American Family Association - Action Alert

American Family Association - Action Alert

School started in August and we have done very well so far. The first couple of weeks were great and then we ran into some issues. But the kids are doing way better now. We think it was just an adjustment thing. Simon has a hard time with transition and change, so this was a lot at one time. He likes his friends and has the same teacher, so adjusting well now.



Sydnee did well at adjusting. She doesn't have as hard a time with change.



The school fall festival is coming up soon and the kids really can't wait. They love the cake walk and being able to just run around with their friends without mom and dad hovering over them.



We got Simon's sleep study results and they were negative. So now it's on to figure out what is going on with him. He is still falling asleep at school for hours at a time. So this just isn't right. Now we are keeping a sleep chart to see if we can pin point when and where the problems are.



Sydnee got her leg casts on. At first she was excited. We had tried to keep her from being scared about it. Because she had to get the injections the week before. That was going to be more scary than anything else I think. They even put her flu shot in her calf too. Yikes! But it was already numb, so she didn't feel it. But she won't have them on that long, so it won't be too bad. They sure haven't slowed her down at all.

Oh my heavens, it is October already

I have been slacking in my blog entries. So I am going to try and catch up a bit.

Meeps spent much of August and September trying to recover from Toxoplasmosis. After her surgery for the polyp, she was doing so well. Her little head tilt was much better, she was playing and all. But all of a sudden her back legs were getting stiff. As days rolled on she started having something like seizures. Very scary so such a small kitten. She never reached 2 pounds. But two weeks ago after another hospital stay and several specialists, she lost her battle. This disease is horrible to watch. But the whole time you would just keep thinking she just needed a little therapy to help her legs move, etc. Everyone loved her. She went on 3 retreats and had a lot of loving friends. It's been very hard without her. I was handfeeding her 5 times a day, watering more often than that. She couldn't walk, so I had to carry her everywhere. She went to the office, appointments, etc with me. I couldn't leave her in the car because of he heat and I had to keep a very close eye on her the whole time. She was so lovable. But in the end the stiffness moved up to her neck and it wasn't going to be good. So I had to make the decision whether she was living for me or her. No one can put a finger on why she seemed so special.
You can go to my facebook page and see all kinds of photos of her. Thanks to Dr. Wolf for helping her so much of the way.

Mother in Law

Well a lot has gone on for the last week. First my mother in law fell on Monday when she tried to look out her window. The new nurse she was getting ready to have coming to the house recommended she go to the ER because she wasn't very coherant and seemed to be having a lot of trouble standing. They ran labs and found her white blood count was very high. They decided to then to do a spinal tap. Nothing showed up. They called in a neurologist and infectious disease doc and with a scan they determined she had cancer of the brain, bones, kidneys, liver and pancreas. How can someone have this much cancer and have no symptoms. Later determined that she was on so much medication for other ailments that is was just masking the pain and symptoms. They didn't feel very hopeful that there would be much time. Today is Sunday and she passed away around 8PM. I had visited her after a retreat and then headed to my Mom's to pick up my kids. Bless her heart she was helping watch the kids since Angela and Mike needed to spend a lot of time at the hospital. She had to be tired.

Meeps had a neurologist appointment on Monday morning to try to figure out what is going on with her. She got out of the vet on Friday with no fever or fluid on the lungs, but she still couldn't walk and just didn't look good to me. After an appointment for over an hour with Dr. Wolfe, she told me she thinks she could know what is wrong with her. But they would need to do a more thorough oral exam. She asked if she could do that. A couple of hours later she called to tell me that Meeps had a polyp over her soft palette that was the size of a nickle. She thought she would be much better now. Well, sure enough, she is eating much more, although it is still kitten formula and canned A/D. She isn't doing well on dry food at all. Right now she is cuddled up on my shoulder and snoring.

Well it's time for me to hit the hay. I am tired and the morning will be here before we know it.

Update on Meeps

Meeps has been in the hospital since Monday morning. She kept spiking a fever over the weekend. Mike had taken the kids to the lake, so I was catering to her all weekend with icing her down, giving cool baths, etc. On Monday morning I took her back to the vet and she has been there ever since. She is so pitiful. When I come to the vets office, they bring her to me all wrapped up in a babies receiving blanket. The staff has fallen in love with her as everyone else has.

She has been on IV fluids, antibiotics, steroids, nebulizer treatments and being hand fed. The pneumonia had gotten pretty bad. But today when I saw her, she could actually breathe without gergling. She could even breathe through her mouth. That is improvement. She is still very tiny and has a lot of growing to do. So I don't know how it will all play out in the end. But she has been fighting her way through.

