So let's play catch up...

or maybe not? The last five weeks or so are a blur, and I am not sure why. I don't think anything monumental occured. I think it was just the activity of three kids and summer.

July:
* I took Oldest out to Melissa's salon for haircuts. We had a good time - even though we could not find a place to eat dinner afterwards. California Kitchen was packed, Chili's had no room in the parking lot either, King of Prussia mall is overwhelming so we wound up at Ruby Tuesday's. Not what I had envisioned, but it was good and it was about Oldest and I spending time together - not about the food.

* I enrolled Youngest at a new preschool for the coming year. They deal with the IU and that is good since the hearing aid will be in place. I am hoping she will find more friends living close by for more playtime. The big plus is it is only 2 minutes from the house - so much less driving and so much less gas.

August:
* I took the kids back to Virginia Beach to visit my parents. We had a blast. I think each day had a great highlight

1. We (Mom, the girls & I)went to Sandbridge for the day; I realized how much I truly miss living 7 minutes from the ocean - I have to find a way to get closer to the water. Living among the cornfields isn't working for me.



2. We (Mom, Dad, the girls & I) went to Doumar's for lunch. Oh, yum!!! I have loved this place since I was a little girl when Grammy took me. It has limeade that is to die for and BBQ with extra slaw that is scrumptious. We found out while we were there that Guy Fieri from Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins & Dives came to do a story on them. I remembered to watch it once I got back to lovely PA.
After Doumar's, Mom & I took the girls to the Virginia Zoo. We went quite a few times when we lived in VB and now try to go when we go back to visit. Love the zoo. Oh, the girls love the $$$ Pop-Pop gave them for webkinz. The best part of that day for them.






3. Dad, Middle, Youngest & I went shopping at Target. Luckily Dad did not give in and purchase anymore toys for them.

4. Mom took the girls back to school shopping. They came home with new outfits and shoes. Trying out the new yogurt place, The Skinny Dip was a great way to end our shopping excursion.

5. We went out to dinner for Mexican - yummy - and went swimming at my godmother's house.

* Oldest and I took a ride out to Hershey to go to the scrapbook store so that I could get supplies for the family history album I am going to do for Dad. We stopped at Red Robin for a quick bite. Again it was nice to have a little one on one time with my oldest since I don't get to do that as often. She is so busy.

* Aunt Melissa came out to visit and gave both Middle and Youngest a great back to school haircut. Thank you, Melissa. XO!

* Oldest had volleyball try-outs for high school. Nope, didn't make it this year. She is OK with that. She will still be there supporting her friends.

* Oldest went to the Paramore concert in Philly with Melissa then got to stay the night at Mel's.

* Ash picked up her schedule for high school! How the hell did that happen? I just dropped her off in kindergarden. I am sooo not ready for a high schooler. We took a tour of the school and scoped out her classes. She felt pretty ready for the first day.

* Abs had Open House at her new school. WOW!!! The $$ that went into building that school really shows. It is beautiful. Everything is so new and clean and colorful. We are very excited about her teacher, Mrs. M. I think she will be a perfect match for Abs.

* Aud got her hearing aid. A very emotional day for her. Abs did such a nice job of trying to sooth her. Not much worked though except for the promise of the new Webkinz goldfish. We found "Bubbles" after the appointment. It seemed to keep Aud calm for a little while.

* We went to the pool a few other times - but the weathter has been so mild which makes the spring fed pool even chillier.



* We hosted the neighborhood picnic. I think everyone had a fantastic time especially my husband. ;-) The food was fantastic, but the company was even better. We have plans to do neighborhood movie night next.

* Finally school started this past week. Structure is back in our lives. So is homework.

Coming up next...the first day of school

We are home, finally...

Made the trip in 5.5 hours with two stops. Not bad. Middle and Youngest are asleep in Middle's room - Middle facing one way, Youngest facing the other. They wanted to sleep together again. All of the clothing, toys, suitcases, etc... are put away. House is clean. Our wonderful neighbors cut our grass and brought over groceries. The dog is home and already put himself to bed. I am physically, mentally, and emotionally drained and am going to bed.

