Healthscare & Surgery

As most of you know by now, I'm at home recovering from a surgery that I had done on Thursday, a week ago today. I have had other abdominal problems and concerns during the winter and spring, which had brought me to the hospital a few times, and I got a health scare that now hopefully is "under control". Due to all this "other business", I didn't really think much of my swelling and pain in my abdomen, pushed it all toward the other issues. But, on Memorial Day, it started hurting a bit more, and the following days it got red, swollen and hard so I called and got an appointment at the clinic here on the Thursday.

Of course, as it always is when something is going on, one of the kids are sick. This time it was Ben, who again had high fever the night before and had to stay home. Chris was able to stay home in the morning and took care of him while I went to the clinic here on our base.

After checking me, the Dr. soon called another Dr. in to have a second opinion, and they both said that I had to go to the hospital to get "some pictures" with a CT scan. I said, OK, are you putting in a referral today so I can go tomorrow or so, and they both said, no, you are not going home, you are going straight to the ER! So, of course I did go home, as Chris was waiting with Ben, but Chris was able to take time off, and drove me down to the hospital which is on another base about 40 minutes away. Ben had to tug along, but luckily he was doing pretty OK and he got the iPad with him in case we had to wait for the CT scan.

Well, turned out it wasn't a short visit and only CT scan done..

I was admitted right away, after they took my vitals, I had to put on the gown and soon I had an IV in my arm, lots of blood drawn and medicine in my IV. In the wait for the CT scan, I had to drink the very horrible "soup tasting" drink to make the pictures look good at the CT scan. I wasn't allowed to just drink it all and be over with it, but had to sip it over the time of an hour...

My horrible drink, almost a liter!

In pain, waiting for the CT scan, my little feverish boy wanted some snuggles..

After awhile, late afternoon, I finally got in to the CT scan. There they put in more fluid into my IV and it felt very weird, really hot around the neck and it was almost hurtful, other than that, I only had to hold my breath and bear down, so the pictures came out good. For those not knowing what a CT scan is, a picture below. I had not had a CT scan before, only a MRI, and this was a bit different.

 

CT scan picture borrowed the web, not me and not my nurse.

After that, we had to wait for some time again, until the surgeon came down to see me. She tried to "push" on the hernia to make it "go back" and so that we could go back home and schedule a surgery under better circumstances, as it was inflamed and not ideal to do surgery on as it was. Well, after some VERY painful pushing there was no way that anything was going to change, the hernia had already closed off the opening and she could not push it back in place. So, with this said, emergency surgery was decided and she went straight up to make the room ready for me.

To explain how and where it was located on my, this is where..

Already filled up with drugs so I don't even remember Chris taking these pictures..

...saying goodbye to Ben before going into surgery. 

We had arranged with friends that Cassandra was going to pick up Isabella from the school bus to stay with them until further notice. They got dinner there, and when it was said that I was going for surgery, Chris had Joseph to pick up Benjamin so he could get dinner too and stay with his sisters and our friends until Chris could be back home to pick them up. So thankful that the kids were able to stay with friends under such short notice!

 

The surgery took about 45 minutes and I think I was back in the room from waking up around 10pm. They brought a tray with "dinner" and I couldn't get anything down but some drink, but Chris was happy to get some of it in his belly before going home soon there after. I was of course staying over night, and he had to go back and pick up the kids and bring them to bed, it was very very late anyway.

They came in several times during the night to check on me and take my vitals, so I didn't sleep much, plus the pain was pretty constant.

The next morning, waiting for Chris and my little ones, that he had kept home from school, as Ben still had some fever during the night, and both were so tired anyway, due to the late night. Cassie has too much to do in school to be home skipping even a day...

Waffles and eggs for breakfast...not bad at all, just my appetite wasn't the best!

My IV was bothering me all night!

Finally, I got to hug my little ones, Bella I hadn't seen since the early morning before, and hardly ever spent a night apart from Ben and Bella (only exception was my retreat in January) always kissing them good night, it was hard for us all that it came down this way.

