Tball

Maddy had a game last night. She did very well! She played shortstop and catcher! Brent said shortstop was good for her because she's short =) She looked like a storm trooper from Star Wars =) with all of her catching pads on I didn't get a good picture then my battery went dead. The helmets are a bit big. It started to rain at the beginning of the game but ended and the sun came out. As Maddy was running home, she has a huge smile on her face!

My Endoscopy went well. The dr was running a bit behind (I guess that can be a pun) since I found that he also does Colonoscopies! Those who are having Endos done, we can leave our pants and shoes on. Those who are having the other get to bare all! Two of us were having Endos and the rest were the 'other.' The nurse started my IV-not fun. Scott came to keep me company then he went to pick Maddy up from school. I was wheeled in and the dr wanted me to roll on my left side while the anethesiologist (sp?) had 2 needles behind me. I was very concerned with this since I wasn't sure where they were going to put those =) In my IV-that's the sleepy drug. I've had gas to put me out. So we joked that I had my pants on which was good so the dr wouldn't mistake me for the 'others' and what they were having done! Stay above the waist! Before I know it I was getting droopy and then I woke up. The nurse started to talk to me to tell me I was done. From what I could hear, I was not alone in the recovery room. I heard a man's voice and the nurse talking to him about needing to pass gas. Obviously he was having the 'other' done. I hadn't even opened my eyes and I hear him passing gas! I couldn't believe what I was hearing! Not to be childish, but it was funny and unexpected. So, long story short, my Esophagus had shrunk and the dr widened it. I could tell when I ate yesterday that I didn't feel the food scraping down (potato chips) like I used to. I woke up feeling fine with the drugs they used. Scott, Maddy & I went out for lunch =) and came home to relax. I didn't have pain except for when I laughed last night. So all's well!

This week-

We had a quieter week this past week. Games/practices were rained out! Though by Thursday it was sunny and 70 and by the weekend it was 85 degrees! We finally turned our air on on Sunday as it was 85 degrees in the house!

Friday am after my bible study, I took Maddy to rent High School Musical 3, Beverly Hills Chihaha and Australia for me. Madison LOVES HSM and Troy =-) she has watched that movie everyday, sometimes twice a day since. I know the theme for her bday and what she's getting! Anything HSM! Friday afternoon Scott went golfing (last minute plans) and Friday night I went to scrapbook.

Saturday am Hayley scrimmaged another U10 team-she was the bat girl! I think she really wants to get out and play. Soon hopefully. Then it was off to Brent's game. They lost by 2 but he had fun. We went to Subway and ice cream after. It was a HOT game!

Sunday Scott went golfing.........again..... =) but he took Brent with him. Brent had a BLAST-he got to golf, drive the cart and had fun with the guys! He wants to go again. Hayley had another scrimmage then it was off to home and relax.

Yesterday I volunteered in Hayley's library then off to home to get ready for our book club meeting plus Maddy's game, plus Brent's makeup game from last week, plus Scott was supposed to start softball with the church league plus Hayley was supposed to get fitted for her cheer uniform! Needless to say, Maddy & Brent's games and book club were all we could squeeze into the night. Brent won their game and Maddy did AWESOME in her first ever tball game! She was so cute in her pigtails and visor! I have a picture of her-I'll post soon.

Today Hayley had an appt with the podiatrist. Her toe looks amazing! Well, it's not red and beefy anymore. I think there was still gauze stuck to her toe from our ER visit but it was hard to see it thru the blood, etc that was on her toe. As she has stopped bleeding, been healing and taking a shower, I think the blood has washed off the gauze and it's starting to heal off her toe. It might not make sense-it's late. Anyway, the dr took a scalpel and cut off the gauze and it came right off! Her toe is deformed but it's healing. I'll have to take a picture tomorrow and post it too. She has a little 'crater' that's still 'wet' but I think the gauze sticking actually made a little band aid to help it heal. Around her toe you can see where her skin was ripped off by the force of the board pulling the yucky part of her toe off. She has a follow up in 3 wks. She is still to wear her special shoe, but we're healing-YEAH!

I think that's about it. It's late and I'm tired. I have my Endoscopy tomorrow-can't wait for it to be done!!!!!!!

xoxoxoxoxxoxo

The weekend!

We had a great weekend! Last Thurs & Friday it was 70+ degrees and sunny here! Our neighborhood had a garage sale. What a great way to get exercise and walk! Of course I found a cute Polly set that adds on to a set Maddy has-ugh, more Polly's =) One of Hayley's friends that live behind us had a sale so Hayley bought a cute sweater and Brent bought Pokemon cards from another friend on that block. The $2 I spent on Maddy's Polly's it was worth listening to how excited she was! I was telling her about it on the way home from school but not telling her what I bought and she was in the backseat giggling and carrying on with excitement! What Polly's do to a little girl!! Brent was excited about his cards, he had to show me them ALL and he sorted them by points. He used his $$ to buy them so that added to the excitement. He's so precious-he spent 1/2 hr picking through all of these cards to find the best. He showed me each one.

