All the medical updates you ever wanted

I've decided I live at doctor's offices.  We do doctor appointments like other people do recreational activities for their kids.  Some families go to soccer or gymnastics or dance... we go to the doctor.  And we probably spend the same amount of time and money.  Ugh!  So lots to update.

Elizabeth:

I guess I never updated about her after the ambulance visit.  No news is good news and she is fine.  She complained about her back hurting for a few days, but recovered quickly.  Too quickly... now I'm totally embarrassed for calling.  But the good news is she's fine.

Katie:

Katie's arm hurt her for a long time.  She was supposed to have her splint on for 1-2 weeks.  At the 1 week mark, I took it off and she cried and cried.  So we left it on another week.  Tried again, same thing.  Mom called the doctor and the doctor said (hey, I'm thinking of a song here!  no more monkeys jumping on the bed! oh sorry.)  Doctor said leave it on one more week.  She was still in pain after that.  So they made me bring her in for more x-rays.  They said that for sure nothing is broken, just a very painful bruised bone and that she couldn't be in the splint for much longer or her range of motion would be affected.  So after a few more days, I took off the splint and wrapped her arm in an ace bandage.  (My idea since doctor's aren't very helpful lately.)  She cried for her splint, but I told her it was in the garbage.  She wore the ace bandage for a few more days but still wouldn't use her arm.  At this point I knew we were headed for physical therapy and I just can't do any more doctor appointments.  So I made up my own physical therapy schedule.  I made her just hang her arm down straight - nothing else, but I wouldn't let her bend it.  Then we worked on slowly moving her arm.  Within a few days, she was using her arm again!!!! YAY!   She's fine and back to normal.

Caleb:

Caleb has issues.  You all know he has a severe peanut allergy.  He's also mildly allergic to milk and eggs.  Plus is reflux is still not going away so my pediatrician wanted us to make a GI Specialist appointment.  I called about the appointment back in March and the earliest appointment was in May.  I'm really glad I made it then because he has gotten worse since then.  He doesn't eat well.  He chokes and gags on SO MANY foods.  And sometimes he even chokes, gags, and then throws up.  And once he throws up,  he's done eating.  He's so incredibly picky too!  He used to eat a lot more things, but now he can't/won't.  I started keeping track and noticed that he will only eat soft foods... mashed potatoes, refried beans, yogurt, pudding, teddy grahams and fish crackers (the latter 2 are pretty soft once you chew them if you think about it).  He pretty much lives on those things I've listed.  He absolutely refuses rice, pasta, and bread, most meats and most veggies.  He hates milk of any kind even with chocolate or instant breakfast.  I don't know if it's a texture thing or if he has some damage from the reflux, or maybe both.  Or if his body is just rebelling because of all his allergies.  But he doesn't eat well and he's not gaining weight.  At his last well baby visit he was falling off his growth curve and the pediatrician was concerned.  He still seems pretty little and not growing very fast.  ALL of his clothes from last summer fit him this year.  We'll see on Friday when he goes in for his well baby checkup. I've been doing some research to learn more and try to figure him out.  And I've talked to a lot of people in real life and online.  I've learned a lot.  So I went to his GI appointment prepared.  The doctor was great and pretty much agreed with everything that I suspected.  So Caleb will be having an upper GI x-ray this Thursday.  I'm not sure what to expect from that.  It can't be too bad, right?  I mean it's just an x-ray.  But they have a list of instructions so I'm a little nervous.  We also have an appointment for occupational therapy next week to see if we can help him learn how to eat.  I'm anxious to find out what's going on with him.

Michael:

We went to the orthopedist today (and waited F.O.R.E.V.E.R. again).  I don't know if I ever fully explained Michael's leg.

