Life Update

So last time I think that I actually updated, we were getting ready to go back to Kinzie's ENT to see what was going on with her ears. We saw her ENT and everything looked ok. No bleeding and her tubes had healed nicely. He thought the bleeding had probably just been from an inner ear infection and that the ear drops we gave her had cleared up the infection. They also tested her hearing to see if the tubes were having an impact and her hearing was much better!! She is now in the normal/healthy range for hearing. So that is good news. The same day we had her ENT appointment, I ended up in the hospital with viral meningitis.

I had had laryngitis all week but had otherwise been feeling fine. I was working Wednesday night when I started getting sick really quickly/suddenly. My body temperature and blood pressure had both dropped. Jason picked me up from work and took me to the hospital. By the time I got the hospital, I couldn't even walk, I had to be taken by stretcher back to the trauma area of the ER. My temperature had also dropped to 92 degrees. After a spinal tap and blood work, it was determined the I had viral meningitis. However, no one ever informed Jason or I of this, just told me that I had a "virus". I was admitted for observation. The next day I woke up with extreme back/neck spasms (all related to the meningitis/spinal tap) but still no one told me I had meningitis. I was sent home, vomiting and still unable to sit up/walk with no pain meds. I ended up back in the hospital Friday because of the level of pain. I was given more meds and then sent home with pain killers and a different type of muscle relaxer and stuff for nausea. Still, I had no idea I had meningitis. Saturday I laid in bed all day and tried to sleep/rest but after the pain continued into Sunday, I ended up back in the hospital and off to the OR for a spinal blood patch to stop leaking fluid in my spine. That was pretty painful, but the instant relief of my headache made it well worth it. I was sent home drug free! And was able to get up and walk by Monday afternoon. Still.... I had no idea I had meningitis!! I visited my doctor on Wednesday to follow up... and he says.... "So you have viral meningitis?" I said "No, just some other virus." and he said No.... your chart says right here that you were treated for viral meningitis. He even called the hospital to confirm my records. I was given no instructions on what I would experience or what I should/should not do as far as working/resting. If I hadn't seen my doctor when I did, I would have gone back to work and could have relapsed. Grr... Anyway... that's my venting and what has been going on the past couple of weeks.

Thankfully, we have WONDERFUL neighbors who helped out with Kinzie Wednesday night AND cleaned our whole house, did our laundry and cooked us a meal while I was down and out!! I couldn't be more thankful for our neighbors Mike and Joanne. They have been a blessing!! It also worked out nice that my dad was working in Redwood Falls so he could come take McKinzie to Iowa while I was recovering. So even as crappy as it was to be so sick, we were reminded that God will take care of us through it all.

Life is starting to return to normal... whatever that is. I am feeling good and back on my feet, but I still have to take it easy so I don't overdue. We are looking forward to this next week's events as we visit family in South Carolina, and host my family next weekend. May God bless you all this holiday season!

2 little monkeys jumping on the bed!

Sledding

Mommies/Daughters
Mommy and Kinzie

Daddies trucking it back up the hill

Riley and Tim

Kinzie and Daddy

Here are pictures from our sledding trip to the park today. We are enjoying all the new snow we are getting. We enjoyed it so much, we each took Kinzie down the hill once, and then called it a day! :) It was just a little too windy/chilly for a full afternoon of sledding. Plus mommy is not supposed to be on her feet this much yet! :)

Macy's Holiday Display

Making toys
Madeline, Kinzie and Michael

Michael showing ZeZe the display

Kinzie checking things out

Christmas Tree Forest

Santa's Workshop

A couple weeks ago our play group went the Macy's downtown to see their holiday display. This year's theme was "A Day in the Life of Elves." Kinzie loved looking at all the displays.

Kinzie and Gage

This week has been a little crazy. I hadn't gotten time to put pictures up of Kinzie and her cousin Gage. They are 11 days apart. :)

Google is a terrible thing...