Ben, who had been with me all day the previous day, was happy to play a game on his daddy's phone, after giving his mommy some love and kisses.

 Getting some Bella love before she too wanted to play on the iPad..

 

So after the Dr checked me, Chris had been able to pick up the medicine from the pharmacy, I was able to be released just after noon. Still in a lot of pain, and very sore when walking and moving around, I still hoped that it would be a quick recovery.

Yesterday, it was a week since surgery, and it's still very sore, still swollen, and even if the redness has slowly gone down, it's very painful in all the transitions. From sitting to standing, from sitting to laying down, walking etc. I have to heal and take it easy for about 6 weeks, and I'm not allowed to soak incision until fully healed, so no pool or ocean for a long while...

Not a great picture, but to give family an idea of how it looks..

The first two pictures were taken the day after surgery, swollen and red. As you can see the redness spread quickly and it was very hot to the touch, so on Monday, we went back to the hospital so that the surgeon could take a look making sure it wasn't infected. The surgery wasn't ideal as it had an inflammation, but at least it hadn't spread and it was normal. We were tracking the redness for a few days to make sure it wasn't getting bigger.

Now a week after, the scar tissues are getting harder under the skin, which is normal, and I hope that I soon can get off the painkillers.

ER Visit & Goodbyes

Monday April 18th, it was time for the kids to get back to school again, and Spring Break was over. Cassie left early morning and she was ready to go back and see her friends again. When the kids were in school, we left to go to Kadena to first sign our guests up for base passes, and then the men went golfing. I took Sina to Cassie's school and signed her in so that she could eat lunch with Cassie and meet her friends, and after that, I signed Cassie out early from school and we all went to the BX for some shopping.

There were clothes and some last minute souvenirs to be bought and brought home. When Ben and Isabella came home from their bus, Ben immediately complained that his head hurt and he didn't look good at all. He felt hot, and as soon as we were home, I took his temperatures. And sure enough, he had a pretty high fever with 102 F. Got him medicine and cooled off at the sofa with drinks and cold towels, and he soon fell asleep.

We had planned to go out for dinner as this was their last night as they were going to fly to to Hong Kong the next day. Normally our kids do well taking their medicine and the fever goes down, and I suggested that the others go along for the dinner and that I stay home with Ben and Isabella. That way, they didn't have to think about what she was going to eat and not to eat and be able to go to a Sushi restaurant if they wanted to.

But, later in the evening, Ben didn't improve, his fever didn't go down but kept rising. This was very unusual, and he was crying and I was starting to worry. At 8pm the fever was over 103F and rising, and I called the 24/7 nurse line, and got to talk to the Dr on call. He said to try to alternate the Ibuprofen (Motrin) that I had been giving him, with Tylenol every four hours. As the Ibuprofen we had proscribed for him could only be given every 8 hours, and I had given it to him at 4pm, it was another 4 hours before I could give it to him again. The Dr. said to give him Tylenol asap and if it wasn't going down with that either, we should take him to the ER when the fever reaches 104 F.

I called my friend R here in the tower, and she luckily had Tylenol at home. We normally don't as our kids don't like the flavor that it has, they do take the Ibuprofen without problem, so I didn't have any in the house. He took the Tylenol, and I let Chris know and they were about to finish up dinner. After 30 minutes, the fever still wasn't down, and when I took it again, it was reaching 104.2 and I got everything ready to leave to the ER. Chris and the others came home, we left straight away to the hospital.

Ben was almost falling asleep in the car, but I tried to keep him awake as I was scared he would go into fever cramps as it was the highest fever he had ever had.

When we came into the ER, we were seen right away, and luckily the temperature now at this point, about an hour after I had given him the Tylenol the medicine had started to help, was going down!

Still, we had to wait for the Dr to have a thorough examination, as he didn't have any other cold symptoms. I was worried that it would be pneumonia or even something else, but the Dr. was crossing one thing after the other off the list, so we really didn't have any idea at this point. We stayed at the hospital for observation for a few hours, and after keeping the fever under control with the medication, we were released and sent home around 1am in the morning.

