging, pulling, in, out, up, through...and don't forget the wrestling! Constant wrestling! I'm surprised one of them hasn't gotten injured or broken a bone yet. (cross fingers it doesn't happen any time soon!!)
Harrison has now been busy doing his online school/regular school mix for a few months, and I think he is really enjoying it. It seems to be a good mix for him. He is doing really well keeping up with his online school work, and he works very hard and diligently at it. Then he has orchestra at the regular school, and seminary, and he is really enjoying those too. It makes me happy to see him liking school and doing great at it.
Hazel we are still trying to help her catch up, but she is getting there. I am glad she has the teacher she does. I really like her, and she does a good job, and she is very understanding and empathetic to Hazel's needs. It's just right for Hazel.
Jeffrey, boy Jeffrey has just done a total turn around! He is talking more, interacting in conversations, wants to read books, count, say colors, it is just thrilling and amazing and makes my heart happy! The doctor checked out his ears and throat the other day, and Jeffrey interacted with him! Our pediatrician always makes little bird chirps when he looks in little kids' ears and when he did it this time, Jeffrey looked at him and said, "There's a BIRD in my EAR!!!" It was so cute! It makes me smile just writing it!
Emmett is so super smart! He already counts to ten. I'm sure he doesn't understand the significence of it yet, but it just amazes me that he does it! He also recognizes a few sight words (very few) and letters. He's just fun, and crazy! I love him though. I love them all. It's not that it's super easy and all just smooth sailing, but being a parent is very rewarding.
So, now onto the other stuff...
I have a growth on my jawline. I know. Eww.. I had it checked today by a surgeon, and it will need to be removed. So, there may be a small surgery in my future. My doctor said it looked like a sebaceous cyst. The reason it needs to be removed is it has grown like crazy the last six months, from being the size of a pencil tip eraser, to more like a big marble (the big steelys). It's also infected and not a happy sebaceous cyst, which also points towards it needing to be removed. I'm supposed to have an ultrasound on it so they can see all the structures and make sure it doesn't involve any facial nerves, large blood vessels, etc... so, hopefully that will be all okay and no problemo... praying for good outcomes on that one.
There are other intriguing things going on that I can't write about yet. So...I may write about it next time. We'll see.
Showing posts with label Emmett. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Emmett. Show all posts
Monday, October 26, 2015
Monday, February 9, 2015
Hanging On
I'm ready for all my kids to be healthy at the same time...okay, I'm ready for everyone to be healthy at the same time!
It has been a roller coaster of illness around here, but thankfully, none of it has been influenza.
Emmett has still been grumpy, especially since his antibiotic ran out, which made me wonder if he needed to be seen again.
Then Harrison woke up this morning and told me it hurt really bad when he breathed in an out. Yay!
I didn't think it was anything super serious, but when your 14 year old is telling you the pain level is an 8 or 9 when they are laying down, you begin to wonder what is going on.
When Shane came home, he wondered if maybe Harrison needed to have his back adjusted, but the pain was coming in waves, so I wondered.
In the end, I ended up taking him to the doctor Shane and I go to, since the pediatrician was 100% booked, and he would have to be seen in the night clinic. I didn't want to wait that long.
Our doctor thought he might have pleurisy, which is an inflammation of the lining of the lung. He prescribed him prednisone, which is a steroid. Common practice.
So, we went and got the prescription filled. Since you are supposed to take it with food, we stopped at home and got some food to eat. I guess the pills look like chewables because Harrison chewed the pill. Blech! Of course that worried me because I knew you weren't supposed to chew them, so I called the pharmacist and found out that although super nasty tasting, it shouldn't be harmful (although he didn't recommend chewing them anymore...lol).
Anyway, then I had a few errands to run, and then the thought occurred to me that I should take Harrison to our chiropractor and just make sure that there wasn't a rib out that was causing the pain.
Off to the chiropractor we went. Nothing was out on the front, but when he had Harrison turn over, there was a rib out. So, he adjusted him, did another adjustment, and presto change-o, the pain was immediately gone.
Since we were there, the chiropractor adjusted Emmett too, so hopefully his ear will drain and he will be happy again! After he got adjusted and we were back in the car, Emmett was humming in the back seat. I think because he could hear again!
