Finally, a Little Good News!

Tab's doctor just came by to check him out, and the CAT scan came back okay! What a relief! The other thing he said, is that Tab could go home today!!!!! Thank you Lord! Now we just have to wait to be released. He is going home with some serious meds, but we'll take that over the hospital any day! Can you tell that I'm just a little excited?

Nothing new with Boog. She still has the petechiea, and lots of bruising. She gets really tired sometimes, and is just plain not herself. She is always so full of life, and she's not right now. We met with the school yesterday to discuss her being gone for awhile, and what happens when she comes back. They were so awesome, and were ready to help in any way they could! What a great feeling! So for now, we are just keeping her as quiet as possible {a 6yr.old quiet?} and getting things ready for our hospital stay with her. I haven't been home much, but the few times I have been home, I've tried to get some things done and ready to go. I am so worn out from worrying, and going back and forth. I'll be so glad to get home tonight, and maybe get some rest...if my nerves will let me!

Thank you all for praying and thinking of my family during all of this! We have crossed one hurdle, and have the biggest left, but I know that God will hold our hands! Thank you!

All our love~
Tab, Alicia & Caroline

Another Day

We are still here. I know hospitals are great, because they "fix" you, or get you better, but this stinks! No home comfort, we miss our puppies, our bed, my cooking! So far, we have no news on Tab, or when we will get to go home. They came in this morning and took him for a CAT scan, but we don't have any results yet. He is hanging in there, still in pain, and still getting MEGA doses of IV antibiotics. We still haven't gotten the blood cultures back yet, so we are just in limbo, which just plain stinks!

I talked to Caroline's specialist this morning, and the decision was made to go ahead and admit her to the hospital. We will be admitting her on Monday morning at 9am. We will stop the steroid treatment and begin the 5-day IV immuno globulin transfusions. I am just so torn with the situation. I know in my heart that this is the best treatment for her. Not only will I have less worry about her being at home and being inactive, but they will be able to monitor her around the clock, and make sure she is doing okay. They will test her counts daily, and God willing they will go up, and we won't have to do the other tests {bone marrow biopsy}.

God asks so much of us as parents, and I only hope that I can remain strong for Caroline. She has no idea yet that she will be going to the hospital, and that will be such a hard conversation for her. She can't stand the idea of the hospital, poor sweet baby girl. She remembers the week she spent 2 years ago, and the constant poking and prodding!

I am headed to her school now to find out what we need to do on that front. They have a teacher at the hospital that will help with schoolwork that she has, so that's nice. It will give her a sense of normalcy in this crazy time.

That's it for now, I will update more when I have more for you! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your continued love, support, and prayers! Keep them coming!

Love,
Tab, Alicia & Caroline

Latest on Tab & Caroline

We are sitting here in the hospital, not a very cozy place, talking about our sweet Caroline. Tab isn't getting any better, and we are waiting to see what the next plan is. For now, he justs keeps getting the meds and waiting. The blood cultures should be back on Friday, so hopefully we will have some answers then.

My beautiful little girl.
She is very sick. She has a long road to go. We went to the the specialist today, and learned a lot. Her platelet count yesterday was a 10, today it was a 2. I asked the Dr. what happens if it gets any lower, and her response was, it can't. They gave a 3 treatment options, and we are going to see what happens next. The 1st was a round of steroids that will last for 2 weeks, the 2nd was to admit her and do IV Immune Globulin Transfusions for days, and the 3rd was a 1 time IV but it has some scary side effects.

My gut reaction was to put her in the hospital for 5 days, but her dad didn't want to go that route. We ended up opting for the steroids. The only thing about this is that after she's finished, her platelets will drop again until they slowly start to rise. The 5 day IV will get them up and keep them there.

What makes this all so difficult is that while her platelets are so low, she is in danger of internal hemorrhaging. If she gets the slightest bump of an arm, or falls down, there is a strong chance she will bleed internally. If she gets a cut, she will have excessive bleeding because she doesn't have enough platelets to clot her blood.

The nitty gritty
She can have NO activity. NONE. She is not allowed to play outside. Period. She can't swing, ride a scooter or bike, she is only allowed to stay inside and color. This is going to be the hardest task I have ever been delegated to do...keep a extremely active 6 year old totally inactive! We have to meet with the school tomorrow to see if they will be able to comply with this, if not, then I have to stay home with her.