Just thought I'd take a quick moment to update what is going on with McKinzie. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, she had some bloody drainage from her left ear. We saw her doctor then on Monday and he thought she had maybe just coughed and irritated the tube in her ear, but thought she was fine. Then on Thursday she had a little bit of a fever so we gave her some tyenol and she seemed to be ok. Well then Friday night she was up all night, every 2 hours. So Saturday morning I bundled her up and headed back to the doctor. This doctor seemed rather puzzled. He said that there was still fresh blood in her ear and thought that the blood was coming from the inner ear on the other side of the tube. So he concluded that it was possibly an inner ear infection. So he started us on ear drops and an oral antibiotic. Well Kinzie shrieks every time we put drops in her ears and cries for an hour after we do it. She walks around saying "owie, owie."

So I talked to her ENT today and they want us to bring her back to the hospital on Wednesday to look at her ear under a microscope and make sure there is no debris in her ear or any other damage causes by her tubes. Tonight she was running a fever of 102 so she clearly does not feel well. I just googled all the possible things that could have gone wrong with Kinzie's ear and it terrified me. I've concluded google is not always a good thing! Anyway, I'm trying not to worry about it but now it seems like Wednesday can't come soon enough. Please say a prayer that Kinzie's ears will heal.

Turkey Day

One pooped baby after a long weekend!
Happy Turkey Day!

Cheese!

Holden and Kinzie

Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving. I have been really bad at taking pictures lately. I think it's because she moves to fast to take a good picture anymore!! We had a wonderful weekend with our family. McKinzie and Holden became quite the buddies. She can even say his name now!

My parents got tickets for McKinzie to Disney on Ice. We went on Friday and McKinzie absolutely LOVED it! We sat in the 4th row and I have never seen Kinzie engaged in something for 2 whole hours! :) She sat, danced and sang the afternoon away. She was so funny to watch. She also got to enjoy her first snow cone, even though daddy had to drink half of it. Here are some pictures. I will get more pictures from our week posted soon. :)

Taking Bam Bam (her giraffe) for a ride
Pre-Op Fun

Hi!

Hospital Jammies

Daddy chillin in pre-op

I'm outta here!

All done!!

Well Kinzie's surgery is done and over with and she is happy as ever! Childrens Hospital had lots of toys for her to play with while we waited for surgery so she was very relaxed and not scared at all! She sat really still while they put her to sleep. She fussed just a bit but she was asleep in less than 2 minutes! By the time Jason and I got to the waiting room she was already in surgery. 10 minutes later the surgeon came back and said she was done and we would see her in about 15 minutes! She had a lot of fluid in her ears that they drained but she is doing just fine now. The nurses said she woke up talking up a storm. When we got to see her she had her blankie and bam bam and was very happy. We sat in PACU (post recovery stuff) for about 20 minutes and Kinzie had some juice and we were on our way. She literally ran out of the hospital! She is in a great mood and very wound up! I think it's the sugar from the juice! SHe ate lunch and HOPEFULLY will be taking a nap within the hour. After all, she was only asleep 20 minutes during surgery! :) Thanks all for your prayers!

I should hear something about the job at Rasmussen by the end of the week or early next week. The interview went really well so now it's just a waiting game.

2nd interview!!!!!!!!!!

Ok.. so this is how my day went... I dropped off McKinzie to day care and had parent/teacher conferences with her teacher. Wierd to do for a 1 year old, but she seems to be doing just fine. The things she won't do for her teacher, she does for us at home so they think she's probably just a little shy, which I have a hard time believing but whatever... :)

Then at 10:00, I had my interview at Rasmussen College. I thought it went fairly well, but wasn't sure what to think. The man that interviewed said he would be in touch by the end of the week. Well, he called me this afternoon setting up a 2nd interview with him, his boss and the regional vice president who happens to be in town!! Yay! So now I have my 2nd interview tommorrow at 5:00. I think I might be even more nervous for the 2nd interview.

So tomorrow we have Kinzie's pre-op physical at 9:00, then off to the mall to find another suit. And then back home to relax before my interview at 5:00. Pray for good health for Kinzie so she can have her surgery Thursday and calm nerves for me tomorrow!

Job Update

So I just thought I'd post a quick update... I have a job interview tomorrow at Rasmussen College!!! So I'm super excited. I had a phone interview with them this morning and it went really well so tomorrow I meet with the director of something and his team. So pray for peace of mind and confidence as I interview tomorrow at 10:00. The interview is for a student services advisor in which I would help schedule classes and would be with the students from start to finish. I would also get to teach a class or two (like a study skills and career training course). I will update tomorrow and let yall know how it goes. Thanks for your prayers.
Here are some pictures of my sweet Kinzie playing this weekend.

