PPPFFFFFFffffffftttttttt.........

I'm having a bit of a grouch attack...

Beanie's staph rash is fabulous...she's still got some scars that are trying to get new skin...but she went back in the pool Thursday...Great, right? Of course right.

HOWEVER, she got up this morning with a pretty major rash...kinda bumpy, heat rash looking thing on her face and arms and legs...seems not to be on her trunk.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! AND BOTHER!

Well, I'm running under the assumption that this is a reaction to the antibiotic...I suppose it COULD be chicken pox or measles, but the rash-free-trunk seems to say, "Nah"...that and the fact this is my vaccinated kid, as opposed to my kid that was allergic to her vax.

AND, of course...it's SATURDAY! SATURDAY! BAH!

To those of you without children...Saturday means that if she truly needs medical attention we are on our way to the E.R. Ever had to take a child with an unknown illness to the E.R.? It lands on the unpleasant scale somewhere between licking a slimey pig nose and biting into something you thought was whipped cream and discovering it was actually rotten milk curds...it's NOT a good time.

At this moment...she is lazing on the couch. I gave her a little Benedryl to see what happens and I'm monitoring her...and everyone else again.

I told my mom that she MIGHT want to stay quarantined in her room for awhile...She's trying to leave next week to go see my brothers in Florida. Hey S&J, you want her now?? One word...INCUBATION. And no, I'm not TRYING to keep her, I swear.

Anyway...so in case you were wondering what was going on...that's it...we're stuck in the house AGAIN. PPPPPPpppppFFFFFFFffffffft.

P.S. Bubba just walked in from the gym...I showed him Miss Bean. Want to know what his first words were? "BUT IT'S SATURDAY...what are you getting sick on SATURDAY for?" (then he noogied her...)


See ya around...maybe.

Update on The Kid...

Well, you will be pleased to hear that she is on the mend.

She still had a pretty good fever on Wednesday morning...around 100...which for this particular child is huge, I can count on one hand the number of times in her life she's RUN a fever. By about noon, I could tell she was starting to feel better because she was getting bored and emotional. By lunch time we'd had two unwarranted crying jags and several bouts of sheer crabbiness.

At quiet time my suggestion to "lie down and rest your widdle head" was met with fierce grumbling and then complete SILENCE when she pretty much passed out. I love when I'm right.

By the time I changed her bandages for the second time that day at around 6pm, I was pretty sure her temperature was down and her rash looked like it was responding. I won't say it looked "better" exactly, because, well, ick...but it was darkening and seemed drier. I'll put these in small in deference to those that just don't need to see them...if you want to look more closely, click on the image and it will take you to a larger shot.



Here she is all bandaged up for the night...you'll notice the smile. This is one of the first we'd seen since about Sunday afternoon, so TRY not to notice her hair...she's very irritated that I took her picture with her hair that way.



There was one little bump in the "worry" road. When Bubba and I got home from our weekly Care Group, Grandma said that Beanie thought she could feel blisters forming on her lower lip. YIKES. When I looked at her, it looked like she might be right. But prayers were going up and the antibiotic was working and we found in the morning that her lips were only chapped as could be expected in one coming off an off-again on-again fever of 4-5 days.

When we took off the bandages Thursday morning, there were even more signs that the antibiotic was working and we were on the right path...darker, dryer rash, most of the blisters either reduced or broken and dry...etc.



You can see in her eyes that she's feeling better...so good to see the twinkle again.



Thursday afternoon we went to see our Beloved Dr. B. She was very happy to see the progress and be assured that this WAS the right antibiotic even though the scraping was not back from the lab. When we told her that Beanie really was not eating, she asked us a few questions regarding her tummy and agreed that we should back off on one of the herbals to see if her appetite improved. However, as long as she wasn't sick to her stomach or having any other issues in that department we'll start that back up in a few days. Then she told us to keep the bandages OFF! Beanie was SO happy with that...she just hates them during the day. There was one caveat, she has to wear gloves when playing with the Wii remote but only because her sister is still a thumb-sucker...the rest of us are out of the woods with regard to "catching" it from casual touch.

