2009 has been quite the adventure, and I'm hoping that 2010 is a much better year for us! Noly has changed so much in this past year with her comprehension and understanding, and Jule has changed so much physically. Noly went from being a toddler to being a little girl, and Jule moved from baby to toddler. They are both my joy, and I love them dearly!
We were planning to go to IN for Christmas on Friday (12/19) after work. That whole day, it poured, so we decided to wait until Saturday morning. It is so good that we did. Jule was diagnosed with RSV and started having some minor complications Friday evening. He got through it without a hospital visit, and he was much better on Saturday morning. So, we took off and arrived at my parents' house Sunday evening.
We had a really nice time seeing family, and Noly got to play in the snow for the first time. She loved it! She would beg my dad to take her out every morning, but he would make her wait until it was "warm" enough. It never truly got warm, but it was warmer than 10 degrees : ) We kept Jule in because of the RSV, so he would watch from the window. My grandma had a mild heart attack on the 22nd, so we went to see her in the hospital on the 23rd. She came home Christmas Eve, and we went to her house for Christmas. My guess is that this Christmas was the last year she and Grandpa will be with us. Neither of them is doing well, and I am so thankful we got to spend time with them and that they got to see the kids.
We were going to come back home on Saturday (12/26), but Jule cried all through the night Christmas night and screamed Saturday morning. We took him to the ER and found out that his ear infection from 12/7 was still not clear. So, he was put on his 3rd round of different antibiotics. Sunday morning, Noly said her ears hurt, and they were draining, so I knew she also had a double ear infection. The doctor called in some drops, and off we went that evening. We made it home Tuesday afternoon after some really bad weather and bad roads in Indiana and Ohio. I'm so glad to be home and close to our own doctors, and I'm even more happy that we made it home for CHRISTMAS! Last year, we didn't get that far!
As 2009 ends and 2010 begins, I'm excited to see how the kids will change and grow and what new things God will do in our lives. Happy New Year!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
I Should Stop Having Birthdays!
Last year on my birthday, at 2 am, we called 911. Jule went to the ER by ambulance due to complicated croup. He spent that whole day and the next in the hospital. He screamed and screamed as I walked the floor with him because he also had an ear infection. He was only 5 months old. Surely, this year had to be better, right?
I thought we were in the clear. It was about 6:15 pm, and I was alone with the kids playing and relaxing. Noly had eaten dinner, and Jule refused to eat. I decided to call my brother to see if they wanted our baby seat for their baby that's due in March....and IT happened. Noly was running toward me and tripped on her nightgown. Her chin met the hardwood floor, HARD. Yep, she needed stitches. So, once again, off to the ER we went on my birthday.
She was very brave and ended up getting around 5 stitches in her chin. We got home around 10:45 and were exhausted. She seemed completely unaffected this morning but did not want to eat because it made her chin feel funny. They did put in dissolvable stitches so she won't have to get them removed.
Maybe we'll just skip my birthday altogether next year?
I thought we were in the clear. It was about 6:15 pm, and I was alone with the kids playing and relaxing. Noly had eaten dinner, and Jule refused to eat. I decided to call my brother to see if they wanted our baby seat for their baby that's due in March....and IT happened. Noly was running toward me and tripped on her nightgown. Her chin met the hardwood floor, HARD. Yep, she needed stitches. So, once again, off to the ER we went on my birthday.
She was very brave and ended up getting around 5 stitches in her chin. We got home around 10:45 and were exhausted. She seemed completely unaffected this morning but did not want to eat because it made her chin feel funny. They did put in dissolvable stitches so she won't have to get them removed.
Maybe we'll just skip my birthday altogether next year?
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Ruth
I read the book of Ruth today and sat here kind-of stunned. I grew up knowing the story of Ruth, but going through everything I've gone through recently made it jump out at me. Ruth married her husband and lived away from her family for 10 years, then her husband died. After her husband died, her mother-in-law told her to go back home to her family, but she chose to stay with her mother-in-law. All I can say is WOW! I'm having a hard time not taking my husband to Indiana to live, and he's still alive. I cannot imagine the dedication and conviction that Ruth had to have to stay away from her family even after losing her husband! In the end, God greatly rewarded her with a kind husband and rewarded Naomi with a grandson. Naomi had lost her husband and both of her sons, and I had this image of her just glowing as her grandson sat on her lap!