Sooo silly!

"Look Mom! No hands!"

"Dada fix it" said Kinzie

"Uh-oh! 'Oken!"

Cheese Face

Here is part 2 of the video.. not sure why part 1 hasnt been working, but i tried it again and it seems to be working again! let me know if its not! :) enjoy

Snow video pt. 1

this part one of this video.. part 2 will come later.

Kinzie checkin it out
Michael came to check it out

Putting snow in her bucket!

Please ignore my daughter's mismatched clothes! Her matching hat was still at day care, her heay winter coat is missing and well she just had her jammy pants on. I think she liked the snow though because she threw a fit when we came in. :)

First Snow

McKinzie's reaction to our first snow.

Tubes Update

Kinzie was supposed to get tubes in her ears this morning. However, yesterday at her pre-op, the doctor wasn't sure she was healthy enough to have the surgery (she has a cold). So we were going to meet with the anesthesiologist this morning to see what he thought, but Kinzie's surgeon was sick so he cancelled his whole day. I guess it just wasn't meant to be today! So now we are rescheduled for Nov. 20th. Pray for good health for McKinzie until then so that we can hopefully get rid of these ear infections and have a happy child again! :)

Here's a video of Kinzie from the trunk or treat last weekend. of course she quit dancing every time i turned on the camera but you can get a little glimpse of her enjoyment of music. :)

Trying to keep up with the boys :)

Kisses for Kasia

Trunk or Treat at Jodi's church

My foster niece and nephew.. aren't they cute?!

Here are some pictures from our trip to South Carolina last weekend. My batteries in my camera were dead most of the weekend, but I got a few good shots. :)

No Trick or Treat for my little Z :(

The only one I could get of her looking at the camera!

Walking into day care

Kinzie's pumpkin from Grammy.. Kinzie thought she needed a hat :)

Well Halloween ended early for McKinzie this year. She got dressed this morning for day care wearing her cowgirl outfit but that is about as far as she got. They did a costume parade and decorated cookies at day care but she came home in regular clothes. Her teacher said she didn't nap well today and wasn't feeling well. By the time I got home from work at 6:15, my little ZeZe had gone to bed. We woke the little cowgirl but she just didn't feel well so we stayed home and let her sleep. I was so bummed as we had planned to go trick or treating at the mall with our neighbors whose son dressed up as the cutest little dinosaur! But I have to remind myself that she's still young and she has no idea what she's missing. So hopefully my little cowgirl is getting some sleep so she'll feel better. We need her healthy before her surgery Tuesday.

Update

Riding the carousel with Kasey
Riding the carousel with daddy
"please let me ride this... please??"

Riding the Choo Choo

**Update** Well it's been awhile since I updated but we have been super busy around here. McKinzie is now 18 months old, 35 1/2 inches tall, 26 pounds, and has a huge brain. :) We are finally done with shots until she is 5!! :) That makes me very happy and McKinzie too.

We have been very busy lately. Our cousins Joe, Kasey and Bailey and Jason's friend Nate came to visit last weekend to go to the Vikings/Lions game. Unfortunately the Vikings won. But we all had a great time playing some RockBand... hopefully if I get time, there will be video to come :) much to the dismay of all the singers :)

It seems like Kinzie has been at the drs. a lot lately between check-ups and ear infections. We were finally recommended to an ENT to have him check her out for our many reoccurring ear infections. They tested her hearing and she has partial hearing loss (mostly in her left ear). So they want to do tubes. We are scheduled to get those on Nov. 4 (election day). It sounds like it should be a quick procedure. I get to hold her while they put her to sleep and I'll get to come back in the room before she wakes up, which makes me feel better. If for some reason we continue to get ear infections after that, he wants to check tonsils/adenoids. They were pretty swollen the day he saw her, but they look better to me now!

That's really all we've been up to except working like crazy. My work schedule has me working several 12 hour days and lots of Saturdays, so we are looking for something new. Not exactly sure what I'm looking for but I'm ready for a change of pace. Next weekend Kinzie and I are off to South Carolina to visit my in-laws and then the weekend after is Halloween for kinzie. :) Then before you know it, it's snowing and Thanksgiving is here. :) We are looking forward to a wonderful fall/holiday season.