Our Beloved Dr. B says that Bean could go into the pool as early as one week from yesterday, but that a couple more days of immune system building would not be a bad idea. Which also means, we should be able to go to church and other types of social contact very soon. YAY! I REALLY could get out of the house...it'd be okay with me.

I didn't get any pictures of the rash last night...but after several hours of being OUT of the bandages it looked even better. It looks like the rash itself will recede and only leave behind the spots of scabs where blisters actually broke open...there are still plenty of those...but the overall redness is fading...

Here she is after being bandaged for the night last night. Those bandages are only there to keep the ointment on...she was told that if she WANTED to take them off in the night (after 10pm) she could. Her grandma told her that she looked like she had her hands taped up so she could box...so she threw us a fight-face pose...



Scary, indeed.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and good thoughts...we've all needed to hear them...

See ya around...

Staph...

Yesterday I posted on Facebook that we'd had an Emergency appointment with a Dermatologist for Beanie and I've gotten a few questions wondering how she's doing. Turns out she has a pretty good staph infection that until yesterday was just spreading...it started on the hand where she usually gets eczema and has spread to the other hand, her inner elbow and yesterday up into her hairline.

On Monday, I called to make an appointment for the Dermatologist (Thursday), and for our Naturopath who got me in right away. The Naturopath thought there may be an underlying parasite issue, but that I needed to get to a dermatologist because whatever was on top was WAY beyond what he was comfortable treating and he was glad to know the appointment had been made. I love that my Naturopath knows his own limits and makes sure I know it...no "God" complex in that one.

When Beanie woke with a spot of this in her hair yesterday (Tuesday) I called the Dermo and said, "Either get me in or I'm headed to ER"...so we got in at 10am. She was NOT particularly friendly or helpful...she took one look at this MASSIVE rash and said "oh that's infected, it's just contact dermatitis" ...during the 4-5 minutes she spent with us, she didn't want to hear anything, not that Beanie had eczema, not that she had an active fever and had for 2 days, not that she had been in a swim meet with a bunch of kids 9 days before, but hadn't been in the pool since...not when I noticed it getting WORSE than standard eczema...not what I'd tried...as a matter of fact to everything I said, she would interrupt and say, "I'm sure that aggravated it"...the best example was me saying, "She was in a swim meet" the doctor interrupts saying, "I'm sure that aggravated it" and me saying "But she hasn't BEEN in the pool in over a week"...but she did it with the cream we've always used for her eczema, the band-aids etc.

At some point she FINALLY said the word "infection" again...and I jumped on it, "What type of infection, bacterial or viral" and she FINALLY said, "Probably staph". I'm sorry, "probably staph"? Like it's no big deal this thing that is taking over my kid's body. She said that she was prescribing a heavy antibiotic but no real explanation of anything. I said, "Are there side effects I should watch for?" she said "It could make her sun-sensitive". I said, "Should I give her Probiotics?" she said "That's probably not necessary"...WHAT? Anyone else think that sets off an alarm? I asked her when I should look for there to be a change for the better? She said 3-4 days (this is VERY important in hind-site) and that she would want to see us in 2 weeks. (another VERY important thing.)

So she gave us this prescription and left the room...at the reception desk it occurred to me there were 3 prescriptions and no explanation of timing or wound care and I still didn't know if I should put band-aids or gauze on her so I made the nurse call her back. She said that I could and then left again.

Well I got home. I was perplexed. I do NOT just give my kids stuff cause the doctor says I should, and ESPECIALLY a doctor that didn't even WEIGH my kid before handing me an antibiotic that by all "google" accounts is a liver killer. So because I am who I am...I called my most beloved Pediatrician.

Dr. B has proven herself once again.

