Kelley's Second CT Scan

After four weeks, Kelley is still not free of her bronchitis and having a hard time breathing.  Earlier in the week, her doctor was concerned about there being a blood clot in her lungs that was causing the shortness of breath.  A chest x-ray had eliminated the possibility of pneumonia and the original CT scan showed her lungs were clear.  But it also showed a lesion on her liver, which prompted the request for a second CT scan.  This time, she brought her camera to the imaging center.

A liter of chalky berry-ness needed to be consumed in the hour prior to the CT scan.  It wasn't terrible and the kids thought it tasted pretty good.  Note-to-reader:  tastes are much better than gulps.  Or liters.

Todd offered to go with on this second CT scan, but the results weren't going to be shared at the appointment as they needed to first be sent off to a radiologist before being given to Kelley's doctor.

After two days on steroids from the previous doctor appointment and the first CT scan, Kelley was feeling significantly better.  Good enough to drag the camera along and ask the technician if she could shoot the room.  Yay for that!  The CT machine was pretty small, similar to a doughnut standing on its side.  The bed that she laid on was raised and was then able to move through the doughnut hole.  Coming out the other side, a radioactive symbol would glow uranium yellow when the test was in progress.

During the CT scan, Kelley got an IV that injected contrast into her bloodstream which helped compare images without the contrast to see how blood flowed through her body.  The start of the IV was really weird because it made her feel like she peed her pants.  The tech said that is a normal side effect for many people.  That sensation disappeared in less than 30 seconds.  So bizarre!

Afterwards, the tech shared some of the images with Kelley.  Her kidneys glowed brightly from the contrast.  The glowing circle on the bottom of the photo is part of her backbone.  

It wasn't until the next week that the doctors' office got around to calling back and sharing that the CT scan results showed everything was fine.  Whatever was seen on the original CT scan of her lungs was either a shadow on her liver or had disappeared.  Sigh of relief!

Sick Beanarina

Chloe came home from school on Wednesday not feeling well. She chose to lay down on the sofa and skip dinner. Food just did not sound good to this Bean. Then there was diarrhea. And after going to bed, she started throwing up. We changed out her sheets several times before she realized what that rumbly tummy meant and she should hurry to the bathroom. Chloe threw up over ten times and wasn't done before 1am. It was a long night and it wiped her out.

This is how Chloe spent much of Thursday morning. She took a good 3+ hour nap on the sofa in the living room.

Look at those pigs! I love those sweet pigs, even though they are not cute little bebe feet anymore. They are getting so big.

After Chloe woke up, she felt much better. Although food still didn't sound good to her. She didn't eat much of anything all day and made me work at getting her to even drink any water or gatorade (she turned up her nose at Pedialyte!). We were happy that what she did eat and drink stayed down.

I was able to finish early with work close to 1pm and helped her get set up for painting. She had been asking and asking to get the paints out. I love that when she starts out, she pays special attention to painting the corners of the paper.

She's a tough artist. She has tattoos.

Chloe spent mucho time cleaning her paintbrush between colors. I was just glad she was feeling better and not a little sack of potatoes wiped out on the sofa. Hard seeing one of my babies so sick.

Walking Pneumonia

Tuesday afternoon, Chloe and I went to visit Miss Wendy. She is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner at a pediatrician's office in Marietta. Both Wendy and one of the doctors listened to Chloe's heart and breathing before determining she had walking pneumonia.
Wendy let me listen through the stethoscope and I was able to hear the crackling of the pneumonia in the top/front of Chloe's left lung when she was breathing in deeply.

The doctor agreed that the pneumonia wasn't there when Chloe saw her doctor last Friday. Wendy got Chloe started on stronger antibiotics and an inhaler last night. She woke up without a fever this morning and it stayed gone all day.

Chloe got her own little breathing treatment before we left the office last night. She was so good during the whole, long visit. Chloe even peed in a cup for the first time, which she thought was pretty silly.

Today, Chloe was jumping up and down, clapping her hands in excitement after we told her she could go back to school tomorrow. She has missed her friends so much over the past two weeks that she has been out of school.

So very thankful her fever is gone and she's well enough in time to go back to school and be a part of her Christmas concert tomorrow night!

Little Sick Girl

Running a 102+ fever every day for over a week has taught Chloe how to be very proficient in using the ear thermometer and taking her own temp. She can push it into place better without it hurting, than I can.

She makes some funny faces when taking her temp.

Really funny faces. Silly girl.

So serious!

I LOVE this shot. Sweet, sweet girl!

Leaving On a Jet Plane.....well, maybe

our bags aren't packed and laundry has yet to be completed. This is typical the night before leaving on vacation.

But Todd caught the flu, spiked a 104+ fever on Monday, got rid of it on Tuesday, it came back to 103+ on Wednesday leading to a trip to the doctor for a shot in the butt and a 5 day supply of Tami-Flu. Last night, the girl child revved up a little fever and earned herself to a trip to the doctor's office this morning and a positive Strep Throat test. Tonight, the boy child sported a temperature climbing over 100 and a sore throat. I have felt like crap since Monday, with sporadic fevers and negative energy, which surprisingly returned today (perhaps from drinking all of Mary's highly touted Hot Lemony Pledge...aka TheraFlu). All of the above health issues one on top of another....not so typical. Vacation or not. None of it typical. Todd NEVER gets sick. Never.

How on earth are we going to all make it to the airport tomorrow evening to fly out to Phoenix for a week??? That remains up in the air. In the meantime, please think good thoughts for us with better health and safe travels.