Medical Appointments

Thankfully, the five of us are generally very healthy. Aside from my broken ankle in 2021, we haven't had any surgeries, hospitalizations, or doctor appointments aside from physicals for several years. Despite being healthy, we still see a doctor at least once a year for a physical, see the dentist at least twice a year, and the boys typically see the orthodontist once a month. This year I've made more appointments than usual. Paul has only seen the dentist. I had a pap smear and a mammogram plus an extra trip to the dentist for a small filling. Nadia has only seen the dentist plus had a physical.

Oliver had his twelve-year-old physical yesterday. He grew three inches in the past year and is now 5 foot two inches tall, which puts him in the 87th percentile, and he's still on track to reach his projected height of 6 feet tall. He gained ten pounds over the last year, which means his BMI is still at the 5th percentile. I was happy to see that he weighed 82 pounds because the goal had been for him to weight at least 80 pounds for our zip lining adventure in Alaska next week. He was happy to be told he wasn't getting any shots at his physical, but then when we were at the orthodontist yesterday afternoon, he found out that he needs to have two teeth pulled next month, and he dislikes those shots more than immunizations, and I have to agree with him on that assessment. 

At Ian's physical in January, we mentioned we thought he might have sleep apnea. This led to a referral to the pulmonologist at Geisinger. They had scheduled his sleep study for next week, but we cancelled once we received the estimated charge. He met with a pulmonologist in Hershey where they charge far less for a sleep study. That doctor said he needed to see a cardiologist and an ENT. The cardiologist appointment was a waste of time and almost $400 because he said Ian doesn't have a heart murmur. The ENT appointment last month was a waste of time (not sure yet if it was a waste of money as we haven't received a bill) because they told us they don't do nose surgeries on those under the age of 18, and they knew when I scheduled the appointment that it was for a 14-year-old who has hypertrophy turbinate. She suggested we take him to an ENT at Geisinger, Camp Hill (to see Dr. Wilson), or Hershey. On July 24 I called the office in Camp Hill and left a message. On July 25 I asked the ENT we saw to send a referral there. Having heard nothing in the meantime, I called and left another message at the ENT in Camp Hill on August 12. This morning, they told me that they had received the referral but hadn't contacted us because they don't work with our insurance. I said that we don't have any insurance. They for some reason thought we had UPMC insurance, which we've never had. So later they called back and scheduled an appointment with Ian for December 3 in Hershey. Because they won't repair a deviated septum prior to the age of 18, we are not sure if we should wait so that Ian wouldn't have two nose surgeries. It seems wise to find out the results of the sleep study first. If he doesn't have severe sleep apnea, we might wait until he's 18 to fix his nose and just let him continue to be a mouth breather. I called the pulmonologist in Hershey on August 5 to request that the follow-up appointment after the sleep study be done by phone or video instead of in person given the length of our drive to and from Hershey. I never heard if the doctor approved that or not, so I called yesterday to follow-up as I had said on August 5 we would need to reschedule if it had to be in person. We have to drive down there to get the results because the doctor wants to do another exam. I'm not too thrilled with his examination skills since he thought Ian has a heart murmur, and the cardiologist said he doesn't. But I rescheduled his follow-up appointment by one week so that it won't interfere with our homeschool co-op. Either Paul or I will be taking Ian to Hershey for three doctor appointments from October 29 - December 3. At the orthodontist yesterday, I asked when he would begin working on Ian's lower jaw because he's been in phase two for six months. He said he'll start next month so Ian will have two orthodontist appointments next month, and he's also going to get another x-ray (per the request of the orthodontist) when Oliver is having two teeth extracted. 

We do have dental insurance, and it is definitely worth the monthly premium we pay. We don't have vision insurance. Last week I called and scheduled appointments four of us to see the eye doctor in December/January because the last time we saw the eye doctor was December 2022. We don't have medical insurance, but we've been members of a Christian medical sharing program for almost two years. So far, we've only had one medical bill reimbursed (dermatologist for Paul), but I anticipate receiving reimbursement after Ian's sleep study. I am going to research the cost of health insurance again this fall to make sure we are still making the correct choice by going with Samaritan instead of insurance. The ENT office I spoke with today said the first appointment will cost $250. Since we received $18K back from the insurance this year, the line item on our budget for medical expenses currently shows a negative number despite these extra bills. 

Doctors galore

For years we have suspected that Ian might have sleep apnea. When I asked his pediatrician about this years ago, I was told that we should just wait and see if he would naturally outgrow it. When I mentioned it at his physical in January, we were given a referral for a pulmonologist at Geisinger. Ian had a video appointment on April 3, which resulted in a sleep study being scheduled for August 19. Because we don't have insurance, they sent us an estimate of the cost. With a "cash" discount, the price was still $6K. I called Healthcare Bluebook, and they told me that Ian could have a sleep study at Hershey Medical for $1,500, and because it was the "fair price," we wouldn't have to pay the usual $400 co-pay. We saw the pulmonologist at Hershey Medical on April 30. It was worth driving 3 hours round trip to save our family $400 plus save the Samaritan system $4,500. An in-person visit was much better than a video appointment. He was able to see that one side of Ian's nose is completely blocked. Ian has said for years that he hasn't been able to breathe out of his right nostril. He's been a mouth breather since he was a toddler. The doctor said that he's too young to fix the deviated septum, but that the turbinate hypertrophy can be addressed. He submitted two prescriptions to address that issue and said Ian also needs to see an ENT in light of the size of his tonsils plus the blockage in his nose. Unfortunately, he sent them to a Walmart in Lewistown rather than Lewisburg, so I wasn't able to pick them up on Tuesday. I'm planning to pick them up tomorrow. I called Healthcare Bluebook to find out which ENT within a couple of hours radius of our home would do a tonsillectomy and/or open up his nasal passageway at a fair price. They are working on that. The good news is that if we go with one of their recommendations, we won't have to pay for the surgery, and our $400 co-pay will be waived. Normally you pay a bill, and then submit it for reimbursement if it exceeds $400. That will still be the case for pre-op testing and consultations, but not for the surgery itself which is nice as that can easily be $5,000 or more. We've been with Samaritan for 2.5 years and only submitted one bill for reimbursement so far. 