She actually WEIGHED Beanie, took her temperature and took a scraping to send to the lab to confirm what on EARTH this is (very scary to a little girl who hurts so much, but not painful because Dr. B is awesome-oh, and not something the Dermo bothered to do) and talked us through the entire protocol...including the use of this scary antibiotic...EXACTLY what to look for with side effects...how to clean and bandage the wounds because make no mistake, Beanie is WOUNDED right now...how to lessen the chances of anyone else picking it up...and how to lessen Bean's chances of the after effects of this kind of antibiotic.

And get this...she INSISTS on seeing us in two days...wanna see why?

I'm only going to show you one part of the rash...the most DRAMATIC part...this is her elbow on Sunday afternoon and again on Tuesday morning...just to give you a clue how fast this is spreading...



It didn't start looking worse than her standard eczema until about Thursday and it stayed on that one hand in that localized spot until Saturday. Once it started moving there was no slow down...with it moving THIS fast waiting 3-4 days to call the Dermo MIGHT just be too late to save her face. But obviously the Dermatologist wasn't interested, based on her answers to my question.

What's more, I gave the prescription to Dr. B just to tell me how to use it. She said, "You know what, you couldn't have even gotten this filled...there is no dosage information on it." Well of course there wasn't, they didn't weigh her, how could they figure dosage?

So I've just kept the prescription for my records. I'm not sure that I'll ever do anything with it, but I'm praying about it. I don't want to do anything right now, because I'm mad. And the reality is that the Dermo DID prescribe the right drug so technically she was right...but it was useless to me until someone was able to explain what to do with it and could dose it properly.

As for Beanie. She doesn't feel good and she's still running a fever so she is NOT BETTER yet. But nothing looks worse for the first time since Saturday and the rash on her elbow looks darker, like it's trying to scab and her hands are not quite as swollen. We have an appointment with Dr. B Thursday afternoon. Maybe the scraping will be back but at the very least we should be able to see if we are on the right path BEFORE the weekend...an important feature for all worried Mommas everywhere.

So that's the update for the time being.

Please keep us in your prayers...

See ya around...

Spiders for Crossview

My buddy Crossview has a spider "issue" and I saw a pretty spider out in the fields last fall...so I thought I'd upload a picture or two for her perusal...and yours too, I suppose...

Here you go...pretty, huh?



Doesn't it look a little like yours? But more colorful.

See ya around...

Worship Camp...

Well, it's over. The worship camp that my kids went to last week is over. I sit here pondering my next words because the camp...the show...the production of the whole thing was so stunning that I do not want to take the chance that you will take my words as simply a proud momma spouting superlatives and think, "yeah, yeah, Stack, we know, kid's performance, yada yada".

So I'm going to appeal to the performers that I know who read this blog. This is to all of you who have ever rehearsed for a performance, practiced choreography, memorized lines, had stage fright, sang ONE song in front of an audience in a choral group or in the choir. To those who were ever behind the scenes taking care of lights or mics or costume changes or writing programs or any of the other myriad of things that go on behind the scenes in ANY performance. And then I'd like to add to that list, those of you who I know have done these things with children.

How long would it take in rehearsal time alone, to put together a show with 12 numbers in it? Okay, 12 numbers and 20 Speakers, 7 dancers, 20 Soloists and at least 2 Silent Actors (although there were more)? How 'bout all of that coming out of a group of somewhere in the neighborhood of 80-100 kids that ranged in ages from Kindergarten to 7th grade and had NEVER worked together before the first morning of the camp? How long would you estimate that to take?

My experience with similar stuff took WEEKS...sometimes months.

They did it in five, three hour days of a Summer CAMP.

And it was amazing. Every song was good. Every song had choreography of some sort and some of them quite a lot. At the beginning of every song, kids had to move up and down the risers, and shift around to their places and there was not a single mishap.

And the individual kids who did solo performances? Every single one of them did a GREAT job. They stood where they should, they put their shoulders back and they SANG, and DANCED, and ACTED...and if a few of them were a little nervous (or even a lot) they pulled it off and blessed us all with their visible joy, beautiful voices, and funny lines.