My poor baby boy all wiped out with fever and medicine at the ER.

I had him next to me during the night to make sure his fever stayed down, or that he didn't start feeling worse, and he slept good. In the morning a few hours of hardly any sleep for me, I was tired when the alarm went off. Cassandra's lunch still needed to be made and to make sure that she gets out of the house at 6am. Then Isabella was getting up and to the school bus, without her brother that had to stay at home ofcourse.

Chris picked up his sister and family from the hotel, they had breakfast here and we said our goodbyes and then they were off to the airport. They were going to Hong Kong and staying there for 2 days before flying back home to Switzerland.

Ben was tired and still had fever, but with the now alternating medicines I was able to keep it under control. He had to stay at home with medicine for two days, and then he had to stay off medicine for atlast 24 hours to be sure that it was under control before going back to school, so he ended up staying at home the rest of that week. He was fever free without medicine on Thursday and on Friday morning I took him to the Dr for a follow up visit, to make sure that lungs still sounded good, that there was no strep throat developing or anything else, as he didn't even have a cold. But nothing, he as good to go and happy as could be, as he then could attend a birthday party that he was invited to in the afternoon!

A Not So Well Visit..

As I mentioned earlier, we had an appointment for Benjamin in the afternoon scheduled on the Friday before Valentine's Day. As it was early release from school, it was the perfect day to book an appointment for his normal Well check that was due. What turned out to be a visit that was more needed than we had hoped for.

As he had earache the night prior, I called in the morning letting them know that I needed a good check up for him aswell and not just the normal standard stuff.

So when we were there, he was diagnosed with Ear infection and got antibiotics. So the rest of the Friday and weekend, I had two sick kids here at home. Both of them were having fevers, coughing and snotty noses. Ben luckily didn't complain much more about his ear, and luckily, took all the medications without problem. Not much sleep those nights, and I was starting feeling bad over the weekend as well.

My poor little kiddos with fever.

Sick Little Princess

Last week, Isabella started to get a bit of a cough at night. But no cold sypmtoms at all what so ever, so we didn't think too much of it. The night to Thursday though, she was coughing so much after just about an hour of sleep, and could hardly catch her breath.

I rubbed her chest, back and feet with Vick's Vapo Rub and put the AC on in her room to make it colder, but no chance for her to get a relief. It got to a point where she was throwing up mucus and it got really bad. I tried to get her to take some over the counter cough depressant, but she couldn't even take it without it coming up again after a few minutes after coughing.

With other words, there were hardly and sleep for neither of us. Thursday morning, Benjamin was a bit worried and upset having to go to school on his own, and as it would be difficult for me to take him to the bus with Bella sick, I was happy that Chris could come home from work quickly to drive Ben to school, so I could stay with Bella.

I got an appointment at the clinic for Isabella at 10am, and was happy to get a doctor that took it seriously. I don't want to be sent home with the answer that it's probably a cold..As she didn't have any cold symptoms, I was worried that she would have an pneumonia and an infection as there was so much mucus! After listening to her, he said that no, the lungs don't sound good at all, so we were sent right away down the hall to get an x-ray.

Gotta love Tricare, no waiting times!

Isabella was doing so well for this, and to show her twin brother that had an x-ray done in spring and talked about it long afterward that one could see his bones, Isabella was happy to hear that I took some pictures so she could show him hers!

Luckily it wasn't pneumonia, but a bronchitis and inflammation in the lower airways. She got an inhaler to help clear the airways, and it has helped a lot. Already on Thursday night she was sleeping better!

During the day she felt pretty good, and liked the fact to be home alone and snuggle with me on the couch watching movies. But, what really was beautiful to see, was how much they missed eachother when Ben came home! He was so happy to see her, there were hugs all around. She couldn't wait to show him the x-ray picture and he was all bubbly telling her everything about school.

