Possible Blood Infection

Dad is still in the hospital. He has a possible blood infection stemming from the urinary tract infection that spread. He has been on IV antibiotics all day and they are still running tests to try to confirm if this in fact is the source of the infection. Liver function is off, kidney's needed to be rehydrated, their count is off also. He only has one symptom...he is SO tired he can't stay awake. It almost seems like narcolepsy. In the past few weeks it only got worse. He had an appointment on Tuesday and they ran a whole bunch of blood work. Tuesday, after my Auntie Janet drove them all the way in and all the way home...they called and said come back in! Off they all went back to Boston for another hospital stay. Mom is staying in the room with Dad at the Brigham, where they are becoming frequent flyers!

I took a few days vacation to try to get some RandR (It's not in my nature, I know, but I tried).  I returned home tonight. Brendan and the gang are staying at our house tonight and we will probably head in tomorrow. Joe and Lauren are coming home this weekend.


My back continues to heal. I just wish it would hurry itself up (I really have no patience for it).

Sorry this is so short and their are no photos for I thought I could take a few vacation days without having to upstate, not realizing I would be updating again day by day.

Until tomorrow,

An exhausted and insomniatic Laurie

Dad Back In :(

Blog will be updated tomorrow when I have more information on Dad. He had an appointment today and after they got home they called to make him come back! More news tomorrow night.

Another Weak Back

You Know You Have A Back When...

 

I know about 10 times a night when it wakes me up that I have a back and it still hates me! These little babies that my friendly neighborhood pharmacist told me about, are awesome. They are helping with the inflammation while not making me SICK! They are not a miracle cure by any means but they are helping take the edge off the pain.

Because all I can do is walk and eat I have been doing a lot of both. We had a great meal at Rosalina's. It was nice to get everyone together. The next photo I took Dad had his glasses on but the photo was blurry :( 

Mom went on a much needed beach vacation with Auntie Peggy and my cousins. I am glad she was able to get away for a while. She needed the break. I just wish she wouldn't feel bad about leaving us here. We are doing ok and we miss her but are happy she is at the beach. The girls can't believe she went to the beach without any of us, they are a little confused over that :)

Dad unfortunately went to the doctors on Monday after suffering the weekend with a urinary tract infection.  They put him on a powerful antibiotic that will hopefully knock it out of his system. We now just have to get him to drink and eat more!

I was running out of ways to try and help my back when my cousin suggested I come over to float in the pool to take the pressure off my back. Well it was the first time I felt better in over two weeks. I went a couple times before doctor's appointments and the weather worked against me.

 

Brendan and Kerry have been very busy with their move so Auntie Phyllis Ann was a HUGE help to us babysitting. We never could have done it without her help!!!  The girls love having them here. I know they will miss them too when they leave :(

 

Kylie and Auntie Phyllis Ann swapped bracelet tips while Julie jumped and Papa watched a cowboy movie!

 

Kylie and Lilly both enjoyed a strawberry shortcake for dessert after Brendan brought dinner over.  I feel like a slug for not doing more. They managed to move a whole house and still have time to make us all dinner! They are truly amazing!

Auntie bought the girls each a new set of headbands. Kylie insisted on wearing all 5 of her headbands at once, the one she came with and her 4 new ones!

Julie was lucky enough to get a brand new dress from Amy this week. It was soooo cute and she looked adorable in it! Amy is always thinking of the girls they are very lucky kids indeed!

This weekend we had a traditional Parkway Diner breakfast! It is a tradition to go while Auntie and Uncle Visit.  As always the breakfast was awesome!

 

Today my Uncle Ruedi was nice enough to come from North Brookfield to pick up Auntie Phyllis Ann and Uncle Lee and drive them to Wellsley to pick up Jacob :) Jacob has been studying at a Pre-Med National Youth Leadership Forum in Boston for the last 10 days. He loved it and is looking forward to going onto phase 2 next year with a more intensive program. He is so smart! I wish I had his smarts, oh and swimming skills! He is also an accomplished member of the Kenai High School Swim Team.I just can't believe how grown up he is! The last time I saw him was 2006!

Julie got to try out the new exersaucer. She was very happy to be playing with the little butterfly in the dome. She was perplexed as to why she could not get it out of the dome. I have to say I was very envious that she got to jump around and I have to stay still :( I told her to do some jumping for me!

I am going to the doctors again tomorrow morning. I am hoping he has some hope for me and I can go back to work. I hate missing this much work! I never take sick time yet even with a broken back I feel like I should be working. It's just so strange not to be there and doing stuff. School starts in a little over a month and I feel so behind on stuff going on. I am way outside the loop on lots of things and I am going to do everything I can to catch up! I need my back back to normal... or at least back to the way it was before the fall. 

If I keep walking around it is the only way to keep my back from getting stiff and it helps with the numbness in the leg too. Due to the awesome heat wave I walked inside. I went to Kohl's one day and walked around for two hours before I was so tired I had to sit down. I did manage to take a snapshot of this cute onesie I saw on my rounds. The Kohl's people probably were a little suspicious of my walking around and not shopping around. Well I was thankful for their ac and their hospitality even if they didn't know they were providing it!

Thanks to everyone who continues to ask about Dad, continue to check up on him via, calls, txts, visits, e-mail's and cards. It is sometimes just what he needs to give him an extra burst of energy.

I hope to have better reports next week for Dad's infection and my back. We make a good pair!

Until Next Week,

Laurie

What A Week!

Vacation All I Ever Wanted...

 This was the amazing view of the beach in Saco, Maine where I spent a few days last week. 

Mom and Dad came up and joined us for Lobster night. This is everyone who ate the lobsters. The four of us who did not ate at the kids table :)

I saw this sign this week and it reminded me of Adele and her ice cream man love hate relationship.

