The flu and you.. (or me)

The flu has taken such a toll in our mostly germ free home. Im a germifobic. If you look in my cabinets you will see hand sanitizer, wet ones wipes, lysol wipes, lysol spray, and clorox cleanup. A germifob's best friend.

I always have my kids washing their hands. I have even gotten my husband (who has a whatever happens happens attitude) to be kinda like ya germs are bad! Well in this house they are bad! If Michelle gets sick it generally means a hospital trip!

Well this time the trip was for me. Yesterday I woke up and just could not breathe. So I packed up the kids, and myself and literally drug everyone to the emergency room. I knew I wouldn't be able to get an appointment with my doctor yesterday so I did the next best thing.

They gave me Tamiflu, Prednisone for inflammation around my lungs, an inhaler, some ibuprofen and some cough syrup that makes me cough more then I did before! 

Now James has a stomach bug, Abigail has my cough and a fever. Oh and Shawn is feeling much better.. Lucky one.. He brought this home to all of us and has done a pretty awesome job in helping to take care of all of us.

I really hope no one else gets this. It is kicking my bottom. I haven't been sick sick in a few years!

Urologist

Abigail had her long awaited Urology appointment this afternoon.

We met with Dr. Aligiri and he is amazing. He has a plan for Abigail and I have to say that Shawn and I agree with it completely.

Step one: Get a DSMA Scan to check her kidneys for any and all scarring. If there is any then that moves us to step two.

Step two: Once we have the results of the scan we will decide if she needs surgery and a strong round of antibiotics or just a stronger antibiotic.

Option: If she should not need surgery then we get the lucky option of keeping her on the medication to keep away the infections and pray that she grows out of it.

Im praying so hard that Abigail never has to go through anything that she doesn't need. The only bad thing that the doctor does notice is that on her VCUG is that when they injected the die into her bladder instead of the die hanging around in her bladder for a few seconds it shoots directly up her ureters. It should wait but it does not.

He said that this is the one thing telling him that she may need surgery. I had a strange and sad feeling when I left his office today. Like I knew that he was going to say that. Im still kinda stewing on it. Like that sinking in feeling. I don't know where to go with it. I don't know what questions to ask now. I have researched as much as doctors, books, the internet, even a very good friend. There are no more things I can read/learn.

Im praying as hard as I can that we get some sort of answer.

Feeling better!

Oh goodness it feels so great to feel better! My husband what an amazing man! Tackled all four of our kids and still managed to make sure I ate and took my pain medicine. He felt so guilty to have to go back to work last Thursday.

Let me tell you that im TERRIFIED of the dentist. Like I do not go unless I absolutely have to. Ie; wisdom tooth recking havoic in my mouth. I did learn that I need a few fillings and a root canal along with needing surgery to remove the bottom wisdom teeth. One of them is under my jaw bone and the other has a cyst next to it. Now im nervous again. However I do love my dentist. So maybe I will go back. He's not so scary with the Nitris gas. Wow.

Im not the type of person to generally take anything other then Tylenol and Motrin for pain. When I was on anxiety medicine for PPD I almost had a panic attack everytime I took it. So back to the gas, it makes your toes, your fingers, and your face numb. Well more like you've had a few too many numb. Im not a big drinker but I do know what that feels like. Getting off track here. Anyway if your not so crazy about someone yanking something out of your mouth go with this. Now the novicane was WEIRD. You get the one on the side and then one on the top of your mouth and it numbs your throat. Feels so weird to swallow.

I luckily was in no pain until I decided to go and wait at the Naval Hospital for my perscriptions. Then my mouth started swelling and throbbing. I was so grateful for my husband and vicodin this past weekend. Plus I kinda got to catch up on some much needed sleep. The pulling of the tooth is not that bad. One second it's there and the next it's gone.

Im not afraid....

Of giving birth 4 times but im nervous as heck about getting my wisdom tooth pulled...

I know it's gonna hurt, but how bad??

Here's me literally squirming because I do not know what to expect. And that's if the dentist can even get around the swelling to yank it out tomorrow..

Here's to wishful thinking!

Yikes!!!

Let me just tell you that this last month has been something else to last anyone a lifetime!

I will start with James- He got a weird kinda cough and just was feeling a little icky so I kept him home from school for a week. He started feeling better and he got to go back to school. Yay!

