catching up

Things are going well. I know it's been a little while since my last post. Here's basically what we've been up to lately.

Ethan has his wet cough again. It's been back for about a month and a half, but it seems to be getting worse this past week. :( His sats are still basically where he is normally - that's in the 60s when resting and dropping to the 40s or 50s when moving. He is still able to pop back up to the 60s once he rests though, so the lower numbers aren't TOO terribly concerning.

Last Thursday (a week ago) Callie had her first basketball practice of the season. About 15 minutes before practice began Ethan started complaining about a stomach ache. He was perfectly fine all day before that, so we packed up and went to practice anyway. After about 5 minutes there he started with his shivering lip, shaking all over, and ended up spiking a super high fever (almost 104 F)! I left Callie at practice and rushed Ethan home. Once we walked in the door he raced to the bathroom and started vomiting. He puked everything up for about 2 hours! Oh he was so miserable! His sats were in the 40s then so he went back on oxygen for the night. He really doesn't handle being sick well at all with his oxygen sats. He was finally able to keep some Tylenol down and thankfully that brought down his fever. He fell asleep and slept peacefully all night long. No more fevers! He woke in the morning feeling good, ate a little bit and kept it down, and finally weaned off oxygen around lunchtime. Thankfully he's been feeling good (well except for the cough/congestion) ever since!

Ethan was miserable  :(

We were able to decorate the house for Christmas! I love having all the decorations out and lights up everywhere. :) The kids had a lot of fun decorating the tree, caroling at a nursing home, and making lots of Christmas treats!

Decorating the tree

Decorating cheesecake squares

All finished!

Moose wanted some snacks too!

We also took a trip downtown to see all the Christmas lights, the decorations at the Horseshoe Casino, and looking at the "Christmas Story" house. On our trip we made a pit stop to see the river at night, walk around a little by the docks, and stopped to take a picture by a train crossing sign for Ethan. He was too nervous to stand by himself by the sign, but he happily went for it with Callie and me.

Terrible picture, but he was excited :)

We're doing the whole "on again off again" thing with physical therapy. Callie had her initial 8 weeks approved by insurance. Then for re-approval we ended up waiting a full month of fighting to get insurance to accept it. They said they'll provide 4 more visits then attempt again. *sigh* Ethan finished his initial round as well (5 I think) and now we've been waiting 2.5 weeks so far to get his insurance to approve more. Who knows when that will be, but hopefully it's soon! I know they start losing out on a lot of the benefits of the therapy during this time off, so it's so frustrating! The therapists are all still amazed at how tight Callie's muscles are. They've been working on stretches, spine alignments, pulling techniques, and muscle building but she still has major back muscle spasms (thankfully not terribly painful for her) and the tightness is crazy. Hopefully insurance will get on track and we can keep trying to make improvements with the kids!

Ethan also had an eye doctor appointment this past week. His vision has apparently gotten worse so a new prescription for glasses was written up. We're planning on ordering those (along with the rest of the family) this next week. Maybe this will help out in his paying attention in school and improving his school work. :)

We also had a little malfunction with my car recently. The kids and I were on our way to therapy when a weird noise starting happening and smoke started coming out of the hood. Needless to say we ended up calling a tow truck. Ethan was thrilled! Thankfully it seems to be just an issue with the emissions (maybe a clogged catalytic converter) so the car is working.

He was so excited to watch the tow truck!

Ethan had his last ever preschool Christmas concert! This year he did so great and actually participated up on stage! He was so excited all week looking forward to this!

Ethan's in the front row with the white shirt on. This was during one of the first songs with bells to jingle :)

This video is one of the songs they sang. It's the only one I could upload since they're all on my phone and too big to get off. :( Brilliant me brought the nice camera and even extra batteries so I didn't miss anything. Apparently making sure the memory card would've been a great idea before leaving the house. GRRR!

By the end of the songs though he was getting pretty winded. The second to last song involved some spinning in circles and jumping up and down. He made it through the first round of the song, but by the second round he was coughing and had to stop and rest. He just leaned back against the stage and let the rest of the kids finish up the song. The last song he was still resting for so he mainly observed again. He started singing at the last verse when I think he caught his breath enough. After the songs the kids were released to their parents, so he came to sit with me and rest some more. He was very blue at that point, but after a little sitting and some snacks he was feeling better. :)

snack time

Last but not least, we finally took our family Christmas pictures! Now I have a VERY impatient family when it comes to pictures. Callie and I will sit and do pictures for as long as it takes to get a good one. The boys in the family want "one and done", without even caring what it looks like! This year I was able to get three pictures before everyone quit...so even though it's not perfect at least we got something! The kids also posed for a picture. Here's a preview of how that went...

And yes, Ethan wasn't pleased with the fact we didn't have a train to set up around the tree.
He fixed that by setting up his own track around it :)



LOL - Callie wanted nothing to do with Ethan kisses!



 

We have had a great holiday season so far, and we plan to continue with a lot of fun Christmas activities in the next few weeks! Please continue to keep us in your prayers that we all stay healthy (we're all fighting congestion and Callie has been complaining of a sore throat the past 3 days). I plan on taking her to the Minute Clinic today after school. *sigh* But please keep us in your prayers that we can get healthy and stay home (no hospitals!) this Christmas season! Last Christmas Day was spent with me getting IVs in the ER due to my stomach flu and Ethan getting checked out for swelling in his chest that same day. Not a great Christmas with Callie being the only one not sick! We pray that this year will make up for that! ;) We hope and pray that you all have an amazing Christmas as well - and I'll post again if there's anything exciting before Christmas!