The petechiea is worse, a lot worse. And she has bruises all over her little body. If this keeps up, or she has any more nosebleeds that are hard to stop, then they will test for more serious diseases. And make no mistake she has a severe blood disease, that may or may not go away. If all goes well, she will get the all clear in about 8 months. But every time she gets any viral infection, we will be back to square 1.

We have to go every week for the 1st month to have her counts checked. Then we move to every 2 weeks, then on to 1 a month for about 6 months.

I think I have touched on all the major points of ITP and how it affects Caroline.

_______________________________________________________

I know I have so much to be thankful for right now, PRAISE God it's not Leukemia! But that doesn't discount the seriousness of the disease. We have a long road ahead of us, and we just have to keep praying that He will heal her completely. For now, I will try to keep my chin up.

Thank you to everyone that has kept us in your thought and prayers! Please keep it up!

Update: Tab & Caroline

Oh how I wish I was writing to say thank God, they are all better!

Tab was admitted to the hospital today at about 2pm. They expect it will take several days to get the staph out of his system. They had to go back and re-open his "wound" and drain and clean it, then re-pack it. He is on the strongest antibiotic to fight MRSA. They also gave him a super dose of steroids to boost his immune system.

Caroline is a whole different ballgame. I have cried so many tears today that my eyes are nearly swollen shut. Her dad, Steven came down to help out, and while I was getting Tab into the hospital, he took Caroline for her appointment. Her fever never would completely go away. She has these tiny red dots all over her back and legs, and lots of bruising., along with the constant head ache.

Steven called and said the words no mother {parent} ever wants to hear. They want to admit her to the hospital. I really thought I was going to pass out. I requested they do bloodwork on her because of the bruising and she has had about 8 nosebleeds in the past month. The bloodwork came back, with bad news. Her platelet count was really low. About 10,000. They got on the phone with some specialists, and decided their course of action.

She was diagnosed with Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura:
The exact cause of ITP isn't known. For that reason it's referred to as idiopathic — meaning "of unknown cause." It is known, however, that in people with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, the immune system malfunctions and begins attacking platelets as if they were foreign substances.
Antibodies produced by your immune system attach themselves to the platelets, marking the platelets for destruction. The spleen, which helps your body fight infection, recognizes the antibodies and removes the platelets from your system. The result of this case of mistaken identity is a lower number of platelets than normal.
A common cause of petechiae is a low platelet count (thrombocytopenia). Platelets are blood cells that play an important role in blood clotting. Causes of a low platelet count include:
§ Autoimmune disorders, such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis
§ Viral infections, such as mononucleosis and measles (rubella)
§ Side effect of certain medications, such as chemotherapy drugs
§ Bone marrow disorders, such as leukemia
§ Infection of your bloodstream (septicemia, or "blood poisoning")

In basic terms her platelets are attacking each other. The little red dots are Petechiae, which is explained above.

We will be going to see the Hematologist in the morning at a hospital an hour away. They are going to run a full blood panel on her, along with some other tests, but they wouldn't elaborate. We won't know until then if they will hospitalize her or not. If her platelet count drops any lower, they will.

What makes this whole thing worse is that a little over a week ago, I was talking to her dr. about the nosebleeds, and she said she would be worried if she saw any petechiea, as it is usually a sign of Leukemia. And then today she is covered with the petechiea.

Needless to say, I am falling apart. My husband is in one hospital with a severe staph infection that if it has traveled to his bloodstream could be fatal, and now my daughter may be hospitalized due to ITP, which could have far worse possibilities than just a passing thing.

I know I am the first to say that He will take care of us, and that He has a plan. But when its slapped in your face, it is so hard to hold onto that. No, my faith in God is not wavering. I am just in a low place right now until I can process all of this.

Please pray for my dear sweet family.

It Just Gets Worse

The doctor's appointment yesterday did not make me feel much better about Tab's infection. It was worse. They gave him a shot in the booty, and changed his antibiotic to something even stronger, because of course the staph he has is MRSA, which is the worst there is.

The really discouraging part is that the doctor drew lines around the whole red area, and told me to watch it closely, and if the redness spreads across the lines to take him to the ER and have him admitted immediately. GREAT!

Well, it has now reached the lines, but not yet crossed them.