This week has got to be better. :-)

Another day, another ER visit...

Yes, that is how my day was spent again - back in the CHKD ER. Middle spiked a fever of 102 last night. I called our peds. back in Lancaster and was told to take her in. Since this was at 9:15 PM last night, and I was told the ER was very busy when I called CHKD, I made the executive decision not to go then. I just knew we would be there for hours in the middle of the night and did not want to chance Middle picking up even more germs.

After an extremely restless night for me, we went back to the ER about 9:45 this morning. Thank goodness I waited just a few hours as the ER was clear and Dr. C was on duty again. Middle had two more xrays which showed more white than gray/black on the lung than the radiologist felt should be there at this point (in other words - there was not enough air in her lung and too much gunk.) The radiologist wanted a CT scan run. I knew what the thought was - a mass or tumor - but that was never spoken aloud until after the test was completed.

Middle got her first IV; she did pretty well. Some tears and apprehension, but after the week she has had, that was totally expected. She got a new infusion of Rocephin since the IV was already in. The CT went fine - she had contrast with it and no reaction to it. Then we just waited for the results. PTL that the results were no to any mass or tumor and yes to just a very bad case of pneumonia. We were given the all clear to leave (and eventually to drive back home to PA.)

Middle and I were starving. She had eaten two bites of french toast this morning; I never ate due to my nerves. Pokemon is the toy of choice @ BK, and it was also Middle's choice of meals. Not mine, but whatever. She deserved to eat whatever she wanted at this point. She ate a little bit of the burger and a few onion rings. Now she is relaxing on the couch and coughing, coughing, coughing.

J was able to change his flight thru Southwest and will return to Norfolk instead of Baltimore tomorrow night. The dog continues to reside at the kennel (poor guy) and hopefully the cats are not tearing the house apart. Thank goodness our neighbor has checked on them everyday.

My plan is for us to go back to PA on Sunday morning. The dog can be picked up Sunday between 4 & 6 which should not be an issue. I guess that is it for now.

The past week of our life...

Wednesday:
Middle woke up from a nap (hint #1 that she was ill) and had a fever and a belly ache. Thought she had picked up a bug - same that I had the previous weekend.

Thursday:
Middle woke up with the same belly ache and fever. Decided to take her in to the peds to get the belly checked. Dr. F. wanted an ultrasound to double check for an appendicitis. No appendicitis, but the tech did find mesenteric adenitis (enlarged lymph nodes in the lower right quadrant that mimic an acute appendicitis. We were told that Middle basically had a virus and it would run its course. Given the all clear to go to Virginia Beach. We decided to give Middle an additional day to rest and just leave ASAP in the morning.

Friday:
Woke up at 6:30 AM to a child with fever but no belly pain. We attributed the fever to the virus and thought it would continue to run its course. About mid-morning, Middle was feeling better (the fever seemed to have broken and she was starting to rebound), so we decided to finish packing up, drop off the dog at the kennel and head out of town. Middle had a fever in the car, but we thought that might be the end of it. We arrived at my parents' home and just let her rest for the night.

Saturday:
All seven of us decided to go to MacArthur Center to do a little shopping and get out of the house. Middle seemed to be doing OK. We shopped and enjoyed ourselves, but Middle started to get cold (not that unusual since she has no fat on her) and developed a little cough. I thought maybe she was getting a little cold as the cough was a dry hack not congested. She seemed to run out of energy and just wanted to go home. Jason and Dad took her and Youngest home. Mom, Oldest and I finished up at the mall and hit the pharmacy for some Dimetapp for Middle. Again - the high fever returned.