After this experience I always think to myself, why didn't I start at the chiropractor and go from there?! It would have saved me money. Oh well.
It has been a roller coaster of illness around here, but thankfully, none of it has been influenza.
Emmett has still been grumpy, especially since his antibiotic ran out, which made me wonder if he needed to be seen again.
Then Harrison woke up this morning and told me it hurt really bad when he breathed in an out. Yay!
I didn't think it was anything super serious, but when your 14 year old is telling you the pain level is an 8 or 9 when they are laying down, you begin to wonder what is going on.
When Shane came home, he wondered if maybe Harrison needed to have his back adjusted, but the pain was coming in waves, so I wondered.
In the end, I ended up taking him to the doctor Shane and I go to, since the pediatrician was 100% booked, and he would have to be seen in the night clinic. I didn't want to wait that long.
Our doctor thought he might have pleurisy, which is an inflammation of the lining of the lung. He prescribed him prednisone, which is a steroid. Common practice.
So, we went and got the prescription filled. Since you are supposed to take it with food, we stopped at home and got some food to eat. I guess the pills look like chewables because Harrison chewed the pill. Blech! Of course that worried me because I knew you weren't supposed to chew them, so I called the pharmacist and found out that although super nasty tasting, it shouldn't be harmful (although he didn't recommend chewing them anymore...lol).
Anyway, then I had a few errands to run, and then the thought occurred to me that I should take Harrison to our chiropractor and just make sure that there wasn't a rib out that was causing the pain.
Off to the chiropractor we went. Nothing was out on the front, but when he had Harrison turn over, there was a rib out. So, he adjusted him, did another adjustment, and presto change-o, the pain was immediately gone.
Since we were there, the chiropractor adjusted Emmett too, so hopefully his ear will drain and he will be happy again! After he got adjusted and we were back in the car, Emmett was humming in the back seat. I think because he could hear again!
After this experience I always think to myself, why didn't I start at the chiropractor and go from there?! It would have saved me money. Oh well.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Follow Up
A few days after the ER visit, I took Emmett to his follow up with our pediatrician. I had all the kids with me, and Harrison was still having an extremely bad sore throat, so when the doctor asked how everyone was doing, I told him about Harrison and how he still wasn't doing better.
Here is what I found out:
The doctor told me that teenagers can get a micoplasma infection that can cause a severe sore throat that won't go away. So he put Harrison on a zpac. Before he was even finished with the antibiotic (that you only take for five days) his sore throat was completely gone. Hallelujah! To be honest, I questioned the other doctor's assessment that Harrison might have mono, for the main reason that he just wasn't tired enough. With mono, it doesn't matter if you want to be awake, you seriously just sleep, all day and night, and it still isn't enough.
Anyway, glad that was taken care of.
Now on to Emmett.
When I saw Emmett's xray it looked very similar to the xray he ended up with last year when they told me he also had pneumonia, and then the pediatrician really felt like he had RSV because of what the xray looked like.
Well, we knew he didn't have RSV because that test came back negative, but when our doctor listened to Emmett's lungs at his appointment three days later, they sounded clear. Based on the xray, he felt that Emmett had a different virus, that is actually worse than RSV, but shows up on an xray as very similar to RSV. So, we are very blessed that it didn't affect his breathing worse and have to be hospitalized.
By the time he had his follow up appointment, the retracted breathing was all gone, and his respirations per minute were back to normal. So, those are all really good things.
Even though he ended up probably not needing to go to the ER, I am still glad that I took him. I always feel like the ER is a double edged sword. You don't want anything to be really wrong, but when it is, you feel justified for making the trip...but you hate that something was wrong. If nothing is wrong, that is wonderful, but you feel like you just wasted a ton of money going to the ER.
In Emmett's case though, he really was sick, and how bad would I have felt if I didn't go and he ended up not breathing and dying because I was too stubborn to take him in? Yep, I would much rather pay the ER bill and have peace of mind in knowing that I did everything I could as a parent to help him be as healthy as possible.