We are planning to stick with Hershey Medical for the pulmonology, but we're hoping to see a local pediatric cardiologist, and we have no idea yet where we'll go for the ENT. Ian saw MANY doctors during the first three years of his life due to his urological condition and eosinophilic esophagitis (GI, allergist, psychologist, urologist, ENT, and cardiologist). However, for the last almost 11.5 years, he's pretty much only gone to the doctor once a year for a physical. I feel badly that I never mentioned his frequent nosebleeds or his complaint about not being able to breathe through his one nostril the last several years, but I'm also wondering if I need to find a different PCP for him if he has had a heart murmur and they never detected it, and they also must never have looked into his nose because the doctor said it's 100% blocked. My sister, Yvonne, has an innocent heart murmur. Hoping if Ian has a heart murmur, his is also innocent, and I'm praying that the ENT will give us wise counsel as far as whether or not surgery is needed so that he can breathe better. I used to drive him to Philadelphia, Hershey, etc. for appointments in the first three years of his life. It seems like that will be the case again now for at least the next seven months as we already have two appointments scheduled in Hershey in October and November with the pulmonologist. Ian doesn't remember any of his urological surgeries or endoscopies. If he has another surgery this year, obviously he'll remember this one. 

At the doctor's office on Tuesday, they measured his height as a little over 5 foot 4 inches. He grew two inches since January! He's a tiny fraction of an inch shorter than Nadia. Her days of being taller than him are definitely numbered. Unfortunately, with his clothes and shoes on he only weighed 90 pounds, which puts him at the 2nd percentile for BMI. He lost weight over the last few months. I've asked him to try to gain at least five pounds. Oliver has been gaining weight like a champ the last couple of months as I told him he needed to weigh at least 80 pounds when we go ziplining in Alaska in August. I think it's going to be harder for Ian to gain five pounds, but hopefully he can get his BMI to at least 5%. As one who is often wanting to lose a few pounds, I can't relate to having a problem gaining weight. 

On March 22 the health insurance company told the investigator that they would reimburse us. We haven't received anything yet. Hopefully they haven't changed their minds. I found a cheaper place for a mammogram in Bloomsburg. I haven't had one in 17 months. They only reimburse the cost of a mammogram if a problem is detected, so I'm hoping never to be reimbursed for a mammogram. Oliver had quite a few doctor appointments and hospitalizations for the first six years of his life, but for the last almost six years, he's also mostly only gone for his annual physical. Nadia has been very healthy for almost sixteen years. Hopefully after we address the sleep apnea and other issues recently uncovered with Ian, we can again have a stretch without many doctor appointments. 

Thankful Tueseday

1. Last week someone from the pulmonologist's office called to schedule Oliver's next appointment, and I said I didn't think it was necessary. I think he's really turned a corner. He''s still more prone to having a cough than his siblings, but it doesn't seem to progress too "serious" these days (thank the Lord!). I even have stopped using the nebulizer because it didn't seem to be helping, and skipping the nebulizer didn't cause his symptoms to get any worse. Here's to hoping and praying Oliver can avoid being hospitalized in 2017.

2. The kids enjoyed the eight Halloween events we went to over a period of five days - at Weis grocery store, McCann school of business, the library, four churches, and trick or treating. They ended up with 17+ pounds of candy between the three of them. Last night Nadia went as the Pilgrim (she wore that costume 4 of the 5 nights), Ian went as Luigi (2nd time), and Oliver went as Mike (from Monsters University). Paul joined us. I had taken the kids to 7 of the 8 events. Paul took them to one by himself and joined us for trick or treating. The kids gave him some bags of Middlesworth sour cream and onion chips (one of his favorite kinds of chips) and also some peanut butter cups (his favorite candy). It's fun to see all the different costumes that people wear. Last night a Christian puppet ministry put on some puppet shows outside, and they were also giving kids rides around the block and giving out free hot dogs, popcorn, and donuts. We walked around visiting houses for about 90 minutes.

3. I have enjoyed the Bible study on Hosea. Tonight was the last night. They will be starting other studies in January, and I hope to join again.

4. This morning I asked Oliver if he liked trick or treating last night, and he said, "I really like museums, Mommy." I was not expecting that reply, but it was music to my ears. My four year old loves museums! He then went on to talk about how much he liked the planetarium show we saw in Baltimore a couple of weeks ago.

5. Paul and his parents were able to see Nadia's game on Saturday - first time they saw her play this fall. Paul was also able to see a second game of Ian's. I am equally grateful that soccer is over for 2016. It was also nice that Paul's parents got the kids lunch at McDonald's and played with the kids for a couple of hours at our house on Saturday.

