Spring Break Trip Part 3

We arrive at Methodist West Emergency Room and they hadn't received any of my information (the doctor was going to have it sent over). We explain what we know and they start me on blood thinners. While that is going they take more blood (remember how I hate having blood drawn?). Only took three different people to get what they needed- it is that much of a challenge. Methodist West is in contact with my doctor getting all the information, and with Iowa City to get the transfer lined up. They worked on lining up the ambulance ride I was going to take (remember that spring break trip I wanted to go on...). Nick and I decided (I pretty much bugged him until he agreed) that he should take Neve to the doctor. At 4:45 p.m. Nick went to the doctor with Neve and I boarded the ambulance for what seemed like the longest ride ever to Iowa City. Thank goodness for my sister and a good friend that I was messaging with most of the way. The ambulance did not have any music and I was secured to a gurney for the ride (I couldn't even walk from one location to another). I was hooked up to a heparin drip to start the process of thinning my blood- it was a blast.


I arrived at the Iowa City Emergency Room and guess what... they took MORE blood. Looking back it was nothing compared to what I was going to go through- but it was torture at the time. Wait, did I mention that I left home at 8 a.m. that morning and didn't eat breakfast? Or when I suggested that I wait in the café at the clinic the doctor said no food or drink because he didn't know what sort of tests/etc. they would need to do at my next location? I was starving. And it was after 7:00 p.m. at this time. The ER doctor said I could have something to eat and hooked me up with some water and crackers (highlight of the day!)  The neurologists came to visit and Nick arrived (yes, Neve was diagnosed with the flu). They were not sure it was actually a blood clot (WHAT?) and wanted to get a closer picture of the area. Since I had an MRI earlier they couldn't do that, so they set up a CT scan. I asked the doctors if Nick could get me some real food and they did even better-- they got me an intern/student/really sweet younger girl to go to the cafeteria and get me whatever I wanted. Chicken wrap it was. Did I mention that the wait time for a room on the neurology floor was 4-5 hours from the time you were admitted to the emergency room? I was admitted around 6:45 p.m. We hung out in my own private room in the emergency room, ate part of my chicken wrap, watched some basketball, got a CT scan and waited for a room to get ready.


Sometime between 10:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. we were set-up in an official room (which was really tiny and I shared with an older lady). More blood draws from our awesome nurse, Nina (no really, she was awesome). Lots of blood pressure checks and tests to make sure I wasn't showing signs of a stroke. We didn't know for sure if it was actually a blood clot, but from what Nina indicated yes it was. Nina kept patting my arm and telling me how blessed I was that we caught it (over and over again). I should have realized then how serious it all was. But in my defense I thought it was a blood clot in my nose or ear or something (i.E. sinus') and I knew of two different people that had blood clots that spent the night in the hospital for observation and were released the next day to continue shots and treatment at home (with frequent visits to the doctor for monitoring of course). Once again I was the optimist and figured I would go home the next day... despite what the Methodist West ER nurse said and Nina hinted at.


To be continued...

Spring Break Trip Part 2

I get to the Iowa Clinic Urgent Care and get in fairly quickly. The doctor says I don't have an ear infection and the steroids shouldn't be causing the headache issue I am describing. We test for the flu (up the nose), strep (back of the throat) and mono (the ever dreaded blood draw). They all come back normal. At this point I am exhausted. Two sick kids at home and very little sleep since Tuesday morning. The doctor says he can give me an IV of stronger pain medicine. I start crying. Taking blood from me is a challenge to say the least. No real viable veins in either of my arms, which usually means it comes from my hands or my wrists. The number of times they have been able to get it on the first try... I don't recall a time. Not to mention I get light headed having blood drawn.  Oh yes, and with that medicine I would need someone to drive me home. Nick of course is at home with two sick girls (one of which I would rather not have in the car given what she was sick with). I may have cried some more (the poor doctor probably had no idea what to do with me and just wanted to move onto the next patient). The doctor mentions a CT or an MRI. He doesn't think I have a brain bleed (which the CT would show) and by doing an MRI we could both sleep easy that night knowing it wasn't anything like a blood clot or tumor. It was up to me and I had no idea what to do. Did I really need an MRI? I really did not want an IV of pain medicine and I knew it was more than just a normal headache (and I don't get headaches very often as it is). It could be my first migraine, but that seemed off since sound and light had no impact on the pain. Given my indecisiveness, crying in pain and pure exhaustion, the doctor said he would recommend the MRI. So to the medical imaging area I went (same building and just around the corner from Urgent Care; and they could get me in right away). Good thing he didn't mention the MRI would involve having to inject my veins with a fluid for a color enhancement or something like that- not sure I would have been so willing if he had. I go back to Urgent Care to wait for my results. Back at home Ellie is half way better (cranberry juice seemed to be working but the banana hadn't fixed that issue) and Neve is running a pretty high temp. Nick has a call into her doctor to see if it could be a reaction to the antibiotics she is on.