And, about 2am, Caroline comes and gets in bed with us. Not a good sign. About an hour later I realize she is on FIRE! You have got to be kidding me right? Sure enough she has fever...103.3! I slightly panic, but give her some Motrin and lay back down with her. The fever never broke, but got down to 101.2. By the time I got up for work, it was back up to 102.1.

2 days ago, she said her head hurt, but she knocks it on stuff all the time, so I didn't think much about it. She said it again last night, so I gave her some Tylenol, she felt better and that was it...or so I thought. This morning she said her head and her back are hurting her. I'm trying not to freak myself out!

I am waiting right now for her doctor's office to open so I can get her in ASAP! Just a couple more minutes! Please keep Tab & Caroline in your prayerrs and pray that they can BOTH be A-ok!

Yucky, Yuck, Yuck!

We spent part of our Saturday night in the ER. Hubby has a severe staph infection....again. It makes me want to scream, cry, and plead with God to make these darn things just go away!

This makes the 3rd in almost 2 years. Poor guy, I so feel his pain!

To make a super long story, super short...Caroline had emergency surgery 2 years ago due to a staph infection, followed by a week long stay in the hospital, another week with no activity at home, and numerous dr. appointments. A month later, both Tab and I had staph. Then in September we {Tab & I} had it again!

We have done everything the doctors have said to eradicate this nasty little thing, but to no avail. We use this antibiotic in all our noses, wash any cuts or scrapes with Hibiclens, and it just doesn't work!

Please say a quick prayer today that he will get a good check-up at his appointment today. Usually we have to go back about 5-6 times for them to change the packing and drain the darn thing, and let me tell you from experience, it HURTS!

Great Giveaway...Super Fun!

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She Must Have Had a Bowl of Sugar

Ever have one of those days when you pick your precious child up from school/daycare/somewhere and you just can't wait to see how their day was, love on them and just go home to spend time with them? Yeah, well I do, and I know you do too!

I didn't sleep well the night before, and when I'm having a bad day, I love me some Caroline! She just makes me smile, and warms my heart with all her antics. So as I'm on my way to pick her up from school, I was thinking about what she and I could do together when we got home. Cook dinner, maybe make cupcakes {bad for the mommy who is trying to be healthier!}, read together, you get the idea.

I park, walk in, and she is running full force to greet me. What a great feeling...until she hits me with her head full on in the tummy. UGGGHH! Gee sweetie, I love you too! I know she wasn't being mean, but darn it, it was unpleasant to say the least!

As we are getting to the car, one of our friends pulls up to pick up her daughter, and Caroline assaults her too. Geesh kid, calm down! We talk for a few minutes while Caroline {who I am now holding} lays her head on my shoulder giving me the cuddles that I so wanted! Then, it all abruptly comes to an end.

Kim goes to get her daughter, and as we are saying goodbye, Caroline says, "can I have this {holding up a sucker}?" I reply, " no baby, you can have it after you eat dinner". This is usually my response when she wants to eat junk after school. This is what happened next:

Caroline: But I want it now! {screaming and whining}

Me: I said no, you can have it after dinner, or not at all.

Caroline: Ughgh! Oh, yea, I want it so I can have it. {imagine all the sass in the world here}

Me: I said NO! And if I hear you talk like that to me again, guess what you get?

Caroline: My mouth washed out. {barely audible}

Me: Wanna try your luck?

Caroline: No ma'am. Here. {handing me the sucker}

She was pretty quiet on the ride home since she new she had royally messed up. We get in the house, and she drops her stuff in the floor, and heads to let the dogs in. From that point on, she was literally bouncing off of things. We could not believe her stinking energy. She never slowed down. No time to love on momma, just go, go, go. She must have had a bowl of sugar. We had dinner, called her cousin to wish her a happy birthday, took her bath, and off to bed she went.

Only then does she look up at me and ask if I will lay down and read to her. I crave to cuddle with her, but I can't tell if she means it, or if it's another stall tactic, so I stick to my guns and say not tonight, you took too long in the tub. She didn't complain too much, so I turned off the lights and left. She was out in less than than 5 minutes.

Maybe she'll slow down enough tonight to give her momma some time with her!

Little Artist

Well by now I would hope that everyone knows I have my own business, and if not, SHAME on you! Go check out Carolina Sunshine Designs to see some of my work. Anyway, so I happen to paint/sew quite often, and Caroline always wants to be with me, thus she must do what I am doing.

