Croup: Season 6, Episode 1 (Samson)

You can't make this stuff up, people. Sammy came into our room verrrry early this morning barking like a wounded seal. At first I thought it was a part of my dream and I couldn't make out what the sound was. Usually Elijah's stridor comes with frantic screaming, so it was unique hearing a calm but stressed breathing. Dan sat in a steamy bathroom with him for 20 minutes and it got a little bit better. He came to bed with us (post-croup protocol) and we did NOT sleep for the remainder of the night. But at least I could monitor his breathing. I stayed home with him again today because the stridor just did not leave and he looked pale and tired. We gave him oral steroids before bed tonight and we are praying for a peaceful night!

He made himself a little fort today and tucked himself into it, feet sticking out. He said in his deep growly voice, "I'm resting, Mom.....I could stay in here for HOURS." :)

We watched a bit of tv today, but did a ton of art projects, as well. This boy is an artist! He loves painting and drawing and coloring and even creating his own fonts ("fancy letters"). He is so creative and takes pride in his work. I love it!

A few funny things he said to me very early this morning..

Before he got sick, he ran out of his bedroom a few times and into ours. When I told him to go back to bed he said, "Yeah...I do keep running back to my bed. You know why?" "Why, Sam." "Because it's UN-COZY out here."

After the croup-shower treatment, he laid in bed with me and tried to talk except his voice was super scratchy. He said, "Oh no! My body isn't letting my voice work!" .....long pause and some thinking.... "MOM! What if I don't know the sign language for a word and also can't SAY the word to you?! What will I do!?!?"

A silver lining from staying home with Sammy today was that I had time to organize and clean! I dominated our kitchen! :) I reorganized a handful of our dreadful cupboards and threw tons of unnecessary stuff away. (If you're wondering if this photo is a before or after shot, it's AFTER!)

I also made a delicious soup in the crockpot, washed and put away every dish and article of clothing in our home, cleaned out our fridge and wrote up a detailed dinner menu for the following week. I also wrote a list on our white board of every item of food in our freezer and fridge and which ones should be used sooner rather than later. A day of progress!

NOT along those same lines, Elijah has had a really tough past couple of days both at home and at school. We are seeing glimpses of last year and while it is frustrating and difficult, we understand it now. Daylight savings is always KILLER for him (so much worse for the early early birds) and we also gave him a few doses of steroids during and after croup this week (which always makes him extra edgy). Tonight was rough and I remembered just how difficult EVERYTHING can be when a single force is working completely against me. Literally the second he stepped off the bus today, the aura of the day totally changed. We are praying for a restful night of sleep tonight and for things to fall back into a more peaceful place.

Thanks for peeking in! Pray with us for PORTA PEACE! :) And peace for all of you, of course, as well!

Mind-blowing

Elijah is struggling. We are still weaning him off his "sleep" meds and things are pretty tough right now overall. Not nearly as tough as they were a few weeks ago while we were in Kentucky, but still not cool. He wakes up in the mornings looking exhausted, he has long stretches of time when he appears to want to make everyone around him completely unhappy and potty struggles have regressed in a huge way. It's hard to see him like this, but we are thankful that this isn't happening while school is in session.

I brought Elijah to see his ENT doctor today for a pre-op check-up. He got another hearing test and his left ear showed slightly diminished hearing, but it was only conductive (middle and outer ear only, which is fine in his situation). The gal who administered the test told me it was "mind-blowing" that Elijah's inner ear was working at all, considering the damage done to it. I've never heard a medical professional use the word "mind-blowing" before today. Prayer is the answer! We'll get these doctors believing in the power of prayer after all.

I chatted with Dr. L about E's surgery which is set for July 8th. He will check for cholesteatoma regrowth. No regrowth is ideal, but if there is minimal regrowth he'll remove it and attempt to place a prosthesis. There is a 10-20% chance of regrowth, and if there is any we pray that it will be minimal. The likelihood of restoring some of his hearing is GOOD (a miracle, considering the fact that his footplate is totally broken in half). The length of the surgery will be 4+ hours. I asked about the chances of having a difficult recovery like last time and he said, "We won't know until we're there!"

I've managed to push anxiety about this surgery aside for the most part. I'm thinking the behavioral issues we've been dealing with have been a good distraction?! The other night after shooting a wedding and getting home very late and being very tired and vulnerable, I felt some anxiety start to creep in. I had the thought, "How in the world am I going to get through this surgery?!" I envisioned myself in that waiting room, again, worried and wondering what was in store. As is always the case, it seems, I heard just the things I needed to hear in church the next morning. I refuse to let fear/anxiety become my lowercase-god. There is another God who is bigger and that is who I will focus on!

Today I was an organizing fool! The boys' activity corner is completely RE-organized, including a list of activities for the boys to choose from when they are bored. I also started on the toys in the garage (my hugest task of all). It feels great! I have much more to accomplish. Dan has tomorrow off work, so we are hoping to spend some quality time together as a family. Maybe the pool? Followed by a little more....organizing?! :)

Have a great week! I hope you all are enjoying this nice warm weather!

Christmas lights and the Superman Band

Another busy week is done! I keep thinking there will be a week when I don't have a thousand things to do, but that doesn't seem to happen. I suppose keeping busy with good things is good!

The boys are doing well. I attended Elijah's Winter Party with him at school yesterday. It is always so special to be a part of his class-time. His teachers ask him to introduce me, and he so sweetly says, "That's my mommy!" :) It is so much fun getting to know Elijah's classmates and teachers after hearing about them so much at home. There are some sweet kids in his class, and he could not possibly have better teachers.