Then the doctor calls me into one of the rooms (it is around 11:30 a.m. at this point). The MRI did show something. All I heard out of his explanation was there was a blood clot in my sinus'. The doctor was trying to get me in to see a neurologist (I guess blood clots are not the norm for Urgent Care doctors to deal with). I messaged Nick to have someone watch the girls so he could come be with me (I wasn't taking in much of what the doctor was saying with the headache and ear issues anyway and I wanted someone there with me). Of course the girls were sick, so the neighbors were out and my sister (who was home on spring break with her kiddos) was out. My dad didn't answer the home-line when I called, but I got a hold of my mom at my grandma's, who then called my dad and explained the situation. My dad came down and took over watching the girls. Thank goodness for parents who will drop everything to help out when needed! We are very lucky and super grandpa was on the job. I would later find out that during this time Nick was dealing with Neve and her temp of 104.8. My mom left my grandma's and headed towards our house as well (Neve had a doctor appointment scheduled for 4:45 because the doctor thought she might have the flu in addition to strep). While my dad was making his way down from Ames, the doctor informed me that the neurologists in Des Moines refer this specific type of case to doctors in Iowa City, so I may be heading to Iowa City that afternoon.




Nick arrived at the Urgent Care. Shortly after the doctor who had been working with me tells us that he was having trouble getting a hold of Iowa City to confirm they would accept my case, but that this was out of his realm of being able to treat and I needed to get to the hospital where they could start me on blood thinners. He directed us to Methodist West across the street, he thought we would be OK having Nick drive me and we didn't need an ambulance, but that most likely I would be transported by ambulance to Iowa City for further treatment. This was around 2 p.m. now. Off to the Methodist West Emergency Room we went.




To be continued...

Spring Break Trip Part 1

I was really envious of everyone and their spring break trips this year. Not sure why, it hasn't really bothered me in the past, but this year it was different (maybe because I had a kid on spring break?). I looked at pictures of my sister in Arizona, brother and his family in Florida, friends in warmer weather and a co-worker in Florida. I knew our family was going to have a very special trip later this year and Nick and I had an amazing trip last November, but I was still envious of people in beautiful warm weather and wished I could be somewhere other than at work... BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.


Maybe I should step back a few days... on Tuesday, March 8th my hearing started to seem a little 'plugged'. That feeling you get when you are on an airplane and everything is muffled. I thought it would go away so I waited. The hearing never got back to normal, so that Saturday I went in to the Iowa Clinic Urgent Care to make sure it wasn't an ear infection. The Dr. said it was just fluid in the ear and prescribed steroids to help with that and my really bad allergies (which allergy medicine was doing nothing for at the time). Great, I should be better in no time!


Then Tuesday came. I woke up with a really bad headache, but figured it would go away. In the meantime, Neve was saying her throat hurt and since we had already had strep two times since the beginning of the year we knew the drill. Nick took her to the doctor and sure enough--- strep for the third time in two and a half months. Nick stayed home with her that day. This will help explain my thought process later, but for now back to me and my headache. It continued. Didn't get worse, but didn't get better. All day and all night.


Everyone was back in their normal routine on Wednesday. I still had my headache, but I thought it would go away with time (such an optimist). Wednesday afternoon came. Got a call from Neve's day-care and she was running a high temp. Guess we were leaving work early and staying home the next day. Picked up Ellie early from Beyond and Bell and was ready for a girl's night of TV and cuddles (Wednesday night is bike night for Nick so I was on my own with the kiddos). No sooner had we gotten home then Ellie started having stomach issues and saying it hurt to go potty. I got some medicine in Neve and her fever was down to the 102 range. She was comfortable and I could tend to Ellie who was bawling in the bathroom because it hurt so bad. My approximate text message to Nick: "Are you coming home and can you pick up bananas and cranberry juice on your way home." My sister messaged me and I told her our house was falling apart. She told me to call and listened to me cry about the girls being sick and my headache not going away. Such a great little sister I have- because everyone wants to listen to someone cry to them when they just wanted to say 'Hi'. In the meantime, Ellie ended up falling asleep and slept all night. Nick got home and said he would stay home the next day so I could go to the doctor or rest and not have to worry about the girls (yes, he is an amazing husband, but it only gets better).