6. We had fun carving pumpkins on Saturday, and it was special that Pop Pop helped with the project.

7. I had taken a week off from Facebook, but I was glad I reactivated my account because through it I learned that a local library had made arrangements for a free bus trip to Harrisburg - through a grant they will be providing transportation, tour of the capitol, lunch, and tickets to see the Nutcracker ballet! I signed Nadia and myself up, and Paul's parents have agreed to watch the boys that Saturday. I am really looking forward to a Mommy/daughter day with Nadia - that is a rare treat. I had looked into taking her to the Nutcracker last year but didn't because of the cost. It is such a gift to be able to go for free!

8. The trees are so beautiful! Since the weather didn't cooperate on Sunday, I had the kids put on Sunday clothes for a few minutes yesterday so I could get my annual "fall leaves portraits" of each of them. In addition to beautiful trees, I am thankful for my three precious children and my camera, which is definitely one of my most favorite possessions that I own (since it enables me to preserve images of my three beloved children).

9. Jesus is the King of the universe no matter who becomes the President of the USA. As it says in Proverbs 21, "The king's heart is like a stream of water directed by the LORD; he guides it wherever he pleases."

10. As I type this at 9:40 pm, Paul just went out to work on the door. He is motivated to finish it this evening because our home is being appraised tomorrow morning. I am grateful that something else will be crossed off the "to do" list.

11. I am not really into candles, but many years the soccer team has done a Yankee Candle fundraiser. I look through the catalog to find one of the cheapest things I can buy (and am grateful my kids have only one fundraiser a year and the only other person I show the catalog to is Paul's mom who graciously buys a few things so I don't have to go to others and solicit their purchases). Well I have decided I really like having one of their fragrance spheres in two of our bathrooms. I don't know exactly why but those bathrooms had been stinky places lately although I clean the bathrooms once a week. The price in the fundraising catalog is naturally higher, but since I found I loved them (and they sadly only last 1-2 months each), I found a good bargain an got some for $2.50 each (less than half of what I paid through the soccer team). It's so nice to have our bathrooms smelling nice again.

12. I don't do my CVS couponing trips as regularly as I used to, but I still go now and then and am always grateful for

the bargains when I do. I went last Friday and got 20 items (six boxes of cereal, three 12 packs of Coke for Paul, four bags of fun size candy bars, six 2 liters of Pepsi, and a box of granola bars) and paid about $25 total. Three of the bags of candy were used at our church's trunk or treat. I kept the fourth bag at home because it was filled with what currently is my most favorite kind of candy (also a favorite of Nadia) - Milky Way Simply Caramel. Yumm! Hopefully a little bit of chocolate hasn't sabotaged my diet. As of the last time I checked I had lost 5 pounds.

13. Ian and Nadia continue to make progress on learning their multiplication tables. We are working on the six times table this week, and we already did the ten times table, which means after this we only have three left to learn.

14. Ian loves practicing the piano! I am so happy that he enjoys it and is making good progress. Nadia is very happy that she is now allowed to use the pedal sometimes.

15. We finished Mara, Daughter of the Nile. It was an exciting book to read, but I purposefully picked a couple of lighter/shorter ones (Miss Hickory is the one we're reading right now) before we start our last one that is set in ancient Egypt (Golden Goblet).

16. Nadia and Ian were well behaved when sitting alone in church on Sunday morning. I need to remember not to take that for granted, as I am sure there are many 6 and 8 year olds who would struggle to behave in that scenario. I am thankful they both do a great job in the morning worship service. At this time next year I'll be teaching Oliver how to do the same.

Home Sweet Home

There is just nothing like your own bed, especially when you have a back that is very particular about what you sleep on. I became particular about what I slept on eight years ago. Oliver needed to be on oxygen during his nap on Monday afternoon, but he was able to stay on "room air" during the night on Monday night so we were given our discharge papers around 9:15 on Tuesday morning. Walking to the car was almost more than Oliver could handle, but thankfully he made it (with a lot of coughing) because with a suitcase, purse, and a bag of toys I would have hard a very hard time trying to carry him at the same time. I drove to Paul's parent's house and picked up Nadia and Ian and then drove back home. After lunch Oliver threw up then I gave him a breathing treatment before he took a three hour nap. At first in the hospital they were giving him 12 breathing treatments a day, but they eventually weaned him down to 4 treatments a day (8am, 12pm, 4pm, and 8pm). The first time we gave him his oral steroids this morning he threw up all over the place. I talked to a nurse and she said to try again, and this time we got half of what he was supposed to have today down him without incident. I am taking him to the Pediatrician on Friday and the Pulmonologist on March 7. Yesterday I did schoolwork with Nadia and Ian in the afternoon (usually we do it in the morning) and then vacuumed, mopped the kitchen floor, did a load of laundry, did a load of dishes, cooked dinner, and did some general straightening up around the house. I went to bed at 9pm and had the best night of sleep I had in 11 days as I was only awakened once (at 3am by Oliver) between 9pm and 7am. Today we were back in our usual routine (except for the fact that Oliver isn't his normal self).

My mom had outpatient surgery this morning to insert a catheter below the other lung so that fluid can be drained as needed without poking any more needles into her. We are hoping this will help her breathe more easily and that in turn will give her more energy to work on her PT and OT exercises and such.

