Friday, February 26, 2010

We are baaaack!

I think this is the first time in my life I can remember being so thankful for February to LEAVE! I know there are still two days left, but I will take my chances and hope that March will be much better in our household. We spent enough time in hospitals, emergency rooms and doctor offices to last us the rest of the year! Last Friday I found I could no longer fight the germ fest that had been haunting the family and I ended up at the doctor's office myself. I left with a prescription for an antibiotic and I was on my way. So far, so good. To top it off, this coming Tuesday will be my last night with the weird Human Development teacher. We think he is a pathological liar. He is an odd duck that is for sure! After this class I will only have 4 more until I graduate! Hip, hip, hurray!

Now, onto the boys. Here they are smiling away. Finally, happy, HEALTHY children in my house!


Aren't they cute? Of course this is when everybody is happy and content. The other 23 hours and 50 minutes of the day remain to be discussed! lol I think it is safe to say everything is back to normal around here.

Travis has one soccer game left next Friday and then the soccer banquet. Tonight they had their first baseball practice. Daryle is in his element for sure! He loves coaching and baseball is his passion. From what I could see he did a great job.... I had the task of entertaining a very busy 20 month old all over the playground. It felt like a work out actually! I don't know how many practices I will make it to, I think I might have to hire a babysitter. Seriously though, Connor has no fear and I think I had at least 10 heart attacks... and that was just in the first 3o minutes of practice! I have my work cut out for me that's for sure. The best part was when he gave me kisses with those cute lips and BIG hugs. Suddenly the running around after him was all worth it!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

I'm not this "old" to have friends this long!

First of all, let my begin by saying that the Hawes boys seem to be fairing better this week. Thank goodness for small miracles! Connor is still not 100% himself, but his fever has been gone since Saturday, his cough is better, and his toe is healing. Tonight I noticed the swelling has finally gone down. Travis is feeling better too. Daryle went to the doctor on Monday to find out he has strep throat. Poor guy. I am staying strong and willing away all of those bad germs! Even though I have a sore throat, nothing will stop me. I have a research paper to do this weekend for goodness sakes!

This weekend I had some time to get away from all of the craziness in my household. Two of my "oldest" friends came to visit me and my family!! (We're not old, we have just known each other since elementary school!) Paulet and I have been friends since 4th grade when my family moved to Spokane, Washington. Lanie came in 6th grade and we have all been friends since then. There are more people in our group, but these are the two who made it out for a visit. I haven't seen Lanie since I moved away in 1987 and the last time I saw Paulet was when she was the maid of honor in my wedding.... over 15 years ago! It is amazing to have friends for that many years! To top it off, it was like time hadn't even passed. We had a relaxing weekend just eating out, getting pedicures and laying in the sun. It was a much needed break for all of us. Here we are, we haven't aged a bit!

Travis is into "making funny faces" at the camera. Here he was "sleeping".
Thank goodness my friends are such good sports, they agreed to take one nice picture and then a goofy picture with Travis. Of course I have to post the goofy ones because they are so funny!! (Sorry girls!)

I don't want to jinx us, but things seem to be settling down around here. We haven't had a doctor appointment since last week, except for Daryle. It was so awesome to have a relaxing weekend with some dear friends. Special thanks to Lanie for initiating the visit! It makes me want to take a trip back to Spokane to see my "old stomping grounds" so to speak. I haven't been back since I left in the summer of 1987. One of these days I will get there, I promise!!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day!

This was another crazy week, but we are here to say we survived! LOL I even celebrated a birthday this week. Here is a picture of my boys and I celebrating together.
Today is Connor's first Valentine's Day with us. I think he likes it! Here are the boys with their new glasses.

Pardon the runny nose... there is still some recovery going on!

Happy Valentine's Day to you all. We are blessed and lucky to have each of you in our lives. Have a great day!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Some good news, some bad news

The good news is that Travis does not have RSV. Thank goodness!! He just has a bad cold/asthma. Last night he woke up vomiting and his chest was so tight he could barely talk and breathe at the same time. It was pretty awful. The bad news is that we went to have Connor's follow up with our dr about his toe. She doesn't like how it is looking. After begging and pleading she told me I should just try to stomach one more trip to the surgeon so he could take a look at it. I agreed, but not without reservation. She does have a point. He did the surgery so he or at least somebody in his office should look at it. If we had to start all over with a new surgeon it would be somebody new to explain things to. Off we will go tomorrow morning. It was not what I wanted to hear today. On top of that, even though Connor had Tylenol at noon, his temp was still 102 when we were at the dr at 2:15. This RSV stuff really stinks. I am not looking forward to this visit to the dr tomorrow. I would much rather be celebrating Valentine's day with my kiddos at school. Thank goodness it is a three day weekend, otherwise I don't know if I could make it through this month!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Enough Already

Yesterday Connor started to get a cough. I started breathing treatments. I picked him up from the babysitter today and he was coughing A LOT. I got him home and did a breathing treatment, it didn't help much. Then I realized he had a slight fever. Within an hour his temp went from 99.8 to 101.4. Uh-oh. I called the after hours advice nurse. Thankfully this time I got somebody who was competent. I told her the whole story of what has been going on with him. She gave me a laundry list of things to watch for with him. Then I went over by him to check on his foot and she said, "Is that him? Please put the phone up to him so I can hear him better." The next thing I know I am taking him to the ER. After sitting there for 4 hours it was determined he has RSV. My poor baby. We are all exhausted. I must say he is the best baby ever! I still can't believe how he can just sit there and stay entertained while being so sick. I am glad February is a short month. It is usually my favorite month, this year I just wish it would hurry up and leave before I have to spend more money on medical bills!!!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Two Nights at the *Glorious* Cardon Children's Hospital

Before I start this long story, I want to warn you that it will be long and there are some gory pictures involved. We are now home and recovery continues. Here is how our week began and ended.