Sitting close close having an afternoon snack when Ben came home. Got the second picture a little bit later when I walked back into the kitchen and glanced over then I saw them like this:

Not very often these twins are so happy and content together. Missing eachother is good in all relationships!!

Luckily, she is doing much better now! A long weekend helped, and so did the inhaler. They also didn't have school today Monday, as it was teacher work day, so she is ready to go tomorrow!

Happenings Last Week

As I missed out of the blog last week, I thought I'd just comment on a few pictures that I just downloaded from the phone. I do take a lot of pictures with the Canon, but as I always have the phone with me, I take a lot of pictures with the phone, and my husband can't understand that my memory is always almost full with thousands of pictures that I haven't erased yet on the phone. Have to try to download a bit more frequent!

I took Benjamin and Isabella to the dentist. I had hoped to get Cassandra an appointment aswell before school started, but they didn't have any appointments until next week. Atleast I got her an afternoon appointment, so she doesn't have to miss school. It's not that easy to take her out of school early either, being an hour away and with one car it's not easy to coordinate. So, that she got an afternoon appointment was the best solution now. I will actually have my appointment the same day, to get that out of the way.

Normally, we go to the dentist 2x/year, for cleaning and checkup, but here in Okinawa, they don't have the resources for that, so we'll go once/year instead. Only kids to a certain age will still go 2x/year. Well, I made sure that I took us all to the dentist before we moved, so that it all would be updated as much as possible, and got all the x rays etc done there. So the checkup for the kids with their new dentist was a quick visit, as everything was great, with no cavities. Good brushing habits pays off!

Another day, I took the girls to the doctor, as Cassie needed a physical done for school sports. Isabella came along, and without her knowing it in advance, I took the chance to get her a shot, that was missing from her records. The second HepA was never given, should have been given back in Kansas at a young age, but somehow we missed that, probably due to the move. As it wasn't needed for the paperwork to move to Okinawa, it wasn't until now by the school registration that it was noted that both twins were missing the second shot. They do that easy with just walk in, so while we were there I asked the nurse if we could take care of it. Both twins are very scared of shots, and even if they have been coming along for all allergy shots that Cassie has been given back in AZ, they still freak out when they are getting them.

As she didn't realize it until it happened, it went well. She was upset for a few minutes, but then it was good. Much better to surprise than to book an appointment and have her be upset long in advance, not wanting to go to the doctor at all. As Ben had been staying home with Chris that still was on leave, I realized that I had to get him and leave the girls there, without him knowing that Isabella got a shot, he would have been so upset knowing he had to take it..Now, I brought the girls and got Ben in the hallway, leaving without him knowing what was going on. I just told him that we had to go and pick up a paper, or the nurse wanted something. Ben sat in my lap waiting for the nurse in her room, and it was the same thing there, big surprise, it happened while I distracted him, and then he was upset for awhile, but then all good. Phew, both kids were so happy and relieved afterward that it was over, and I got the new updated shot records copied so that I could turn them into school.

Cassie had a "Teen Dance" through the teen center that she went to together with her friend D. They haven't been hanging out much at all this summer, but they had a good time, even if there wasn't that many kids on the dance as they had thought. Last Friday, Cassie met up with two other friends at the teen center here on our base for an "End of Summer BBQ" . They had a great time, water gun fights and lots of other fun activities and snacks. While she was busy with the BBQ, I took Benjamin and Isabella to the USO here on base for a movie night, they were showing "Home". We had already seen the movie in the theater, but they liked it, and it was fun to get out and do something. It's all sponsored, free snacks and Ben met his friend from our building, so he was happy to share his seat with him!

Three little ones that are starting Kindergarten next week!

Update...

