In Like a Lion...

...out like a lamb.  That's what they say about March right?  As you know from my previous posts, March came in as a very rainy, wet, powerful Lion.  Today, it is leaving as a beautiful, breezy 82 degree Spring day lamb.

However, I know now that they were just talking about the weather.  In every other way, March 2014 has come in like a lion and that lion seems to want to linger here just a little longer.  When I look back at all that happened during March, it is hard to believe it was only 31 days long.  In addition to the Cultural Celebration and Gilbert Temple dedication, we had many plans for March including a 5k run for Ryan House (which didn't happen due to issues with Plantar Fasciitis), and fun Spring Break plans.  Somehow things turned out a little differently than I had planned.  Not all bad, just different.
 
I guess I need to go back to a few days before March began.  The lion was on his way.  I had no idea what was ahead.  Jacob had brought a note home saying that he had failed his hearing tests in both ears and needed to be taken in to be seen by an ENT.  So we made an appointment with our favorite ENT and discovered that Jacob had fluid behind his eardrums and a significant hearing loss in both ears, although much worse in the left ear.  No wonder he always talks so loud!

What I loved about this ENT and the way she handled the situation, she didn't immediately suggest ear tubes again, although that would probably clear the issue for the time, but instead she worked a little bit to discover what might be causing so much extra fluid.  We finally figured out that it might be due to reflux.  Yes, reflux!  I had no idea that could cause hearing loss.  So anyway, long story short, we spent the month of March dealing with his reflux issues in an attempt to heal his hearing loss.

It worked!  Well, mostly.  He still has slight hearing loss in both ears, but since the fluid is gone and the hearing loss is equal in both ears, the ENT believes that is just Jacob's normal and that he has had a slight hearing issue for a while.  So we were sent home with a note for him to take to his school to let them know that he does have an issue with his hearing and needs to sit near the front of the classroom.  He hears about as well as an adult does instead of where a child his age should.  His ENT also wants us to see a GI doctor to be sure there isn't some other issue causing the reflux.  I still need to make that appointment. 
 
From here, I have no idea how to continue with this post, so I think I will do it mostly with pictures.  I may expound further in a future post, but I am not going to promise anything since I may not even get a chance to get back on here for another month.  Anyway, hold on to your hat.  This could be a long one.  Here we go...

 

March 4th was National Pancake day and since all of our children, except Spencer, were home with sore throats and fevers that day, he and I decided to make a quick trip to Ihop while we were out running a couple of errands.  It was fun going out alone with Spencer, but we probably should have skipped the pancakes.  About a half hour after eating them, he said he was feeling bad.  Within a couple of hours he threw up.  Spencer has some issues with something in certain processed foods.  I don't know exactly what causes the problems, but we have discovered certain things that cause him issues that he describes as "I just feel bad".  They cause him stomach pain within about a half an hour of eating them, he becomes an emotional wreak, and just feels bad for a while after.  Ihop pancakes (or maybe it was the syrup) have been added to that list!

One thing that seemed to plaque our family during the month of March was strep throat and issues associated with it.  When I went to pick Annalise up at school on Monday the 3rd, her teacher said that she had been really fussy ever since lunch.  On the way home, she just kept telling me that she was so tired and that she wanted to sleep.  She cried most of the way home.  When we got home, I layed her down in her bed and took her temperature.  She was running a fever of almost 102 degrees.  William and Jacob also came home that day not feeling well.  Bryce didn't really seem himself  Tuesday after school and ran a low grade fever that night.  Wednesday I kept everyone home although the boys seemed to be feeling much better.  We bought Frozen off of Amazon and watched that together.  Thursday morning the boys were all feeling fine and Bryce's fever was gone, so they all went back to school.  During the night, Annalise's fever had risen to over 103, so I called her doctor and made an appointment to take her in. 

When I arrived at the pediatrician's office, the front desk person looked at the schedule and told me that Annalise's appointment had been scheduled for the next day at 1:40.  Okay, I may have misunderstood when I called in that morning, but I swear, I was not told that it was the next day.  Interesting thing is that while I was sitting there discussing what we were going to do, another lady came in with her son and discovered that the same thing had happened with them just with another doctor.

