Chapter 3

I had hoped the book about our medical journey would be complete by now, at least for 2010. But alas, now we enter a new chapter. Ava has a bladder infection. No big deal, right? No big deal, unless it's her second in two months (and actually, I think it's her third, but the first one wasn't diagnosed). There's a certain smell to her diapers that made me wonder, and then today she was just off, took a long nap, and woke up lethargic and feverish. I knew immediately, took her in, she peed in a bag (getting talented at that!) and sure enough.

So what next? An ultrasound and other imaging tests that I'm not too sure what all they entail. I don't know if she'll have to be put under or not. I'm not sure what they're looking for. And I'm not sure if it's related to my kidney issues or not. Or to the staph infections going around our house.

But I'm sure that this too, will pass. Tonight, I'm tired of it. Tomorrow is pharmacy delivery and home health nurse for Abby. The rest of the days will take care of themselves.

Shopping

I enjoy shopping. Really, I do! But mostly, I enjoy shopping at Kohl's, Target, Walmart, the grocery store. Last week I ventured to the mall to get a birthday present for a friend of Abby's. Her friend really likes the store Justice, and I'd never been there, so wasn't quite sure what to expect. I walked in, and right away felt a little clausterphobic. It has everything a preteen could possibly want--clothes, pillows, jewelry, shoes, zhu zhu pets, pink soccer balls, whatever! If ever a 12-year-old-girl said, "I want a...", they have it. Which, while not my thing, isn't a bad thing in and of itself. What was more disturbing was the number of times I heard, "I want...", "Buy me...", or "But you said I could get..." Lots of entitled girls, lots of indulgent moms. Clearly not everyone who shops their is like that, and Abby's friend who I was getting the gift for is not at all like that, but that day it was just really crazy to me. My plan was to walk the rest of the mall, but I got halfway done and just couldn't even do the rest.

Then, Friday, I got up at 4 AM, in the freezing cold, to get a TV. I've never done Black Friday shopping, at least not since it's gotten so crazy. I got to Best Buy at 4:40, stood in the long line that wrapped around the back of the building in the cold, finally got in, and then stood in the TV line for another 25 minutes. Then I stood in the regular check-out line for 25 minutes. But I got a good deal on a TV! And although it took a long time, it was all pretty organized and tame. Then I went into Target, saw the lines that literally wrapped around the store (up and down the aisles, all the way to the back of the store) and walked out. Same thing at Fleet Farm (I mistakenly assumed it would be calmer there... WRONG!). Then I went to the grocery store, got donuts and went home just in time for the kids to wake up. Luckily, mid-morning I got a two hour nap and was doing well by the end of the day.

And inbetween all that shopping was Thanksgiving. I glossed over the actual day, but know that I am truly thankful this year. For so many things. We were at my mom and dad's house, for the second year in a row, and the kids have so much fun with their cousins. And never fail, there's always a time when Dave and my brother-in-law are off doing something, and all the kids are somewhere, and it's just my sister, my parents and me hanging out for a little bit. It feels so old school and comfortable and nice. And of course, with all eight kids, no matter how good they are, it's always just a little bit crazy. I wouldn't have it any other way! And this year, our cutest turkey of all was my sister's youngest, 3-month old Kate...

Hope you had a great holiday, too!

It's the noticing

Abby came with me to my doctor's appointment yesterday. While she was waiting in the waiting room for me, she was playing games on my iTouch. When I came out (it took about 45 minutes, so she waited quite awhile) I was hustling her to come on, we needed to get home, get dinner, get her medicine changed, too much stuff! We got to the car, and she gave me my iTouch back and told me to read it. She had somehow found a Notes application and this is what she wrote:

Mommy i love you! You are so nice! You Are so lovable and sweet. I
could think of 1000000 amazing and nice things to say about you.you
are the best mom a daughter could have.thank you for helping me at the
hospital .it was really helpful.sorry for not putting the shirts
away.i love you more than anythingin the world! Well, bye!

It melted my heart and, while everything I do for all of them is worthwhile, this just made it all the more special because she noticed.

Week of Thankfulness

As we begin Thanksgiving week, I'm thankful more than I probably ever have been at the start of any Thanksgiving week. Mostly, I'm thankful today that for the first week in four weeks, I'm not at Children's Hospital or ER with one of the kidlets.