As some of you might have noticed, it's been awhile since I was active on the blog again. The time isn't there and lately, I haven't been feeling well and when the kids are finally in bed at night, I'm about to pass out as well, therefore not much time by the computer. So what's been going on here in June? Well, quite a lot, so to catch up, I think I'll just do a post in bullet form:

- I'm sick! I've been ill for awhile now, not knowing what's been going on and as a mom you don't really put yourself first and you frankly don't really have the time to be sick. So, I've been dragging a terrible headache and cough on for weeks. Finally it got so bad that I could barely stand up straight, would wake up every day with a banging head, and going to bed at night, I would have the same or if not worse headache. Tylenol or other "normal" tablets wouldn't work, and I put it off as well it's the heat, it's the humidity etc.. Finally last Thursday, I went to the Medical Clinic here and found out that I have an pneumonia and that my headaches came from stress, totally hard neck/shoulder/back muscles and maybe also been drinking too little water here in the humidity. Due to the conditions here, they recommend that you as an adult drink at least 1 gallon of water/day. If you work outside, work out etc, you need even more.

Anyway, I got antibiotics, and other medicines to clear out the infection in my lungs and to hopefully feel better. I also got stronger pain medications so that hopefully my headache would go away. On Friday, I had to go back to the clinic, as I got really bad hives all over my body, but especially over my legs. I could literally SEE them build up to big white blotches, like big mosquito bites. And the itching...out of this world!

At the clinic, the took me back right away, luckily my husband was working close by this day and could pick me up pretty fast, and I had gotten a bad case of allergy reaction to the medications that they gave me. They kept me there for awhile to make sure that I wouldn't get breathing problems. I got new medicines, this time two different inhalers instead of the antibiotics. Keep taking the 800mg Ibuprofen for the headaches and then these inhalers to get the infection out of the lungs, hopefully.

So, the update-  coughing still, headaches somewhat under control as I still take the meds, but energy level is zero, and I'm truly exhausted all the time.

BUT, can one just stay at home and take it easy when sick, not really, not with kids anyway! There is a lot going on and I try to keep them occupied as much as possible anyway. It's not their fault that I'm feeling sick, so the everyday activities goes on as normal.

 - It's hot and humid here. The rainy season seem to be over, at least with the frequency of raining every day here and there as we had most days in May, now summer seem to have taken over totally!! The outside temperature is around 85-90F (30-35C) but with a humidity of at least 85-90% daily (we have had some days with a humidity of 99%), it feels like it's around 108F (40-45C). So it's not possible to be outdoors too long without feeling totally overheated. It's a different kind of hot, not the dry heat as in the desert we are used too, and it will take some time to get used to, if you ever do. BUT, with temperatures over 100F/40C, ANYTHING is too hot, dry heat or humid heat!!

I have many pictures from other things that we have done here this month, so I will have to catch up as much as possible. Hope that you still are a few checking in here and there...One thing for sure, when the kids start Kindergarten in the fall - then I will be able to get back to more normal and daily log in on the blog, until then, it will be a bit slow but you will also see many picture bombs from our beautiful island!

Oki Preparations - Medical Check!

It's been awhile since the last update on our preparations, so I thought it would be time to share with you, as family and friends are asking me, What's going on??? Well, unfortunately, not too much!

• The biggest thing we can check off our list, is that we had our Medical Screening for the whole family on December 8th. At 7am in the morning, we got ready to be on base. I had prepared a whole bag full of coloring books, magazines, books, snacks and drinks for the kids, to keep them happy, as we knew that this could take hours! To our surprise, the checkup and the going through our paperwork, was done faster than expected and he didn't really check all the papers as I had been worried about, as I had stressed about getting all information from all doctors and clinics that we have been seeing, as we haven't been seen in the Medical facilities on a base since we lived in NC. BUT, the Dr. was great, joked around with the kids, they responded good to him, which made it such an easy visit. I spelled out to him that please don't mention any S-H-O-T-S until the very very end, as especially Benjamin is scared of going to the Dr. always thinking that he is going to get any shots, and he had already asked 10 times that morning if we were going to get any. I didn't even tell him that we were going to a Dr., but that we had to do stuff for our secret agent cards...he liked that idea much better! 