Here is what I found out:
The doctor told me that teenagers can get a micoplasma infection that can cause a severe sore throat that won't go away. So he put Harrison on a zpac. Before he was even finished with the antibiotic (that you only take for five days) his sore throat was completely gone. Hallelujah! To be honest, I questioned the other doctor's assessment that Harrison might have mono, for the main reason that he just wasn't tired enough. With mono, it doesn't matter if you want to be awake, you seriously just sleep, all day and night, and it still isn't enough.
Anyway, glad that was taken care of.
Now on to Emmett.
When I saw Emmett's xray it looked very similar to the xray he ended up with last year when they told me he also had pneumonia, and then the pediatrician really felt like he had RSV because of what the xray looked like.
Well, we knew he didn't have RSV because that test came back negative, but when our doctor listened to Emmett's lungs at his appointment three days later, they sounded clear. Based on the xray, he felt that Emmett had a different virus, that is actually worse than RSV, but shows up on an xray as very similar to RSV. So, we are very blessed that it didn't affect his breathing worse and have to be hospitalized.
By the time he had his follow up appointment, the retracted breathing was all gone, and his respirations per minute were back to normal. So, those are all really good things.
Even though he ended up probably not needing to go to the ER, I am still glad that I took him. I always feel like the ER is a double edged sword. You don't want anything to be really wrong, but when it is, you feel justified for making the trip...but you hate that something was wrong. If nothing is wrong, that is wonderful, but you feel like you just wasted a ton of money going to the ER.
In Emmett's case though, he really was sick, and how bad would I have felt if I didn't go and he ended up not breathing and dying because I was too stubborn to take him in? Yep, I would much rather pay the ER bill and have peace of mind in knowing that I did everything I could as a parent to help him be as healthy as possible.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
A whole lot of crazy going on...
So, this last week has kind of been a blur, and this next week, is kind of starting out as a blur. A blur of coping. Seriously.
Last week, Harrison was diagnosed with mono. Yay. I feel bad for the kid. Although, I think as far as mono goes, he has a pretty mild case, thank goodness.
We went and talked to our financial advisor, and had a good meeting. Of course, this meeting took place on the same day as the day that Harrison informed me that his throat hurt bad enough that he didn't think he'd be able to concentrate in school.
So, that was fun.
Then, because his throat hurt bad enough, the pediatrician said that he felt that Harrison should stay home for the rest of the week. Which, he's old enough, so as far as that goes, not a big deal. Still, I always get a little anxiety when my kids miss school, because I always worry about the work that they are going to have to make up.
About the same time, Emmett started having a cough. The cough started to gradually get worse, but nothing big. Nothing big enough to cause me concern, but merely hope that it didn't turn into croup. Well, fast forward to today. Last night, I started noticing that Emmett was retracting while he breathed (in other words, when he breathed the muscles in between his ribs sucked in.) He was starting to use his whole stomach to breathe. Of course this concerned me, but he didn't seem to be struggling, he wasn't coughing THAT bad, and he was happy, energetic, and like his usual little self. I thought, hmm, maybe his cold is getting worse...I hope it doesn't turn croupy.
Well...last night, he woke up and had a coughing fit. I almost took him to the E R right then. I still wondered if it was croup though, so we tried sitting in the bathroom with him while the shower was on hot and steamy. It didn't help really. Maybe a little.
Shane gave him a blessing and I felt ok about waiting until the morning. He had stopped wheezing, and it seemed like his breathing had calmed down.
Well, Hazel and I went to church in the morning, and Shane stayed home with the boys. I kept feeling uneasy about Emmett, so we left a little early and came home. I called the pediatrician and then waited to hear back from him. By this time, Emmett had a little mild grunt at the end of each breath, but still, he was running around, playing with his toys, not lethargic in any way shape or form. I looked at his ribs, and the retraction was worse, plus the little grunts...
The pediatrician called back and recommended giving him a nebulizer treatment. Emmett's respirations were at 42 breaths per minute, which is higher than they like, so he told us to count his respirations again 10 minutes after the treatment and if they were 40 or higher he wanted us to call him again. Well, ten minutes after he was at 42 breaths per minute, 20 minutes after he was at 48. So, we called the pediatrician again. When he called back, we talked for a few minutes, and then told me that his main concern was that Emmett wasn't getting enough oxygen and possibly becoming hypoxic. So, I took him to the ER. (We have a pulse oximeter, which is probably one of the best things we have ever bought, but Emmett is too little for it to read on him.)
