Our Month - Sickness/Injury

Where to begin???  February was an eventful month, but not in a good way. 

We started the month with sickness - the kids had colds and fevers.   Baby Boy's was the worst.  His fever wouldn't let up and his breathing became rapid.  I called the pediatrician's office a couple of times during the course of his sickness and they told me that rapid breathing is common with a fever, but if he was struggling to breathe or turning blue, then I needed to take him to the ER.  After 3 days of his fever not letting up, I took him to a walk in clinic to get him checked out.  This was on our Big Boy's 4th birthday which was a Saturday.  The PA at the clinic swabbed him for the flu which came back negative.  He checked his ears and thought he might have an infection in his left ear because it looked red and irritated.  His throat looked ok, so he didn't suspect strep throat.  He listened to his lungs and said they sounded fine, so he said the cold was all in his head and hadn't gotten into his chest yet.  We got a prescription for amoxicillin, got it filled and headed home.  The next morning, Sunday, he was still breathing rapidly.  I called the nurse's line at our pediatrician's office again and asked about the rapid breathing.  He was basically panting like a dog.  She told me what they told me before - that this is normal with a fever, but to follow my instinct and if I felt like I needed to take him in, then take him to the ER.  By the afternoon he was starting to moan while breathing and that's when Hubby and I knew he needed to go in.  So I took him to the ER.  After about 30 minutes of waiting, they called us back to the triage and checked his oxygen level.  It was 82.  They immediately got us back to a room in the ER.  When they checked him again there, his oxygen level was 75.  So I spent the next 6-7 hours in the ER holding the oxygen mask up to his face to bring his level back up (it's supposed to be between 95-100).  During that time they did an x-ray which confirmed that he had pneumonia in both lungs.  He was put on IV antibiotics and we got moved to a regular room.  He was in the hospital for 2 days and was discharged Tuesday evening.  We went home with an 8 day round of oral antibiotics to continue to fight off the pneumonia.  Thankfully he was back to normal within a few days.

Now onto more medical news in our family.  The Friday before all this happened with Baby Boy, we took our youth group to a trampoline park.  Within the first 5 minutes, Hubby blew out his knee and was in intense pain.  I took him to a walk in clinic and they did an x-ray which showed no broken bones.  The doc there suspected that he tore his LCL.  We left the clinic and went to a drugstore to get crutches which he has been on since then (and which our youngest girl keeps calling "crunches"). He got an appointment with an orthopedic doctor, but there earliest he could be seen was two weeks away.  He went to see his primary physician the Tuesday after his injury and the doc scheduled an MRI so that when Hubby went to the orthopedic doctor, they would know the extent of his injuries.  The doc called the day after the MRI was done to say that Hubby had torn his ACL and his meniscus.  The visit with the orthopedic doctor the following week was not very informative.  They did get him in a brace and get pain meds that are a bit stronger than the over the counter kind.  They also set him up to meet with a physical therapist weekly so that he can strengthen his muscles before surgery.  Basically, that doc said he would need to see the surgeon.  He meets with the surgeon this coming Monday and his surgery is scheduled for March 15.  It's been a month of appointments, pain, and waiting.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that this is his right leg.  He cannot drive.  I've been taking him to work everyday and picking him up at the end of the day.  He tries to be at work as much as he can, but by the end of the day, his leg and foot are swollen, so he spends his time at home in bed with his leg elevated.

Everyone else is doing ok.  We are keeping busy with school (which we do a lot of in the van since we spend more time in there now), co-op, AHG, art class for L'il Girl, gymnastics for Baby Girl, and now soccer for Big Girl (which just started a couple weeks ago).  I love all that the kids are involved in, but right now it is hard to keep up.

The younger girls are working on their Social Skills and Etiquette badge for AHG and one of the requirements was to help prepare and attend a tea party.  The girls made tissue paper flowers for the table centerpieces and help set up and clean up.  The party was yesterday and the girls had so much fun, although none of them actually drank tea. :-)  They had punch and water instead.

So now you should understand why I haven't blogged up to this point.  The only reason why I have time now is because Baby Boy is sick again with a fever and we stayed home from church.  He's sleeping now, so I spent the last couple hours getting hundreds of photos off my phone and camera.  Oh, that reminds me, before all of the excitement this month, I got a new camera!  Yay!  It's a Nikon D3300.  I still have a lot to learn, but I do know that it takes great photos.  Hopefully I'll get some more time to play with it soon and figure out the different features.

Here's our month in photos:

the night of his injury at the walk in clinic

at the walk in clinic just after we celebrated Big Brother's birthday

in the ER getting oxygen on Sunday

Monday in the hospital

Tuesday at the hospital

waiting to be discharged on Tuesday

with his day nurse - Brenda

Together again at home!

Trying out the nebulizer I got.  I wish I had this at the beginning of their sickness.

Chocolate hearts from Daddy for Valentine's Day

he likes to dress up

He loves getting rides from his sisters.  He says "Giddy up Horsey!" when they give him piggy back rides.

Picking up patio stones to put at our front porch step so we could make a half step for Daddy.  It's hard to do that step with crutches.

Better not mess with these cute super heroes!

Baby's Girl's co-op class

Waiting in the car at Big Girl's first soccer practice - it was way too cold to watch from the field.

One of my helpers.

They like to swing so much and there's only 4 places to swing, so they set up the baby swing.

Painting flower pots at AHG

All ready for her gymnastics performance

Waiting at L'il Girl's art class

trying on their outfits for the tea party

making flowers for the tea party

Ready to go to the tea party