Have I Got a Story For You!

As most of you know, Cassidy had pneumonia in September. We spent 3 days in the hospital and everything was better. Well, on Thursday (Nov. 18) I got a phone call from her school saying she coughed so much that she threw up. Of course that meant that I had to pick her up from school. (Now just so you know, she wasn't even coughing on Wednesday AT ALL!) When I got to the school, she was fine, a little cough but nothing bad. However being a mom with three kids, I made a doctor's appointment for 3:15 that afternoon. I always try to get to the office early, so hopefully that means they will see us quicker. We sat in the waiting room all of five minutes, before Cassidy was really struggling to breathe. I went to the desk and told the receptionist that she really needed to be seen. (Usually I do not mind waiting, but something told me we could not wait this time.) They got a nurse, who took her straight back and gave her a breathing treatment. (With asthmatics, they always put on a O2 saturation monitor. Her pulse-ox was 88.) After the breathing treatment, her pulse-ox went up to 94/95. She was doing better. However, what kind of story would this be without more. About 30 minutes later, her pulse-ox dropped back down to 89/90. Of course no one was happy with that. The doctor put her on O2, which only brought her pulse-ox up to 92/93. A second doctor came in and both doctor's agreed that she needed to go into the hospital. Not only into the hospital, but she had to go by ambulance. She freaked out! When the ambulance got there, the paramedic had to put in an IV. (Not Cassidy's favorite thing!!) She cried. The paramedic told her that if he put the IV in she could get a new teddy bear. She let him and got a cute little pink sparkly bear. I followed the ambulance and the boys were with me. We got to St. Mary's hospital in Hobart and sat in the ER until almost ten. They were waiting for a room for her. They did an x-ray and an hour long breathing treatment. The boys were bored and decided to fight with each other to pass the time. I am sure the people in the ER were very glad to see us go. We went up to the pediatric unit, where Cassidy was very excited to see nurses she remembered from previous stays. Her pulse-ox never got above 93, so on Saturday morning the doctor decided it was time to send her to a children's' hospital. We ended up going to Riley Children's' Hospital in Indianapolis. I was told that if there had been no fog , she would have been airlifted to the hospital. As it was, I followed the ambulance to Riley's. We never went slower than 80 mph on I-65. When we got to Riley's, Cassidy was admitted to the PICU, the pediatric intensive care unit. All day Saturday, her pulse-ox stayed about 90. The doctors decided to give her moist, heated O2. She was at 100% until the middle of the night when they turned it sown to 50%. Her pulse-ox through the night was 97/98. This morning was a whole different story. Her pulse-ox dropped to 85/86. Everyone was really concerned that they would have to insert a breathing tube. We had a tense couple of hours. However, they decided to try something different. They put her back on an O2 mask with the heated, moist air. They gave her a breathing treatment and then used another treatment machine. She had to breathing in and out deeply and when she breathed in the machine gave an extra puff and forced air deep into her lungs. After she did that, they used a third machine that pounds on her back to help loosen the mucus in her lungs. Right now (7:30 CST, Nov. 21) she is down to 60% o2 and her pulse-ox is up to 95/96. Tomorrow, we will meet the pulmonary specialist and see what we can do to stop this from happening again. I am sure this story is not quite over, we will have to see what happens tonight and tomorrow. TAFN ~ That's all for now!

This Is What Happens When Life Gets In The Way!

Well, as most of you know, life usually finds a way of getting in the way of even the most well laid plans or intentions. With the chaos of summer and of school starting in the fall, I am almost surprised I still have my sanity! :) Let me try to get you caught up on what is going on with our crazy life. Christopher and Cassidy both went to camp this summer and had a blast!! Christopher went last year and had a terrific time, so he was very excited to return. This was Cassidy's first time at camp and she was a little apprehensive, but still excited. She, of course, had a blast also. She came home so excited! Because I worked at the camp for three years, the current camp director was kind enough to give me the grand tour of all the changes they have made to the camp since I was there. Can I be a camper again? The camp has made some wonderful changes and additions to challenge mountain and, well, just about everything else! (I asked them to have a women's conference so that I could come down. We will see what happens.) Anyway to keep going, we spent a lot of time at the beach. Cassidy had her tonsils and adenoids removed and tubes put in her ears after camp. Still waiting for the results of whether that will actually help her or not. Other than life itself, nothing much really happened this summer. School started for the kids and me (yes, me) in August. I am on my last semester and I will be done with my bachelors degree, finally. So far so good. The kids all love their teachers this year and are doing well! Barry is in second grade multi-age and loves being a buddy (a helper to a 1st grade pal.) He is in Cub Scouts which actually starts tomorrow night. Cassidy is in third grade. She is also in Girl Scouts. This is her last year as a Brownie. By the end of the school year, she will have finished the entire Try-It book. (She is very excited about that!) Christopher, who now wants to be called Chris, is in fourth grade. He is in his last year at Yost. (It only goes to 4th grade.) He is also in Cub Scouts, but he is a Webelos. Two more years in Cub Scouts and then he plans to go into Boy Scouts. Anyway, life is busy and hopefully I will keep you updated more frequently! :)

Trying to Catch You Up

Wow! It has been a really long time since I wrote anything. I cannot believe it has been so long. I do not think I will be able to remember everything that has happened, but I will try.

Cassidy and Barry played in the AWANA Sparks-O-Rama. Their team did great. We had a little girl from another team play with us because we were one girl short. She was the daughter of a friend from high school. Fun. I was one of the coaches. That was an experience.