Basically he has an osteochondroma on his femer.  That's what he broke. Here is a picture that looks similar to Michael's x-ray.  That little part of the bone is what he broke. If you read the first link and see the word "bone tumor", don't freak out.  It's really quite common and not really a "tumor".  It's more like a bone "growth".  (Although I freaked out when I first read it and, of course, did a ton of research.  Now I know it's nothing to worry about.)  Anyway Michael basically has a piece of bone growing on his femer.  Normally you don't even know if you have such a thing.  But Michael broke that part of the bone.  So they put a brace on him for a month and he walked around with a straight leg.  We went back in (this was in April) and they said it's partially healed, but it was still hurting Michael a lot.  They said he could take off the brace and try walking around for a month to see what would happen.  He tried and tried to bend his knee, but it still hurt.  I figured  part of the pain was from not bending his leg, but the other part was from his broken bone.  So we went back today and it has healed a little more.  The doctor pushed on a few places on his leg that sent Michael through the roof.  So it still hurts, however he is able to bend his leg enough to walk so that's good.  He can't run though. (And this is really infuriating him because Michael LOVES to run and Michael NEEDS to run.)  So the doc said we could wait for 2 more months and see how he does, or we could choose to have surgery and remove it.  I was surprised that the doctor kinda left it up to me and Michael.  Weird.  But we both chose the option of surgery.  While I don't want to actively force surgery on my son, it just made sense.  I don't want him hobbling around for another 2 months and then find out they're going to remove the bone anyway.  That would mean 2 months of waiting, plus at least one month to schedule the surgery, plus recovery time after that.  That would be at least September before he's back to normal.  This injury happened in March... 6 full months later.  So we're going the route of surgery and the doctor agrees with us.  He thinks it's a good idea.  Michael's surgery is scheduled for July 8th.  I sure hope it goes smoothly and heals quickly so Michael can get back to his normal, active life.  He's frustrated, and with good reason.

Nathan, Anna, and Lydia:

Healthy and happy.  :)

Oh, Anna's prescription for her glasses seems to be changing already.  She can't see far away again.  She just got glasses in the fall, but I guess she's blind like her daddy.  I'll take her as soon as things calm down a bit.

So those are the updates!  See why I spend my life at the doctor's office?!

Michael's Fish

Nathan and Michael had a Scout camp this weekend.  They went backpacking... well as much as you can backpack in the lovely, non-mountainous state of Kansas.  Michael didn't do the actual backpacking because of his knee (I'll update about his knee tomorrow).  Nathan backpacked and had a wonderful time.  There was a lot of mud, but he still loved it!  Michael and Blake met the rest of the scouts at the main camp.  Then when the others went backpacking, Blake and Michael went fishing.  They had a great time together and Michael caught a fish.  Well, he probably caught more than one, I don't know.  But this is the one I heard of... and saw because Michael brought it to the front door to scare me with it when he got home. He knocked on the door and when I opened it, he swung the fish around and made it do all sorts of yucky things.  He succeeded in freaking me out, and enjoyed every minute of it.  Apparently I reacted EXACTLY as he planned when he swung the huge fish at me and pretended he was going to bring the ugly, dirty thing in the house.  I'm glad I'm so predictable.  After he tortured me with the fish, he went off laughing hysterically and cleaned it.  They fried it up and ate it for dinner and more than half the family LOVED it.  Weird!  There are very few foods that more than half the family goes crazy over and I'm surprised that they all liked fish so much.  If I would have randomly said we were having fish for dinner, they all would have whined.  I think it's the novelty of catching, seeing, and then eating the fish.  Anyway... meet Michael's fish:

 

The girls, Caleb and I went to the fire station for Special Needs Family Fun Day.  I have a ton of good pictures that I'll post soon.

"Camp Out"

A lot of people wonder how we fit all our kids in our 4 bedroom house.  Before Caleb came along we had 2 kids to a room.  You would think that should work, but it didn't.  It didn't matter what 2 girls we put together, they'd always end up sneaking into the other room so they could all be together.  So when Caleb was born, we moved all 4 girls into the same room.  We have 2 sets of bunk beds and a book shelf and that's about all that will fit in there.  (Their dresser is in Caleb's room.)  They absolutely LOVE it.  It's like a big slumber party every night.  Often they will have what they call a "camp out".  This involves all of them gathering their pillows, stuffed animals and books and piling onto Anna's bed on the top bunk.  They usually read a few books and then they all go back to bed and go to sleep.  Sometimes they don't make it back into their own beds.  I've found them a few times all asleep together in a big pile.  I think it's so cute.  (Well, it's cute until I have to try to get them down while they're asleep!)

I found this the other night:

And these are from a few months ago. 