Second, I'm thankful that not only are we at home, but that everyone is on the mend nicely, and quicker than we ever thought possible.

Third, I'm thankful for all the prayers, thoughts, well-wishes, hugs and other support we've gotten through all of this. It's been truly amazing and overwhelming.

Fourth, I'm thankful for all the gifts we've gotten to keep us fat and happy. Cookies, McDonald's gift cards, card games, pillow pets, baloons, teddy bears, socks, slippers, pjs, puzzles, books, CDs, and one BP gift card from someone anonymous that I love because it gets me my English toffee cappuchinos on the way to hospital visits.

Fifth, I'm thankful for a short week, for celebrating with my family a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, for the start of the holiday season and for my own bed, which I'll be hitting soon.

Scary!

Scary comes in so many shapes and sizes. There's scary from last week, and then there's these scary, way too cute Halloween pictures! With the craziness of everything, I never got around to getting these off my camera...

A little late, but happy Halloween!!

The sicky girls

Since the hospital is so fresh in our minds, with doctor appointments for both Abby and Ava coming up, I thought it would be appropriate to show some hospital pics! Yes, I'm crazy, and brought my camera to the hospital each time. Otherwise, how would we ever remember these days???

Abby a day after the bone biopsy, up and around on the walker. She looks happy here, but she was embarassed to be walking with a walker. She felt like a little old lady she said. :) The crutches the next day were much, much better.

The horrible, horrible IV. Twice the vein collapsed when they were trying to put it in, and with the blood draws before that, she was done, and what prompted her "I don't wanna DO it again" mantra.

Switching over to Ava. Here she is, passed out finally, sometime after midnight. With her horrible, horrible IV on her foot. It took three times for her, too, to get the IV in.

In the waiting room, after the hospital band was put on. I kept asking "What time is it?" and she did her looking at her watch impression every time!

Just tooling around the ER room in her little hospital gown. When I went back with Abby to the ER the first time, we were in the same ER room. In fact, they tried to give her the same hospital gown. I just laughed when the care provider said, "Oh, maybe she needs a bigger one. She's tall for 8." Yeah, right. Tall.

Relaxing and comfy with her nukie and her bear. But still wouldn't fall asleep.

And back to Abby. Up in real clothes, just the PICC line with no attached IV. And the slipper booties! Everyone loved the slipper booties she got from my mom. At least five people asked where we got them (Kohl's) and when (that same day) so they could get them for their daughters.

Tomorrow Abby has her orthopedic follow up. My hopes are her stitches in her leg can come out and we don't have to put dressing on it anymore or keep it covered. I'm also hoping they are able to give us a timeline for the PICC line. I know that she'll need antibiotics for 6 weeks, but they said they could possibly switch to oral antibiotics sooner than that. I want to know when.

Monday Ava has a follow up appointment with her surgeon. I don't expect that appointment to be a very big deal. Her wound looks healed and no problems. My hope is they can tell me ways I could prevent it in the future.

And Tuesday I have a follow up appointment with my urologist. Awhile back I had a nuclear dye test done on my right kidney because he didn't think it was draining. If it's not, that will require some sort of surgery to fix it. My hope for that is he tells me he's wrong and it's functioning just fine, minues the seven or so kidney stones in it.

Send us healthy thoughts!!

We're good

Just a really quick update... We're doing great. Abby has survived all days of school. Tuesday she came home early for the home health nurse, but otherwise has been just great. We're trying to schedule a million doctor appointments, among teacher conferences and other general life things and it's become crazy around here. But I'll take the crazy any day!

Promise to update more when I'm not so tired... a bath is calling my name!

How is she?

Obviously, the question we get right now most often is, "How is Abby?" And the answer, medically speaking, is really great. She can go most of the day without pain medication, and even then it's just a tylenol instead of the liquid percocet she was on. She's getting around great on her crutches, and probably won't even need those by the end of the week. And overall, she seems like she's definitely on the mend.

But other things are hard. She's really worried about going back to school tomorrow. Her crutches make her slow, she doesn't understand what a bone infection is, much less have the ability to explain it to all of kids who will ask her what happened, she's embarassed about her PICC line in her arm, and is worried that she's not caught up on all of her homework. I try to ease her fears, but they're quite deeply embedded and tonight, when she was tired after a full day and a shower, she broke down and told me she wasn't ready to go back. I know she is, and in the morning things will look better, but it's still hard.