It's also a story of great redemption. In fact, the NIV refers to Boaz as the "kinsman-redeemer." That word alone brought tears to my eyes (probably because I'm withdrawing from Lexapro, but still). I thought about the great, unsurpassing love that God has for us and how He is our Redeemer. All of these days of pain and frustration that I'm going through are not without the redemption of my God. He is my Redeemer, the Restorer of my life.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Surviving
Lexapro HAD been working great at keeping my migraines to a minimum. Unfortunately, there's this little thing called Seratonin Syndrome that rarely occurs if you take it with Imitrex, Maxalt, or any of the other sumatriptan or triptan migraine meds. Both meds increase the seratonin in your body; so when taken together, they can give your body a seratonin overdose. I now know this from experience : (
Thursday afternoon, I had a migraine. So around 3, I took a Maxalt. I figured I should space out the Lexapro and took it around 7:30 instead of 6. By 9 pm, I did not feel right. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I felt horrible. It was 30 degrees outside, but I was sweating profusely. So, I put on as little clothing as possible and tried to watch tv. I was very restless, getting out of bed and back in. Then, I started feeling sick to my stomach, so I took Zofran around 1 am. I was all over the place but finally fell asleep around 3 am.
Around 5, I woke up out of a dead sleep and felt worse than I've ever felt in my life. I ran to the bathroom because I was sweating so badly and felt like I was going to throw up...I didn't. Then, I took my temperature because I didn't know what was going on. That was normal. I then thought to feel my pulse, and it was racing. Kevin was out of town, so I called my friend, Kathleen. She came immediately to be with the kids while I called 911. By the time they got me in the ambulance, my heartrate was 180 and my blood pressure was 169/93. My body was trembling, so they thought I was cold, but I was actually burning up. It was a nightmare.
So, now I am tapering off of the Lexapro. It helped so much and made me so sick to get on, so I'm very frustrated to have to stop it now after all of this. I have to go off of it though because I have to have Imitrex or Maxalt. I am once again back to square one...waiting to try another migraine preventive. I don't plan to take anything until after Christmas. I'd rather have migraines over Christmas than a reaction to some new med.
On top of all of this, Kevin's kidney stone apparently did not pass and is bothering him off and on, and Jule's ear infection did not clear up with the antibiotics. Kevin took him in Saturday morning after a very long Friday night of screaming, and his right ear was still very bad. They gave him an antibiotic shot Saturday, and he will get one today and another tomorrow. The poor baby has been in so much pain.
Tomorrow is my birthday. Oh, how we need a break! We need everyone to feel good. I'm praying we can make it to Indiana for Christmas since we did not make it last year due to Jule's ears. Calgon, take me away.....
Thursday afternoon, I had a migraine. So around 3, I took a Maxalt. I figured I should space out the Lexapro and took it around 7:30 instead of 6. By 9 pm, I did not feel right. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I felt horrible. It was 30 degrees outside, but I was sweating profusely. So, I put on as little clothing as possible and tried to watch tv. I was very restless, getting out of bed and back in. Then, I started feeling sick to my stomach, so I took Zofran around 1 am. I was all over the place but finally fell asleep around 3 am.
Around 5, I woke up out of a dead sleep and felt worse than I've ever felt in my life. I ran to the bathroom because I was sweating so badly and felt like I was going to throw up...I didn't. Then, I took my temperature because I didn't know what was going on. That was normal. I then thought to feel my pulse, and it was racing. Kevin was out of town, so I called my friend, Kathleen. She came immediately to be with the kids while I called 911. By the time they got me in the ambulance, my heartrate was 180 and my blood pressure was 169/93. My body was trembling, so they thought I was cold, but I was actually burning up. It was a nightmare.