Monday began as any other normal day in our house. Business as usual. Connor wasn't feeling very well, I was concerned about his cough. I went to pick him up and his babysitter told me he wasn't feeling well and that his toe was swollen and sore. I had no idea he had anything wrong with his toe! So, we took off his shoe and sock (he about went through the roof screaming with pain... a sure sign of a problem since he has such a high pain tolerance.) Sure enough, his right big toe was red and swollen, we figured it must be an infected ingrown toenail. When we got home I noticed he had a slight fever. I figured we had better see the dr on Tuesday. Here is how Connor looked that morning before our dr appt.
Pretty happy and smiley, don't you think? Sure enough, infected ingrown toe nail, antibiotic prescribed and we were on our way home. At the dr office his fever was higher, we figured that was nothing some Tylenol wouldn't fix. That night I was at class and Daryle sent me a text that Connor now had a fever of 102.4! I couldn't believe it. So, I got home around 9:30 and he was just miserable with chills and fever. I called the after hours hot line at 10 and around midnight I got a call from a nurse who told me "we don't really worry until they reach 105, is he alert?" What??!! She assured me he was fine since he WAS on an antibiotic after all. I was up with him most of the night and ran into school at 6 am to get more sub plans together. At 8 I called the dr office because not only was his temp up over 101 all night but his toe was looking worse. I was debating dr office or ER. They said come on in, I was there in 2o min. The dr took one look, picked her jaw up off the ground and calmly said, "I think he needs to be admitted, looks like he will need surgery." Not what I wanted to hear! We spent most of the day waiting for a bed to open up at the new children's hospital. Here is what the toe looked like just before we went to the dr that morning.

Here is how Connor was looking on our way to the hospital. Still a fever and the toe was getting bigger by the minute, literally.

These big chess and checker pieces are in the hospital lobby, he had some fun here. I swear, not much can get this guy down for long!
We were admitted around 1 and the toe was getting worse. We were now told they were worried about MRSA (a type of staph infection) and there was a concern that it could be in the bone. Thankfully it wasn't. At first surgery was scheduled for 6, but at 4 as they were trying to get in an IV the dr came and said, "We are taking him in 20 minutes." As parents you are thinking a few things. Did an OR just open up? Or is this super serious? We were just trying to remain calm. Here is how the toe looked just before going into surgery. It is blurry but the best I could do.
As you might be able to see, the toe was getting taller and taller. It looked like a bandage was stuck on there but there was no bandage at all.
The surgery was quick and went well. Here we are in post-op. He finally got to drink something!
He slept very well that night.
This is how he woke up the next morning. The fever disappeared the minute the infection was removed. Happy Connor has returned!
Travis handled the whole thing pretty well too. Grandpa was able to pick him up and bring him to the hospital. He wasn't allowed to go into the room, but Connor was able to come out into the waiting area for a short visit. Here they are playing together for a bit. From what I hear, Travis was really missing his little brother and kept saying that all of the rules were "no fair".
They even got to do some wagon rides for a bit until Connor tried climbing out of the wagon... back to the room we went!
Last night was more eventful. I could write a book about it. Bottom line is the surgeon never came in to check on him yesterday. When our pediatrician came in this morning he was shocked and upset at what had transpired. The surgeon had called me around 8:30 the night before and was quite rude to me. As our pediatrician put it, he was going to "make some heads roll" and wouldn't you know within 30 minutes that surgeon was in our room to check on Connor. He took off the bandage and said it was looking good. Of course he had impecable bedside manner at this point. Daryle and my dad were also there and we knew the the hospital administration knew how upset we were. (Thank goodness we are not going back to him, our dr made sure of that!) As we were waiting for the nurse to come bandage it up Connor stretched in his sleep and the nail flipped backwards....OUCH!!!! We got that under control and were discharged at 12:35. I am so thankful. From the beginning we were told a minimum of 48 hours if all went well. Thank goodness it was just about 48 hourse exactly. I love the dr from our peds office, I am going to send him a thank you card for his help. I am so glad somebody fought for us and there are people out there who do care. Here is how his toe looks now, they reattached his toenail even though it will fall off eventually anyway.
This just goes to show that things are returning to normal around here. As I drove home I heard Connor crying, I looked back only to find this:
Yes, he unwrapped his bandage while on the freeway!! But doesn't he look happy?? What a little goofball. We are so happy to be back HOME with happy healthy children. We are so blessed..