And then there are times when it's hard to not yell at her. My patience has been on ultra high lately, and it's slowly wearing down. When she screams at me when I brush her hair because it hurts, or when she moans and cries because she's freezing because she can't stand under the warm shower, I try to have sympathy. But when she yells at me because she doesn't think I'm doing something right, like when I covered her PICC line and her stitches on her leg with Press 'N Seal and tape, I want to tell her I'm doing the best I can, that I don't know how to do this either, that I'm as scared as she is. But I smile and reassure her and try not to take it personally. I know it's a compliment that she feels safe enough to yell at me. But it doesn't always feel complimentary, and I debate how much I should let her get away with.

Coming home on Friday was great but so chaotic. They told me for sure it would be Saturday at least, so when it came earlier I had to get everything packed up and realized I still had so many questions... How do I change the dressing on her leg? How does she take a shower? When can she walk without crutches? We got out of there, and I asked all my questions, but I still couldn't remember all the answers. Then Abby asked if we could stop at school and, since they were having as assembly that afternoon (last day of the quarter), I said we could go to that. I'm glad we did because her class got to ask questions of her, and I could help her answer. By the end, though, she was really tired and weepy. I was worried it was too much and a bad decision. And then...

We had to get home because the home health nurse was coming at 4. We hurried back, got inside, and Dave told me I missed her. What? It was only 3:45 and she was supposed to come at 4. Apparently, she came at 3. Dave learned everything just fine, and with the training they gave me in the hospital, I learned everything just fine from him, but I felt ultimately disappointed and mad at myself that I missed it.

Friday and Saturday just felt off. The kids were all needy, all off-kilter, and they had every right to be after the crazy week they had, but all I wanted to do was sequester myself and not talk to anyone, to try to return to being a human, but I knew that wouldn't be fair to them. So, I did my best to split some time between them all and myself. It helped that my mom and sister came over so the kids had someone to play with and Abby had some distraction. Wear them out a little!

Today and tonight feels much better. Church this morning that even Dave went to, lunch at our favorite Ale House, some relaxing time and some hanging out with friends. Nolan got all his homework done without complaint and Abby got a good portion of hers done (although not enough to put her mind at ease when I made her stop... she couldn't do any of it anymore without breaking down about it). I got caught up on house things and Dave got caught up on some cleaning. I'm ready to face the day tomorrow, and am looking forward to the return of a schedule, and pray that Abby's able to make it through the day.

And through it all I'm grateful... I've realized again the wonderful people I have in my life. My family and Dave's, our friends, Abby's friends, teachers, neighbors, co-workers, everyone. The people I have surrounding me never cease to amaze me in their generosity, kindness, concern and ability to make us laugh. I hope you all know who you are and hope you never feel taken for granted! Thank you!

9:30 or 5:48?

I was at the pharmacy to get Abby's meds and I looked at the clock and it was 9:30. No wonder I'm so tired, I thought. Then I looked again and realized it was only 5:48. Oops. Then I proceeded to fall asleep while I waited for the prescription to be ready.

All that to say, I'm tired. Everything's going as well as can be, if a little nerve-wracking, but I'll update more when I have a brain.

Awesome news!

Susceptibility tests came back fine, and a day early!!! We go home today, have to be home by 3 for the home health nurse appointment.

From bed ridden to up and about and going home in about 18 hours. I'm thrilled, and amazed, and surprised, and a little scared... But mostly happy as can be!

The morning learning

We were up bright and early this morning. Around 6:30 Abby was walking the halls with her walker. PT should be coming in any minute to help her transition to crutches, which will be easier to go home with. She really only needs them until she can bear weight without pain. She can't do much physical activity, though, until after the first of the year because of the hole in her bone. I told Abby she can't do gym class until after Christmas and she cried. I asked what was wrong, and she said Mr. Martinich (the gym teacher) says he can't grade you if you don't participate. How will she get graded and will he be mad? I reassured her the best I could that all would be ok.

Dr. Lyon, the head orthopedic, also came in the morning. It seems it's "just" a staph infection, but in her bone. I tried to determine if this was at all related to Ava's infection, but it doesn't seem that it is. I also asked if there's a way to prevent this in the future. Nope. He says it's like getting struck by lightning. Very odd that she got it without being sick, or a broken bone, or old. He told Abby it could prevented if she brushed her teeth twice a day and eats her broccoli. Then he laughed. I told him I'd give him a list of things he should tell her. But all that being said, they finished growing the culture and are now testing the susceptibility levels with the antibiotics she's on. If the antibiotics work on the culture, she can go home tomorrow. If they don't, she'll have to stay at least another day. All liklihood is that she'll go home tomorrow. (YEAH!!!!)

