Gross

Just a side bit that grossed me out, so I'll gross you out too.  The surgeon told us he drained almost 3 oz. of liquid from Jane's abscess (75 cc for the medically smart).  After the first incision, 1/6th of an oz. of pus came out.

Disgusting.

Jane Pics



THEN...

Chillin' with Dad after the CT Scan, and getting her IV in. 



Her eye got worse (the one near Mike's arm). 
This was at check-in, with her 103 fever, feeling miserable.

Her IV.  This was her "smile"
And this was the ONLY direction she would hold her head.

NOW...

Finally home from the hospital.
After finally spending a night in her bed.

Her scar to be.  So glad she's better.

Jane's Neck

If you look back at my "Sicko" entry you'll see that we had no clue that Jane's neck was as bad as it really is. 

She started fever 8 days ago, and developed a serious neck kink after one the second day. The third day we took her to an instacare.  They said it appeared to be nothing more than a kink in her neck.  We took her home.  She didn't improve.  Gave her a blessing.  The fever lowered for a few days, but nothing else improved.

On Saturday I noticed that her lower lip was sticking out oddly... like she had bit it an it was swollen.  Then Sunday after church she woke with a swollen left eye.  I nearly talked myself out of taking her to the instacare (the whole.. am I over reacting?  Maybe it only looks swollen to me bit), but kept having this driving feeling that something wasn't right.  Took her into a different instacare because the previous one closed at 5:00 pm on Sundays.

The doctor there was very concerned.  She was running a fever of 101.7 and it seemed to him that her tonsil on the left side might have an abscess on it.  Her transferred us to the Children's Hospital in Austin.

By the time they saw Jane, her fever had spiked to over 103.  Jane was remarkable.  A perfect angel getting her IV and cat scan.  From the scan they found that one her left lymph nodes had a very large abscess on it (the largest they had ever seen) and needed to be drained because it was threatening to close off her airway.

Surgery was set for 9:00 am this morning.  By 3:00 am Jane's left eye was nearly swollen shut and she was sick of being poked and examined (5 people doing the same exact thing 10 minutes apart from each other.... okay... maybe Mike and I were a little tired and cranky too  (we didn't have time to eat dinner before this all started) which made it that much MORE frustrating, but PLEASE.. how many people need to look in the ears and shove a wooden stick down the throat of a girl that the cat scan already told us what was wrong with?

She slept horribly (which of course meant I did too).  Was probably in pain and I didn't recognize that's what it was.  There were hours upon hours of unconsolable screaming and pleads of "I hungry.  I water.  I go home" (she wasn't allowed to eat or drink before the surgery and had close to nothing to eat the day we brought her in).

Woke to surgery prep with 2 1/2 hours sleep under our belt.  The doctor said the a huge pocket of pus oozed  out followed by a large amount of other pus and fluid (uhh...gag).  She now will have a one inch scar on her neck, but MAN is she doing better.  Recovery was a bit rough until we got her to eat, but she is now (finally) napping, with her neck oozing into the banage wrapped around it.

We are just so happen we took her in (and so sad that we tried stretching her neck during the week to loosen the "kink").  Ughh.

Bless a wonderful sister in our ward for sleeping on our couch last night, while we were at the hospital picking up our house, making us dinner tonight and trying her darndest to get Mike to let her walk our kids.  The world needs more Colettes.

Jane is doing well.  Doctors and nurses here LOVE her red hair.  Are there not many red heads in Texas??? I'll attached some pics later on.

Love you all!

Some days are just like that...

Last night was the pinewood derby and for the second year in a row, Cole took last place in every single race.  Seriously, the poor kid can't win.  His hopes were so high this year (we even had outside help building his car to keep a repeat of last year from happening... ah, the irony).

Mike took the kids to get ice cream after to smooth things over.  Macy was so impressed by how Dairy Queen flipped over Mike's blizzard to show that it won't fall out.  Macy was in charge of carrying Mike's blizzard into the house.  She paused on the doorstep, "Mom, you've got to see this!"  and flipped over Mike's blizzard which (after the 15 minute car ride home) fell with a splat on the porch.  She hates disappointing people and burst into shoulder shaking sobs.

Shoot.

Some days are just like that.... *sigh*

Sicko

Jane has been out with the flu for 4 days now.  Fever, bodyaches and she has an AWFUL neck cramp that she won't move.  She'll only hold her head the way you see it in the picture.  If you do anything that requires she use her neck muscle, she bursts into tears.  Poor thing.

We took her to the instanacare to make sure she wasn't holding her head that way to protect a sore ear or something, but all was good... except the kink in her neck.  They recommended the normal heat, ice and ibuprofen for it.  Nothing's working.  Looks like it's time a blessing.

I asked her if she wanted to smile for the picture. 

She whispered 'Yes' and gave me this face.

Is it supposed to be brown?

Don't know why... I thought all capitol building were supposed to be white. 
Not in Texas.  In Texas they do everything THEIR way.  You really should need a passport to visit here.

Here's pics of our little family trip to visit the state capitol.  While wrapping up the day in Costco,  an exhausted Cole leaned over to me and asked, "Mom, are we still in Austin?" "Yup, how come?" "I want to be home in Pflugerville."  He sounded like we'd left the state or something.  Maybe I should have told him we were only 20 minutes from home.  Ha!

 

BUGS and the Letter A

Ali and Cole need a little blog time.  They both just got awards for having earned all "A"s on their report cards. getting a BUG award (Bringing Up Grades award) and Cole had perfect attendance.

Nice going guys!  Here's some pics... see if you can find them ('cuz I can't)

Cole was in a gray shirt.  I swear they said his name... just can't see him.
 (Really, I just go to these award ceremonies and take random pictures of children
and claim them as my own.  Nothing creepy about that).

Ali!

Nap Time

Jane screams herself to sleep a lot lately.  Since she can't open doors yet, she stands by the door and wails.  I walk past her door every once and awhile to see if she's nodded off.  This is what I found when I checked this time...

Look in the middle.  Can you see them?

It's her fingers.

She fell asleep while peeking under the door.  Nice. (Didn't end up being a very long nap)

Trampoline Hair