• The biggest things were that none of us have asthma, as they would disqualify us right away then. There are so much allergies on the island, and to have asthma would worsen any conditions anyway. That Cassandra and Benjamin have allergies, wasn't too bad, just asthma was a big deal. All kid's immunization records were up to date (of course) but we had thought that we might need something anyway, but no shots for me or the kids, which was a great relief! Only active duty military needs to get a few shots, and Chris got that taken care of another day.

• For myself, my biggest thing was my last year's back issues. Luckily for me, it's good now, and as I'm not on any medication for it anymore, he signed off on that as well. If I still would have been on medications or been seeing a Physical Therapist lately, I might have been disqualified to go, as they want to avoid any big problems to get worse when there. 

 In the waiting room.

• We still had to wait around for a long time, as copies had to be taken and the other office where they handle immunizations, had to go through all of the kids and mine paperwork to double check about immunizations. As I don't have a fancy shot record booklet like my kids, he wasn't too excited about my paperwork with immunizations. I haven't had many shots lately, and the latest big records were done in my Visa application process when coming over to the US in 2007. So, as I haven't (to their or my knowledge) had any Hep A or Hep B shots, I went back another day to the lab to take a blood test, where they can see what I have antibodies against. It's not required to have these shots to go to Okinawa, but as everyone here in the US get these shots as a child, he was pretty surprised to not see them anywhere in my records. If it turns out I have no antibodies, I might take them just because, then I have them. Will get the results back in the end of the coming week.

• After about 6 hours there, we were happy to be able to go home, only to have lunch and then we had to get going again, as we had Cassandra's weekly allergy shot scheduled in the afternoon, and right after that, another Dr. appointment. Long day!

• This week, we hope that my husband can get some more answers on dates to get the movers and what date they can get flights for us. This is very stressful for me that want to be in charge and in control of these things, and now I have to relay on the people on base, and that's not the easiest thing to do. As it's crucial that we get a pet spot reserved on the plane in cabin, this too is something that I preferably would have had booked months ago, but now we have to wait and hope for the best. I will go more into detail about bringing our rabbit Rusty, in another post. 

• That's about it for news right now. Here at home, I have a constant coming and going on people that are buying things, clothes, toys etc from what I've listed on Craigslist. It's good to get stuff sold, but it's a lot of hassle to have people in and out all the time. I'm trying to go through things all the time, clean out where I can, try to get organized where I can, but then on the other hand, the every day life continues too, and with Christmas approaching faster than wanted, there isn't that much time for so much else!

Some days I need more encouragement than others, and to have something in front of me that tells me that it's going to be alright and that it will be worth all the stress now. I have put together an album with pictures that I've found online that speaks to me from Okinawa. One day, I hope to add many many pictures to that album myself...

Oki Preparations - Dental Check

It's been awhile since my last post about our preparations for our move to Okinawa, Japan in February, so here we go, this is what's going on right now:

• Last week we had our Dental appointment with the Dentist on base. The kids and I go to a Dentist out in town, but for the final screening, we have to have everything checked and made sure it's up to date with the provider on base. I had all the records, and it all went smooth and fast. All five of us in the room and one after the other. Well, Chris was last, and we didn't wait for him, as he anyway was going back to work after the appointment, and we needed to get home and get dinner started. 

• Ben was very upset and worried before the appointment. He didn't want to go there at all, and even if I tried to explain that we just had to show him how nice our teeth are, he didn't want to go. BUT, after talking with him again, after seeing Isabella jump up in the chair and go first, he was very brave and did it! I played with him that the chair would start moving if he snapped his fingers, and the dentist played along and told him that ok, time to snap and he did and WOW, the chair moved. Pretty cool how well the Dr. understood without further words, that I needed to get him comfortable. I was so proud of him, he did what he was told, got lots of praise for his shiny teeth, and then he was done. Chris took them in the waiting room to keep them busy, while it was Cassie's and my turn. We were all good, and ready to be signed off as OK. One step done of the checklist!!

