Hit with the SICK-STICK

A couple weeks ago Angie woke up and her eye looked like this: This photo was taken AFTER the swelling had gone down. Her eye was actually swollen shut. Now let's not forget.....when this happened, we'd just been through 2 sick days because of Caleb (me AND Parker missing work) and a half sick-day myself. Needless to say, I really didn't work much that week. Parker took her to the doctor, and they immediately administered a high-dose shot of antibiotics into her leg. Parker said it was pretty traumatic, since the solution was thick and had to be administered slowly. Poor baby. After that we had a 10 day course of antibiotics at home. The swelling went down by the next day. What happened? I really don't know. I wasn't there to hear the doctor's explanation, but basicly some kind of bacterial infection to the tissues surrounding the eye. It was NOT pink eye. There was no discharge. Just major swelling. Thank goodness she's doing fine now. But now I'm sick. A terrible nagging cough that results in an awful headache each evening. Nothing a big strong hard-working mom can't handle right? Right. Caleb's flu is gone too. And hopefully we're done being sick for the rest of the YEAR......(we can always dream right)?

"Tienes Sueno?"

On my birthday I had a little surprise delivered to my office. Parker ordered me some flowers!! I was so surprised! (He's NEVER ordered me flowers!) And here's the coolest part: (story time) When we were dating I had my roommate teach me a pick-up line in Spanish. I knew Parker spoke spanish (having been home from his mission for only a few months) and I wanted to impress him. So this was the phrase I learned (in English): "Are you tired? Because you've been running through my mind ALL DAY!" In Spanish the line sounds like this: "Tienes Sueno? Porque has corrido en mi mente todo el dia!" Well. When I had it perfected, I said the pick-up line to Parker. His face lit up with excitement, and he picked me up and gave me the biggest hug. He WAS impressed! Anyway. The card on my birthday flowers didn't say who it was from. But it DID say, "Tienes sueno?" I read those two words and started to cry. What an awesome birthday surprise. It wasn't even about the flowers. It's about the thought. And the sweetness put into those thoughts. My awesome sweet husband. I DID have a happy birthday.

We're not alone....

Sorry about the blogging slump. It's not even my fault. Our monitor has quit working on our home computer. After about a week of me thinking it'd fix itself.....I've resorted back to the laptop. Which really isn't even all that ancient. We bought it in 07. It wasn't the MOST inexpensive one available at the time....but close. It's out of memory. Every time we turn it on it gives us these alerts that if we don't shut it down then things could be lost. I'm sure there's a simple solution. We've deleted lots of files. It's still at about 80% now. My ipod has more memory than this thing. But....it DOES work. Just slower. A lot slower. Anyway 2 weeks ago something awesome happened. My Grandma Willis has been staying at my mom and dad's for the past few months. And she told me something, that I'd heard before....but for some reason I'd always brushed it out of my mind. Too distant. Not really relevant to US. Let me explain. I guess Grandpa Willis has a sister with 2 out of 7 (I think it's seven....could be wrong there) children that have chronically missing teeth and thin and wispy hair like my children. Well....of course they're much older now. One is a boy and one is a girl. The girl's name is Jenny. And I got to talk to her on the phone. It turns out Ectodermal Dysplasia DOES run in my family. It's on the WILLIS side. Why it's exhibited in MY children and nobody else's I may never know. But Jenny had struggles as a child. Her front teeth were tiny and pointy (very much like Angie's). She's missing about 8 teeth. Pretty good actually. My son has LESS than 8 TOTAL. And who knows how many Angie has. And her brother (sorry I can't remember his name....starts with a "W") has NO teeth on the bottom. Wow. And both of them had hair that looks JUST like my kids when they were young. Now Caleb's hair is starting to get thicker as he gets older. But.....when he was Angie's age, it looked exactly the same as hers. Here's what fascinated me the most. She had NEVER heard of Ectodermal Dysplasia. And so I had the opportunity to tell her about it, and I gave her the website, and told her about the international registry. I think she was surprised to finally have an family explanation for why she and her brother were just a little bit different. Anyway. Talking to her made me feel really good. It's nice to know that what my children are going through isn't COMPLETELY random. Will my children's children have ED? I don't know. Hers don't. She has 3 kids and her brother has five. Crazy. Anyway. I'm making a little change to this blog. In the left column, I'm creating an area with links to all of my previous posts about ED. (If I can find them all....I only have 3 years of archives to go through).

When it rains, it pours.....