Last year I gave the kids each a puzzle for Valentine's Day. This year I gave them books. Oliver and Ian each received one of the bedtime math books (I HIGHLY recommend those three books - the kids LOVE them and they are doing math problems and they have different questions for different ability levels which means all of my kids can participate), and Nadia received a boxed set of four Amelia Bedelia chapter books (#5-8). She finished the last book last night, which means today she is back to reading Henry books (by Beverly Cleary) from the library. The library only had books #1-4 of the Amelia Bedelia chapter books, which is why I got those for her instead of the third bedtime math book (although I do want to get that third book at some point along the way). We had gotten the bedtime math books from the library, but I knew they'd be ones we'd use again and again and again so I wanted to own our own copies.  I also promised to buy them some candy after it went on sale so I got them a bag of conversation hearts after I returned from Maryland.

Pneumonia again

Sometimes I wish I had some medical training under my belt. I never aspired to a career in a medical field; education is definitely my niche (if I had to pick something else maybe I'd pick travel agent). Sometimes when I've been caring for my mom (like when she had a 102 degree fever on Sunday) or my kids, I've wished I was a nurse or a doctor. I certainly have more medical knowledge now than I did 15 years ago after going through various infertility treatments (giving myself hundreds of shots for one thing), having three babies spend time in the NICU, Ian's eosinophilic esophagitis, both boys' urological surgeries, etc. Anyhow Oliver came down sick on Monday with my in-laws (bless their hearts I was not intending to give them three sick children to care for in my absence!), but today he really took a turn for the worse. He was sleeping almost the whole day (as seen in these pics), not eating anything, throwing up, high fever, etc. He registered a fever of 103.6 at the doctor's office, and the pediatrician said he has pneumonia. His respiration rate was very high, and his saturation level fluxuated between 92-93 (earlier at home it had been at 95%). He gave me a Rx for an antibiotic and told me to push fluids (or foods like jello and applesauce that contain a lot of water) and keep checking him with the pulse oximeter at home (we have certainly gotten our money out of that thing!).

The doctor said he is on call this evening and can see Oliver at the hospital tonight if he's admitted. He said if his saturation level drops below 92 (when awake) we are to call him. It did register lower than that shortly after we got home, but we gave it some time and it came back up. I was thankful that Paul was able to come home in time to take Nadia and Ian to ice skating lessons while I took Oliver to the doctor and CVS. After they got home, I went to the grocery store and bought jello, apple juice, applesauce, etc. in the hopes of enticing Oliver to consume more fluids.

Oliver had pneumonia last May (over Memorial Day weekend), and he was border line that time over needing to be hospitalized and put on oxygen, but he did avoid a hospitalization that time, and I am hoping the same will be true this time, although I will certainly take him there if it's needed. Please pray he responds quickly to the antibiotics and that it will be very clear to me whether or not I need to take him to the ER. I have asked Paul to take Nadia and Ian to homeschool gym class tomorrow morning, and I will pick them up at the end; this way Oliver can stay home during most of the class, although usually he loves playing in the play land during their class. The doctor was assuming it's a bacterial infection, but just in case it's viral, I don't want to spread any of his germs with the other kids in the play land! In other medical news, I am very happy to report that my mom (after a 2 week delay) was able to have her second chemo treatment today (yay!) and it went very smoothly (PTL!). Please be praying that she will have as few side effects as possible in the coming days and can also stay out of the hospital.

The realtor called today for the first time in almost 2 months to set up a showing for tomorrow. When the people said they were ONLY able to come at 2:00 tomorrow, I said we'd have to pass because that's Oliver's nap time. I figured they can't really be that interested in the house if they are being that inflexible. I said he naps from 1-3, and they could come any other time during the day aside from 1-3. I told the realtor he was sick, and I really wasn't going to have him skip his nap when he was sick. She was fine with my turning it down. I've never turned a showing down before. After I found out Oliver had pneumonia, I knew I made the right call. We aren't in a rush to sell the house anyhow.

Although the kids were sick, Nadia and Ian did enjoy sledding at Grandma and Pop Pop's house on Monday. Since they live on a mountain, they have a MUCH bigger hill in their back yard than we do. Here is a video of Ian sledding down their hill.

Thankful Thursday

1. Our hot water heater was leaking water on the basement floor on Sunday night. The good news was that Paul "happened" to go down to the basement before all 40 gallons were deposited on the floor. Also I had recently done a lot of work organizing and purging in the basement, which meant that the boxes that used to be on the floor near the water heater were on shelves in another part of the basement. Nothing was ruined aside from some empty boxes. It could have been MUCH worse. The first plumber who came out on Monday morning gave us a quote of $2K, but then Lowe's said they could replace it for $700. We had hoped it would last until we had to move, but after a quote of $2,000, $700 was a relief. I'm also thankful we had the money for the repair. When the installer came on Tuesday morning, we found out that the hot water heater we had purchased was not the right one for our house, but they were able to install the correct one Tuesday night (for $1,270 which was still a savings of $700 over the first quote).  We are very glad to have our hot water back!