And just for fun, our "barracks".  Some day I want to get bunk beds that match.  Or even matching quilts would be nice. One can dream, right?  At least the walls are the color I want them.

Mashed Potato Day

I absolutely LOVE mashed potatoes and gravy from the school cafeteria.  I know, I know... call me crazy, and even crazier for admitting it openly.  But I love them!  My kids know how much I love them and always try to get me to come to lunch with them on "mashed potato day".  They love to have mom come to lunch with them and if I go to lunch means they get hot lunch that day too.  So today Anna called me from school while I was out on my walk.  She left a message for me, "Mom, this is Anna.  I don't know if you remember, but today is mashed potato day.  Can you come to lunch?  And can I have hot lunch?"  I had to laugh at her message.  She called again right before lunch in case I didn't get the first message.  I forgot this was the LAST "mashed potato day" for this school year, so I just HAD to go!  I mostly just went because Anna was so cute about it and so excited for me to eat lunch with her at school.  I know one day (in the near future most likely) she isn't going to want me around with her friends.  So I seized the opportunity and decided to be spontaneous.  I ignored the housework and jumped in the car with Elizabeth and Caleb and raced up to the school.  We got there just in time for lunch.  Anna was so happy and all her friends seemed really happy too, as was evident by all of them talking CONSTANTLY and LOUDLY to me through the entire lunch. The one thing about school lunch mashed potatoes is they don't have salt.  Mashed potatoes NEED salt in my opinion.  So I snuck (yes I know "snuck" isn't a word, but sneaked sounds so weird and wrong!)... I "snuck" some salt to school.  I put some salt from home in a ziplock bag and hid it in my pocket and "snuck" it into the school for my mashed potatoes.  YUMMY!!  So today was Mashed Potato Day and we all had good food and a good time!

A good mom knows where her kids are

Yesterday the kids were all watching a show after school (oh wait, a good mom doesn't let her kids watch tv), and it seemed unusually quiet and calm.  So I decided to take advantage and I ran upstairs to vacuum a bedroom I had missed earlier in the morning.  I cleaned up the last of the stuffed animals off the floor, making a lot of noise I might add, and then turned on the vacuum.  While vacuuming I glanced at the already-made beds and saw a blanket piled on the bed.  I wondered why my blanket was in the girls' room and how I didn't notice it earlier.  Then suddenly the blanket MOVED... and there was a breathing head sticking out of the top of the pile!!!! Scared me to death.  Apparently Elizabeth went upstairs, stole my Cars blanket (see my post about Caleb stealing my Cars blanket - why do they ALL steal my blanket?) and fell asleep without me knowing it.  Niiiice.  I had no idea she wasn't watching the show.  She asked me about 10 minutes earlier if I'd come upstairs because she had something to show me.  I told her I'd come up in a minute... and then forgot.  (A good mom doesn't forget when her kids wants to show her something.)  So that explains why it was SO QUIET!  I guess I better keep better track of my kids!  But in my defense, a good mom vacuums her kids room, right?

My embarrassing moment

Elizabeth, Caleb and I were at Wal Mart and Elizabeth had to go to the bathroom. So we run in really fast and Elizabeth headed straight for the handicapped stall at the end. And when I say fast, I mean she was running so I knew it was urgent. I ran in after, closed the door, helped her a little (while trying to keep Caleb from touching everything) and we were talking the entire time. "Caleb don't touch that" "Elizabeth, do you need help with your snap?" etc. We walked out and there was a guy standing there looking at us really bewildered/annoyed. It was THEN that I noticed the urinals lining the walls!!! Oh my goodness, I was so incredibly embarrassed!  So I said something stupid like, "Oh I guess we're in the wrong bathroom" and he said, "Yeah it looks that way." I quickly ushered Elizabeth and Caleb out of there and a few Wal Mart employees gave me strange looks on the way out as well. We grabbed our cart and hurried off. Did I mention I was soooooo embarrassed? Can you imagine if he didn't hear us talking and then we walked out? I would've scarred Elizabeth (and ME!) for life!!! I know I'll never see the guy again so it's no big deal, but for a few minutes I was completely and absolutely mortified. Ugh!