Sunday:
I was done with this high fever business and called our pediatrician again. She asked if we could find a dr. that could do a strep test and a urine dip to rule out strep throat and a bladder infection. I called the local Urgent Care that was recommended and was told to bring her in.
They were very nice and ran the tests. The nurse was rough as hell doing the strep test though. I was not happy with her heavy hand - you would have thought she was scrubbing mildew off of a wall not swabbing a child's throat.
Both tests were clear so the Dr. suggested a chest xray and blood CBC. I wasn't sure about those and our peds had said to just have the two tests done and not let them talk me into anything else. I was apprehensive but did not say anything as I thought at least it would rule out some of the other possibilities for the high fever for four days.
The xray tech took one picture then gave it to the dr. The dr. thought it was too light and requested another. The tech took another xray and then one from a side angle. The next thing I knew the dr. was calling me over. He did not have any bedside manner to begin with and confirmed it with his next statement. He said, "I cannot treat her. You need to take her somewhere else. You need to take her to the hospital. See her lung. It shouldn't look like that. It is all white."
The xray showed her left lung to be completely opaque compared to the one on the right which was black. Both Jason and I were terrified. All I could think was my child was going to die. The doctor said he was going to write up his notes for us to take. The xray tech had me sign a waiver to take the xrays with us. (I have no idea why since our insurance was paying for them, but whatever....)
I confronted to xray tech and asked if Abs had pneumonia or what. He thought she had pneumonia, but again the dr. still had not said anything. We got the letter and left with Abs to head to CHKD ER. That was the only place I was comfortable taking her. Having lived in VB my whole life and raising the kids here for a while, I have intimate knowledge of CHKD.







We waited an hour and forty-five minutes to get called back despite the small amount of patients waiting. Once we got back there we saw the Dr. fairly quickly. He was the attending and seemed to know his stuff. He said Abs definitely had pneumonia and gave us a choice. She could have two shots of Rocephin and go home with a script for Amoxicillin and a promise to return on Monday for a re-check OR we could admit her. He said if it were his children, he would take them home. Two shots, a script and a promise later, we went home.
Abs was worn out as were J and I. I think our whole world fell apart when we thought she was deathly ill. The first dr. never said the word pneumonia. However, in his notes that we received, he did write pneumonia. J was happy the a-hole found the pneumonia and didn't just send us home after the two test were negative, but he wanted to punch the dr. out for the manner in which he let us know something was definitley wrong with Abs.

Monday:
I took Abs back to CHKD to have Dr. C. check her out. He was fantastic - he met us in the ER just as promised. He looked her over and felt there was a small improvement and could continue to recouperate at home as long as we continue to see an improvement. Dr. C. even looked Abs over without us formally signed into the hospital so we also avoided another ER charge. :-) YEAH.









Tuesday & Wednesday:
Abs continues to cough like a lung is gonna come up. The fevers seem to spike in the afternoon and night, but each time are slightly less - so tonight's is 100.5 under her arm. That is down from 103.5. Abs has no appetite which makes it very difficult to get the Amoxicillin in her as she needs to have some food in her tummy. We have switched from Ibuprofen to Tylenol for the fever. It is very difficult to just watch this child be so ill. Normally she is bouncing off the walls and talking non-stop. There is none of that right now. She is napping each day and when awake, she just coughs, watches tv or plays Webkinz.

I am exhausted.

Updates

Our trip to Virginia Beach was anything but what I imagined. The trip took 6+ hours due to potty stops and lunch, but we finally arrived about 4:30 pm just in time for my dad's heart attack. WTF? He knew something wasn't right that day and looking back now he knows that something wasn't right for about a week. Dad said he did not want to go to the doctor or the ER because the girls and I were on the way. He is damn lucky nothing else happened. I am soooo not ready to be dealing with my parents and illnesses. He is only 65 - still has a LOT of life left. Hear that, Dad????