2. Last night the new year of AWANA began. Ian had his first night in Sparks, Nadia started her third (and final) year in Sparks, and Oliver had his first night in Cubbies. Now to get back in the habit of working on Bible memory verses at lunch every day. This will be the very first time Oliver has memorized any verses. The first one Ian is to memorize is John 3:16. Four neighbor kids are in this AWANA program (and we live in a very small development). I didn't have choir last night, but starting next week Paul will be in charge of taking the kids to and from AWANA as I'll have choir rehearsals on Wednesday nights. Since I didn't have choir last night, Paul and I went on a 2 1/2 mile walk together while they were in AWANA. Oliver looked so cute wearing an AWANA vest for the first time. He was in Puggles last year, but they didn't have any uniforms.

3. Oliver had his third appointment with the pulmonologist yesterday, and this time we were told he doesn't need to come back for six months! The doctor said he had sinusitis and an ear infection so

he started him on an antibiotic. I had already been giving Oliver breathing treatments. Before his appointment I ran into the consignment shop in that town and bought Nadia a pair of cleats (size 1) as her size 13 ones were getting tight. Her feet hardly grew at all the previous year, but it seems her feet are in a growth spurt right now as she's already outgrowing size 13 even though she just recently switched to that size. I was able to get her a bright pink pair of soccer cleats using $5 of my $100+ store credit from bringing items in previously.

4. Ian is showing a lot of improvement at his soccer practices! He also is doing really well with his school work - particularly with his scissor skills, reading, and spelling. He's also been doing science and handwriting. The next subject I plan to add for him is math. It cracked me up because when Nadia heard Ian reading she said, "I had better start reading longer chapter books or Ian is going to catch up to me." Ha ha!

5. Although I am not looking forward to getting all the apples off our apple trees (still a million to go it seems), we have been enjoying eating many apples. Two days ago I made a delicious apple french toast dish for the kids and I (Martha Stuart
recipe). Yum!

6. Today we had our first field trip for the new school year (and I have two other field trips planned for the next two days). Today we went to Fire Safety Day at Camp Susque. The kids played on the playground for awhile and then we were divided into three groups (I think there were more than 100 homeschoolers present). The group we were in went first to the smoky cabin station. The firefighter talked for awhile and then the kids crawled through a dark cabin filled with theatrical smoke. They were supposed to follow the fire hose out. Oliver went with an older girl the first couple of times, but then even he did it by himself. The kids loved it and went through it umpteen times before it was our turn to move to the next station where we studied pictures to identify fire hazards and wrote out escape plans. The last station was at a fire engine, and after the fire fighter showed us various tools and gear (ex. the jaws of life, pick head ax, etc.) the kids were able to climb up inside the fire engine and try on some of the gear. They loved it!

 7. The grocery store in our town had some great deals this past week on things like peaches, grapes (99 cents a pound), bananas, Pepsi (88 cents for a 2 liter), Doritos, etc. I stocked up!

Thankful Thursday

1. I am very grateful that Paul, Oliver, and I had a safe flight from FL to DC on Friday, and it was greatly appreciated that we only spent 2 hours on the plane this time. Paul and I also enjoyed the VERY comfortable seats we were given. I greatly appreciate that my parents took us to and from the airport so we didn't have to pay for two weeks of airport parking.

2. I am also thankful we had a safe drive home on Saturday and that aside from very tall grass and a bird building a nest in the wreath on our front door (which caused the wreath to fall down and resulted in a lot of bird poop on our front porch), our house fared just fine during our absence.

3. Oliver's pneumonia didn't result in a hospitalization this time, and I'm thankful we could use the urgent care clinic instead of the ER (saved us $50). Our co-pays are much higher this year than we've ever had before. From Sunday- Wednesday we spent $90 on medical bills for Oliver ($10 for antibiotics and $80 in co-pays for two appointments).

4. I'm grateful Paul was able to push back the time of a meeting yesterday at work due to Oliver's doctor appointment so I could just take Oliver to the appointment and leave the other two kids at home. I thought we would be in and out of there pretty quickly since we had an appointment at 8:40, but we waited in the exam room for more than an hour before the doctor showed up. We were at the hospital for 90 minutes and spent about 3 of those minutes with the doctor. I would rather have waited in the waiting room where there is a tv and toys to entertain Oliver. It was hard keeping him out of trouble in the exam room for that length of time, but it would have been much worse with three kids in there.

5. Paul's parents, Nadia, and Ian made it back safely home on Tuesday! It was wonderful they could have so much time with their grandparents the last three weeks, but I was also glad to have all of my three little "chicks" at home.

6. On Sunday afternoon I used a couple of coupons at JCP to get some good bargains including a top for myself  for $2.99 to match a new skirt I got using a gift card I got at Christmas. I also used some coupons to get some bargains at CVS on Saturday night, and this week I did a survey online and CVS gave me a $10 coupon (off anything) for doing that survey. Gotta love coupons!

7. Although Oliver did have a few incidents over the past three weeks (by incident I mean him hitting or throwing something at someone), in general he did MUCH better than usual. The worst incident was the morning we were heading out the door to Hollywood Studios when Oliver (for whatever reason) picked up Grandma's glass jar of chicken bullion and hurled it at Ian's forehead. Ian immediately had a black and blue lump on his forehead. We applied ice right away, and it looked much better by the time we arrived at the park.

8. I loved the salad at Panera Bread last Friday night. YUM!

9. One perk of being back at home means we can get books and dvds from the library again. Two that the kids are really enjoying this week are Interrupting Chicken by David Stein and Parts by Tedd Arnold. The dvd Nadia is really enjoying this week is seeing "Anne of Green Gables" for the first time. I am only letting her watch the first one right now as we've only read the first book. We also have been able to get back into reading Railway Children again. I had brought it to Florida (on the Kindle), but we read very little of it while we were on vacation. I missed that!