The excitement carried over into Saturday. Brent had his first baseball game. His team won 22-6! Ok, that's not what really counts but it's fun. In one of the innings, Brent was up with 2 outs and bases loaded. He hit a line drive up the middle-it went by the 2nd baseman and shortstop and past the left fielder!! He scored all 3 runs and he got all the way to 3rd base!!!!!!!!! Way to go little man!!!!!! His coach gave Brent the game ball at the end!

Maddy had practice and you should the arm on this pipsqueak! She can throw hard AND aim! Her coaches weren't expecting her throws and they think she's good! She can hit too! These kids must have my athletic ability! HAHAHAHAHA!

It's been quiet for Hayley. Her toe is healing-now I can tell. I'm not sure when she'll get skin but there's a difference in the look. She was up Friday nite until midnight reading! Gotta love it but a little late especially when she doesn't sleep in.

Scott starts softball with his church league next week. Tis the busy season with all these kids playing ball! It's alot of fun to watch him play! I'm glad he still can =)

This afternoon Hayley & I went to church to volunteer for Kids Against Hunger. Normally our church volunteers go to the warehouse 20 min from here but this time we assembled at our church. 300 people signed up for the 2 shifts! It was so fun and cool! Our team had 6 of us pour the food into a bag and another 6 or so weigh and seal the bags. The bags consist of a powder vitamin mixture, dried veggies, wheat germ ? and rice. It's wonderful to know these bags of food will feed children in Africa. Our team in an hr made 360 bags! Multiply by the other people in our shift and the 2nd shift! We had so many volunteers that Gina, the organizer decided to have some of us make 1,000 PB&J sandwiches for shelters around Cincy. Hayley & I had so much fun and it was an eye opener for her-me too. She felt bad for the starving children.

Well, I'm off to read and relax! Get ready for another busy week!!!!!

An update!

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter! We went to church and came home and found Easter baskets and Scott made a scavenger hunt for the kids like last year. They LOVE it!! Brent was asking if there was going to be one this year. They found their treasures at the end. We grilled yummy burgers and watched the Masters and played outside. I think Maddy has eaten all of the eggs herself! 10 of them!!!!!!!

Not much is new since last blog. The kids' ball practices are getting rained out. Brent starts games this weekend.

Hayley & I have been living at the dr's office! Ok, maybe not that much. Yesterday she had another follow up with her pediatrician who thinks Hayley's toe is healing great. It's hard to say it's healing with the way it looks still. She wanted us to see the podiatrist today so we went this am to see him. She is supposed to keep her toe covered, no airing out as per the ped. If her skin gets dried out, it gets lumpy and won't heal correctly. She has some dried, dead spots? now that he may have to scrap off in 2 weeks when we go back for a recheck. There is a piece of gauze still stuck to the end of her toe from last week that he will have to scrap off too. He's not sure what or if she will get her nail back. The WHOLE nail did come off. We have an antibiotic cream to put on everyday as we change her bandages. She is out of gym and softball for at least a month if not 6 wks as it will take this long for it to heal. It's still red and beefy looking. The dr today gave her a different shoe to wear. More suited for her injury. She's in great spirits, no pain and is doing ok with the way it looks. I thought she'd be panicing and upset which would be understandable too. But she's ok with it and knows she might not get a nail back. So for now, she's hanging in there. Thank you for your 'get well' wishes, cards, and thoughts Hayley has received! She was surprised and happy to receive all of them!

Hayley's toe

If you'd like a closer look, you can click on the pic and it will enlarge =)

Feeling Better =-)

Well, today's appt was WONDERFUL! Hayley's ped dr was back from vacation! She is so wonderful and up beat! She 'unveiled' Hayley's toe and thought it was cool. UGH. Both Hayley and I finally looked at it and it's definately missing a corner. It has a definate slant to it. I'll take a picture tomorrow and post it =) Maybe. I can't tell if her nail is 1/2 gone or all gone. It's a red 'beefy', mess. She will not have to have surgery as of now. Her ped dr even had the podiatrist come take a look-how's that for service? He thought it looked great and they were both noticing how it's still bleeding and shouldn't be after all of these days which is a question I had. We have a RX for Silvadine ? to put on to stop it. It's used for burn victims. We bought our supplies today to bandage her toe. We go back on Tuesday for another recheck. She has to wear her special shoe at least until then. No softball or gym thru next week. We're all in better spirits now! She can take a bath but it's suggested to keep her toe out of the water for pain issues. I change her dressing everyday and it needs air for 20-30 minutes.

On the upside, she's having her friend Marie over for a sleepover!