The biggest thing this morning, other than learning she may go home tomorrow, was getting her drain removed. As soon as she found out they were taking it out today, she started screaming and weeping, and asking me if it would hurt. I've tried all along to not lie to her, so of course couldn't say whether it would hurt or not. But I told her if she could relax it would go easier. That didn't work. It was probably 30 minutes of crying and screaming while she went from her wheelchair to the bed, and then to get the tape off. She hated getting the tape off because even with the adhisive remover, it still pulls the hair and skin. Then they had to cut a stitch, which just looked like it would hurt when they got the scissors out, so that was hard for her. Then the drain literally fell out, Abby cried "When will it be done?", we said it was out, and she looked at it and went oh, that wasn't so bad. Until the PICC line comes out, that should be the last of the hurt, at least.

Afterwards the nurse let her pick a prize out of the prize box. They were pretty good prizes and we were helping her pick... puzzles, little games, crayons. Dave picked up a box and said, "A new jump rope?" I looked at him and he was serious. I said, "Really? She can't do anything physical for two months and you want her to get a jump rope?" Luckily, Abby was doing well by then and thought it was quite funny, too.

So it's been a great morning with everything going really well and a tentative plan in place. From here we'll see where it goes--school and other things kind of depends on her tolerance level, so maybe half days for awhile, but we'll see!

A great day

It's funny how everything is relative, but relatively speaking, today was a great day. Physical Therapy came this morning and Abby was really worried about having to move around, but she did wonderfully! She was able to scoot to the edge of the bed and get up on a walker. Which means she can get into the bathroom now instead of being lifted onto a commode. She hated that commode! Tomorrow, if all goes well, she'll be progressing to crutches. I'm not sure how long she'll have the crutches, but she has to be very careful of how much weight she puts on the infected leg. Because of the biopsy, it's at a much great risk of a fracture. I can only imagine how that would go.

Today was also education day for me. How will the Home Healthcare work (to clean her PICC line)? How do I put medicine in? What medicine goes first? How do I cap it? And clamp it? All those fun things that I never dreamed I'd have to learn.

And today was also Jill gets out of the hospital day. Yeah! It was hard to leave, really. Dave was here, but I was so worried about missing something. What if the nurse came in with vital information I needed? They were capping her PICC line, shouldn't I be here for that? She's supposed to walk a couple of times, don't you need my help? And of course, in the end, all went fine, and Dave did great and I think it was nice that the two of them got some time together.

What did I do with all my free time? Well... first I went to lunch, which was nice. Chinese, yum! And then I wasn't sure what I was going to do... go home, take a shower, get a nap? Nah. The house is big. And quiet. And lonely. So instead I shopped and got my hospital wardrobe. Yup, that's right, my hospital wardrobe. It consists of a new pair of jeans, socks, sweater, sweatshirt, pjs, shoes, slippers and maybe some other unmentionables. But I won't mention those. The funny thing is that it's probably all stuff I would have bought anyway, but for now, it's become my hospital closet.

When I got back, Abby looked great. She had color back in her face, she was up in a wheelchair instead of flat on her back in the bed and was more talkative then she's been since we got here. She even had a little pizza for dinner, which is the most she's eaten for a long time... even when she was at home, she was in so much pain earlier in the week that she had crackers for dinner, and string cheese for lunch. This is a mighty improvement!

Tomorrow is a big day. In the morning they'll do more bloodwork to determine if her infection markers have dropped. The head orthopedic doctor (Dr. Lyon) will also come back to determine how she looks, how her biopsy site is draining, and give us the plan of action. By the end of the day tomorrow, I'm hoping we'll at least know how much longer she'll be here.

Here's hoping for a restful night!

The staff

Abby slept all afternoon and most of the night. Other than when she has to move to go to the bathroom, she was pretty pain free, which is nice.