10. I am very thankful to all the men and women who have given their lives serving in the military. I don't want to take our freedoms for granted!

11. Nadia and Ian missed the first summer musical rehearsal last week, but they attended the second one last night, and Nadia was very excited because she was assigned one of the speaking parts. We are planning on sending the kids to AWANA at this church again next year (not at our current church but where they went to AWANA from 2011-2014). Next summer Oliver will be old enough to be in the summer musical also!

12. Paul was planning to devote at least three days a week to working on a research project for Bucknell this summer, and yesterday another professor said Paul will be paid a stipend through a grant for his work on the research. We are very grateful for this! It will give us a little wiggle room in our budget for things like buying pizza. We had decided not to go to Sesame Place or Hershey Park this summer or join the swimming pool. In light of this extra money I want to plan a trip to Idlewild instead. We've never been there before. Hopefully Paul's research will be helpful for the other profs at Bucknell, and it would be really wonderful if his new research could result in a publication in the coming months.

Pneumonia

Oliver has been doing so much better today. What a relief! Sometimes his saturation levels have been where they are supposed to be (95 or higher), and other times they have been back around 91-92, but he didn't have a fever at all today. Aside from a cough, runny nose, and very little appetite, he seemed to be back to normal today. If it weren't for the goldfish crackers my mom gave us on Friday, I don't think he would have consumed any solid food aside from raisins the past four days. The doctor who saw him on Sunday called me today to check on him. She had submitted his x-rays to the radiology department at 5:25pm, and they called her with the results at 6:05, but the urgent care clinic closed at 6:00 and didn't reopen until today because of the holiday yesterday. She didn't read their report until this afternoon. The radiologist on Sunday said the x-ray showed he had viral pneumonia, which confirmed in my mind that the antibiotics are unnecessary. I'm very thankful that this illness didn't result in a hospitalization. He has an appointment with the pulmonologist tomorrow morning.

June 1, 2014

Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday night Oliver was up several times in the night each night and two of those mornings he also got up earlier than usual in the morning. Paul and I greatly appreciated that he slept through the night last night, and I actually had to wake him up around 7:10 this morning (for fear he would wet the bed). I had much more energy today than I did yesterday.

When we came home on Saturday, I saw my rhododendron was in bloom. I was hoping that we wouldn't have a thunderstorm before Nadia came home because I've had a tradition of taking her picture each May in front of it. My two big kids came home this afternoon, and I was able to get some pictures of Nadia in front of it. Yay! This picture at right is from 2014, and the next picture below is from 2013. The first and last pictures in this post are from today.

May 2013

One hot boy

Oliver was up several times during the night last night, and he was up for good at 5:30. Every time he woke up, he asked for a drink of water; we also had him go to the bathroom every time as well. He wanted to sleep with us, and we did try that once in the middle of the night, but none of us were sleeping with that arrangement so I managed to get him back in his own bed without any tears. At 6:00 we gave him his next dose of steroids. This time we just squirted it into his mouth (instead of mixing it with chocolate pudding) and gave him other things right away to try to remove the awful taste in his mouth (a tootsie roll, juice, etc.). He consumed far more of the steroids this morning than he did last night, and this was evident a little while later when he was practically bouncing off the walls. The pulmonologist called me this morning and said he had reviewed Oliver's x-rays and such from our appointment at the urgent care clinic. I was very impressed that the doctor took the initiative to call me on a holiday no less. I gave him an update on Oliver's O2 levels (88-89 when sleeping and 90-93 when awake) and temperature (102 without medication and 100 with it), and he said if it dropped ANY farther when awake or asleep he needed to come in for some oxygen. Thankfully his numbers improved a little from that point onward. He took a nap this morning in my arms on the couch, and he took his afternoon nap in his bed. Aside from some goldfish crackers he didn't really eat anything today albeit I offered him cookies, spaghetti, pudding, pizza, toast, cereal, etc. He has been drinking a lot of water. He perked up enough around noon that he wanted to go outside so I walked him to the playground. He played for awhile and then asked to go home for the very first time. Usually he's upset when I say it's time to go.

Although I think he has a virus, the doctor decided to call in a prescription for an antibiotic just in case it's bacterial. I am not a big fan of "just in case" prescriptions. The child is already on four other medications right now, but since his three month follow-up appointment happens to be scheduled for Wednesday with this doctor, I decided to go ahead and add another medication to the mix. Hopefully I can get him to eat some yogurt to counteract some of the negative effects of the antibiotic. He doesn't mind the taste of the antibiotic. We had a lot harder time getting the steroid down him this evening than we did this morning. I am very grateful we're still at home. Last time it was on day three of his illness that we discovered his lung had collapsed. I am feeling a lot more hopeful at the moment that we can stay out of the hospital this time around. I had planned to go to ladies Bible study tomorrow morning (last one before the fall), but I'll be staying home as I can't take a boy with a 102 degree fever out in public. We don't want to share his germs! Nadia and Ian are supposed to be home tomorrow. I can't wait to see them! They are spending the night in Virginia tonight.