I was not happy about the mix up, but what happened next infuriated me.  The front desk lady had gone back to see if the doctor that was there (not our regular pediatrician) would be able to fit Annalise in.  She came back and let me know that the doctor was totally booked for the day and I would need to just come back the next day.  Okay, fine.  I figured I would just take Annalise to urgent care if I needed to.  Then the doctor came out.  She looked at her schedule and said that although she was totally booked, she would see Annalise if I could bring her back at 4:30.  She than looked up at Annalise for the first time and then at me and said,  "Why did you bring her in anyway?  She looks totally fine to me."

I was so upset.  I couldn't believe a doctor would say that to the parent of any child, much less one she knows nothing about. I mean seriously, does she think we just bring our children in to the doctor for the fun of it?!  I was so frustrated by that point that I was almost in tears.  I fumbled over my words as I told her that Annalise had been running a fever for 4 days, was up most of the night before, and that she is medically fragile due to an underlying condition, etc.  Just because she "looks" fine now doesn't mean she will in 5 minutes!  She repeated again that she would see Annalise at 4:30 if I wanted her to.  I told them to just leave the appointment with our regular doctor for the next day and I left. 

Annalise slept most of the rest of the day and was in pain through the night.  I took her in again to our pediatrician on Friday.  She took one look at Annalise's throat and said, "I bet it is strep!"  She then lifted her shirt and we saw a rash spreading over her neck, chest, and stomach.  It had not been there before I came in.  She left with the strep test and came back within minutes stating that it was positive.  On top of that, Annalise had an ear infection.  It made me so mad that the doctor the day before couldn't take 2 minutes to look at my daughter and save her 24 hours of pain!  I did let our doctor know what had happened the day before and she was very upset about it.

Once the doctor discovered that Annalise had strep and that the boys had not been feeling good a few days earlier, she said that I should have anyone with symptoms get tested, even if their symptoms were gone.  So I went home, picked the boys up from school and headed back to the office for strep tests.  Bryce tested positive, but William and Jacob tested negative.  So Bryce and Annalise started on Antibiotic and we figured that the other boys just had a virus of some sort.  I had also begun to not feel so well the day before, but my symptoms were more like a cold which was what William and Jacobs seemed to be.

Well, on Tuesday of the next week I got a call from the doctor's office telling me that William and Jacob's cultures had come back positive, so they did indeed have strep and were still contagious.  Great.  They had been back at church and school between that time.  I was also still not feeling well so I decided I better go get tested just to be sure.  Sure enough I too had strep, with an ear infection to boot.  My ear hadn't even be bothering me!

So, by Tuesday the 11th we had 5 out of the 7 of us with strep.  Two days later, Spencer woke up saying he really wasn't feeling well.  He just said that he hurt all over, not a sore throat or anything, but I decided I better take him in just to be sure.  The doctor said it didn't really look or sound like strep, but she swabbed him for strep as well as the flu.  They both came back negative.  That is until Monday the 17th when I got another call from the pediatrician's office stating that Spencer's culture had come back positive.  So just as Bryce and Annalise were finishing up their antibiotic, Spencer was starting his.  At one time, we had 6 out of the 7 of us on antibiotics and going through oils like crazy.  John was the only one who escaped the strep bug.  This was the first, and hopefully last, time in my life that I have had strep.

I don't know what it is, maybe that she becomes so pale when she gets sick, but I always think she looks extra beautiful when she starts feeling better and that natural color/beauty comes back into her face.

Spring break was from the 10-17 of March this year.  Since we spent most of it sick, we didn't get to do a whole lot.  Friday morning though, everyone was feeling good and I had some passes to airworx, a trampoline fun center, so I decided to take the 3 older boys for a little exercise/fun before their break was over.  The boys had a great time, but our time was cut short.  About 45 minutes into the fun, William came over to me and was having a horrible asthma attack.  One of the worst I have seen him have.  He doesn't have them very often anymore so of course he hadn't thought to bring his inhaler and I didn't have any of our oils on me either.  So, we had to grab the shoes and head for home.  Luckily we made it home without having to make a quick stop at the hospital which I was seriously considering at one point.  He took a breathing treatment and was fine.

