All of the doctors

This was the week of doctors for the Williams. Marlo started us off with her 18 month well child visit. Just a couple months off!

We had to pull out all the stops to keep this one entertained for our almost hour long wait for the Dr. They apparently do walk in physicals for back to school kids and a Dr gets assigned to the physicals each day. We happened to go the day our Dr was on call. How is that a good idea? It makes the people that had appointments wait for an hour. The Dr was annoyed with it and felt that it compromised quality of care. I have to agree with her.




Marlo wasn't digging the exam and screamed and kicked at the Dr. I'm sure that didn't improve her already frustrating day. THANKS MARLO. We really didn't have any concerns for her and everything looked great!

Length - 32.2" - 46.6%
Weight - 21.4 lbs - 25.3 %
Head circumference - 18" - 28.5%

Her length fell off about 20% but I guess that's not a big deal. She does look tiny compared to other kids her age but she's solid.

Painting day!


On Wednesday Kasper and Rob were involved in a super fun event at Target Field! The kids got to run around and play on the field. How FUN! And it gave Kasper the baseball bug.

\



Just having a popsicle with his new girlfriend, who ended up being the goalie for the Gopher women's hockey team!



Meanwhile, Marlo and I watered my tomatoes on the deck.




Owie check!


More baseball when they got home.





So I woke up Wednesday morning and walked like I usually do. My left ear seemed sore and a little swollen but I (for some reason) still put my ear buds in and walked. By mid morning it was hurting more and I had determined it was likely an ear canal infection - basically swimmer's ear though I haven't been swimming. I tried an online diagnosis program through my health insurance and they agreed it sounded like swimmers ear and sent a prescription for drops to my pharmacy. By Wednesday night my ear was pretty painful so I started the drops as soon as I got home. Wednesday night was ROUGH and I spent from 1-3 am rocking in pain waiting for the Tylenol to kick in.

I had plans to work from home Thursday so Rob put some drops in my ear and took the kids to school for book day!


My ear felt so very bad so I called the online program to ask if it was supposed to get way worse before it gets better. Nope. The side of my face was swollen, I couldn't hear out of that ear, it felt like someone was stabbing a flaming sword into my head and I couldn't open my mouth. Rob convinced me to go to Urgent Care. This Dr couldn't even see my full ear drum because of the swelling and seemed to take a serious tone with me because he thought the ear infection had spread to my face and jaw. I went home with a small pharmacy of drops and oral antibiotics and pain killers.

Rob had a commitment after work that he couldn't reschedule so it was just me and the kids. I somehow got dinner into them but couldn't eat it myself because I couldn't really open my mouth. I also got them bathed by setting them in the tub and rocking on a stool next to them. Marlo went to bed the earliest she has in months and I went to work figuring out what the status of my health was. My ear was no better, I had body aches and a temp of 100.3. I called the nurses line and they (obviously) told me to go to the ER as soon as I could. To not wait until morning. It was about 7:30 pm by then. I had Rob come home to take me to the ER and my sister came over to put Kasper to bed and be with the kids. I don't know how people do it without helpful family around. Lifesavers!

We got to the ER, got to a room and waited like 2 hours to see a Dr. Thankfully it was worth the wait and we really liked the ER doc. He was instantly concerned because of the way my ear was swollen and sticking out from my head and thought it might be mastoiditis which is an infection of the bone behind your ear and is troublesome because it can get to your central nervous system being there by the base of your skull. I heard him muttering about meningitis and surgery. He ordered a CT scan - my first! Thankfully it wasn't mastoiditis, it was an infection of the parotid gland, which is a salivary glad! Most commonly seen in patients with MUMPS! What the heck. It's most likely that I had aggressive swimmers ear that quickly moved to the parotid gland. He sort of gave me the choice of going home or staying but basically told me I was staying. My oral antibiotics weren't able to get ahead of the aggressive infection so I needed regular IV doses of antibiotics.

While Steph was home with the kids, Kasper picked his nose way too violently and had a big bloody nose all over our sheets, quilt, towels, bath mats, etc. It was also storming outside. Not the best night to be in charge of those hooligans! Here's Kasper all cleaned up and back in bed.


I'll spare you the whole hospital story but it sucked and I hated it. By Friday morning I was going nuts so the nurses got a Dr to come discharge me. He seemed positive that we were now in fact ahead of the infection. I had better use of my jaw and my temp was under control. My ear still looked like an old wrestling injury but he said I could go home after my last dose of antibiotics. Oh it felt good to go home. My parents ran down to our house Thursday night when we found out I would be staying in the hospital so my Mom came to pick me up. I basically walked in the door, took a shower (with a cotton ball in my ear) and took a 2 hour nap.

I was excited to see these guys after daycare. But I clearly still felt like crap.


Kasper took a big fall while doing some shirtless bike riding. Poor kid. This resulted in much gnashing of teeth and bandages.


We had pizza that I ate just enough of to take my medicine with. My temp was creeping back up and I was internally freaking out that I was going back to the hospital. My parents headed home because they jumped in the car and ran down the night before and had no extra clothes or anything. I'll say it again, we're so lucky to have family that will drop everything to help if they can.

We took it pretty easy Saturday morning.



My parents came back down around 10 with their bikes and tons of food. #spoiled Everyone else went for a bike ride which had been the plan for this weekend before I went and ruined it.





My Mom brought lunch so we ate then everyone else did yard work while I relaxed. I got to do a lot of relaxing. And also laying down with ear drops in. I have to put drops in FIVE times a day. It's a time commitment.

We played a little in the yard after naps. Marlo killed it with her hair clip that she demanded to wear. She even kept it in longer than I would've guessed.


Wanting a snack mid-swing.




Mom and Dad also brought steaks and tuna filets to grill for dinner. It was DELICIOUS. Mom also did bedtimes Friday and Saturday night.


I was feeling better by last night. My jaw wasn't as sore and the swelling was starting to go down. My ear canal was still mostly closed by the last round of the day but bubbles would come up if I moved my ear around enough. I've decided the most awesome thing when you feel bad is to have my parents be at your house. It took a lot of pressure off of me to be responsible for food and child care and it also saved Rob from the load of all 3 of us.

By this morning I was feeling my best yet. So far today I haven't had any painkillers, my jaw pain is mostly gone and I have an ear canal again! It's little but it allows more drops to get in there and work. Also, my hearing seems to be coming back a little bit. The Drs led me to believe the recovery is longer than I would've guessed. Also, the prevailing thought is that I got the infection in the first place from exercising with ear buds in the humid summer weather. The take away here is to sterilize your ear buds before and after you use them!! Personally, I bought new headphones that go over my ears but I'm a little gun shy about the whole thing. Understandably.

Rob went on a long bike ride this morning so it was all me. There were lots of movies, which Kasper tried to watch and Marlo tried to disrupt.


Sometimes this kid has the patience of a saint for his sister.

It was Kasper that wasn't feeling his best today! I decided to get moving and went for a walk before lunch. Kasper chose to ride instead of walk or ride his balance bike.

The walk felt great and I even felt like I could feel things happening in my ear. I'm sure the blood flow helps. It seemed to open up towards the end of the 3 miles.

WHEW. It's been a week. I'm looking forward to being healthy again. It's all-consuming when you are feeling so terrible and you're mostly certain you'll never feel healthy ever again.

Hope everyone had a better week than me!