So I drive into the driveway and cautioned the girls not to go running into the backyard because: 1. the brick sidewalk is askew due to the roots under it and 2. I don't know if Dad is awake or asleep. We walk back and go on the porch. Of course, he is awake, and his neighbor, Doug, is there too. (Doug has been a god send playing nurse to Dad as he has recuperated from three, yes, three surgeries in the past 5 months.) Doug grabs me and says, "Your dad isn't feeling well and won't call the doctor. Something isn't right."

I got Dad into the house and started going thru the papers on the various drugs he has to take. The drug pamphlet for Naproxen says in BIG BOLD letters to watch for heart attack signs. Um, yeah - that would be what he has. I called the dr. and left a message cause, of course, it is after hours. The nurse/dr. returns my call and says, "Go to the ER." OK, Dad. We are taking a little trip (this is now 5:30 pm) so he goes to change his clothes. Meanwhile Mom has arrived from work. Let her know I am taking him in. I think she was in total shock as she did not fight me to take him in. Load Dad into his Explorer and off we go to the new Princess Anne ER. I was a nervous wreck driving to the ER even though it was only 10 minutes from their house. I don't do medical situations well AT ALL.

The ER was great - only one person ahead of us. Great staff and doctor. ER dr. doesn't think he is having cardiac issues, but maybe a P.E. (pulmonary embolism) due to the chest pain. Nope, the blood work says "Cardiac Episode" - what a nice way to say HEART ATTACK. So the indigestion and sweating Dad had at 3 AM that morning was the heart attack itself. Ugh.... now we are gonna be transferred to Sentara Leigh cause they have the heart cath lab. At 11:30 PM he is finally transferred to Leigh. Fun part - the Virginia Beach Amphitheater is right behind the hospital and had a concert that night. Yeah - all the concert goers are leaving at the same time we are. Oh, the joy! I traded places with Mom - she went to Leigh, and I went to their house to stay with the girls. No sleep for me. I laid down about 2 am and Youngest woke up at 5:30 am. Oh, thank God for caffeine.

Oh, my gracious. I think I went into overdrive (as Patti called it) cause I wasn't emotional at all. That is EXTREMELY unlike me. I don't do medical problems very well (did I tell you that?), but damn if I didn't keep it together for my parents.

Wednesday was the cath lab, angiogram, and angioplasty. The Obtuse Marginal (??) is a sub-artery in the back of the heart. It was 90% blocked, so it was ballooned and then a stent was inserted. Dad was an absolute bear after because he was in so much pain from his back/neck where the laminectomy was and the oxycodone withdrawl. This coming from a man who is usually so laid back and gracious. Two hours in the cath recovery then off to another room for more intensive nursing. By Thursday morning he looked and acted so much better. The doctor was helping him eliminate the oxy by giving him Ativan for the anxiety. I was happy it was working really well cause he needed to come off the oxy. What an addicting drug!

Friday morning Dad was released to come home - but the dr. barely gave him an indications as to what kind of damage was done by the heart attack, what to do as far as exercise or eating, or his meds. We were even sure about wearing the bone stimulator for his neck. We took matters into our own hands and started calling and researching. Gracious - you would think that the doctor would be a little more concerned about the next 2.5 weeks until the follow-up appt. I am not too impressed with the discharge. The dr. who did the discharge even forgot to tell Dad to take the baby aspirin every day. OMG - that needs to be taken with the Plavix everyday. A blood clot could develop around the stent otherwise. Moron!!!

My poor girls got the brunt of this. My sister-in-law, Thierry or "T", came up from Carolina and kinda took over the younger two. They had lots of fun making Barbie clothes, going to Aunt T's house and playing, and getting new Barbie furniture. She was a blessing. Ashley was OK on the computer or hanging out. She finally got to spend some time with Sam too - they hung out at his house, and I took them to the skate park at Mt. Trashmore so Sam could teach her to skateboard. Sam's family was great to her while we were in VB. Very accommodating about having her over and spending time with them.