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Had to call an ambulance for Elizabeth

Elizabeth was playing with the kids downstairs. They got the "brilliant" idea to pile the couch cushions at the bottom of the stairs and then jump off the stairs and land on the cushions. Apparently Elizabeth decided to leap from the second to the top stair and, being the tiny little girl she is, she of course didn't make it. She landed on her back on one of the stairs. She cried really hard and I knew it was the "I'm really hurt cry". The neighbor girl who was playing here carried her upstairs and laid her on the couch because she wouldn't get up. (I later told them all to wait if someone can't get up). Elizabeth laid there on the couch crying in these weird sporadic bursts, almost like she couldn't catch her breath. I couldn't tell if it was from just crying hard or that she really couldn't catch her breath. She tried to get up, but it hurt too bad. At that point I just didn't know what to think.  So I called Blake who was on his way out of town. He said, "well duh, why are you calling me? Call an ambulance." I didn't really want to but I kept remembering Lydia's broken arm. A LOT of people at the hospital told us we should have called an ambulance for her. (Who would have even THOUGHT to call an ambulance for a possible broken arm?!?!) Lydia's broken bone damaged some nerves... probably while I was moving her into and out of the car. So anyway, I didn't want to mess with a back after all that I watched Lydia go through. I called an ambulance. They sent a police officer, a huge fire truck and an ambulance. (By the way, Caleb was in HEAVEN with the firetruck at his house! ) They parked a stretcher on my front porch and about 7 different people came in to ask me lots of questions and then check out Elizabeth. They said she's probably fine and I should take her to the pediatrician tomorrow if she's not better. The guy checking her out said he doesn't have x-ray vision so there **could** be something broken, but he doubts it. She laid on the couch for a good long while, but finally got up. She's walking/moving a bit slow and really babying her back. It seems pretty tender. I think (hope) it's just bruised.

ALL my neighbors came rushing to my door to see what was going on. They were so sweet, honestly, but it was pretty embarrassing!! They offered to take some or all of my kids and asked what they could do to help, etc. before they knew what was going on. I was busy with the paramedics so I couldn't tell them what was going on. Anna informed them "Elizabeth hurt her back and can't move". They all FREAKED OUT. I almost wanted to leave Elizabeth just to calm one of them down - I thought she was going to have a heart attack. They knew Blake was out of town and just wanted to help. I felt soooo incredibly loved. I have AWESOME neighbors!! But after all that outpouring of love, I was really, REALLY embarrassed to tell them that there's really nothing wrong. False alarm pretty much.

So that was my night. After they all left, I was shaking and couldn't think straight. I was calm through the whole thing, but then had a minor breakdown. I always do that - I can stay calm until it's all over and then I just want to cry. I had such an adrenaline rush going on worrying about Elizabeth and worrying about whether to call an ambulance or not and whether they would think I'm nuts. I'm exhausted now that the adrenaline is gone. And I'm still pretty embarrassed about the drama it caused with the neighbors. I'm still glad I called though (mostly). I'm not going to mess with a kid with a hurt back who can't move!!

As I mentioned, Blake was on his way out of town when I called and he immediately turned around to come home... even before he knew what was going on.  I feel bad I made him come home, but at the same time I'm really glad he is here.

2 random thoughts

Random Thought 1:  Caleb is cutting a tooth - his bottom incisor.  He has all of his teeth but 2, so this is the second to last tooth and he's done.  Do you all realize what a BIG DEAL this really is??  We've lived through 138 teeth and all the associated crying, screaming, whining, clinging, sleep depriving miseries and we only have 2 more to go!!!! I have to say I won't miss teething.  That's one of those things that will make us cheer and move on.

Random Thought 2:  My kids want a pet and often talk about getting a dog.  My answer is always the same... you'll have to choose between Mom or a Dog because I don't need anything else to clean up after, feed, or otherwise worry about.  Luckily they still choose mom so I must be doing something right.  (Or maybe it's not at all about me doing anything right - it's probably because they know a dog won't wash their laundry or drive their homework to school when they forget it!)

CARS!

I have to post about Caleb and his cars.  He absolutely LOVES cars!!!!  I've never known a kid so young to have such a HUGE obsession as Caleb has with cars.  He's liked them since he was about 4 months old.  He liked anything with wheels before he could even sit up.  I remember him sitting in a grocery cart - barely even able to sit up - and he'd crane his neck around trying to see the wheels of the other carts.  