So just say some prayers for this little one and hope she comes home soon all healthy and bright eyed.

Update on Meeps

Mike took the kids to the lake this past weekend and I had a sit and sew with my quilting friends. Then I was determined to work on the room downstairs. I want to be able to get the kids toys moved out of their rooms and down there. So in the end I did manage to get it started and about 1/2 done. When they got back, Sydnee was smiling from ear to ear. She was loving the idea.

During all of this I am still taking care of Meeps. We had been told last week that she has pneumonia. She has been running a high fever (103.5-104.9). She is wanting to sleep all the time. No interest in eating unless you hand feed. Even then she isn't overly thrilled to eat or drink. I have been giving her ice water, lay her on a gel pad to help cool down, gave her a cool bath, give her the meds and keep taking her temp. I feel so bad for her. So on Monday morning she went back to the vet after no success in getting the temp down. So she is now in the hospital on IV's with antibiotics. They were able to get the temp to 102.7 so far. They will call me tomorrow.

We're in Cinci tonight and this is our last overnight stay for a while. I am looking forward to the break. We don't come back until Oct 1 for Sydnee's castings.

Yes, school is almost here!

Time is ticking. Starting to gather the supplies needed for school which begins on August 17. The kids are looking forward to it as well. We have gotten some new clothes and working on the shoe issue. Simon is in the inbetween range of shoe sizes from boys to mens. Yes, he wears a size 6-61/2. He is always putting on my garden boots, flip flops and all. He just thinks it's halarious. He is growing way too fast for me.

Sydnee just has narrow feet and they are flat. You can't find many choices with arches in them. They are making most kids shoes with flat inserts. I guess we may have to get arch supports to put in them.

As we have been taking care of the little gray kitten (Meeps), we keep finding more and more things she has wrong with her. I am beginning to think that we have a special needs kitty on our hands right now. I haven't even tried to adopt her out yet. I took her to our regular vet when she was still having alot of head tilting and gurgling sounds. Come to find out her upper respiratory in the lungs was much better. No crackles. That was good news. And she no longer has an ear infection is wonderful news. BUT she has a ruptured eardrum on the left side, explaining the left head tilt. And has a respiratory virus which has to just ride out on it's own. It's all in the nasal passages and sinuses. So it will be another 6-8 weeks for healing. Hopefully that will take care of it. Simon's didn't grow back and had surgery if you remember. So she's still on antibiotic for a few more days and she just has to be watched for any other signs. In the meantime she is just a tiny adorable kitten that is one of the most loving kittens I have ever seen. Smokey and Maggie have been so good with her. They even let her eat their food first and leave their bowls during the day so she can nibble. That is completely unheard of from those two. They usually eat every drop at once like their afraid someone will take it. I have noticed that Meeps isn't growing very much either. She isn't near the size of other kittens we have had at this age. She is almost 4 months old and still looks like8-10 weeks.

Last Thursday our family headed to Chicago. Yep! All of us. I had a conference from Fri-Sun, so Mike was able to take the kids to sightsee. They had a ball and were very tired at the end. They got to go to the Lego Discovery Center, Build a Bear, The Navy Pier and ride several rides, eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp, ride a boat on Lake Michigan for a tour. By Sunday they were exhausted. We got back home about 11:30 at night. Then I had two early morning appointments on Monday so I had to get up early. Then a 4:00, 5:00 and 7-9:00 appt with the kids. Then had to head to Cinci for 3 appts at 8:00am, 9am, and 10:30 am. We were all so tired. As soon as we finished we headed right back to the hotel and were able to take a 1 hour nap with a late checkout. But we could have all used more than that.

At 6 pm we had to be back to the hospital downtown for Simons sleep study. That also meant after getting special approval that Sydnee was able to stay with us that her and I slept in a fold out chair together. Oh my, another sleepless night. On Tues at 7am, we were out of the hospital and on our way home. The kids slept all the way home. Simon even fell asleep in the booth eating breakfast at Bob Evans. I couldn't wait to get home. Simon fell back to sleep and slept until 2:30pm. Poor thing, he doesn't do well with any kind of schedule changes that take any sleep away. But that's ok as long as he gets sleep later. We'll get the results about his sleep study in a couple of weeks.

Simon all hooked up to the monitors. Doesn't he look cute. LOL....

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The next morning Sydnee wanted to help the nurse, so she was trying to get the glue off of Simon's face. See they really do love each other.
Well it seems that our mystery vegetable turns out to definitely be a pumpkin. They are all nearly the same size and shape. I can't wait to taste what they are like.