Once Dad was home, Mom became a not so nice person to be around. I think all of her emotions over the way this year has been really came to the surface. I know she is mad, scared, frustrated, disappointed, and any other negative emotion. Taking care of Dad so intensively is not what she bargained for in addition to running the business. The heart attack was kinda the final straw. I really hope that for both of their sakes that Mom will come to terms with Dad's physical issues and be more compassionate. I know she logically knows he did not do anything to cause his injuries, but I believe she is very angry at Dad for how it has affected her life. She is such a Type A personality and likes control over everything - which isn't going to help in this situation. Dad needs someone who is motivating and gentle. Not the steamroller she can be. But with all of this said, she did "brag" to her best friend how Thierry and I took over the meals, laundry, cleaning, etc. so she didn't have to do anything while Dad was in the hospital. I just wish she had told Thierry and I this instead of telling us we were doing stuff wrong.

I did get Dad to take a walk on Sunday; however, I think he pushed it way too much and told him so. He walked too far, so today he walked just around the court and then worked on the rehab exercises for his knee and neck. Much better. Mom was in a better mood when I talked to her tonight. Hopefully it will last.

OK - I think this is most of the heart attack info. I will edit if I remember more. God, what a week. Not fun. I am not ready to deal with this yet - my parents are still too damn young to be pulling this mess. Straighten up!

My dad had a heart attack

I am beyond tired so this will be short. I brought the girls down to my parents' home for a visit. Drove over 6 hours from PA to Virginia Beach. Got here at 4:30. By 6 I was in the ER with my dad. This sucks!!!!!!!!

The weeks plans

running around like a crazy woman today trying to get everything packed cause I taking the girls to Virginia Beach tomorrow to visit Mom and Dad. The plan is to be on the road by 8 or 9 am. Hopefully the kids will cooperate - especially since Daddy has meetings and then class tonight. Mommy is on her own; but no fears since I have done this so many times before. Just H.A.T.E. packing. H.A.T.E. it!

Here's the to do list:

• pay the bills; balance checkbook
• drop boxes off at UPS for Funding Factory
• go to Funk's to pick up pies for Dad; raisin bread for Mom; miscellaneous for kids
• pack up clothes and all of the other essentials for Middle, Youngest, and me (Oldest does her own now :-)
• check on the cat's food; get Oldest to clean out the box; remind J to clean box
• change filter in fish tank
• clean up the cookbook stuff I was working on in the kitchen
• clean up scrap area - add new stuff from trip to Times to Remember in Hershey
• clean up house - vacuum, dust, wipe down bathrooms
• leave Charlie's schedule for the neighbors

I can do this. Oh, and I have to work tonight. UGH....don't let me forget to work.

PS - Patti - I decided to leave the bathrooms for DH. ;-)

The Coolest Wedding

J and I took Middle and Youngest to a wedding this weekend in Hershey - the wedding itself was held in Chocolate Town Square in the middle of Hershey. J's friend / co-worker got married; he is the school resource officer at J's school, and the bride is also a cop.
The square is set in a park with lots of trees and was decorated with tulle and beautiful flowers. Right as we are pulling into a parking spot, Middle chimes in - you got it, bathroom. Great. Where is there a bathroom in the middle of the square? There isn't. Luckily the Hershey Fire Station was right behind the square (and some of the guests were firefighters) so I quickly ran the girls to the fire house to take care of the bathroom issue.
Perfect. Now we can get our seats just in time. We heard the music of the harp begin and saw the groom and best man (another cop) take their place. All ready - where is the bride? Why is there a fire engine coming? Oh, my gracious. It is the BRIDE!!! Since the groom is also a volunteer firefighter, the fire company brought the entire bridal party to the site in a big red fire truck with the horn blaring and the sirens on full blast. It was AWESOME. Middle and Youngest didn't like the loud noise, but the rest of the guests clapped in excitement.
The wedding ceremony commenced and even included the bride's children. Once the vows were completed, the fire truck blew its horn again and left with the sirens on. Everyone clapped again and even a few cars honked away. It was fantastic. Not too formal - lots of fun memories. Oh, then my wonderful husband says, "Hey, we have time. Want to run by the scrapbook store at the outlets?" Don't think he had to ask twice. So we made a side trip to Times to Remember. YEAH!! New black and white paper that I wanted.
The day ended with a BBQ / reception at the matron of honor/best man's home. Yummy!! We left early since it was getting late, and Oldest was home from the pool. We ran by the house to pick her up and go get gelato from Rita's since there wasn't a wedding cake, and Middle was disappointed. I think the gelato made up for that. :-)

