Random Things

Today is Brian's birthday! :) The big 3-0!!!

Have a great birthday, babe! I love you!

We had a quick trip down to Orlando this weekend and I plan on posting a bit about that a little later this week.

Has it really been that long since I posted? Dang!

Well, skin issues are clearing up at our house :) WOO! Katie's skin looks almost perfect! yay! I hate that it takes such a strong steroid cream to clear up her skin. Let's hope we can prevent future eczema flares as much as possible!

I was covered in a rash for the better part of this week. Yep! I had an allergic reaction to something. Not sure what it was, but the likely suspects are the antibiotic that I was put on for my staph infection OR the glue on the band-aids that I wore for about a week. My skin is bright red and itchy where I had the band-aids and you can still see where the band-aids were. It's quite lovely. I'd post a pic, but I'll spare you!

My blood pressure is remaining higher than the doctors would like so they doubled my dose. It was 125/89 last time they checked. Too high? Not in my opinion! Sigh. The doc has scheduled a followup appt for a couple weeks down the road so they can try to determine the cause because apparently I am just too young to have high blood pressure. I said, "Well, it's not really a mystery...I am overweight and it runs in my family." He said, "True.....and true. But I would just feel better if we took a look to see if it might be something else." I wasn't aware that they could test for a cause for high blood pressure. Maybe too much salt in the diet? Too much caffeine? I bet they put me on a limited diet to see if that does anything. We'll see. I will oblige if that is the case. If you know anything about me and medication, you know that I hate to take it so if I can do something to avoid it - GREAT!

I had a nice Mother's Day. Brian and the kids let me sleep in. Let me rephrase that...I got up with Kasey at about 4:00 and put him back down for a nap at about 6:00. So I was able to sleep in after that :) I got a new Dooney & Bourke purse. Very cute! Pink with pink polka dots. Thanks, honey! I also got a few things from the kids and a set of noise cancelling headphones. I had asked for the headphones for when I go on plane trips. Not that I am expecting a lot of trips, but I know that I will probably head out to either Houston or Colorado Springs at least once yet this year, if not twice. And I will probably head out to Seattle again in January. Planes are loud.

Katie had her last day of preschool this week. It was very cute. They had a water day on Monday and got to wear their swimsuits to school. Katie was so excited! She got to go down the big slide. :) What a blast!

The big news since the last post is that Brian is staying in the Air Force! We are breathing a little easier having found this out. It certainly makes things easier.

My hydrangeas have bloomed and are starting to look nice. I am going to take a picture when I get a few more blooms. I am proud of my hydrangeas! My lilies look like they are about to bloom too! Hopefully we will get to see those in a couple of weeks. They are bright orange and they got really big this year.

I think that's all the excitement around our house since last post. OH...start the countdown...Brian turns 30 in 11 days!!

From some talk with a few people, it is most likely that Katie does not have MRSA. She just has a staph infection. Which is what they told us on Wednesday at the ER, but the doc we saw on Friday felt differently. The new creams and ointment are doing wonders! Her hands feel like hands again - they are not scaly and dry, but are soft. I don't even know how long it has been that her hands have been so bad, but it's so nice to see improvement!

There are some strange bugs down here - no doubt about that. And whatever bit Katie, bit me. And I too have a staph infection. I went to the ER last night because I was just in a lot of pain and these 2 bug bites are now giant welts on my butt and stomach. They are hot to the touch and hurt like hell!!! So I decided to have them checked out. At the very least I was hoping to get a pain killer! Tylenol is not working. I actually had a fever when I went into the ER and began having chills so I am glad I went in. They put me on the same antibiotic as Katie and gave me darvocet for the pain. I am still in a lot of pain, but am confident this should go away soon.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I hope to post some fun stuff in the near future!

We took Katie back to the doc today. Sigh...

It turns out, she has something called MRSA. And the little bumps on her skin that we thought were bug bites are apparently not bug bites, but rather spots that she may have scratched that became infected. They might be bug bites, but the doc said they probably weren't. Poor little thing. They hooked us up with an ointment to help along with the antibiotic. She is looking better which is GREAT!