April 23---Ah, look at that, 23 days have past and I am finally back here to finish this off.  If you have made it this far, you may want to take a break and get a drink of water or a snack or something.  I totally understand.  If I hadn't already added all the pictures in for the rest of this post, I would just end this here and finish the month off in another post.  However, they are here, so I am going to continue with my extremely long blog post.  Hope you enjoy!

Just a couple of adorable leprechauns ready for St. Patrick's day.

March 17th is also my neice Maisey's birthday.  We had just a little family party for her that night.

Bryce's 2 front teeth finally began to come in.  I was beginning to wonder if he had any permanent teeth up there.  I guess it takes a little longer for them to come in when the baby ones get knocked out instead of coming out on their own.  :)  Although I am glad that his teeth are coming in, I am really going to miss his toothless grin.  I love it!

The day Bryce finished his antibiotic he began running a fever and was up most of the night.  So I took him back to the doctor to see what was going on.  He now had an ear infection.  The antibiotic he was on had obviously not helped this, so he began another type and more oils.  

  About a week later he came home from school and just cried and cried.  He was in pain again and during the night I noticed that he had some drainage coming from the same ear, so back in to the pediatrician.  She said that it was hard to see the eardrum because of all the fluid, but that what she could see looked better telling her that the ear infection had cleared up.  However, because he was still in pain and their was so much fluid in the ear canal, she said that most likely one of two things had happened.  Either his eardrum had burst (she couldn't see the eardrum well enough to know for sure) or the fluid from his ear infection had settled in his outer ear tubes and he now had an outer ear infection.  Treatment was the same either way, so we left with a prescription for some medicated ear drops.  It took a couple of days, but that seemed to do the trick and Bryce has been okay since then. 

Like most girls right now, Annalise is a bit obsessed with the movie Frozen.  Here she is making Olaf out of her Dutch Babies breakfast one Sunday morning. 

What do you do when walking becomes too hard for the day, you crawl. What do you do when getting up to crawl becomes too hard...you scoot. One day toward the end of March, I was in the kitchen making dinner and I heard Annalise making some noises. I looked over to see her pulling herself along the tile. When I asked her what she was doing, she said that she was trying to get to me. I asked her why she wasn't crawling and she said that she couldn't get up so she was just scooting to me.  :(   It about broke my heart!  

Annalise has been struggling.  I am working on a blog post in Bryce and Annalise's blog that will explain in more detail what has been going on with her lately, but I will just say that she has become very weak.  Although her illness is gone, she just doesn't seem to be getting "better" yet.  The doctors that we have been working with all seem to think it is progression of the disease.   I'm still hoping and praying it is not!

One very exciting thing that happened in March was that we got a visit from one of Bryce and Annalise's favorite Physical Therapists, Tess!  Tess was Bryce and Annalise's PT for a couple of years.  We love Tess and it was so exciting to see her.

It is really fun because Tess was with us when she became engaged and got married.  Now she is having a baby!  It was so fun to see her as a cute little pregnant lady.  Charlotte Rose Rials was born on April 15th.  Hopefully we will get to meet her one day soon as well.

March was a big month for Spencer.  On the recommendation of our dentist, I took Spencer to see an orthodontist.  I have always been opposed to getting kids started with Braces early, however after talking with the orthodontist for a while, I understood that it was very important to start work on Spencer's teeth right away. 

He has an underbite which was causing his bottom front permanent teeth to be pushed loose.  An even bigger problem though was what was going on up top.  His bottom jaw is shaped in a semi-circle as it is supposed to be.  The top jaw however is more of a semi-oval.  To make a long story short, if we did not do anything about this now, it would end up with Spencer needing jaw surgery a few years down the road.  We were told that to avoid that, they try to get these issues corrected before the children are 10.  Spencer will be 10 in July!  He will have his extra metal for about 18 months. 