Catching Up with the Summer

I am so very far behind in blogging. The summer just caught up with me - I guess three kids home for the summer will do that to you. Here's a rundown of what we have done from June until now:

• Middle & Oldest: Katie's End of the Year
• Family: Amanda & Rob's wedding
• J. & I: Teacher Appreciation Dinner for the Middle & Youngest's school
• Family: The Moorefields found us and came for a quick visit (like 2 hours)
• Oldest: field hockey camp
• Middle: 6th BD
• Family: Father's Day (the day did not work out - so we had a re-d0)
• Me: clean out scrap area and reorganize basement so that I have a bigger scrap area
• Girls & I: Sonic - yum
• Girls & I: free movies - Everyone's Hero
• Middle: Charlotte's BD Party
• Family: Parade of Homes - saw a new one in a new subdivision that I fell in L.O.V.E. with
• Family: pool
• Me: haircut
• Girls & I: Herr's Chip Factory Tour
• Family: free movies again - March of the Penguins - not our first choice - but the other one was sold out; then met J. for lunch at Ruby Tuesday's
• Girls: haircuts (some I am not happy with)
• Family: fireworks with friends
• Family: Grandpop's 58th BD
• Girls & I: Virginia Beach to visit Mom & Dad; Oldest to camp (see below)
• Oldest: Critter Camp at VBSPCA
• Girls & I; out to dinner @ Surf Rider w/ Mom & Dad (man, I miss fresh seafood)
• Me: dinner w/ Amy & Susan (I miss them so much!)
• Girls & I; school shopping in VB
• Girls, Mom, & I: visiting Meredyth, Drew, and baby Brady
• Ashley: spending week with her dad
• J.: painted the office
• Me: moved furniture and decorated office (that furniture is friggin' H.E.A.V.Y.)
• Charlie: got a good short haircut
• Family: Father's Day Re-do - playing mini-golf (yeah, I kicked butt with three (3) holes in one - ha! ;hiking at Chickie's Creek (not such a great experience - trail way too steep and SNAKES) not Mom's best moment; lunch at Friendly's; shopping for curtains for office
• Girls & Daddy: sleep-over at Nana's when I drove to pick-up Oldest in Maryland
• Family: lunch at Sugar Bowl
• J. & I: clean out storage area of basement; look into furniture refinishing for bed set
• Family: IKEA w/ Melissa and Aaron; the girls got balloon animals - Middle's was an elephant hat - tell me that didn't attract some stares.


• Family: Mt. Gretna Lake - a fantastic family day



• Family: more pool mixed in
• Oldest: check-up and three shots
• J.: back to Ph.D. program after 6 week break (there is a light at the end of the tuition tunnel)
• Great news about Dad's healing - neck brace can be removed some; physical therapy can be started on neck, back, arms, and knee. Mom finally sounded happy again.
  

Good gracious - that is a lot for the past nine weeks of summer. We still have another two and a half weeks to go with a wedding, an Eagles Pre-Season game, another VB trip, and an adults' only End of Summer party. Yeah - I need a vacation. Where's the damn nanny?

Maybe I can do a better job of keeping this up once the kiddos go back to school. Oldest and Middle will be gone all day - poor Audrey - what is she gonna do without Middle? Maybe I can teach her to blog? Done for now. Another blog to follow after lunch.