Christopher is starting counseling on the 22nd. I am really looking forward to it. I think that Chris is a little scared about it. I really hope it will help him.

Chris went to the allergist last week and everything is going well on that front. It looks like Cassidy may be developing allergies, so she has an appointment soon.

Barry has a hole in his eardrum and we go see an ENT on the 4th of May. He cannot wait.

The kids all had projects due for school right after spring break. Cassidy and Barry each had to design something to do with space: a space creature, a rocket ship, and astronauts suit, etc. Cassidy had a pink astronauts suit and Barry made a rocket ship. Christopher had a project due on the state of Maryland. He had to draw the flag, among other things. Look at the Maryland state flag and then you try to draw it. It was not an easy thing to do, but we managed. I do not have a picture of Chris's projects. I will get one once it come back home.

We have been to the beach at least three time already this spring and the park once. The kids are so glad that the weather is getting better. They spend lots of time outside, as much as I will let them anyway. My sister's boyfriend went with us to the park, it was really nice.

We also went to the Museum of Science and Industry over spring break. It was really nice. Crazy busy! There were lots of field trips from schools not on spring break, but we managed to run into people from our church and from the kids school. It was neat to see people that we knew there. :)

Christopher and Cassidy are both going to camp this summer. Christopher cannot wait to go back and Cassidy is really excited to be going at all.

This has been the most unorganized blog I have done in a long time, but I tried to catch you all up on everything. I probably forgot a lot, but I will try to remember and catch you up on everything else next time. (Hopefully, next time will be a lot quicker.) :)

Hello again!

I suppose that once a month updates are actually pretty good. Everyone here is doing pretty well. The kids got their report cards in the middle of January. Christopher got all As and Bs! I am so proud of him. Now that we have his ADHD under control, he can more easily concentrate on school work. His behavior at school is very good, although at home we are still having some issues. Cassidy is still having some issues learning. Her school has finally agreed to get her tested for any kind of learning disorder. These include ADHD, dyslexia, etc. I go in next week and talk to everyone about what we need to do. Barry is doing well and still sweet. He has decided that he does not know how to do anything (at times.) His teacher and I are working on getting him to work to his potential.

We got our second major snow storm, but compared to the Mid-Atlantic states we got lucky. Of course my kids are out of school today, but this is only our third weather day this year. Last year we used five or six days. (The past two years we actually missed school for something other than snow. One for flooding fall 2008 and one for a tornado fall 2009.) Anyway the weather is supposed to get sunny, not warm, but sunny tomorrow. We will see how soon this snow melts. :)

Cassidy sold 150+ boxes of cookies this year, about 100 less than last year, but still very good. She was the top seller in her troop. Her troop also has a My Guy and Me dance that they are doing next week. Cassidy is going with her Uncle Nick. She is really quite excited about it. I am going as a parent sponsor. I get to check in the couples. :)

Chris and Barry had their Pine Wood Derby with Cub Scouts. Cassidy got to race a car also in the family division. They had a really good time. Christopher's car was an army tank, Barry had a police car and Cassidy had a teddy bear car. We are never one of the fastest cars, but we do well. The pack raised money for the food pantries in the area by selling hot dogs and chips for a dollar. This past Monday the pack packaged boxes to send to our troops in Afganistan and Iraq. That was controlled chaos, but fun.

In AWANA, Christopher competed in quizzing for the first time last Saturday. His team did a good job. He has already agreed to quiz again next year. They also completed in the AWANA Grand Prix. It is the same thing as the Pine Wood Derby. Again we did not have the fastest cars, but the kids all got awards for Hands-On. (Hands-On award is the award that goes to the kids who did the most work on their own car.) Again they all had a good time!

We are all finally well (at least for the moment.) I am still trying to find an ENT that is approved by our insurance. We saw one and he was, in a word, awful!! I have talked to other people about this doctor and no one has anything good to say about him. Some of the people were other doctors, some where other patients, and some where others in the medical field.

I have found out that Brad is out of jail again and yet I am not getting any child support. I have gone back to the child support office to get the ball rolling on getting him paying again. They have contacted him (back in December) but I have not heard anything since then. I will keep you posted. :)

Catching Up

Well, it has been a very long time since I did any blogging. We had a fabulous Christmas holiday. On Christmas morning we of course had chaos with my kids opening their presents almost faster than I could give them to them. Christmas afternoon we had about 25 family and friends come to my mother's house. We had a really good time playing Spoons and just talking. Before everyone left we acted out the 12 Days of Christmas. (Well, I did not act it out, I video taped it.) It was a riot! As soon as I figure out how to get the video off my camera, I will post it. It is quite funny. On the 26th, all of my brothers and sisters and their families came to my mother's. (My cousin, Mary, also came.) It was the first time in two years that we had all been together. It was wonderful! My daughter was SO excited that she got to see Alexis and Felicity. We had a really good time.

Poor Cassidy has been sick since about the 19th of December. She has bronchitis again. I am really hoping that the doctors are going to not let it turn into pneumonia again. The boys are fine. I am so greatful that Christopher's asthma is under control. I have not been sleeping through the night because Cassidy is up every night with her coughing. She uses the nebulizer. It really helps, but she does not like to get up in the middle of the night to use it. Oh well, hopefully she will be better soon.

We are in the middle of the first major snow storm of the season. They are predicting about 18 inches by the time the snow is over tomorrow. My kids are so excited. They already went sledding outside my mother's house today. The kids got out of school 1 1/2 hours early today. I would be surprised if they have school tomorrow. The kids are really happy about the snow.

Have a wonderful winter. Talk to you soon!