God love her, she drives me nuts some days. "Momma can I paint now? I want to paint now. Can I use this canvas? I want to use 7 colors.". Oh how I love her, just not when I'm painting. Kidding people, just kidding. I just wish I had a little more patience when I was painting!

The whole point of this post was to show you her artwork. She has her own set of crayons/markers/pens/pencils/paper....basically everything I have, just for kids! I also buy her the "cheap" canvases so that she can feel like a "real" painter.






She even glued some little wooden hearts on this one! So sweet!

This one is my favorite! See the yellow, orange, pink blob next to the tree?
That's me in a dress!


I love my Little Artist!

But I Talk Funny Now!

Well, I'm sad to say that Caroline has lost her first tooth. Why am I sad you ask? Because this is the last of the "baby". I know...I sound crazy, but think about it. She's reached every milestone, except for loosing her teeth. All of her cousins have, and her friends...but not her...until now.
For me this is the last "baby" thing about her. And I never thought her loosing a tooth would really make a difference to me. Boy was I shocked last night when I cried after she went to bed. And, of course, Tab was on the couch laughing at me.

Let me give you the skinny.

Her tooth has been loose for over a month now, so we have just been waiting for it to get really loose. While we were gone on the cruise, Caroline stayed with Ryan, Amy & Avery. One night the girls were taking a bath, and goofy Caroline had the wash cloth in her mouth, so...Avery decided to pull the wash cloth out. There were tears and a little blood, and a tooth that was really loose now! Poor kid! So they both had to tell me about it as soon as we walked in the door! She has been wiggling it all week in hopes that it would finally come out. Well last night she let me peek in her mouth to see that it was barely hanging on!

I got voted to pull it, husband is a wee bit squeamish with blood! Caroline was pleading with me not to pull her tooth, but y'all, it was seriously just barely hanging in there! I let her put a popsicle on her gums to "make it numb", and then I yanked that bad boy outta there. No, I'm not really that mean...I don't think! But I did pull her tooth. And you would have thought I was cutting her arm off. Of course less than 5 minutes later she was smiling while she ate her popsicle. After she was done, she kept saying, "great mom, now I talk funny"! Which of course was only because she kept pushing her tongue through the hole!

Poor kid, can you see the red streaks on her face and the wet spots on her shirt from crying?


Naturally this morning she was elated to find the tooth fairy had visited, and more than willing to show off her proud new smile!


She was so excited this morning that she had finally lost a tooth!

Touched

A little over a week ago, on my way home from work, I get a somewhat frantic call from my dad. Of course my 1st thought is that something has happened while they are on their cruise. My dad asks me if a woman has gotten ahold of me about her son wanting to see Caroline. Huh? While they were on their cruise they got a call from a woman whose son went to school with Caroline a few years ago. He had been diagnosed with Leukemia and wanted to see Caroline. I was floored. I was frantic to find out who this was.

I checked my messages, and sure enough there was a message. I called her immediately. We quickly filled in the blanks about each other and our children, and we both knew we had never actually met. I knew immediately who her son was, and she knew Caroline. How odd that in the almost 2 years our children were in preschool together we never met, but not really. In this day and time with parents running to and from, working and getting kids, it's not surprising that we were on different schedules. What she told me broke my heart and touched my very soul.

Ryan had been diagnosed in March 2008 with Leukemia, and had been in and out of the hospital since then. He had been asking to see Caroline this whole time. When they were in school together they were "boyfriend and girlfriend", and I used to give Ryan hugs daily. Ryan's mom {Ashley} told me how he would wake up at night and ask for Caroline, and she would tell him she was sorry that she didn't know where to find her. Ryan would then tell her that when he turned 18 he was going to find Caroline and marry her. How precious is that?

I quickly found out they were in Temple, not far from here, and told her that I would love to bring Caroline to see him. Since we were leaving for our cruise in 2 days, we decided that we would drop everything right then and there and drive to see them. I picked Tab up, crying as I retold the story, and we drove to pick Caroline up from school. I knew Caroline would know who Ryan was, she still talked about him quite frequently. So when I got her, I asked if she wanted to go see her friend Ryan? She quickly corrected me and said ,"you mean my boyfriend Ryan from Parkview"? I said yes, and she was so excited she couldn't contain herself.