Monday I got to work at 8:00.....only to find out that I didn't have a patient till 10:00. Well. Daylight savings DID kick my butt- plus I wasn't feeling great. So I went back home and got back in bed for an hour. When I got back to work at 10:00 I felt wors. Funny, the nap didn't really help. I thought I was just getting used to the time change. But then the sick came. Major cramping in mu upper abdominal muscles. Unlike any stomach cramp I'd ever had before. It made me nautious. No I'm not pregnant. No it's not that time of the month. The pains came in waves. And I got the shakes. I had a patient in my chair....and I could barely grasp the instruments. How could I go on? I sat up my patient and went into the bathroom (that always looks good). I thought I was gonna throw up. But nothing happened. Nothing out the other end either. I went back in and finished my patient (poor guy....I am sure his teeth weren't as clean as they should have been....). The next patient was a 4 year old boy. Easy. I got him in and out in 30 minutes. Then I told the front desk I needed to go home. She then informed me that my patient at 2:00 has allready been re-scheduled twice. And that she would be upset if I cancelled her appointment again. I suggested....well cancel Sylvia's 2:00 patient and then put that lady with her instead. No go. This patient only wanted to see me. Ok. Maybe I'd feel better after I ate lunch. Only I couldn't eat lunch. (Believe me....I NEVER have that problem). So I went upstairs and decided to take a little nap for the rest of my lunch break.

I made it through my 2:00 appointment, and then had my other patients re-scheduled. I went home. I left the kids at daycare and went BACK to bed for another hour. When I woke up it was 5:00. So I got the kids. After we were all home, I lied on the couch and let the kids run a muck. The place was trashed, and Parker had class that night. I got the kids to bed early and I went to bed early myself. I had body aches, but no fever. So weird.

When I woke up the next morning I felt better. I got ready for work and woke up Caleb. As I pull his shirt off he says, "Mommy your hands are cold!" I felt his body. Burning hot. I took his temperature. 102. Boo. I called my boss and called in sick. Luckily Sylvia (our other Hygienist) doesn't work on Tuesdays, and she was able to come in and take my patients. Yes I owe her. Caleb acted fine during the day. I started asking myself, "Why did I take the day off? He's fine!" Then the evening came and his fever spiked again. The next morning his temp was 103. Ok. I think I need to take him to the doctor. I took the morning off and Parker went to work. Then Parker took the afternoon off and I went to work. Parker took Caleb to the Dr. Wouldn't you know.....nothing wrong. Well, I mean he had a fever....so it wasn't nothing. But no strep. No ear infection. No sinus infection. Just a bug. Bring him back if he still has a fever in 3 days. Ok. No more sick days.

That evening Caleb wouldn't eat. He was so tired. And his fever was up again. He acts so happy and fine when he's sick. if it weren't for his hot skin, you'd never know. Except last night. He kept burying his face in his hands and lying down everywhere he went. I put him to bed at 7:30.

At midnight he woke up. I was fretting about him. Kids don't deserve to be sick. It is so not right. He woke up Angie. Parker and I were taking care of the kids and Parker says to me...."What's with her eye?" I look at her. Her left eye is all swollen. Huh? Oh man. I have no idea. I guess SHE will be going to the doctor tomorrow. I worry for a few minutes about whether or not to take her to the ER. I didn't think it was an allergy. No hives. Only one eye swollen. I don't remember her hitting her eye either. And plus a little bonk wouldn't cause THAT much swelling. We'll see how it is in the morning. I thought to myself. It'll either be WAY worse in the morning, or the same. I wasn't lucky enough for it to get better over night.

When we got her up this morning, it was a little worse. BAH!! Ok. Parker- you take off work this morning and I'll take the afternoon off. Parker took her to the doctor again. Wanna know what it is? Some kind of MAJOR bacterial infection. Way worse than pink-eye. And contageous as well. They gave her a BIG shot of antibiotics right there in the office. It was a thick solution, so it had to be administered slowly. Poor baby. Parker pinned her down while she screamed. I guess that dose of antibiotics was equivalent to the amount they would have given her if she'd been admitted to the hospital. Now we wait. And make sure she's not allergic to the antibiotics first of all. And she gets a 10 day oral antibiotics as well. She looks awful. We also have to watch for a fever. If she gets a fever at all, I have to bring her back tomorrow. Well actually Parker gets to bring her back. Cuz I went and re-scheduled some of my patients for tomorrow (normally my day off....but since I've missed so much work I had to get caught up somehow).
Here's her picture......poor baby.