The next morning I woke up from what sleep I could get with the headache and the hearing being the same as it had been the week prior. I figured I had either developed an ear infection (since I am prone to ear issues), had strep (Neve had it so why not me) or was having a reaction to the steroids (because the package said it could cause headaches). I tried to get an appointment with my regular doctor. She was out and they didn't have any open appointments in Internal Medicine OR Family Medicine until the next day.  I said I would just go to Urgent Care (because I didn't want to wait). Off to Urgent Care I went at 8AM Thursday, March 17th.


To be continued...

Strep

I am not a fan. Neve has had it three times since the beginning of the year, while Ellie has had it once. The Dr. said it could be that one of the kids at day-care could be the carrier (which means they have it but don't get sick like others do). Ugh.


On the bright side, it could be far worse and Neve usually feels much better after a little medicine. But who likes to have their kid on medicine all the time.


Good thing we didn't take a fun vacation somewhere warm and get sick there, right? (Looking on the bright side.)

5 randoms (because it is not Friday)

1. I took a short work trip to beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona last week. Flew there on Monday, flew back on Wednesday. Overall I had a great time, presentation went well, dinner went well, got a little shopping in and best of all I was able to spend a few hours with a college roommate and her little girl. Very fun trip.


2. Ellie was a social butterfly this weekend with a birthday party one day and roller skating play-date the next day. She had a blast, but was very tired by the end of the weekend.


3. We had Ellie's spring conference on Saturday morning. She is going great and we are so proud of all she has accomplished thus far this year. We celebrated with ice cream after dinner.


4. Neve had found Barbie dolls. And she loves them. I had to reminder her that I asked her to go change her clothes for school and not play with her Barbie dolls this morning. On our way to school she told me she was going to play with them when she got home that night. Ellie never got excited about Barbie so this is a whole new adventure for us.


5. I cannot believe the weather we have been having. I love it! It has us in the mood to talk/plan for spring. A new grill is on the list of things we need before summer begins and it is odd grill shopping in Iowa in February. But we did and when we are ready to buy we know the exact one we want.

Marketing & Little Kid Ears

Wednesday is girls' night, as Nick bikes every Wednesday night and us girls are on our own for fun and dinner. Yesterday I told the girls that we were going to run a couple errands and if they were really good during those errands we could go to the mall to pick out Easter dresses and eat dinner.


On the way into work yesterday an ad came on the radio and here was the conversation Ellie and I had:


E: Are they being truthful?
M: What do you mean?
E: What they are saying (on the radio), it is the truth?
M: Um, yes? (Thinking that the last thing on the radio was a commercial and I assumed they were telling the truth- or as much as a commercial does.)


Fast forward to after work on our way to our first errand:


E: Mommy, can we go to Walgreens?
M: Why do we need to go to Walgreens?
E: Because you can get in and out fast, at the corner of happy and healthy... And then we can get to the mall faster.


Well played Walgreens, well played. Too bad we were looking for clothes and not household items. Amazing what little ears hear and what their little brains remember.

5 on Friday

1. Can you believe it is February?! Where did the first month of 2016 go?  I am excited, because that means we are one month closer to our November Disney World trip and I cannot wait! I am sad, because we are one month closer to Neve turning 4 and I really like having a 3-year old.


2, We have our valentine's ready to go! The girls picked out Play Foam as what they wanted to use for their valentines and I printed out some labels that said, "Foam Your Friend" They turned out pretty cute. We still need to make our box for Ellie's class (family project!), but that should get done this weekend. Then I just have to finish a few things up for the class party and we are ready for the day of love.


3. Speaking of class parties... I have been the homeroom parent for Ellie's class this year and I have loved it! I get to help plan the three class parties (with the help of some awesome other mom's from the class) and had a little extra fun with a "baby shower" day for the teacher. Anyone that knows me knows I love to plan parties!


4. What is with the weather? I am not complaining, just wondering. Ellie had her first snow day this week and she enjoyed staying home with Daddy. Neve and I ventured into work. It took us a whole 15 minutes since there were not very many cars on the road. And to think that just a few days before we were outside playing in the 40 degree weather!


5. I went out with the neighbor ladies to celebrate one of the ladies birthday Saturday night. I was pretty proud being the oldest in the group and lasting as long as I did (considering I was asleep on the couch at 9 pm the prior evening the fact that I was out until after 1 am was a big accomplishment). We had a blast and I am very lucky to have the neighbors I do. We are really going to miss one of them when they move away this summer.