Next was the hard part y'all. How do you tell your little innocent child about this horrible disease hurting their friend? I simply told her that Ryan was very sick with Leukemia, and was in the hospital and wanted to play with her. She barely has time to take a breath before she says, that she bets the money she gave to Pennies for Patients went to Ryan because its for kids with Leukemia. If you missed the post about Pennies for Patients you can read it here.

When we got to the hospital, Ryan was getting a CAT scan, but the nurses knew just who we were! They told us that Caroline was all Ryan talked about! They took us to his room to wait. A few minutes later we heard Ryan call Caroline's name from the hallway as he was being wheeled back. I have never seen so much joy in 2 children's faces as I did when they saw each other.





They played and colored together for 2 hours that night. It was such a joy to be a part of that sweet innocence. I'm not sure I have ever been so touched in my life. To know that somehow my precious little girl was so important to this precious little boy. I am deeply touched and deeply honored to have been there when his spirits were down. I will write more about Ryan and his condition soon, with links to a site for him. Until then, please pray for this sweet boy and his family.


Alicia

Sail Away...

*****Disclaimer: this is slightly long*****

For anyone who has been wondering where I have been {because so many of you missed me..hehehe}, we have been on a wonderful Caribbean getaway with the family. We had 7 glorious days away from the real world {including parenting}.

I have such a wonderful family. My parents took all their kids on a family cruise. Actually that's not completely true, my step-mom {because my dad would never do this...sorry daddy!} pays for us to go on a cruise with them every so often! Isn't she unbelievable? I know, I'm really lucky! So we just got home from our trip, which was so nice to get away with the husband {and family} for some fun! The only sad part is that our kids don't go with us. My dad gets a little unnerved with the younger ones {under 10 basically}, so we do this mostly for his sanity, or else he would be a huge grumpy pants! But, this year Tracy did get to take her oldest, Jeremy because he's about to be 17.

Needless to say, it was nice to get some quality time with husband and family, without chasing a 6 year old all over a ship!

I have to tell you that we are a little dorky though...we love trivia. We play it all the time on the ship. Like 3 times a day! How silly is that? We had lots of fun trying to win. Notice I said trying, we only one once, on the very 1st trivia game...so sad.

We had a little rough weather and we were unable to go to Jamaica {where we had this awesome trip planned, 7 zip lines...would have been so fun!} but we just lazed around the pool instead. Tab and I rode a moped all over Cozumel and played on the beach, we had so much fun just the 2 of us! We saw this lady get some crazy looking drink that came served in a pineapple, seriously she got the whole pineapple! So I had to order one! Look how silly!


If you have never been on a cruise, you must go. If not for the getting away, for the food! Oh man, is it good! You will never eat so much in your life! Really. And such a variety. You get to try things you would never try at home. And, the most fun part for me is the dinner. I don't have to cook, I get to eat in this beautiful room, and I get to dress up! How great is that? I never have the occasion to get all dolled up anymore, and I love this part of the cruise! We had 2 formal nights, and I mean formal. Like women in ball gowns, men in tux's or dinner jackets, so its always fun to see what people are wearing! Here are some shots of the first formal night.


The Parents {Jack & Mary Lou}

Some really pretty girl husband took a picture of....ha ha ha, just kidding!

Ron & Analisa

My daddy & me {isn't he adorable?}

And here's the second one! I meant to take some random pictures of other people to show y'all some of the other "formal" people, but I forgot!



Mary Lou and Tracy

Ron and our Head Waiter Paulo {he was a cutie!}

Tracy & her son, Jeremy

And did I mention the food? I'm telling you, it's unbelievable. You have a five star meal every night. The best part is you can order anything you want on the menu...anything. There are usually 6 or so choices in each course, and you can order 1 of each if you want, or 2 of the same thing. There was duck consumme, lobster bisque, lobster tail, filet of beef, escargot, peach soup, lamb, duck, and I can't even begin to tell you about the desserts. YUMMY, that's all I can say.

Chocolate Brownie

Mushroom Puffed Pastry

Ron - with his corn
Paulo over heard Ron say that he loved corn, so he brought him a plate full of it!

He ate ALL of it!

If you have managed to hang in there all this time on this really looong post, you are now rewarded with, wait for it......

......more random pictures from the cruise!

Husband climbing the rock wall

Cozumel

Ron & Analisa

Daddy & me

the ocean.....ahhhhhhhh

What I won on the slot machine...557 quarters {139.75} And that's nothing, the guy next to me won 517.25!!!!!