Shawn Jr- Well let me tell you he NEVER gets sick! So when he woke up running a 104.7 degree fever I KNEW something was wrong! The next day he still had a fever and started with a croupy cough. So I took him to his Pediatrician who reasurred me he would be fine and if anything else happened to just call back or go to the ER. He had fallen asleep on the couch and looked a little funny to me. When he woke up I knew something wasn't right. He was pulling his shoulders into his chest trying to breathe. I took him straight to the ER and when we got there his 02 sats were 79. Needless to say he went straight back with an oxygen mask and started breathing treatments right away. We spent a few hours there and were released home. But boy did he scare me!

Michelle- Well you all know what Michelle did! Little stinker! Although there are alot of kids in her class out with the same thing right now.

Abigail- Poor thing she got a very icky fever and was just miserable from last Monday until Friday. She was finally feeling better on Saturday and then Sunday she woke up with a icky cough and a runny nose! She had her well child exam today and she is 14 pounds 9 ounces! What a big girl! Seeing as how she was only 4 pounds 12 ounces at birth. Im so glad that she is getting so much bigger. She crawls now, pulls to stand and tries to hang onto furniture with one hand and balance to try and walk. She is so short that it is adorable! Although she is adorable!

Me- Yikes am I tired!

Shawn- Happy to be home and out of the snow!

Yay were home!

We actually came home yesterday. Just with as crazy as it was I didn't get a chance to blog! Shawn is still in the field for training until Friday so I have been kinda flying solo if you know what I mean!

4 kids and one of the bein sickers is kinda a bummer! We have a general idea as to what is going on. For starters she has the Flu and Croup. Grr!! It doesn't really surprise me since Shawn Jr. had Croup so bad I had to rush him to the ER for breathing treatments because he couldn't breathe. And it is still a big possibility that she may suffer from Migranes.

I still believe she does have headaches, but at this point I beleieve she does not suffer from Migranes. Yes she had the classic signs this weekend of not only a shunt malfunction, but the flu, croup, meningitis, and about 30 other things that they tested her for. But I do not think it was a Migrane.

The resident agrees with me. Hopefully I do not have to cross paths with that Attending again because him and I are going to have issues. My mom was a nurse until I was 16 my dad was and still is a paramedic, I have been doing this since 2006 with a great deal of training thanks to the NICU at Madigan Army Medical Center in Fort Lewis, Wa. They made sure before I even set one foot out of the NICU the day of her diagnosis that I knew everything and anything there was to know. More than what the internet could provide me with. What to do and what not to do. Yes true back then it was easier. She had a fontonale. So then we could see when something was generally wrong. Even then there was a doctor who doubted me. But in the end her Neurosurgeon was right there to say no mom is right.

Anyway back to Michelle. We got home yesterday and sure enough she spiked a fever and started retching again. Soon after she fell asleep and slept off the fever and headache and now all she has is a icky cough. It's slightly cold here today in SOCAL. So we are all bundled up and waiting for the weekend because DADDY COMES HOME!!! We sure have alot to tell him when he gets here!

So here we sit..

Bored as ever waiting on Neurolgy since Neurosurgery and Opthamology have kinda ruled out shunt malfunction.

Not too sure what is going on other then the fact that something is seriously wrong with Michelle. Even though all her other tests say otherwise I know in my gut something is wrong. I had an interesting conversation with the resident this morning on why they wanted to hesitate on the CT last night. Sorta aggrivating. I had called the on call last night and they said bring her straight down go through ER were gonna admit her overnight. We obviously got the CT and shunt series but what bugs me is the SAME neurosurgeon who stood in front of me and Shawn and told us that she was fine and that her shunt was working and in her water spaces, the same surgeon who ignored my request for a CT to just make sure, the same surgeon who decided that he didn't want to take her on his service on the same day her dischrged her home (against my better judgement) and passed her onto the most amazing surgeon ever wanted to doubt why I brought her in. Saying that I was one of those moms who didn't know her child and jumped to a shunt conclusion everytime she gets the sniffles.

1.) I do not do that.
2.) I generally wait a few days before I do anything rash like run her to the hospital to get radiation.
3.) HIS RESIDENT FELT THE NEED TO TELL ME TO COME IN BECAUSE HE COULD HEAR OVER THE PHONE THAT SHE WAS BAD AND IT TOOK EVERYTHING I HAD TO NOT LOOSE IT IN THE ER LAST NIGHT WHEN 5 OTHER DOCTORS STOOD THERE AND TOLD ME SHE NEEDED A CT!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry about the caps im kinda upset.

For someone to have the audasity to tell me that they think as a mother I jump to conclusions just infuriates me.

Anyway this is about Michelle not me. I need to keep my head in the game so to speak so I can just tune this doctor out. If all goes well with Neurology we will be out of here in the morning.