Waiting Game

On Wednesday, January 23, 2013 we kept our kiddos out of school and headed to College Station so we could be there while my Mother in Law had her surgery done.
Within the first 10 minutes of the road trip, my husband got pulled over for speeding. He was going less than 5 miles over the speed limit and luckily only got a warning. The rest of the road trip went wonderful. The kids played and looked around (they were all still sleepy).
We got to the hospital about the same time as Howard's parents did and were able to talk to Linda, go through the whole pre-op stuff with her and make sure she understood everything and didn't have any questions. We met with her surgeon, Dr. Ryan Walter and he was very optimistic and open, wanted to make sure we all understood what was going on, he was great. We prayed with her and over her with all of our family holding hands with her pastor leading us in prayer. She was smiling, looked awesome (her hair is always perfect) and was ready to get everything over with!
We said goodbye to her one by one and told her to have a nice nap and left her bedside at 11:40am on the dot. And then we began to wait. Howard Jr and Sr went outside for a bit after she was taken in. To see such strong men so worried about their wife and mother was heartbreaking. By 1pm the kids were starving so we headed a block away and got them lunch, some for my father in law and stopped to get Linda some flowers and a balloon. Shortly after we got back to the hospital Howard's brother Todd got there, he had to work all morning. It was approaching hour 3 when we got a phone call from the OR I ran to the information booth and took the call. She was doing great, surgery was a little more complicated than they had expected but she is doing great and they should be done in about an hour. Vague, but positive.
At 3:15 her surgeon came walking through the door. Told us that she did great through surgery. They were able to get everything they wanted to out (full hysterectomy) but during the surgery her bladder got in the way and got nicked. They called in the hospital urologist and he came in and assisted with the rest of the surgery, sewing her up and making sure that there was no leaks in her bladder and they fixed her back up. Her doctor was very angry at himself. In his whole career this has happened 5 times, this made the 6th. He kept apologizing and said that God decided to challenge him that day. He said that they were just weaning her off anesthesia when he left her bedside and it would still be a while before we saw her. He said he was going to go home and have the evening with his family and then come back up and see her. Howard breathed a half sigh of relief an said "I'm half better, now I need to see her."
At 5pm  we had checked many times and been told they were still dealing with pain management in recovery which we understood but just killed the 3 men in the room to hear that she was in pain. The surgical information desk closed so we were left wondering now, with no information or no one to ask. We kept checking with the ER to see if she had a room yet. Finally, at 6:20 she did.
We practically ran to her room to see her. We were there until almost 8. She was groggy, drifting on and off to sleep an very disoriented, pretty much what you would expect from a person who just had major surgery. The first question from me was, "Now tell me the truth, is my hair flat?" God, I love that woman. I answered her honestly (yes it was) and she groaned with annoyance. Her hands were freezing, but she felt warm. Her eyes opened the most when we told her what time of day it was. She was cramping quite a bit and it took me a while to explain to her what the big glowing green morphine button would do and that she needed to use it. She was concerned of getting to much pain medicine and not pressing it enough, like I said, took me a while but she gave in. I told her everything that happened in surgery, and she understood as best a person who just came off anesthesia can. She was not happy that she had a drain in her side still (that should come out in a day or 2) and that she had to wear a catheter for a week...actually she was pissed about that, in all honesty.
She was munching on ice chips, being snarky to her sons and husband, telling her grand kids to settle down and holding my hand, we were a happy bunch. She kept telling us to hurry up and move back, how much she loved us, and kept a hold of our hands the whole time. After praying over her we left her to get some rest and to drive back to Austin and cried half way back home. Some in relief, some in guilt for not being able to stay with her but mostly because we were so thankful for God's amazing grace, love and protection.

Today she has walked, eaten, talked, been clear headed, watched TV and spent time with extended family that drove in to see her.

It's going to be a long road of recovery for her, but the point is she will recover. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Culture Shock?

My relationship with my parents has always been close and...interesting? Not sure if that's the right word, but it's certainly never boring.

I lived a seemingly 'perfect' childhood until one day, literally I saw my parents fight for the first time. It was in May of 1997 and it was a violent fight. I had never even heard them raise their voices to one another.
My parents split up that very night and I lived apart from my mother for the first time in my life. I had only been away from her for 3 days until then. I was 13 years old.

In August of 1998 my parents divorced, amicably. My mom remarried as soon as it was legal for her to do so. Between 97 and 98 I was apart from my mom for a few weeks at a time, but not too much longer than that. She dated a lot between then too.

I lived mostly with my Dad because of school boundaries and bus riding but I still saw my mom at least once a week. In July of 2000 I found out I was pregnant. I was 16. My mom's husband killed himself a few months later. Since then my mom and I have either lived together or within 10 minutes of each other.

My daily life today consists of taking care of my children, husband and home but also dealing with my parents issues (my parents live together, as roommates and have since 2004). My mom has a lot of legal issues, health issues and just all around...issues. I take them everywhere and handle all of their business, health care needs, you name it...I do it. I see them practically every day.

And now, they're moving. 4 hours away.

My mom did the bipolar thing and totally wasted away their September funds leaving them with no way to pay their bills so they're being evicted. They are moving close to my mom's parents, in a house my uncle owns and rents out.

I have never been this far away from my parents in a living situation...ever. I don't see how they are going to survive without me handling all of their business from day to day. They have no car, no coping skills, no budgeting skills and when they move they will have to hunt for new doctors to oversee their care, my mom will have to find a way to get to Austin in the coming weeks so she can go to court. I don't see how they are going to do this on their own, but apparently they think they can because they're definitely going through with it.