I have been thinking about it all night. I don't know the three (correction, there were four) ladies who took on this task personally. But I am stunned at the result. Even with the huge amount of support that they received from the parents in the church for the nitty gritty tasks, I believe in my heart that only through the grace of God could such a feat be accomplished in so short a time.

Watching it I was reminded of the Bible story of Gideon. He was the one that the Lord wanted to fight a battle but told him that his army was too large. So through a series a events Gideon whittled down his army to a mere 300 men. Using only those 300 men, horns, jars and torches, the Lord defeated the Midianites. Judges 7.

I am so thankful that all who were involved took on the task and I am humbled by their faith to do it. I'll admit the very human part of me, who has done it, makes me feel just a little proud of them for their accomplishment...I don't believe ANYONE could have done it better and that the Lord chose very well, when he chose them.

As for my kid's parts? They LOVED it. I asked them early on how this experience compared to other summer camps in the past and they both agreed (only Bean and Bear were old enough) that, although there was a lot of work to do, it was AWESOME!

Here is Miss Bean singing HER solo. If I'm granted permission I will post more...if not, those of you who get our year end DVD will probably see it there.



Praise the Lord for these women who ministered to our children this week...for hearing God's voice and rising to His challenge to teach with joy, thank you for touching my kids in this way...

See ya around...

That Grandma is a GENIUS!!!

This week the big girls are in a "Worship Camp" at our new church. They are having a blast and there will be more on that later. But them being gone leaves something of a void for their littlest playmate. She misses them. A LOT.

So yesterday I said, "Alright Monkey Face, what do YOU want to do?" "I wanna paint! I wanna play with play-doh"...so, dutiful mother that I am, I put on my big girl pants and said, "ooooookaaay!" (Have I ever mentioned how little I LIKE to play play doh or paint?)

As we were playing play-doh (the slightly lesser of two evils in my mind)...it came to me...Grandma bought us some pre-made sugar cookies back in June when I was lamenting my skills as a cake decorator. She said, "We'll make these...you can practice...it'll be FUN". I, of course, had put said cookies in my fridge and had forgotten about them.

But as I sat there...cook cutter in hand...I looked at Grandma, and she looked at me...and almost without spoken word, we had a plan with a capital P. Off we went...me to prepare to roll out the cookies...her to fashion some kind of icing that Monkey Face could "paint" with.

And then we DID commence to baking SOME cookies...

Here she is mixing up our colors...


and here is Grandma's prized hand cookie...the one we practically had to draw lots for...


And this is what happens when *I'm* holding the camera and Grandma feels that there is a sub-standard cookie...(the role of grandmas has ever been thus)




Monkey Face is QUITE adept at sprinkling...well...it might be more "DUMPING" but she's really REALLY good at it... (note the close up...watch out Uncle Baker Madness...she's hot on your tail)


And THEN...a sweet friend, who was bringing the big girls back from church, agreed to come to our completely impromptu cookie party...and then allowed her children to EAT these beautiful, artificially colored, sugar bombs BEFORE they ate lunch...just because Monkey Face was excited to share.

There is nothing more wonderful to a 5 year old than 8 friends and family to show up and crow over cookies that you got to make and decorate with your momma and GRANDMA! Except maybe, a Daddy coming home from work and snatching up one of these beauties and pronouncing it terrific.

It really is a wonderful life.

See ya around...

Eat My Bubbles...

So that child...you know the one...with the funny hips, that drives me crazy? Yeah, her. Well, since November she has been Sah-wimmin'. And swimming and swimming and swimming...

Through the winter it was 2 hours a week...but since June it's been every single day for an hour. She has a great coach who, understanding the implications of these hips, in May, INSISTED that she MUST swim every single day she could this summer. He has also been saying all summer, "You should go to a meet...you can compete...". To which she has replied, time and again, "I can't...I don't want to...I'm not ready"



Well, she changed her mind.

And for the first time in her life, ever, she competed at swimming today. She didn't win the event...but she gave some definite competition...and the best part? She WANTS to do it again. I call "VICTORY".

oh and Legg Perthes???


See ya around...