Hayley's follow up

What a fiasco of an appt! We couldn't see Hayley's regular dr. So the first issue is this dr was going to send us home without even looking at Hayley's toe! He took off the splint and the ace bandage type thing. The gauze the ER wrapped her in was total BLOOD! And to think he was going to send us home w/out changing it! YUCK! What if there was an infection starting??? So, he was a little rough, but we'll deal with this. I asked about crutches or a boot for her to get around in. He suggested I go supply that for her. Not him. Isn't that what a dr's office does? So, on to soaking her foot to loosen the gauze. Fine, I can do that. Well, the biggest problem is that the ER nurse who bandaged Hayley used GAUZE! Well, this now is STUCK to her wound and the dr can't remove it w/out tearing it off her WOUND! This appt just gets better.............so he wanted ME to go home and soak her foot numerous times a day for an hr or 2 and have ME pull it off! Are you kidding????????? And after a few days if we didn't have any luck, come back and he'd do it. I expressed I wasn't real comfortable with that just because this toe has a habit of bleeding for LONG periods of time! Not to mention I don't want to hurt her. Well, he suggested we could stay in a back room and soak it. So, we did this for an hr and half. I caught him in the hallway and explained the situation under the bandage. This is no scratch or stitches, this is a CHUNK out of her toe and it's VERY TENDER. I just wanted to make sure he knew what he's dealing with underneath. SO BE CAREFUL AND GENTLE! The rest of the gauze obviously came off the unwounded parts of her toe. While he was cutting, he must have been a little rough and Hayley screamed and she was scared. Understandably so. So he says 'you need to stop screaming because you're scaring the babies!' I couldn't believe I was hearing what he said. So now the poor kid has gauze STUCK to the wounded part of her toe. And he was going to send me home to deal with this myself. Which I asked him IS soaking going to get this off w/out tearing, bleeding and lots of pain? He wasn't sure. Thanks. Well after this, I found our nurse and explained all of what has happened and I'm not happy with how he's treating her and her toe. I had to speak with the complaints person. Well, now we're on to how best to proceed with this. We could have went home or continue to soak and there is the possibility that we need to give her more novacane to get the rest off and keep her comfortable. I hated to put her thru this again, but I'm trying to do what's best. So, we decided to do novacane and get the rest of the gauze off. A nurse came in to help and I reassured Hayley he would be careful and also telling him to be. Hayley only wanted to know what he was doing and he took it as she's impatient. Well, when someone is injecting 3 shots in your toe, wouldn't YOU want to know when he's done???? His bedside manners were AWFUL! Hayley asked 'what if I scream?' I said 'you go ahead if you need to.' So, she was brave and it ends up she really didn't feel the shots. The 3rd under her toe she did more. I didn't watch as he somehow got the stuck gauze off. Of course it started bleeding again. From the looks on their faces, I don't think they were expecting such a procedure. The ER nurse really screwed up. She should have put this vaseline bandage on so it wouldn't stick to her toe. Well, they ended up giving her a shoe to wear and we need to go back tomorrow for a follow up. I made an appt with Hayley's normal dr. He also had mentioned plastic surgery. So, we'll see what Hayley's dr says tomorrow. Hayley was so scared her jaw started chattering again during the novacane, etc. I told her this was best so now her toe can finally start healing, no soaking and pulling. I still haven't LOOKED at it yet to see exactly how bad it is. I just know the shape of her toe is not round anymore. It's such a bloody, yucky mess. I've seen it but now up close and examining it. Which I will have to after tomorrow when WE start changing her bandage everyday. So she's up and around and doing very well. She deserves to go to her favorite store-Justice! I'll keep you posted as to what news we have tomorrow!