I realize lots of boys like cars, but we've never had a car-loving boy at our house so this is a new, fun thing for me.  Nathan and Michael played with cars occasionally, but they were more into dinosaurs and light sabers.  Caleb is definitely into cars.  I find it so cute since this is totally a "Caleb thing"... he didn't learn it from anyone else.  It's just his own personality shining through.  Here ate some pictures of Caleb and his cars:

Yes, that's the bathtub he's playing in.  He plays cars in our garden tub while I take a shower.  It's like a giant playpen.

His FAVORITE place to play cars is here.  We have a rubbermaid with drawers where we keep diapers (and, of course, CARS).  He wedges himself between the diaper box and the tv stand.  There's only like 3 inches of space there.  One day I tried moving it over for him, thinking it would be more comfortable for him to play.  He threw a FIT until I moved it back!  Evidently playing cars in a really tight space is more fun.  Silly kid!

Not only does he like cars, he loves everything with wheels.  Wednesdays are Caleb's favorite day of the week... GARBAGE TRUCK day!!!!  Here he is watching the garbage truck.  We have 3 different trucks that come through our neighborhood throughout the day and whenever he hears one, he RUNS to the window to watch.  I like it because it keeps him busy for a few minutes.

He loves mommy's Cars blanket.  I love the Disney movie Cars so my mom made me a Cars Blanket and Cars Pillowcase (that even says "Mom" so no one will take it!).  I don't want to share them, but Caleb has other plans.

You can see he's saying "Mater" here.

And like I said, he likes anything with wheels.  His all-time favorite book is "The Little Red Caboose".  He wants me to read it to him ALL the time, and he reads it to me too (which is so cute!)

I'm sure there will be more car pictures coming soon!  That's all this boy does is play cars!

Yet another update... Caleb's sleep, Night 3 through 5

Night 3 revisited:
Ugh!  I spoke too soon on my "day 3" update.  Right after I got done typing that he cried for an hour and a half and I thought he was asleep, he woke up and started all over again.  It turns out he kept falling asleep sitting up and then tipping over which would wake him up and he'd cry again.  He did that for another hour and a half more.  Every time he'd start calling for mommy and crying again.  (We did go in to check on him occasionally, we didn't leave him just screaming all by himself.  And Michael was there the whole time.  Michael actually fell asleep through it all.  That boy can sleep through anything).  At midnight after 3 hours of this, Blake went in, changed his diaper since he'd had so much water (we gave him drinks when we went in).  He started to go out and  Caleb started screaming.  Blake turned around and said, "Caleb, you're done.  We're all going to sleep and you need to go to sleep too.  Stop crying!"   He stopped crying and went to sleep.  Couldn't he have done that 3 hours before that?

Night 4
He cried for about 10 minutes.  I just read The Sleep Lady last week and while he was crying, an idea from that book came to me.  I had planned to use the SL method, but decided not to drag it out.  Plus Caleb is extremely stubborn and I knew we just needed to go cold turkey.  So anyway, I used one of the last nights from the SL where you do "job checks".  So I told Caleb (through his almost-closed door) "Mommy's here.  I'm going to go brush my teeth."  He stopped crying and said (in the saddest little voice), "Yeah. OK."  So I went to brush my teeth...loudly so he could hear me.  He started crying again so I brushed them right outside his door.  He stopped.  Then he started up again.  I sat in my room reading a book and told him, "Mommy's here.  I'm reading a book."   It worked.  Everytime he called out, I'd just say "mommy's here".  After about 25 minutes he went to sleep.

Night 5 (last night)
I laid him in his bed, he cried for like 10 seconds, I gave him his bear that I'm trying to force to be his lovey (and he took it!).  I stayed in my room and told him a few times what I was doing and he was asleep in about 10 minutes.  He went to sleep at 9pm and slept till 7am!!!!!    He did it!!!! He did it!! He did it!! Hooray!! (I've been listening to too much Dora.) HE SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!! I'm dancing over here.  I think we're there... or really close.  And the best part is we never have to go through another "night 3" with any more kids!  Sure, he might wake up from teeth or illness or bad dreams.  But Night 3 of sleep training is now history!!!!!  (How many exclamation points can I use in one paragraph?!)