Just like everyone says, the staff here is mostly amazing. We haven't had a bad nurse, and all the nursing students, care providers, everyone, are great. But what's funny is how that highlights the not so good experiences. Abby has a drain in her leg, but it didn't seem to be draining, so an orthopedic resident came in to move the drain a little bit to see if it would drain better. Now, Abby has been handling the pain of the surgery extremely well, but the acute pain of the needle, or the drain moved in her leg, she's not so good with. So when the woman moved the drain out a little bit, Abby cried and then when the doc did it again, she screamed and went back to her "I don't wanna DO it again" mantra. When the doctor had to move it one more time (the third time), she kept telling Abby, "Just relax, dear." She must have said "dear" 20 times while she was in here, and she's not an old lady or anything. In fact, probably younger than me. So when she was starting to move it again, she looked at Abby and asked, "Do you think I can do this without you screaming this time?" I just looked back at Abby and said, "If it makes you feel better, go ahead and scream." It was just so patronizing!

In the next hour, Physical Therapy is going to come in and try to help her to move around. She hasn't been out of her bed unless lifted by me and a nurse, and I just know she's not going to like it. Hopefully she'll be cooperative and try to get it figured out! I made the mistake of telling her today is her "day off", meaning no surgery. She thought it meant no one would come in. I guess I better watch what words I use better.

At peace for now

Abby is resting comfortably back up in her room. Well, we've been back up in her room for a long time now, actually. She has had some water, but isn't hungry at all, and just keeps drifting in and out of sleep. She keeps asking what will hurt when it comes out--the drain in the leg? the picc line? the monitor on her finger? Luckily, nothing really will. And even better in her mind is that she won't need to get poked for labs because they can just take blood from the picc line. Totally worth it! :)

I'm just sitting here hanging out. Dave's flight landed earlier today so he's been here, along with his parents, so it was great to have some company even if Abby wasn't really awake. And Dave's parents are taking the little three back to Chicago with them, which is so, so helpful. I gave Nolan the option of going to Chicago or going to school. Yeah, tough choice.

It's amazing how different this feels from Ava. Despite us being in the same ER room most of the time, the same pre-op area, surgery waiting room, and really close to the same hospital room, it's just so different. With Ava I knew what was going on. While going to Children's for the first time was scary, it was direct. Go to ER, get seen by the doctor and surgical consult, get admitted for IV antibiotics, have surgery, go home. One night, clear treatment, healthy when you go home. Abby's is just so much more scarier. Bone infection can go really bad really fast. Or be covering something else. And when she goes home she'll still have IV antibiotics and the PICC line and could still get pretty sick. That's scary, even more so because she's always been so healthy in general.

In short, we're doing well. I'm looking forward to the comfy, comfy pull-out couch (ha!) tonight and the two hour vital checks. Ok, just kidding. Instead I'm just grateful that Abby is doing as well as she is.

Surgery

Abby just finished the first part of her surgery--the bone biopsy. Dr. Lyon came out to talk to me and put me in a consult room. I know it's common, but I don't like it. Fortunately, everything went relatively well. They got into the bone and it was full of puss and draining. (Ewww.) He said she got the small version because it was all contained in her bone and wasn't in her muscle or tissue, so that's good. However, it doesn't rule out having to go back in if it isn't clearing up and doing the big version.

From the biopsy in the OR he's pretty sure (he said 99%) that it's just infection and nothing big, bad, ugly. However, it has to be plated and looked at further to be sure for the pathology side of things.

He also said that she may get worse before she gets better right now. When you open the infected bone up, the infection can spread, both throughout the bone itself and outside the bone. That's what the strong antibiotics are intended to prevent, but they may take a day or two to work as necessary.

She has another hour to go on the surgery to place the picc line.

We'll probably be here at least until the weekend, possibly early next week. She's not gonna like to hear that!

Running Commentary

Being with Abby throughout the day is pretty funny because she provides running commentary, sometimes reflecting what's on tv and sometimes just from her own head. She thinks the lawyers are nice becuase first, they're in your state, and second, if you don't win money you don't have to pay them. That's so nice! Then she decided she was glad she had her leg problem instead of the problem people who have Dulcolax have. I mean, it doesn't make you go, it just makes you go easier.

Out of the blue she'll comment about what's going on, too. She has to have some surgery, so she's on a loop, saying, "It won't hurt, right? I'll just be asleep? It'll just be like this (pretends to be asleep)?" I reassure her. Then, "I'll just feel them moving my legs, right? Nothing bad?" I reassure her that she won't feel that. "They won't need my blood again today, right?" I tell her I don't think so, but I don't know for sure. But that they probably will in the morning and each morning she's here. Then we're back to surgery, "Will the medicine they use hurt?" I reassure her that it just goes through her IV that she already has in. It's a big loop, but keeps me looped in to what she's think and what she's worried about.