Here is a video from tonight. Dan and I spent a good chunk of our morning cleaning and sorting TOYS TOYS AND MORE TOYS. In the process, the boys found Superman costumes, and then guitars. I present to you the Superman Band! 

Elijah finished up swim lessons this week, but he will need to be a Crayfish again in the spring which is just fine. I am hoping to get Sammy into swimming, too, but I need to figure out to make it seem like it's his idea.

Tonight we took a special family adventure (or "ben-chur," as Sammy calls it) to drive around looking at Christmas lights. I don't think our boys have been so sweet for such a long period of time in weeks! "Look at the pretty lights!" "Ohhh, cool!" "That's so beautiful!" "Ohhh, WOW!"

We are done with Christmas shopping and have just a tiny bit of wrapping and baking to do tomorrow. Other than that, we are just excited for Christmas! We wish you all a Merry Christmas! Sending our love to you all for a safe and happy holiday..xo

ps. We narrowly avoided an Elijah croup episode last night (thank you, oral steroids). Hoping and praying for health tonight..

Reclaiming my home

Sometimes I wonder what condition my house (and life and health) would be in, in say a few more years, if I had kept right on working full-time. I can't imagine what people must have thought upon entering our home even a few short months ago. It was awful! One of the many nice things about being home full-time is having time to care for my home! I have been cleaning and organizing and doing all of the things I always wished I had time for.

Please don't judge me based on this "before" picture! Here is the far corner of our kitchen before my little organizing hands got a hold of it.



And here it is after! All the boys' crafts, markers, activity books, play-doh and paper are now neatly organized. My cookbooks are organized, some of them hidden. My food photography table looks neat, and I don't want to cry when I glance in the direction of this corner of our home. Ahhhh!

Fixed eyes, a head injury and an M&M's addiction

I have much to share! I'll start with the best news. Elijah got his new glasses! Could any kid be better-suited for glasses than him? They suit his personality very well, I think. He did ok with them today, but did not like the patch at all. He has to wear a patch on his right eye for two hours every day, and I have a feeling this is going to be quite a daily struggle (like we need more daily struggles). Patching his good eye makes his other eye work pretty hard, which is good (for his eye) and bad (for those who have to deal with the complaining).



Two days ago, I was upstairs working on my blog and Dan was downstairs doing the budget (his favorite thing). Sammy was taking a nap, and Elijah was having quiet time at the computer. All of a sudden I heard chair legs screeching on the floor, followed by a splat and a murderous Elijah scream. He had somehow fallen off his chair and landed head-first onto the tile floor. A huge bump formed very quickly on the back of his head. I probably would have been comfortable not bringing him to the hospital if the bump had been our only concern. A few minutes after the fall, once he had calmed down, he started complaining about not being able to see us. He kept saying that his head was "up and couldn't get back down," and then he would say, "Mommy, I can't see you!" I brought him to the ER immediately. I know enough about head injuries to know not to waste time when neurological symptoms are present.



The ER doctor said he had a good deal of swelling and because he had complained of vision problems, a CT scan was ordered. The results were normal. He had suffered a mild concussion, but nothing was structurally damaged. The nurse told me to expect him to be "off" for about a week, but those vision complaints within 10 minutes of his fall were the only "off" things we have witnessed.



He was such a BRAVE BRAVE BOY during the CT scan. He had complete trust in me when I told him that nothing was going to hurt. He had to get "tied down" pretty tightly for the scan, and he did great. He's maturing! Just a short time ago, he would not have done well with that. I was very proud of my boy. Then we sat together on a bed in Room 16 and snuggled and talked and hugged and sang songs while we waited for the results. I don't know exactly how to explain this, but it was a weird experience for me. Sitting in a hospital with that special little boy of mine always, no matter what we are there for, brings me to tears. Happy, sad, thankful, sorrowful tears. I tried to put it into words to explain to Dan, but I couldn't. I can't explain it. There's just deep-rooted emotion there that I don't believe will ever go away. Elijah + hospitals = emotional mama.



The bump on E's head is still there, but he seems to be doing just fine. It has not hindered his sass or pooping-in-pants at all!

Our sweet Sammy needs rehab for his M&M's addiction. I had some left over from a recipe I made the other night, so I gave the boys each a small handful after dinner. Ever since then, Sammy has been asking for M-N-M-N-M (stick your tongue out on the Ns) about every 5 minutes. He gets such a funny little concerned look on his face when he asks for them. He's an addict!

And in other news, since being unemployed (or I should say since being SELF-employed!), I have been a home-organizing lunatic! After literally YEARS of carrying the I-don't-have-time-to-take-care-of-my-home burden heavily on my shoulders, I finally have time to take care of my home! I am loving this! Dan has helped me to create an office for myself in our loft, where I have been spending a few hours every day doing blog work and photo editing. We have also gone through all of the boys' toys and put three large bags in storage (aka, our messy garage). I have also sorted through my ridiculous pile of cooking magazines and organized them. Today I washed couch and chair covers. I am consistently CAUGHT UP ON LAUNDRY, which is the absolute strangest thing on the planet. When I was working full-time, I was never ever caught up on laundry. NEVER. And the best thing of all is that I get so much quality time with my precious boys. Spending this time with them is very special to me. Getting Elijah on and off the bus every day is indescribable. Snuggling with Sammy endlessly on the couch is the best. I love having this time with my boys!

I have another organizational project for tomorrow that I'm excited about! I'll take before and after pics and share. Fun!

Thanks for checking in on us! More later!