It is going to be strange to not have to be a caretaker to them anymore. To not have them in my daily life. For them not to be in my kids daily life. I will admit, I'm kind of excited about having my work load lifted a bit but it is going to be a culture shock not having them with me every day and factoring them in every decision I make about schedules and things that my family and I do. My children are going to be heartbroken, and I would think my parents would be too. But they seem fine with it.

So why aren't I?

♥ Kristin

The End to the Weekend

Maddie and Parker actually got 10x worse after my last post. On Saturday morning, about 4am Maddie woke up on FIRE. Her fever was 102 and just raging. She was also sounding very croupy.

Now, let's examine what croupy means. Croup is a condition where the air waves and the throat get swollen which in turn makes the person have a bark like cough. It is from having a sore throat, asthma, and sinus issues. It cannot be caught, however the other symptoms can (sore throat and sinus issues). It usually makes the person sound like they have laryngitis and they cough frequently to try to relieve the swelling they feel in their throats.

Because of the way she was sounding, I was going to give her a nebulizer treatment but I realized that A) She didn't have any major labored breathing so she was getting enough oxygen and B) I didn't have any albuterol to put in the nebulizer in the first place. Crap.
So, I called their Pediatrician's nurse after hours line which I had never done before, especially at 4am. The nurse sounded half asleep but she was very helpful. She listened to Maddie on the phone, recommended some things to help her croup, which we did but didn't help and when she realized that instructed us to go to the emergency room. During these phone calls Parker woke up briefly and sounded just like Maddie, all croupy.
So, we went back to sleep since Maddie and I were exhausted, Howard was leaving for work and Mackenzie and Parker were still asleep. At 10:30 we all woke up ready to do the whole ER thing. Parker was feverish when he woke up too, 101.6. I went and got my parents and took my Dad back to the house to stay with Mack and then My mom and I took the babies to Dell Children's Medical Center.
They absolutely loved the waiting room with the awesome fish tanks. They loved to run circles around it. Kind of weird seeing your sick kids run circles around anything. But even with 102.3 (Maddie) and 103.1 (Parker) fevers they still ran around like the insane children they are. It definitely took a while but eventually we got into a room where the kiddos had to change into hospital gowns and share a bed which was actually really cute.

They were brought bunches of books to read and play with, which I read multiple times until I realized that they weren't paying attention to me at all.
Then a nurse brought a TV remote and they watched Spongebob the rest of the stay.

They were cuddling constantly. Neither one of them liked when the other was messed with and got upset, so there was lots of hugs and cuddles.


They were so freakin sweet to each other the nurses asked if they could keep the curtain open (but door closed) so they could see them from the nurses station. Who am I to deny them my children's cuteness?


In the end, the fever had gone down a few degrees, they had strep tests done and a super steroid given to both of them resulting in large cups of apple juice from the nurses.

Isn't this cute? Waiting on their release papers to be finished. They crawled all over the floor of that ER. I practically bathed them in Clorox when we got home (I kid, I kid...kinda).

So they were on the fast track to getting better. We spent all day Sunday hanging around the house watching TV and relaxing. I made chocolate chip pancakes for brunch and hamburgers for dinner. Very low key, but just what we needed.

♥ Kristin

Uninvited Guests

I haven't blogged in a while and I have a good reason...

LICE!

Run for your lives!!!!!!!!!!!

Ick.

Ok, so right after mother's day weekend Kenzie comes home and tells me that her friend Abigail has lice. Lovely, I cringed. I checked her head daily, and saw nothing. The end of school comes up and Abigail wants to have a sleepover for her birthday, great! So, Kenzie spends the night there. Not 3 days after, she starts scratching and there the little boogers are!

So we do a lice treatment on both M & M. I do heat treatments and cleaning on all stuffies, blankets, pillows, mattresses, throw pillows, ect. A week later (which was yesterday) we found 2 lice in Maddie's head and a ton of nits in Mack's and MINE!

So, my mom spent the day doing lice treatments on me and the girls. All beds have been stripped for heat treatments and cleaning. Deja Vu anyone?

Ugh, I REALLY hope they're gone now.

I'm afraid to say this so... I really hope Howard doesn't get it. He has a LOT of body hair and o.m.g. Say it ain't so?!

&hearts Kristin

I.hate.Bugs.

Thursday night I made a big TexMex dinner and Howard invited his Best Friend Brion over for dinner. It was delicious and the night went well.
As Howard and I were about to fall asleep we heard Mackenzie making noise. She has been a frequent sufferer of night terrors, she frequently talks in her sleep and sleep walks at times. I went to check on her and she was awake. She said her back and stomach hurt, oh yeah, that's the other thing, she's been having PMS cramps for a month or so. Anyway so I go get her some water and some pain reliever and no sooner did she swallow it, that it came back up. Along with her dinner. Everywhere.
She proceeded to throw up multiple times over the next two hours and then just as she settled, Maddie woke up and started doing the same thing. Except she was covered from head to toe so I had to bathe her. They then took turns throwing up and I ran from laundry room, to bathroom, to living room and then crashed in my room when a 10 minute break occurred. By the time morning broke, they were done throwing up but so weak they could barely move. At that point, I wasn't feeling all that hot and Parker was a cranky mess (aka ticking time bomb).
Then, at 11am Friday morning, my husband walked in the door, grabbed the van keys and went and got my parents. He took his lunch to come and help me. God Bless Him!
My mom got there and immediately turned into super mom cleaning, sanitizing, pampering the girls and me while my dad took care of Parker. By the time Parker woke up from his nap he was at it as well.
I didn't start until Saturday morning which of course made me miss the entire weekend, which is another blog entry. Howard didn't get it until Monday morning. Now, we are all healthy as can be but there is nothing nastier then a stomach bug.

Eww.

♥ Kristin