Right now we're just hanging out, but we'll be here at least another night. They're going to do a bone biopsy to make sure it's infection and rule out all the other "scary stuff," as the orthopedic doctor said. His saying that made it more scary, not less. She's next up on the surgery docket. She's so thirsty but can't have anything. I feel bad, but she's handling it well other than a bout here and there.

The head orthopedic doc came in to see us about 30 minutes ago. Considering we were supposed to see the physician's assistant today and now we're consulting with the head honcho, I don't like it. I was doing fine before he came in, and now I'm close to losing it. But if I lose it, I know Abby will worry more, so I won't! We should have the preliminary results of the biopsy pretty quick after the surgery, but then a couple of days for the pathology report.

For anyone reading this who sends me texts... my phone is almost out of battery. I'm hoping to get it charged this afternoon, so if I don't respond, know that I'll get them later and appreciate your thoughts and well wishes!

I'll update more when I know more...

Back again

In the interest of time, sanity and the sleep I need, I'm going to keep this quick. Basically, we went to Abby's primary care doc, who conferred with Children's Hospital docs, who sent us to Children's ER. We got here around 1, triage around 2, room around 2:45, hospital check in around 10:30. Nurses, nurse practitioners, care providers came to see us. Xray of hip, xray of tibia, MRI. Two collapsed veins trying to draw blood/place the IV, Abby beside herself, screaming that she doesn't want to do it anymore.

Now we've been admitted. They think it's a bone infection. MRI showed something but was somewhat inconclusive. Bloodwork showed definite infection, and the infection markers are growing quickly. Orthopedic doc and radiologist need to get on the same page, which they'll do tomorrow. Several things were mentioned, nothing definite... Hospital tonight, and maybe 2-3 more days (don't tell Abby... she freaked out about the one night). IV antibiotics from now until, well, Christmas, literally. Chance of surgery.

So, we just don't know. Hopefully tomorrow will spread some light, show us the fix, and let us go on our merry way.

I didn't really want to be back here this quickly.

At a complete and total loss

Abby's leg has left me completely baffled. Last weekend it got so bad that we ended up at Children's Hospital ER (we're getting used to that place!) because she just could not manage the pain at night. She wakes up screaming at least two, sometimes three times at night. Pain in her leg, just above her knee. She rubs it, she paces, she howls, I give her medicine. Twenty-five minutes later she sleeps and I lay there awake and wonder. Three hours later she starts tossing and turning, up and down, half asleep, and then she's up again, in pain again.

Then there was last night. Same start... Bed at 8, up at 11:30 with leg pain. She fell asleep again at midnight in my bed, and then at 12:30 it all went crazy. She sat up, cried, and then immediately threw up over and over. Yuck. She took a shower, we cleaned up, and then she layed back down. I worried that I had given her too much medication without enough to eat, but then I took her temperature. 103.5. Well, two weeks of leg pain, no fever, and now this.

We'll call the doctor again today. We'll go to an orthopedic doctor tomorrow. Someday we'll figure out what this is. Or it will go away. Hopefully it will be soon.

Abby

Abby has been a conundrum lately. Not really a roller coaster, so to speak, but kind of. More of a roller coaster for me than for her!

Third grade has really been her year. There's the gifted/talented thing I mentioned before (or the not gifted/talented as the case may be), and she's getting additional testing. I don't really know what this means, other than the gifted/talented teacher asked me if they could do more verbal testing and I said yes. She also had really good test scores on nationwide tests they just did (she scored better than 96% of the other third graders in the nation) and continues to bring home 100% tests that she takes in class. And fortunately, it's not just all academic success. She also was asked to join the Jackson Ambassador program where students from school, along with the counselor, do various school and community service projects. And I'm also very happy with her friends, all of them really good kids. Am I bragging? Probably. I'm just really proud of the things she has been accomplishing consistently this year.