Urgent Care

When Oliver woke up on Saturday morning at my parents' house, I noticed that he had developed a cough. I started giving him a nebulizer treatment every twelve hours. He didn't eat lunch or dinner yesterday, but when he woke up this morning (an hour earlier than usual), the first words out of his mouth were "I hungry," and he ate a large breakfast. I took him to church thinking he just had his frequent cough. After church he didn't want lunch and just said he was tired and wanted to go to bed. I was doing a little shopping during his nap, and Paul called me when Oliver woke up to tell me Oliver was definitely sick. I was already on my way home. He had a 102 degree fever and was having more trouble breathing. Paul had given him Tylenol, and I gave him an Albuterol breathing treatment. It didn't seem to help much so I called his pediatric pulmonologist. I asked if we should start the oral steroids, but he said in light of the fever we shouldn't start those until he had been seen by a doctor to rule out an infection or pneumonia.

Thankfully I found an urgent care clinic that was open. I say thankfully because the co-pay for that is $50 compared to $100 at the ER. I had checked his saturation level at home, and it was reading between 91-93, and we learned the device is accurate because the nurse got readings of 92-93. The doctor said she was considering admitting him in light of what happened in late December/ early January, but in the end she made the same decision the pediatrician made in December to send us home with oral steroids. Hopefully this won't lead to his lung collapsing again. The x-ray looked good today, and the nose swab was negative for RSV. He did keep some of the steroid down, but he threw some of it up even though we had it mixed in chocolate pudding. It smells and tastes horrid. I made spaghetti for dinner as I know that's one of his favorites, and he did eat a little bit of it. The doctor said to check his O2 level often and bring him in ASAP if it drops below 90 because that will likely mean his lung collapsed. I didn't want to go to the hospital today, but I'd rather be spending the night in the hospital if it meant his lung didn't collapse. Chest tubes aren't fun! Hopefully it will turn out better than it did five months ago, and we can avoid another hospitalization. Right now he's on three medications plus Tylenol for the fever, and he's definitely working hard to breathe.

Accidents

I haven't been in a car accident since the fall of 2003. I was driving to my very first RE appointment (in Allentown, PA). I never like being in a car accident, but the thought of being in one now is definitely scarier since I usually have three little ones in the van with me. I am very grateful that neither of us have been in a car accident over the past 6+ years that we've been parents. Paul was the last one to have a car accident, but his wasn't reported to the car insurance because he only hit a mailbox (as he drove into someone's lawn) when he passed out due to low blood pressure from laughing about something funny on the radio as he drove home from work. On Thursday evening I was praying fervently for protection on the roads because it started snowing during the kids' ice skating lesson. The ice rink is 30 minutes from our house (in good weather). The drive took much longer on Thursday because everyone was driving very slowly since the roads were snow covered. I felt the tires slip a little a few times when I had to make a turn. I usually drop Nadia off at her basketball practice on the way home from ice skating, and Paul picks her up at the end of her practice (7:00). We were very close to the church when the van got stuck near the top of a hill. I guess I wasn't driving fast enough, but Paul said it was a good thing I wasn't because the way down that hill is very steep, and there's a stop sign at the bottom of the hill. In hind sight, I should have taken a different route to the church that didn't involve any big hills. I haven't driven in snow for more than two years, and the next time I have to, I will be more careful about avoiding big hills! With my four way flashers on I was able to slowly slide about half way down the hill to a side street where I was able to turn the vehicle around and go down the rest of the hill properly. It was very challenging to stop at the bottom as the light turned red. We skipped the basketball practice and came straight home. We're looking forward to cheering for her team today!

Oliver hasn't had any accidents in bed! I am thrilled with how well he is doing with night time training, His respiratory bug has helped as before I give him a breathing treatment (somewhere between 2-4am), I take him to the bathroom. Between being up with Oliver from 2:20-4:40am, Paul getting up for work at 5:30, and Ian joining me in bed at 6:30am, I got almost no sleep between 2:20-7:00am yesterday morning. Dr. Kinsey yesterday told me that he is still thinking Oliver might have reflux. I am hesitant to add a fourth medication (Prilosec) to his daily routine, so the doctor is willing to wait a few more days to see if things start to improve. Last night he got up once (at 12:40), but he didn't need a breathing treatment until 5:55. YAY!

Unfortunately I can't say that he hasn't had any accidents during the day. He hasn't had a #1 accident in two weeks, but he has pooped in his underwear a few times over the past eight days, and then to make matters MUCH worse proceeded to take off his pants and underwear and get poop ALL over the toilet, his legs, bathroom rug, etc. At least the last three times it happened he was in the bathroom so we didn't have to deal with poop in the carpet. Yesterday morning when I was cleaning up one such disaster, I accidentally flushed his underwear down the toilet. OOPS! So far it seems it passed through the pipes without causing a blockage. Praying that is really what happened!

A WHOLE week plus another year

Once before Oliver went six days in a row without an accident, but today marked the first time he went a full week without an accident, as his last accident was last Friday morning at church (during the kids' gym class). A few times over the past week he has had a small wet spot on his underwear, but I don't count that as an accident when he stops himself and gets on the potty in time to finish peeing. He also has been waking up dry almost every time (naps and overnight) so I am going to start putting him to bed in his underwear. I will just start with naps and then if that goes well I will also do the same at night. I had recently ordered a mattress protector for his bed from Walmart (very important) as well as a set of Thomas the Train sheets (which don't go with his bedding but that's what he wanted so who cares, right?). I didn't want to start bed time training without either of these because he's currently using Ian's spare set of sheets. It is such a relief to be over the biggest hurdles of potty training. Most of the time he now tells me when he needs to go, and he has learned how to take off his pants and underwear and get on the potty himself. I still have to wipe him after he poops, and I still have to put his clothes back on after he goes potty, but he's making a lot of progress! He remembers to flush more often than Nadia does.