There were a few really wonderful things that happened in March.  My Aunt and Uncle from Virgina were in town on business.  We went out to dinner with them one night and then the morning they left to return home, My parents and I met them for Brunch.  We had a very nice visit with them.  It was great for our boys to get to know them a little bit as well.  After spending time with them, Jacob kept saying, "they really are nice people!" 

For the brunch, we tried to find a place close to the airport.  We ended up going to a little place called Morning Glory Cafe.  It was a little place in the middle of a working farm.  We sat outside and ate while we talked until they had to leave for the airport. 

Bryce finally feeling better and doing a great job sitting up!

John's company had their annual company work party.  They had a petting zoo which Bryce and Annalise loved! 

 

Annalise got some new AFO's!  Her old ones have not really worked for her in months.  This is a new style that is a bit more flexible and we are hoping that they will work a bit better.   She picked out the style which is an ocean scene on a purple background.  She is very in to dolphins and other water animals right now. 

There are a few other things that happened in March that I do not have pictures for.   I went in to see about getting a sleep study done.  I snore and it has been bothering John.  I haven't done anything about it for a while because I am sure it is because of my weight.  If I could just lose some weight, I think that issue would be solved.  I am tired all the time and have had some close calls on falling asleep at dangerous times, so John finally talked me into going in and seeing about doing something about it.   Since I have let some of my bad habits slide back in to my life over the past 6 months or so, I know that the issues I am having are most likely weight and unhealthy died related.  I just have to do something about it!  I didn't want to see a doctor that was just going to throw pills at me, so I searched out a functional medicine doctor in our area.  In addition to setting up a sleep study, he took a bunch of blood work.  Ends up that my vitamin D is extremely low, I have prediabetes, and my thyroid is not functioning as well as it should be.  All things that I believe I can reverse if I cut the sugar and processed food back out of my diet and get back to eating the way I know I should be.  I've done it before (at least for the prediabetes).  I wish that was easier done than said!  

--A good friend of ours had a Mary Kay fundraiser for us.  We met a lot of new people and had a wonderful time.  There really are some great people in the world!  Thank you Luhanna and Linda!

--William had not gotten to see the Lego Movie with us when we went with Hope Kids, so one night, as an early birthday present, he and I went on a little date and went to the movies together.  He is getting so grown up.  I just love that boy!

--March brought the very sad news that one of Bryce and Annalise's caregivers was moving to Texas.  Her husband got a job there and they would be leaving in April.  Robyn has only been working with us since November, but in that short time, she has become more than a caregiver for our children.   She has become a very close friend of mine and a true part of our family.   She will be very, very missed!

--We also found out that my Dad's cancer has returned.  Only this time it is in his liver.  As far as cancers go, it is probably one of the best because it is a slow growing one and often does not metastasize in a person's lifetime.  The issue with it though is that this type of cancer does not respond to chemo and so he will be getting it cut out.  Also, the fact that it is back, means that it has metastasized.  Luckily he will be able to get treatment here in Arizona at MD Anderson.  

--In March, John and I also attended a free gardening class that was offered at the church.  We spent six hours one afternoon learning all about Mittleidter gardening.  It was very interesting, we learned a lot, and would really like to get a working garden started.  

--We continue to enjoy hearing all about and seeing pictures from John's parents as they continue to serve their mission in South Africa.  It sounds like they are having quite the adventure. 

--The month ended on a great note as I was able to attend the broadcast of the General Women's Meeting  and our ward Conference.  They did something different this year by inviting all women/young women ages 8 and up to the broadcast.  It was wonderful.   Both meetings brought the spirit to me and gave me that little bit of peace and hope that I needed to continue on into April!  

I am finishing this post on April 28th at 1:00am.  It's only taken me a month to complete it.  :)   April has been another crazy month.  Hopefully we will see signs of that calming lamb soon!