They did NOT give us a referral to a dermatologist. I repeat. They did NOT give us a referral to a dermatologist. And...Brian was able to come with us to the appt and he has been known to get things done when needed. The doctor gave us yet another cream to try on her trouble spots. He said "Come back in 3 weeks and if there is no improvement, I will give you that referral." I am really hoping this cream does the trick!

Have a wonderful weekend! I don't know what our plans are as of yet, but if we do anything fun, I will post. I will try to get some pictures out again soon. :-)

Sheesh! I haven't posted in a while. Lots going on...here is a brief breakdown!

So we found out that Katie is allergic to cats and dogs. Lovely. The wonderful news is that she is not allergic to the outside allergens along with dust mites and mold. WOO! We are trying to keep the animals away from Katie as much as possible and are not allowing them in Katie's room. It will take a while before we might see an improvement. Think good thoughts!

Brian's grandma came out for a visit a couple of weeks ago. She makes us laugh! She is so full of energy and tired us all out. Hahaha! We went to Mobile and made a couple of stops along the way. I have some pictures that I will post soon. We had a great time while she was here. Brian and I managed to get sunburned on that Sunday which was not great, but thankfully we were able to keep the kids burn free!

I headed out to Seattle last Monday for business. Sitting on a plane being packed in like a sardine while having a blistering sunburn is not the most pleasant experience. I am sure the man sitting next to me could feel the heat emitting from my body. Hehe...poor guy. I always feel bad for those in the middle seat. Especially on a longer flight. The flight from Houston to Seattle was just around 4 hours, but 4 hours in a tight space can be hard to handle. I was happy to have the window seat each flight.

Seattle was great! What a beautiful place...this was my first trip out there. Gorgeous! The weather was perfect while I was out there. Not the traditional rain that you hear of. And no, I actually did NOT get coffee while out there. Seriously. How could I go to Seattle and not have coffee?! I must be crazy! And I did not eat any seafood while out there either. That's practically "un-American" I was told. Hehe. I will definitely get coffee while out there next time, but I think I will still pass on the seafood...

The business trip was good! I learned so much about the customer and it was great to meet them face to face along with the rest of the account team. I am glad I went! I was a bit overwhelmed with all of the information presented, but it was great to be involved.

Just before I left for Seattle, we noticed that Katie had a couple of strange bug bites. They are pretty nasty and I will spare the details, but after I got back we noticed there were more. We started wondering if it was chicken pox, but they were not itchy and there weren't many. And now, 2 weeks later she is still getting more. They swell up so big and are very painful. So, we are under the assumption that they are fire ant bites. Nasty I tell ya!

Well, we spent the majority of the day in the ER today. One of bites appeared to be infected and she was not able to walk well today. I did send her to preschool, but after an hour they called me in a panic. They said it was swelling and she was really in a lot of pain so they wanted me to come check it out. I decided to just take her to the ER. Long day. So...they had a look. Yep. She has an infection, but since she is limping, let's do an x-ray and some blood work.

OK.

Blood work and Katie. Not a good mix. 4 of us held her down while 1 person drew the blood. And then gave her a SpongeBob sticker. Ha! She still hates you for poking her!!! SpongeBob canNOT take that away!

Anyway...her white blood cell count was 18,000...clearly her body is trying to fight something. Considering she is on antihistamines constantly (and I am told that these tend to LOWER the count) I am glad I took her in.

They did another blood test (I didn't catch the name). They were measuring something that has to do with inflammation of the joints. It came back elevated. So...they were trying to decide between keeping her in the hospital with an IV with antibiotic or sending her home with an antibiotic. They called in the orthopedic doctor to make sure the infection had not spread to her knee joint. Thankfully NO. I found his conversation with Katie interesting. He was a huge SpongeBob fan and they were talking about their favorite episodes and singing. CUTE!

Anyway, they sent us home with an antibiotic. We are scheduled for a followup on Friday. If the patches on her body that have not yet cleared up are not better by then, I am going to ask for a referral to a dermatologist. I am sick of being passed from doctor to doctor with little positive results. There are still the patches on her hands, knees and ankles that have yet to clear up from the eczema breakout in December. The rest of her skin, with the exception of the bug bites, looks beautiful!

I think that's it!! This was the condensed version...

One last thing...please pray for my nephew Owen who has been in the hospital. He is out now, but is still having difficulties.