At the ER his oxygen level was okay. 90/91. That's not great, but usually if it's sitting at 90 they are okay with that unless it appears like the child is struggling to breathe. After evaluating him, they discovered that he has an ear infection, and after an x ray found out that he has pneumonia. The RSV test came back negative.
Sometimes when a child gets pneumonia they will hospitalize them, but because Emmett was doing well, they felt good about sending him home and giving him an antibiotic, and having us give him breathing treatments.
So, hopefully Emmett will improve. He supposed to be seen about Tuesday or Wednesday as a follow up.
I am so grateful that he is okay enough that he doesn't have to be in the hospital.
Last week, Harrison was diagnosed with mono. Yay. I feel bad for the kid. Although, I think as far as mono goes, he has a pretty mild case, thank goodness.
We went and talked to our financial advisor, and had a good meeting. Of course, this meeting took place on the same day as the day that Harrison informed me that his throat hurt bad enough that he didn't think he'd be able to concentrate in school.
So, that was fun.
Then, because his throat hurt bad enough, the pediatrician said that he felt that Harrison should stay home for the rest of the week. Which, he's old enough, so as far as that goes, not a big deal. Still, I always get a little anxiety when my kids miss school, because I always worry about the work that they are going to have to make up.
About the same time, Emmett started having a cough. The cough started to gradually get worse, but nothing big. Nothing big enough to cause me concern, but merely hope that it didn't turn into croup. Well, fast forward to today. Last night, I started noticing that Emmett was retracting while he breathed (in other words, when he breathed the muscles in between his ribs sucked in.) He was starting to use his whole stomach to breathe. Of course this concerned me, but he didn't seem to be struggling, he wasn't coughing THAT bad, and he was happy, energetic, and like his usual little self. I thought, hmm, maybe his cold is getting worse...I hope it doesn't turn croupy.
Well...last night, he woke up and had a coughing fit. I almost took him to the E R right then. I still wondered if it was croup though, so we tried sitting in the bathroom with him while the shower was on hot and steamy. It didn't help really. Maybe a little.
Shane gave him a blessing and I felt ok about waiting until the morning. He had stopped wheezing, and it seemed like his breathing had calmed down.
Well, Hazel and I went to church in the morning, and Shane stayed home with the boys. I kept feeling uneasy about Emmett, so we left a little early and came home. I called the pediatrician and then waited to hear back from him. By this time, Emmett had a little mild grunt at the end of each breath, but still, he was running around, playing with his toys, not lethargic in any way shape or form. I looked at his ribs, and the retraction was worse, plus the little grunts...
The pediatrician called back and recommended giving him a nebulizer treatment. Emmett's respirations were at 42 breaths per minute, which is higher than they like, so he told us to count his respirations again 10 minutes after the treatment and if they were 40 or higher he wanted us to call him again. Well, ten minutes after he was at 42 breaths per minute, 20 minutes after he was at 48. So, we called the pediatrician again. When he called back, we talked for a few minutes, and then told me that his main concern was that Emmett wasn't getting enough oxygen and possibly becoming hypoxic. So, I took him to the ER. (We have a pulse oximeter, which is probably one of the best things we have ever bought, but Emmett is too little for it to read on him.)
At the ER his oxygen level was okay. 90/91. That's not great, but usually if it's sitting at 90 they are okay with that unless it appears like the child is struggling to breathe. After evaluating him, they discovered that he has an ear infection, and after an x ray found out that he has pneumonia. The RSV test came back negative.
Sometimes when a child gets pneumonia they will hospitalize them, but because Emmett was doing well, they felt good about sending him home and giving him an antibiotic, and having us give him breathing treatments.
So, hopefully Emmett will improve. He supposed to be seen about Tuesday or Wednesday as a follow up.
I am so grateful that he is okay enough that he doesn't have to be in the hospital.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)