Callee (ok & Taylor too).....

.....are going to drive me crazy! I love these children to death, but the ER trips & doctor visits lately are getting to be out of hand. I'm going to try to document all of this in order, but it's been a lot in the past 4 weeks so I apologize if it seems to be a jumbled mess, but it is sort of a jumbled mess in my head too.

The mayhem all started on 10/14/10. We have Caravan at our church on Thursday nights (it's like a Christian based boy scout/girl scout thing) & I am a leader of one of the groups. Afterwards I stayed & talked to the head honcho & my ex cousin in law (yes sounds weird I know) who I've remained friends with. Here's a picture of our kids that are 13 days apart:

Callee & Ashley (on the right) were running & I had told both of them numerous times to stop running....one, it is disrespectful to run in the church & two, someone was going to get hurt! They decided to be normal 4 year olds & not listen, so as I was saying it was ridiculous that Callee couldn't listen so I could talk to Shelly & Susan (Ashley's mom) & that we were leaving, Callee takes off running towards the door. Ashley starts running towards her & of course they collide! I thought they bumped heads & before looking at the damage I had to bite my tongue from saying, "Do you see what happens when you don't listen? That's what you get!" I'm glad I bit my tongue because as I lifted Callee off the floor to survey the damage I see this eye that is deformed & swelling rapidly. She had a tiny bruise forming 10 seconds after impact on her cheek bone too. We tried ice & it didn't help so I wanted to take her to Immediate Care to have it x-rayed just in case she broke her cheek bone.Btw, Ashley had a small goose egg on her head that disappeared within an hour & was fine. She happened to put her head down at the right second. So, Callee's cheek bone was not broken thank goodness, but he wanted her to see her pediatrician the next day because the eye was very swollen & nasty looking. Taylor needed to see the doctor that day too for a possible UTI (which she didn't have either!) So I take them both, he said Taylor was negative on the UTI & Callee's eye could take over a month to completely heal, but he didn't see any lasting damage to the eye itself. He said if any strange things appear to call & he'd want to see her again. I have to add here too that during the bus accident with Taylor in the spring they took xrays which showed enlarged adenoids so her doctor & I had been in talks about possibly having them out too. Taylor has been struggling to breathe at night so I mentioned this, he gave us a nose spray to try first, we got our flu vaccines & were on our way.

Fast forward to 10/17....the girls wanted to stay at my grandma's after Sunday dinner to play with their cousins & I just wanted to go home & take a nap. My mom said she'd bring them home later if I left them there. I did & went home, told Mike my mom would be bringing them & I was taking a nap. When I got up from my nap Mike says he wants to show me something & that I could call my mom with any questions. He tells Callee to look up & it looks like she has rope burn & that someone tried to hang her! He said my mom told him the kids were playing on the swing set & as Callee was sliding down Casia pulled a jump rope that was tied to the swing set unaware of the consequences & it caught Callee's neck! Sunday night we are at a friends house & they are on yet another swing set with no jump rope attached....and Callee decides she'll catch Bella like she's done a thousand times before. The difference is this time Bella kicks Callee right in the mouth & there is blood everywhere. Let's recap...within 4 days she has a black eye, rope burn on her neck & a bloody, fat lip! Lacey has to take her to the doctor with her after daycare on Monday! Of course I am freaking out because I don't want the pediatrician (they see the same one) to see all the other injuries too....it literally looked like I hung her & beat her. All went well, he did ask Lacey about the added marks, but wasn't suspicious of them....have I mentioned I do NOT want to have to deal with children's services?

So, on 10/29 Callee had to go back to the doctor because this bump formed on her cheek bone & it was still bruised. He wanted to make sure it wasn't a blood clot so he asked that she be seen. I took her in & it is a calcium deposit. It is from all the pressure from the blood calcifying & there was nowhere else for it to go because of the swelling. He said it could take up to 2 years for it to go away, but it should start going down over time. It is still there today, still bruised & not getting any smaller yet. While we were at that visit he mentioned that 2 weeks before & at this visit she had a low grade fever, but he sees no illness at all. I told him she's been dealing with low grade fevers for about 2 months & they are very random, usually happening at night. He said it concerned him & ordered a chest xray & blood work. When the results were in he decided to send her to a rheumatologist. She goes on December 17.

On Wednesday, 11/10/10 Lacey & Bella were spending the night at our house. Lacey had to be at work at 5 a.m. and I didn't want her waking Bella up that early & really I didn't want to have to get up that early either so we opted for them to just spend the night. I left to print pictures for Taylor's timeline project she had for school (really what 6 year old has done enough in their life to do a timeline?) As I'm driving home Mike calls & this is the conversation that transpired:

Mike: Ummmmmm I need you to come home.

Me: Why?

Mike: Callee may have busted her head open

Me: I'm on my way home, but may have as in she hit her head or like there's blood?

Mike: Like there's blood.....everywhere!

Me: What do you want me to do?

Mike: She needs to go to the hospital

Me: You are her father & you have a car, you take her

Mike: I can't

Me: Whatever, I'm on my way now!

So I get home & Lacey is trying to stop the bleeding, but tells me she thinks it just needs glued. I'm irritated at Mike at this point & all I wanted to do was go to bed early after a very bad day at work. So Lacey calls one Immediate Care & their waiting room is really full so I take her to the other one that isn't so full. Lacey is telling me how Mike panicked & didn't move once he saw the blood, that would be why he couldn't take her! I wasn't so mad then. So we get to Immediate Care & the doctor tells me he can't glue it, it's too deep. She needs stitches. Callee starts freaking out at the first sight of the needle & after trying to numb it for 15 minutes & only getting 1/2 cc of the med into her he tells me I need to take her to the Children's hospital that's about 25 mins away. They put gauze on it, give her a Popsicle & away we go. The Children's hospital got her all fixed up & we got home close to 1 a.m.....so much for going to bed early!

The hospital told me that she needs to visit her pediatrician on Friday, 11/12. I am thinking, that's good cuz they have an appointment to get the second dose of their flu shot (they did not get the H1N1 vaccine last year & this years flu vaccine has it in it so they needed 2 doses this year.) Then I remember it's only a nurse appointment on Friday so I need to call & see if they can see the doctor around the same time. They couldn't, but they cancelled the nurse appointment & just made the doctor's appointment. He said she looked good & to have them out on Monday like the hospital advised us. Then he asked if the nose spray was helping Taylor. Unfortunately it isn't because the night of the stitches Lacey slept with Tay & she woke up gasping for air & scared the crap out of Lacey....guess I forgot to mention she does this. So Taylor has to go to the ENT doctor on December 13th. Callee's stitches came out last night & they look good....now we have to make sure she doesn't bust them open until they completely heal in the next 3 days. This should be fun!

And as a last mention, you notice Tay goes to her specialist on Monday, Dec. 13 & Cal goes to hers on Fri, Dec. 17....well my niece Bella is having the birth mark on her forehead removed on Tues, Dec. 14...should be an interesting week for our family. If you remember please keep my family in your prayers that week! We sure could use them.