William's Swollen Lymph Node

A week ago Thursday, when William climbed into the car, I could see his giant swollen lymph node in my rearview mirror.  I asked him if it hurt, and he said no, but after a google search of all the terrible things that it could be, I made him an appointment the next morning.  

The appointment wasn't until the afternoon, and when I went to pick him up from school, he wasn't in his classroom, and he wasn't in the office.  It turns out that he complained of pain while swallowing to his teacher just before I arrived and he was going to be checked out by the stand in nurse.

When we arrived at her office, he was extremely sedate and sat or laid each room we were moved to.  She tested him for strep, which came back positive, and he also had a touch of pneumonia, in the lower region of one of his lungs.

She prescribed him the 2nd tier of antibiotic, because she wanted to make sure he kicked the strep.  She had see more cases of pneumonia at her practice in the past three months, than in the past 5 years combined.   She said that he would probably crash, then slowly improve, as he coughed, but if he did not improve in 48 hours, not to wait for her and instead go to the urgent care.

The medicine itself wasn't bad and William had no trouble with it.  He did crash on Saturday, and slept somewhere around 16 hours.  On Sunday he seemed to have improved drastically, so we continued with our plan to celebrate daddy's birthday at chuck e cheese.

He started showing signs of slowing down, which was understandable considering all he was fighting, but in the car he fell asleep.  Billy and I discussed whether or not this merited a weekend  trip to the hospital.  When we came into the house, he curled up in the chair closest to the door, and fell asleep.  Ultimately, I ended up taking him to the urgent care, but they sent us along to the ER since they didn't have any imaging machines.

The wait in the lobby was almost two hours, then they gave him a room, but he wasn't allowed to eat.  They drew blood, and I gave a summary of his complex medical history, a few times.  The resident didn't correct me, but was surprised that I really meant hypophosphatasia and not hypophosphatemia.

He was still not allowed to eat, until they were certain that he wouldn't need an ultrasound.  The strep test came back negative (yay!) but he still had pneumonia in his lung.  He was finally cleared to eat, and then he slept.

As late as it was, I crawled in next to him, since he wasn't hooked up to anything.  He was sound asleep and I was almost asleep when they gave us the go ahead to leave.  They gave him the next tier antibiotic which we were able to procure from the 24-hour pharmacy in the lobby.

It is foul smelling, so after each dose (3x a day,) he gets some ice cream.  He stayed 'home' with me on Monday, and was able to rest some.  On Tuesday,  he went to school, happily, I did give his teacher the run down, and apologized, but my chaperone commitment fell at a poor time. = ( The ER doctor wanted us to follow up with his regular doctor on Tuesday,  so we made it happen.

He was still not himself, and was resting in the back of the classroom when I went to collect him.  The doctor was concerned and gave him a steroid, and prescription for an inhaler, but before we left their office (in a huge rush) he had a breathing treatment.  He thought the 'smoke' coming out of the sides of the mask was entertaining.

After 5 days on his newest meds, I'm pleased to report that today's follow up was wonderful.  She said his lungs sound much improved, and his energy level is rebounding quickly.

Thankful for good doctors and a healing little boy.  oh, and that my mom is back.  so.thankful.

later days

Cleaning

At the end of last year, one of the Instagram accounts I follow posted a January challenge.  Each date, you clean out that many items from your house.  I really liked the sound of that, and saved my greeting cards and stickers for the end of the month.

As it worked out, I was in the mood to purge so I would take a picture of each number of items, and by the 15th I was completely finished through the end of the month.  Since other people joined me on facebook, I would post my progress every three days, but I am still cleaning thanks to another inspiration.

After a long, tiring day of cleaning out drawers, and rearranging things for efficiency, I watched a new Netflix show with Marie Kondo.  I am not alone in watching this show! I think it is doing so well because it offers an amazing opportunity to make sure everything in your life is something you want, and helps you to see what exactly you are keeping.

During a discussion last week, one of my friends was talking about cleaning out her things, and her words also gave me encouragement: "someone else could be using this right now."  So, anything that I was keeping "for Emily" or "for William" or "one day"  was much easier to clear away.

The next morning I woke up and updated my drawers, I also organized all 4 girls (Emily folded many of her own) and Billy.  I will need to obtain a slightly larger, better proportioned drawer set before I can help with William's clothing.

Alice didn't help much with her new folded system, but must have really appreciated it's ease, because she came home on Monday and organized her computer cabinet!

While the show is not the best way to spend my time, I do appreciate the outlook it's given me.  When shopping today, I thought of a few items I considered "will this spark joy in my home?" and ended up putting them away.  It was awesome.