• The last two weeks have been slow, we have turned in all the medical papers but have not yet been able to get screened and processed. It's frustrating, but there is nothing that we can do at this point. We finally got a date set and will have our Medical Screening on December 8th. 

• Why the hurry you might wonder? Well, considering that it's holiday season starting this week with Thanksgiving, there are a lot of days that the offices are closed and everything takes so much longer. The total processing takes about 6-8 weeks, and not until then, we can get our date and tickets booked. To know that we need to leave in the beginning of February, this doesn't leave us much time. This is very stressful, as we need to reserve a spot for our "in cabin" rabbit, as the flights normally only allow a few number. We have no control over what airline, if with Patriot Express or commercial, it's all not in our hands. For someone that wants to make things happen and be on top of things, this "hurry up and wait" is very frustrating!! 

• To not know what date we are getting on that plane is hard. It makes it very hard to plan ahead for other things. We need to have a plan on when to book the movers. When they come and pack the fast shipment that takes about 30 days to get to Okinawa. Then they come back and pack the second shipment that takes about 3 months to get there with ship. Then at that time, we need to move into a hotel and clean out our rental in a few days, take care of storage for the rest of the things that won't be coming with us to the island at all. Then we still need to decide on what to do with our cars...As it looks now, we most likely will put the Honda in storage with a good friend of us in Texas. Why? Well, if we happen to be stationed on the East coast or the West coast when we come back after 3 years, it's about in the middle to go and get the car!  The second car we will most likely let the military put in storage for us.

• It's always stressful and hard to move, but this move takes the price! There are so many factors that we can't control, and to have to wait and not being able to plan as you like, is hard. 

• So, to at least take some control of some things, I've kept very busy with selling things on Craigslist and last weekend I had a big yard sale here at home. Cleared out toys and clothes and it was nice to see all the "big" outdoor toys gone. I made some money, and got a lot of things cleared out, perfect. We will have another yard sale after the holidays, in January for sure, to clear out maybe some furniture etc too. It takes a lot of work to put these yard sales together. A lot of sorting, cleaning, washing and taking pictures. I rented tables to put everything on, and many hours went on this. Saturday morning early before 7am, the people started coming...I had hardly opened the garage, and people started pulling on things. I sold a lot and it was an almost sad feeling selling the strollers, the toddler slide, the water table that they have spent hours and hours of fun with, the seesaw, and all kind of things that were so typical for their early years. Even if I've know for a long time now that we are DONE with having children, it still hits you and it becomes very clear when you get rid of all the baby stuff...knowing that you won't need it again.

•  And to make matters "worse", last week my husband got a new job! Just like that, out of the blue, he got transferred to another position. He's now not working shift as usual, but "regular"  office hours. What is regular in the USMC? 7am-6pm give or take, Mon-Fri. It means that he is home on the weekend, but this week he has hardly been home before 8pm, as there is a lot to take care of. So we'll have to see how "good" these hours will be for the family, for him, it's stress pure, as he has to get a lot of stuff done in that office before he leaves, and as he is taking over after someone that didn't do his job well, it's a mess. Best part of this- no more night shift and sleeping during the day!!

Allergies...

Last week, what a week. Unfortunately of all weeks, the little ones got really sick on Spring break. Really, did it have to happen on this week? Where The Yuma County Fair was on, where there were other fun stuff for kids to go to, for Cassie to do fun stuff and more. Instead, we were spending days inside due to the bad allergy symptoms that Isabella started with, runny eyes, itchy eyes, runny nose, coughing and couching.

Coughing until she couldn't cough no more, especially in the evening and at night. She would cough until she would throw up, and it was bad. Poor little girl, to deal with this, and she was so miserable! I had the humidifier on max, cough medicine, allergy medicine and it was just horrible. Not much sleep for her or me, as I had to take care of her. Luckily, Ben started getting worse a few days later than Bella, and was doing somewhat alright Monday, Tuesday and got it on Wednesday. During the days they were doing a little better, and especially since they started on a new allergy medicine and then also as they got the inhalation medicine which makes the congestion in their chests loosen up.