Tonight Abby is out on a date. With Dave. It's something that Dave and I had talked about before but things kept coming up. We figure if Dave shows her how she should be treated on a date when she's too young to actually date, then when she's old enough she'll accept nothing but the best. We'll see how that turns out! So Friday night, Dave called her asd asked her out. Since then, whenever we say she has a date with Daddy, She gets really embarassed and protests, "It's not a date!" Even today while we were getting ready, she didn't want to do her hair or put on nice clothes. Eventually I told her it's for her, it's just for fun, and she said she'd do her hair and put on nicer clothes, if I just stopped calling it a date. Ok, I give. Then when Dave showed up at the door with flowers in front of the whole neighborhood, I thought she was going to crawl under the couch! But she survived, and I'm hoping they're having a great time right now, eating at Maggiano's and going to Barnes and Noble.

And then there's her leg. This is the craziest thing going on now. Last Wednesday she started saying her let hurt. It was also right when Ava got sick, so I just dismissed it as a pulled muscle and gave her medicine and it seemed fine. But then I had to keep giving her medicine, to the point where she'd wake up at night crying, or she'd cry at school, when the medicine would wear off. I watched her when she didn't know and she'd limp or rub it, so I'm pretty sure it hurts bad and isn't added much for the attention factor. I took her to the doctor on Thursday and they took xrays. Her bones looked fine, which is good, but it could be a tendon or any number of other things. If it still hurts this upcoming week, I'll bring her back to the doctor. So far, I give her medicine roughly every five hours, and I can tell nearly to the minute when it's going to wear off and start hurting again, and like clockwork she's crying, whether she's watching a movie, playing outside or sleeping. It's kind of scary because it's not something that anyone can point to and say "this is what's wrong with her." And it's also making her crabby. Even when she has medicine, I can just tell she's not herself. She's laying down and sleeping, and the other day she took a shower when I wasn't home because she thought the heat would help it. I feel bad for her when she says, "I just want this leg to be gone!" and get frustrated at the lack of sleep going on in our house. Hopefully this week it will either go away or we'll figure it out.

So that's everything Abby. My 8-year-old puzzle!

Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da

Oh my goodness! Stop the world, I just need a day. Maybe two. Please??

Last week started innocently enough. Monday was Max's dress-up day for school. Tuesday was dress up day and parade for Abby and Nolan's school. Nothing major, just a little extra costume planning.

Then Dave had training Wednesday-Friday so I didn't see him at all, and the kids had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off school. Wednesday we went to Flabbergast during the day (a place with blow-up bounce house things) and Stonefire Pizza for dinner (Chuck E. Cheese on steroids).

Thursday was supposed to be my friend Laura watching the kids and a job interview, but when I woke up and Ava was sick and Abby had a sore leg, I canceled the interview and instead it was Ava to the doctor. Max missed his regularly scheduled Y class.

Friday was a kidney function test for me in the morning and then a follow-up test for Ava in the afternoon, which of course led to Children's Hospital, and surgery. Max missed his regularly scheduled Y class, as well as the new Y class that started.

Then home Saturday night. Abby was supposed to have volleyball Saturday morning for the first time, but Dave skipped it since the kids were still sleeping.

Sunday morning I had  church, where I had to read the names of the people who died in the past year in our parish (for All Soul's Day tomorrow). I forgot how emotional it is to listen to the names being read, with the music in the background, but when I was up there reading it, looking out on the grieving faces of their loved ones, it was tough to get through. Then it was off to the nursing home to bring communion. Then, of course, Halloween festivities!

Dave left today for work, comes home Thursday. Today was also my rescheduled job interview. It went well, but I'll know for sure in a couple of weeks. Do I want to go back full-time? Should I ask Direct Supply? Should I skip it? Should Dave stay home and I'll go to work? Then tonight I was supposed to be teaching church class, but then they called and said it was just a group activity... no class time. Yeah! I stayed home instead.

I also got 10 phone calls today and couldn't handle any more. One was from daycare... they don't think they have room for Ava anymore just one day a week. Great. They asked if I could change my day of daycare. Ummm, unless I want her to be in daycare while I'm at home, and then home by herself when I'm at work, I don't think so. She asked if she wanted her to go look at the schedule again. Well, sure. I still haven't heard back. Not sure if that's good or bad.

With all this stuff, I forgot to sign Max up for his new Y classes starting tomorrow. I don't know if I should or if I should skip it. Most weeks I'm looking for stuff to do with him. This week? It would be nice just to hang out a little. And Nolan and Abby have Y classes tomorrow after school. And I hope it's back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Stop the world, I wanna get off!!