Poor Adele every day wanted an ice cream from the ice cream man. He would either be gone by the time she got to the truck, was taking a nap or had left the house to go somewhere. I swear it was a conspiracy to get the poor kid to suffer the wrath of the ice cream man! 

Ryan was nice enough to play Ice-Cream man for the kids instead, to ease the scaring the real ice-cream man left on the kids vacation

Ryan strapped on an apron and took their orders at his window. He made the experience all the more real by playing the song from the ice cream truck on his phone and raising the blinds when the kids would come to the window. They paid their 5 cents each and got an ice cream or a bomb pop...depending on the night.

The kids got Pier Fries one day while we were out

After a long hard day they were all ready for bed and watching a show before story time.

The reason the blog was not updated last Tuesday was because I had a traumatic experience on Sunday which left me in an awful state for the rest of the week and continues to plague me. I decided to take advantage of my surroundings and go for a leisurely 4 mile run in Maine. It was a beautiful morning until...I fell from a standing position onto the stairs that lead down from the porch. It was not pretty! The stairs were wet because of the sprinklers and I slipped and fell hard. I figured it was just a bad bruise and even though it hurt like crazy I decided to continue with the run. ( I knew I would stiffen up later so I would probably not be running later.  ) I got back to the house and took a shower. All I wanted was a few days off to chill and go to the beach!  So much for trying to have a few days vacation.

I kept an ice pack on it and took Advil religiously thinking it would get better. In fact it did not. My parents came to Maine and waited to make sure I could make it home ok. I made it home and went to the first doctor. They did not do x-rays and told me I had soft tissue damage and to manage it like I was doing. They gave me an anti inflammatory drug which made me sick. So needless to say I was not better 4 days later when I called back and got another appointment. This time the appointment was with a Chiropractor who wouldn't do anything without an x-ray. Thank God he was smart enough to do this because it turns out I have a fractured bone in my back! SO it has been a rather painful few weeks and I still have ice on my back as I type this and can't seem to find a comfortable position. 

Joe came up for a few days to go to a bachelor party in Boston. He and Julie got to spend a little time chatting about phones. Julie was sharing her little plastic phone with Joe.

My Auntie Phyllis Ann and Uncle Lee are visiting from Alaska. Last night we played a trivia game. I assumed my position with my ice pack and played a few rounds. 

 While Brendan and Kerry continue to move the girls have been coming over to play. It's great watching them. They make me laugh and even though it hurts to laugh they are worth it. They had a tea party with Monkey yesterday.

 I think Kylie wanted to give Mr. Monkey a little more lunch before his dessert.

 This morning Auntie Phyllis Ann gave the girls each a new book. Julie's was based on Alaskan Animals. She loved it!

This afternoon Julie and Auntie read Papa another book. Julie loves looking at the pictures.

Everyone else is pretty healthy. Dad is doing great this week and it's great having Auntie and Uncle here! I wish I was able to do more. As the day goes on so does the pain. It's the worst in the morning and at night before bed. Sleeping isn't really going all that well. I don't like waking up knowing I have a back because of the pain that's there :( 

I only hope the healing process speeds up!

Sorry for the brevity of this but I can't sit any longer.

Thanks to all my faithful followers. Dad is doing so well knock on wood and I know it's because of all the support he gets from all of you. We are truly so very lucky to have so many friends and family who care for us. Without you we would be nothing!

Until Next Week,

Laurie

Vacation

Due to a few vacation days the blog will not be updated this week. It will resume next Tuesday as scheduled.

Thanks,

Laurie

Fun in the Summer

 FLOWERS

All From Mom's Gardens :)

There are a ton of beautiful flowers growing in Mom's garden these days. She works pretty hard out there so that the yard will look nice. I just cut the grass she pretty much is the green thumb in the family!

Dad had a regular week for him which is good. He still is having neck pain but it is better since the acupuncture has started. It's mostly after he wakes up in the morning and when he naps during the day. I need to come up with a donut shaped pillow that won't allow his neck to drop to the side. There has to be a way to keep his head up. He also needs to build back up some of his muscle tone that he has lost since this all began. 

Today is Adele's real birthday so there was a little party in honor of her REAL birthday today :)

This was Adele when she was a year old. Today she turned 5!

 Time sure goes by fast! It seems like last summer she was born and now she is 5. Where did those 5 years go?

 We had our annual retreat for work this past Thursday. It was at Wachusett Mountain. We got to go on a short hike and saw all kinds of cool things. Then we played family feud. My team won!!! I am still waiting for my prize though...hmmm.

This was one of the teams we beat. It was a fun way to end our meeting. We were suppose to go on the skyride but due to the awesome weather we have been having visibility was poor so we canceled the ride :( Maybe next year.

The kids have been coming over a lot which is so fun :) They keep us all smiling. Kylie is Julie's best friend! She loves her!  Kylie also likes to help Dad with his glasses when he reads. She knows now that he has to take them off to read the three little pigs. Often she just reaches out and puts them on his forehead! On this particular day I think we each read the little pigs twice for a total of six reads. That's a lot of pigs!

Miss Julie is getting bigger and stronger by the day. She is rolling all over and pretty soon will probably be crawling. Then we are in trouble!

Lilly has freed the cheetah who is really a leopard from the time out he was in due to the Bruins loss. She was back in her spot with him watching Annie...again. It never gets old and the music is very catchy. I remember watching it over and over as a kid too.

Kylie and her baby watched Annie from the other end of the couch while Papa took a rest in his chair. Kylie's rest in this picture lasted about 2 minutes and she was all rested up! She calls Miss Hannigan in the movie "Nanigan" so we go with it.

Well that's really all the news we have this week. Thanks everyone for still checking up on us and keeping in touch we really appreciate it.

Until next week,

Laurie