Well, to lighten the spirits here at home, we got the kids the new Tinkerbell movie, The Pirate Fairy. We all love these movies, and as it was about Pirates too, Ben was more than happy to watch it with us girls! I had planned to send a message to the Easter Bunny to bring this movie along, but I thought that we could rather need it sooner than later. There are other things he can bring! I can totally recommend the movie, if you like the other Tinkerbell movies, you'll like this one too.

Allergy Test

A bit nervous, but eager to get it over with!

Yesterday afternoon, I had to get the kids in the car and go to Cassie's allergy test. The little ones had to come along, but they were very good, had some coloring books and toys with them, to keep them busy. The nurse was a bit stressed when we got there, a few minutes late, but the traffic was crazy and in addition to that, Cassie's school bus was later than normal, so we had a late start anyway. Still, after getting everything set up, she was wonderful, and it didn't take long until she got started!

 

It wasn't bleeding, but to keep them covered, helped against the itching, plus it would soak up some from the liquid so it wouldn't spread on her skin. She wasn't allowed to scratch during the test, but I was allowed to "pat" her back on the bandages, which helped to take the worst itch off.

Testing was made on 44 different things, the chart showing how it could look on the skin.

It didn't take long to see reactions on her back....

...and both her arms.

It's itching....

Yes, no wonder it was itching! This is how her back looked after 30 minutes. Of all the things that they tested for, it was very clear on what she was reacting to.

Section C: Lower right - Cat
Section F: Lower right - Bahia Grass

Section A: Her left arm: Bermuda Grass Pollen, Olive Tree Pollen (the smallest of the three, bottom left), Mix of 7 Std. Grasses ( Kentucky Bluegrass, Meadow Fescue Grass, Orchard Grass, Perennia Rye Grass, Redtop Grass, Sweet Vernal Grass, Timothy Grass)

Section B: Her right arm: Top left: Lamb's Quarters, Top right: Johnson Grass Pollen

I was surprised that she reacted so much to cat! Dog and horse was also tested, and no reactions at all. We wanted to test for rabbit, as we have a pet rabbit, but they didn't have that in this test, but they will add that to the additional blood test that she will take on Monday, where they also will add a few things that we have suspected in her diet, bananas and oats. She has also reacted to the Christmas tree once, or so we thought, with hives, and that will be tested for as well with the blood test.

It is good to have an idea, and that we can't really do anything to the grass and tree pollen that are flying around year around. The nurse said that it's especially hard with the grass reactions, as there is nothing you can do. It's also year around here, as there is so many golf courses here, and every time they mow them, the grass flies around in small particles in the air. This is also only a test done after the South West standards, as there are different trees and grasses here than for instance in North Carolina, where she also reacted to what they thought was "seasonal allergies". Of course, they have a total different test here, and if we move, she will have to have others made to make sure that she gets the right medicine and treatment.

Her final treatment we are not totally sure what it will be, but normally what they do is that they give the patients a shot once/week for a longer period of time. That helps the body accept what it has been reacting to, with the hope that it won't have to be treated for ever. Rather have the body fight it off on it's own, than to keep taking "normal allergy" medicines for years and years to come.

Well, at least we know, and I'm eager to find out what else she might be allergic to when we do the blood test on Monday. Those test normally take longer, so we have to wait for those answers. To decide what will be done, we have a follow up appointment with the Dr. in the beginning of February, and then we'll see if she will be starting to get shots.

Luckily, with Benadryl creme applied, this is how she looked when we were at home again, after about 45 minutes, so it went back faster than we had hoped for. It was a bit itchy, but not at all as much and we didn't even apply on more creme.

My brave girl, she was a bit nervous before starting the test, but she did excellent, and the nurse was great, explaining everything very well, and took her time to answer thousand questions. I will have to take a few notes, to have more questions answered when we go back to the follow up appointment!