I hope her eye clears up soon. Thank goodness she's happy. She's always happy. Such a good baby. And doing just fine without her NUK by the way. She talks herself to sleep now. And sometimes it takes 15 minutes to a half an hour before she zonks. But no more crying. What a good girl.

NUK

My little Angie loves her NUK. And....I don't think I've ever made her sleep without it since she was born. She'll be 14 months old in 5 days. It's time to get rid of it. But, she's NEVER had any issues. I've NEVER made her cry it out to go to sleep....I've never had to. She has always gone to sleep if I put her in bed with her blanket and NUK. But, she can't have it forever. So I decided today is the day. And I'm listening to her scream right now. Why am I making my perfect baby go through this? It's not like she stresses about it during the day, or is even cranky without it during the day. But she has ALWAYS had it to go to sleep. With Caleb.....it was so easy. I went away for a weekend, and Parker stayed at home with him. When I came back home, Parker said he didn't use it anymore. Seriously? No fight. No crying at night? Nope. Nothing. Apparently Angie's not gonna make it that easy. She's been crying for half an hour allready. Augh. This weekend is gonna suck. I hope she sleeps as well as she used to with the nuk once she gets used to this.

F.U.D.

Some of you may not know. FUD stands for "Full Upper Denture." Last Friday Caleb got his teeth. I always knew the day was coming....but I never thought it'd actually get here. Over the past 2 weeks, I've been taking Caleb into the office on my day off (Friday). The first week we got impressions. Which is never fun no matter WHO the patient is. This patient is 4 years old. And he did surprisingly well. We did the lower impression first. No problem. He just sat there while that stuff stiffened up. But then we had to do the upper impression. I know how he felt. He had to feel like that stuff was going down his throat. We practiced breathing through his nose before starting. And actually especially while we did the lower impression. Even so, after about 10 seconds he started crying. There wasn't anything we could do either. I was holding Angie....who would run off and terrorize if I let her go to wipe his tears. So Dr. Thompson held those trays in his mouth, and he just sat there and cried. Jenny wiped his tears while he sat there. Luckily he never actually struggled. Just cried. It was kinda sad. But it didn't last long.

The next week, we had the upper teet ready in wax. He tried it on to make sure it fit. It did. This set of upper teeth is unique. Originally we thought he'd have partials (partial denture) on both arches. But the guy at the Denture Center thought it might work better if we over-lay the 2 teeth he has on top. So his upper teeth is actually a Full Upper Denture, not a partial. However, I am trying really hard not to call it a denture around him. I think the word "denture" has a sort of stigma to it. So we'll call it his flipper, or his teeth.

Then, last friday we had the finished product. He tried them in, and we showed him how to put them in and take them out by himself. Within no time, he was popping them in and out. He'd say, "Mommy! Look at my new teeth!!" Then he'd put them back in. When we got home, I had him try to eat with them in. Not as successful as I was hoping for. They didn't stay in well at all. We have to use fixodent to hold them in properly. But after taking his first bite (bread) it stuck to his palate and he wanted to pull them out to clean them off. I encouraged him to just eat slowly, and swallow slowly. (He must feel like is mouth is allready full with those things in there). But ultimately, he wanted to take them out to eat. So I let him. I wasn't gonna push it. The last thing I want is for him to resent wearing those. We'll take it slow. From that time on I decided that I would have him chew with his teeth, but not bite yet. Without the bottom teeth, biting still doesn't work very well. So I'll still cut up his food....and he can just practice chewing. He'll get the lower teeth in a week or two, depending on how long it takes him to get used to the top. So far, he's been wearing them for 45 minutes to an hour about twice a day. Baby steps.

One other thing....he doesn't talk very well with his teeth in. I have been encouraging him to speak slowly and hopefully he'll start to articulate a little better.

These pictures don't really do justice. He doesn't really know how to smile correctly. He kinda jutts his jaw to one side to smile. Maybe he just needs to spend some time in front of the mirror. ;) He'll get it. I'd say they really do look pretty good. If you inspect them closely....they do look a little un-natural. But not NEARLY as un-natural as just the two canines pointing down. I think he's gonna do well with them. I hope.

I also took a little video of me talking to him on the first day after he got his teeth. Enjoy.

We're so proud of Caleb. I never would have dreamed that we'd be able to get his teeth made at such a young age. He's such a good little boy. And now hopefully we can get him used to wearing them before he starts school in September. Congratulations Caleb.

Is it SPRING yet?

Look around at my house......we've ALL been wondering.....

Is it spring yet?