So, now I am tapering off of the Lexapro. It helped so much and made me so sick to get on, so I'm very frustrated to have to stop it now after all of this. I have to go off of it though because I have to have Imitrex or Maxalt. I am once again back to square one...waiting to try another migraine preventive. I don't plan to take anything until after Christmas. I'd rather have migraines over Christmas than a reaction to some new med.
On top of all of this, Kevin's kidney stone apparently did not pass and is bothering him off and on, and Jule's ear infection did not clear up with the antibiotics. Kevin took him in Saturday morning after a very long Friday night of screaming, and his right ear was still very bad. They gave him an antibiotic shot Saturday, and he will get one today and another tomorrow. The poor baby has been in so much pain.
Tomorrow is my birthday. Oh, how we need a break! We need everyone to feel good. I'm praying we can make it to Indiana for Christmas since we did not make it last year due to Jule's ears. Calgon, take me away.....
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Ears, Ears, Ears
On Tuesday night, Jule started waking up every hour crying. We got him up at 10 pm and gave him some Tylenol and Goldfish and cuddled with him for a little bit. Then, Kevin put him back in bed, and he continued to wake up all through the night. He woke up Wednesday with a very runny nose. This cycle continued all through the weekend, and I couldn't figure out why he was still crying through the night after his nose cleared up. I kept checking his ears for drainage since he has tubes, but they looked good. I decided to take him in on Monday just to look at his ears, and sure enough....double ear infection. So, either his tubes fell out or they are blocked. Poor baby! We started his antibiotics last night, so he should be feeling better soon.
I increased my dosage of Lexapro to a half of a pill, and it really seems to be helping my migraines! They are spreading out and getting less severe, and my anxiety over them is decreasing as the pill gets into my system. I filled a prescription for the Depakote, but I'm not brave enough to try it yet. I plan to see how the Lexapro alone does, and I will try Depakote if I have to. I'm so tired of trial and error meds...my body is just so sensitive. Overall, I'm pleased with the way the Lexapro is handling my migraines.
Jule finally started to mimic what we say. He is very non-verbal but grunts a lot and gets across what he wants. Friday night, I showed him a cow and said, "Moo," and he said the same thing for hours. He's also tried to say "Goofy" and a few other words. Noly had so many words by this age, but I have heard that boys are slower at speaking usually. He is a whopping 29 lbs at only 17 months old...lots of him to kiss and hug on.
Noly is learning to read words by sounding them out. She loves Leapfrog DVD's and asks me all the time what sounds certain letters make. She is also doing great with memorizing her verses for Awana and is asking what they mean. Sometimes, they are very hard to explain in 4-year-old terms. She is so very sweet natured and is a little Mommy to Jule sometimes, except when she intentionally hits or trips him! Ahhh...the sibling rivalry begins!
I increased my dosage of Lexapro to a half of a pill, and it really seems to be helping my migraines! They are spreading out and getting less severe, and my anxiety over them is decreasing as the pill gets into my system. I filled a prescription for the Depakote, but I'm not brave enough to try it yet. I plan to see how the Lexapro alone does, and I will try Depakote if I have to. I'm so tired of trial and error meds...my body is just so sensitive. Overall, I'm pleased with the way the Lexapro is handling my migraines.
Jule finally started to mimic what we say. He is very non-verbal but grunts a lot and gets across what he wants. Friday night, I showed him a cow and said, "Moo," and he said the same thing for hours. He's also tried to say "Goofy" and a few other words. Noly had so many words by this age, but I have heard that boys are slower at speaking usually. He is a whopping 29 lbs at only 17 months old...lots of him to kiss and hug on.
Noly is learning to read words by sounding them out. She loves Leapfrog DVD's and asks me all the time what sounds certain letters make. She is also doing great with memorizing her verses for Awana and is asking what they mean. Sometimes, they are very hard to explain in 4-year-old terms. She is so very sweet natured and is a little Mommy to Jule sometimes, except when she intentionally hits or trips him! Ahhh...the sibling rivalry begins!
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