Our house feels better organized, cleaner, and lighter.  Kind of.  Right now, everything is piled high in boxes and bags awaiting transport to our MOPS swap day next week!  So, I'll have to live with the pile of outgoing things just a tad longer.

So what am I doing with my new found time? Pulling out my grandmother's jewelry and the earrings from Chelsea's wedding. Also, working on my hair. 

later days

Alice's Michigan History Field Trip

This past week, the third graders took a field trip each day of the week to go to downtown Lansing for a week of interactive history!  One of the perks of living so close to the state capital.

I was lucky enough to be able to join her on Tuesday, and my mom, despite her recent travels, joined her on Friday.

These pictures are all from my time with her.

This museum is huge!  It is just like the movies when they visit and see all of the exhibits with a mixture of recreations & original artifacts!

For most of the day, we stayed together as a group, and I was just a member of the audience during the presentations.  I even had the opportunity to ask questions!

Admittedly, this was one of the more sad moments I've experienced since we've been here.  Alice learning another states' history over Texas' just feels incredibly sad.  I know it's the reality of living away from home, but it brought me almost to tears (a few times.)

The largest elevator I've ever ridden in: (the entire class fit!)

When it was time to break into groups, our team chose to hang out in the mining gallery.

We met back up with the group to eat lunch, then separated out again to read and journal.  From there it was almost time to go, and I headed out to take William to another doctor's appointment.

It was a fun day spent with my favorite third grader!

later days

P.S.  A picture of Alice making Avia's lunch for the day she came with her class.

Billy's Brithday

Last Friday, Billy turned 37!  When I went to collect his birthday cake and came home, I didn't have a quick spot in either freezer, but needed to stash it and go!  The weird thing about winter here is that sometimes it doesn't get above freezing, so I stashed his cake in the mud room.  I still worried about it all day though.

When he came home from work we had cake and he opened his gifts.  The balloon was from Emily.  It's become his "thinking balloon" that he walks around with when he's solving a problem.

On Saturday, we were supposed to go to Chuck E Cheese, but William was/is ill and so we postponed until Sunday.  The kids were so excited to celebrate Billy's birthday. = )

We are so thankful to have such a wonderful man in our lives!  Here's to another great year. = )  Happy Birthday Billy!

later days

Swimming and Snuggling and Snacks

I caught wind of a free public pool over the break, so the kids and I went to check it out!  There was some snow on the ground, so it felt strange to get into our suits.  When we entered the pool,  we were alone excepting one other adult swimming laps!

The water temperature is unfortunately set for swim season, so it was a little cool for us.  I finally had to call it when my skinny little William started to shiver uncontrollably. Even so, they still had a good time, and want to go back!

Saturday mornings, this is how our bed always looks:

They take up a little more space than they once did!

One day after MOPS, I called Billy to tend to his car, but the problem is not persistent.  He'd already eaten, and with the brunch I had just enjoyed, we didn't want to meet for lunch, but opted for a quick float date instead.

It was perfectly Instagram worthy, and every bit as tasty as it looked.  And the company was phenomenal, as always.

From there I went to waste time not registering the twins for kindergarten, even though the system allowed me to make an appointment.   I have a new appointment for the 24th, we'll see how it goes.

later days

Ringing in the New Year

This year, new year's day was on a Tuesday, which meant that Billy had to work new year's eve.  Since Monday is my grocery day, the kids and I picked up a Kroger clicklist order, instead of all of us going in together.  I love this option!  Even without a holiday, I still like this option when I have everyone home.

Over the summer I bought some New Years' kits, so everyone got some noise makers and fancy headpieces to go with their sparkling grape juice!

Billy and I used our wedding flutes for some champagne.  As these things work out, I bought a different brand that I didn't care for, but he enjoyed it.

I think we did the Netflix countdown (the kids selected Boss Baby) around 9:45.

It was a fun low-key evening tor celebrate the move into 2019!

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A note that I've wanted to post for a while, on how we pronounce our years.  Back in the 20th century, everyone pronounced things nineteen-eighty or nineteen-ninety-four.  The thought of saying one-thousand-nine-hundred-ninety-nine is laughable.  No one said that.

Then when the year 2000 came around, everyone started saying two-thousand.  Even I used this because saying two-thousand-aught-seven sounds pretentious and unnecessarily long. Once we got to 2010 I noticed that there was slight shift.  Some people still say two-thousand-ten or two-thousand-fourteen, but others would say twenty-ten, or twenty-fourteen.  As we inch toward 2020, I think that people who say two-thousand-twenty will be in the minority.

twenty-twenty is almost here, and we are back to the "old way" of saying things.

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later days