Hayley's Mishap

Ugh, my poor girl! Scott was making her a loft bed on Saturday. It's like a bunk bed but with no bed underneath. Well, we were trying to see if the 2 side frames were even. There was too much space to use a regular level, so we put a shorter board across. Hayley was holding the one end post and I was on the other. Well, the board slipped and came straight down on Hayley's toe. The board had a 45 degree angle. She cried and screamed and I thought the board landed flat on her foot. We soon realized it was more than that. I rushed her into the bathroom as the blood starting gushing off her foot. I had her on my lap with her foot in the tub with a towel on it trying to stop the bleeding. Scott came in a minute later with the part of her toe that had been severed. It was a chunk with 1/2 her nail attached still. Her 3rd toe on her left foot-the top corner came off and 1/2 her nail. I didn't realize this until he came holding the 'piece.' I told him to put it on ice in case it can be reattached. How CSI is that??? We sent Maddy & Brent across the street to Jenny's house while he and I brought Hayley to the ER. We got in to be seen fairly quick as ER's go. Hayley was brave but scared-her jaw kept chattering. I wrapped her in my sweatshirt and sat in the wheel chair with her. The nurses came with warm blankets to cover her. They gave her 2 shots of novacaine on her toe =( The dr's can't reattach the 'piece' as it was a chunk rather than straight through. At least we were prepared! They xray'd her foot and because this chunk was taken down to the bone or the little skin left is barely covering the bone, she has an open toe fracture. The bleeding finally stopped in the meantime but as the nurse cleaned it, it started again. It took 20 minutes to get it to stop. The dr's say her nail SHOULD grow and be somewhat normal. The nail bed was not hit. As for the rest, as she grows, it could grow back. I have not looked closely at it-it was making me sick to my stomach and dizzy. But from what I saw, her toe is not rounded, it's slanted. So hopefully it will fill out as she grows and heals. I think I was coming down from the adrenalin rush of getting her calmed down, holding the towel on her foot and to the ER. I started realizing what happened and the vague glimpses of her toe. It was a bloody mess. She is not supposed to be walking, it can make her toe start bleeding again and if it's anything like Saturday, it won't stop. So, I carried her yesterday where she needed to go. She hobbled here and there. She's not in much pain-I'm surprised. She's on antibiotics because it is a deep wound. We went for a drive yesterday and got ice cream for a treat and to get out of the house that didn't need walking. It was 73 degrees yesterday! She has an appt today with the pediatrician to see how it's healing. I think Hayley bumped it last night as it started to bleed-UGH! It didn't bleed past the bandage she has on, so that's good news. I'm not sure how the appt will go today with the pain and exposing her toe. The kids' are on Spring Break this week, so it's a perfect week to lay low! I will update after her appt.

Hello!

What's the news today.......................Spring has sprung here! Scott cut the grass tonite. It's so long and green! Our trees are blooming and have great flowers on them. The tulips and daffodils are up!!!!! Birds are singing...........we had a woodpecker pecking on our playset over the weekend. I don't think he got very far.

We finally received our 2nd chair and footstool for our den which WAS our computer room. We moved our computer in the basement. It's great to sit in the comfy chair, feet up and read! Hayley has also found her spot in there and likes to read! And speaking of her, her spacer deal is progressing nicely! She's starting to get a space between her teeth. She still talks like she's got a mouth full-it's pretty cute. But she does have a mouth full. Her softball coach wants her to try playing catcher. I think this year they can steal bases so we'll see if she likes playing there. She's in 4th quarter now. The school year is slipping away................another year. We went to her open house at the middle school and she's so excited to go! She's going to play bells this year and percussion next which leads into drums. She's excited for that too. The layout of the middle school is great. One building is 5-6th grade and the other bldg is 7-8th. The buildings are connected but they never mix. The 5th grade is in a 'pod' upstairs and 6th is down. The bus ride should be interesting.......................

Brent is great. School is going smooth for him. He LOVES to read too! His favorite books are the Magic Tree House. He and Hayley compare which books they've read. He's having fun with baseball. He's not sure about playing football this fall. As of now, he doesn't want to. Sign ups are already underway. If he doesn't play, that's fine.

And Maddy................she's great too. She's really coming along in her reading as well. Her teacher says she's doing great in class and is independent and confident. She'll do great in 1st grade. I'm worried about her being gone all day. I miss them all when they're at school................Her team hasn't practiced much. They start next week.

Next week is Spring Break for us. Scott is taking a few days off and we might go to the Children's Museum or one of the Hall of Fame's.

I have gotten the results of the monitor I had to wear. It's what the dr thought-premature ventricular contractions or premature heart beats. I have a follow up here in a few weeks. I'm supposed to stay away from caffeine and chocolate. YEAH RIGHT!!!!!!! Maybe I can drink caffeine free Mt Dew but CHOCOLATE! Not that I eat it everyday but there are THOSE days when a piece IS NEEDED! Which I'm sure is fine. I laughed when I heard that.

Well, I went on my Walk to Emmaus 2 weekends ago. It was a wonderful, serene, emotional, positive weekend! I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go and had a wonderful sponsor! There were so many emotional surprises, laughs, great food and tears. But I came away with so much more positive, moving feelings. I've been on a high since. The love that I felt from my fellow 'pilgrims', Emmaus Walk alumni that came from our church to support me (and my hubby came =) and people I don't know was incredible! One night I was reading Luke for the bible study I'm in and I found Maddy's dried, purple play doh in my bible! I needed a laugh that night! I'm not going into detail about all experiences because it would be a book by the time I'm done. It's been fun to compare notes with Scott & my dad. Scott didn't want to tell me the 'surprises' otherwise it would have ruined it.

So now I'm back in the swing of things-school, papers, practice, etc. I have the Twilight movie! I think I've watched it 3 times now and the bonus features. My neighbor Jenny who also is a fan, has the movie and the next rainy day, we plan to watch it-again! I can't get enough! How sad is that?

Anyway................well, I'm off to read and go to bed.