Today will be his last nebulizer treatment until the next time he has a cold or cough. The pulmonologist said to keep him on the Pulmicort twice a day until he had been on the Singulair for ten days. Oliver LOVES the Singulair. He thinks it's candy and wishes he could have it more than once a day, ha ha! Here's to praying this keeps him out of the hospital the rest of this year!

Yesterday Paul was offered a one year extension on his contract at Bucknell. We weren't sure if his teaching evaluations were good enough to warrant that, but it turns out that typically multiple students come and complain to the department chair about the VAP (visiting professor), and the department was very impressed that not one single student complained about Paul last semester. That was encouraging! Now there was a coach mad at him this semester because he allows students to start their exams at 7:45 to give them a little extra time, but that's another story. They gave him two weeks to make a decision, and if he didn't accept within that time frame they were going to post the job and start an official search. He could apply for the opening at that point, but he'd be competing against whomever else applied. He was supposed to have two phone interviews today, and he had one last week, but there was no way any of those searches would be completed within two weeks. This will be the last extension because they will be converting this position into a tenure track one, and they are looking for someone in a different area of chemistry so he won't be eligible.

Paul quoted the proverb of a bird in hand being worth two in the bush. It is hard to say no to a definite offer in favor of indefinite ones. He has never taught the same course twice, and by accepting the offer he'll be teaching the same two classes next year that he taught/is teaching this year. Hopefully this will enable him to spend more time doing research. A downside is this means I will be submitting applications for him four years in a row, but since we are finding out much earlier than the past two years, I will get about seven months off before I resume submitting applications for him. I was hoping we'd be moving somewhere this summer and feel like we were really going to put down some roots, but it's a good reminder that our true home is in Heaven and we're just passing through here on earth. I never would have guessed when we bought this house in 2008 that we'd live here for eight years! I am 99% certain we will be trying to sell this house in the spring of 2016 because we can't afford to live here any longer than that. This house is too expensive for his salary. I am going to try to find a way to make some money. It doesn't seem prudent to start giving piano or flute lessons if we are hoping to move within 18 months, but maybe I can do some tutoring or teach part-time for a university. It is nice for the suspense to be over. I can start making decisions such as which co-op to have the kids join next fall. Hopefully two years teaching at Bucknell will look good on his resume and make it easier for him to get a job offer for a permanent job that will start in August 2016.

Thankful Thursday

1. Ian and Nadia started their homeschooling gymnastics class last Wednesday. Ian did MUCH better than he did a year ago. I enjoyed talking with the other mom who has a child in the class.

2. Nadia and Ian started their ice skating lessons last Thursday. I can tell already that they are going to make a lot of progress!

3. We sang the beautiful anthem "Timeless One" on Sunday. There was one point in the anthem where I kept thinking, if my mom were here, she would have goosebumps right now. That's a good thing! Also, the music pastor and another man sang a beautiful duet of the song "Your grace still amazes me."

4. I really enjoyed visiting with other homeschooling moms during Nadia and Ian's basketball class on Friday morning. What a treat!

5. It was SOOOOOO nice to have 47 hours with my hubby without the kids! It was also nice to be able to sleep in until 7:30 two days in a row and not to need to do any cooking for 2 days! I am so glad the kids had such a great time with their grandparents.

6. Paul's classes began yesterday. It was SO nice seeing more of him the past almost four weeks. I'm also thankful he could help out with the kids yesterday in light of Oliver's doctor appointment.

7. We are all healthy!

8. My brother and sister made it back safely to Brazil and Turkey.

9. I recently restarted giving Nadia piano lessons. It's going MUCH better than when she was five years old. We have gotten in the habit of including practicing the piano as part of her "school work" that she accomplishes before eating lunch every day.

10. I'm so glad that Nadia has a CD player in her bedroom. Sometimes we get the "pleasure" of listening to her Frozen CD downstairs, but most of the time she plays it in her room, which is great because I tire of it far more quickly than she does.

11. A ministry my dad was involved with for more than 30 years sold their property on Tuesday, which was a BIG answer to a long standing prayer request. Now they can pay off all their debts. PTL!

12. I'm thankful for a new plan of action regarding Oliver's asthma (technically called RAD due to his age).

13. Paul has a phone interview with the University of Tampa on Friday for a tenure track position in physical chemistry! Things have been very slow going this time around in terms of interview invitations, so this was very encouraging. Given the high temperatures have been less than 30 degrees lately (sometimes less than 20), Florida sounds really good right about now! Also, his department chair told him that if his teaching evaluations are satisfactory, he could stay at Bucknell one more year if he so desired. We shall see what happens!

14. Last week Oliver had six consecutive days without any accidents! He broke that string by having a #2 accident at Paul's parents' house on Saturday and a #1 accident on our couch on Sunday. I found it rather ironic that we started potty training four months ago and this was the first time he peed on the couch. Go figure. He didn't have any accidents on Monday or Tuesday, but he had a poop accident yesterday. Hopefully today we can start a string that lasts at least one week. Potty training Oliver has definitely been harder than it was with the other two, but we are going in the right direction.