The 6 hour ER Stint

It would appear that the cough I thought would just go away, isn't. Last night around 6ish, Caitlyn started with her uncontrollable hacking again. Which of courses prompted vomitting, always fun. I tried calling her doctor to see what we shoudl do, and his phone was busy...for over 30 minutes! I am thinking that there was something really wrong with his phone line? So I told Matt that we were just going to Lutheran General and calling it a night. Caitlyn's doc is not out of that hospital, but they do have a pediatric emergency room, which is why I go there instead. Not to mention the fact that her doc is out of Christ, which would mean going 45 minutes away to the ER....seems silly to me.

They did get us in right away, which I was thankful for. But of course, in true Caitlyn fashion, she didn't cough a bit for the first hour that we were there. And why would she really? There is nothing near as fun as making your parents look like complete fools in front of medical experts.

The first person to see her was a student. He couldn't hear anything strange going on in her lungs, and figured she was just beginning the flu. Then the "real" doc came in the follow up his exam. Hmmm...different story from him altogether. Seems he could hear the wheezing and also noted that she had some coarse sounds on the right side, more than likely beginning stages of pneumonia. So we headed down for a chest xray. Which Caitlyn thoroughly loved. And the fact that the techncian let her see the images was certainly an added bonus.

Once back in the room, she was given a neb treatment. Through our rose colored glasses we were fairly certain this was going to be the cure all. Not so much. It helped. For all of about 7.2 minutes. Then began the extreme hacking again. Shortly after, they decided another neb treatment would certainly do the trick. But see, they don't know how my kid loves to skew the odds.

The second one seemed to be going along nicely. Well, that's until she decided to throw up from the either the taste of it of the plastic in her mouth. Not sure. Either way, she now how vomit ladden clothes and was still coughing. This spurred some interest from the doctors though :P After cleaning her up, we finished the treatment and were told we needed to hang around some so they could watch her.

An hour later, the doc comes back in and says that he is prescribing an antibiotic because he is worried about the coarse sounds on the right side turning into pneumonia. He also prescribed some more albuterol. Which I won't be filling, as I just refilled one for her since her last canister expired.

She sounds the same this morning, hopefully the abx will kick the hell out of whatever is going on. If not, she may just cough for the rest of her life. She is terribly sad not to be at school today though, as it was supposed to be her fake birthday celebration. Since she isn't in school for her actual birthday, they do a fake one for the summer kids. I have reassured her that she will have her fake birthday after spring break though and she seems ok about that...only slightly pissed off I guess.

I must mention though, a funny that occurred in the hospital. Typically, doctors seem to talk to moms like they have a significantly lower IQ than the rest of the walking upright world. This doc however, whom I adored, spoke to Matt as though he were certainly learning disabled. At first I thought it was a fluke, but everytime the man spoke to Matt, he looked at him like Matt could barely understand the English language. And it wasn't just me noticing it, Matt asked me as well if it was just his imagination that this was happening. I reassured him that it was not! So now when I talk to Matt about Caitlyn, I am making sure to speak in slow sentences with easy to understand words so as not to confuse him ;]

Danny Boy

Caitlyn's cousin Danny has Biliary Atresia He was diagosed with it when he was about 8 weeks old. I would go into the entire story of it, but I would do it no justice. Suffice it to say, danny can get sick very quickly. Luckily, with lots of prayers he has managed to do outstanding for the past almost 7 years. Up until this weekend. His mom took him to the emergency room because he had been throwing up quite a bit. To make a long story short, it turns out he had a bowel obstruction. Which I know now is not uncommon in children with this condition.

Danny ended up having to have surgery the other day and is since doing much better. Caitlyn on the other hand is beside herself that he most favorite cousin on the planet is in the hospital. To make matters worse, she can't go see him. She is just too sick to be around a kid who is sicker. So I told her what she needed to do was say lots of prayers that Danny gets better soon.

I have never asked Caitlyn to pray for anyone, or anything. And I never thought that I had to explain to her how to do it. I just figured she would know how I guess. Well it would appear that she doesn't quite understand the process based on the barrage of questions I got regarding the topic. To name my favorite questions:

1. How can God hear me when heaven is so far away?
2. Is God watching over Danny in the hospital?
3. Did Grandma rita pray for me when I was in the hospital?

After some lengthy explanations regarding prayer, explanations that a 5 year old can understand, she assured me that she was in fact praying long and hard for him. When I found out that Danny is getting better and stronger, I let her know that her prayers must be working.

Now that we have the prayer business out of the way, I just wish there was a way to control the sudden outbursts of crying that occur. She is so worried about him, and no matter what I tell her, I don't think her fears are going to be put to rest until she sees him at home and comfortable....I guess that's the case for all of us though.

Inhaler or Over the Counter Meds??

The girl is doing well. She seems to be battling a cough right now. I am always so torn as to whether I should go with the over the counter cough medicine or start with the inhaler. I try to "treat" and be invasive as little as I possibly can. So for the first couple of days of the cough, I usually stay away from it. Hoping that it will just go away on it's own. It's when it starts interferring with the sleep that I have a tendency to intervene. Cause interferrance with Cate's sleep equates the same for me. And we all know that I am not a big fan of that.

Either way, I started with the inhaler for a couple of days in the hopes that maybe it was just seasonal. After 2 days of the thing not leaving and the inhaler not helping so much, we moved to the night time, make me sleepy, cough medicine. And now that is seeming to help. So let's just hope that it isn't a recurrence of the crap that she had last month.

Her cough seems to be getting a little wet now, not so much the dry barky cough that she had. So whatever is in there is loosening up. I just wish now that she would learn to spit the crap out versus swallowing it back down. But that is a skill that must be learned it appears.

The interview went very well. At least I think it did, I guess the guy interviewing me could have a completely different perspective on it huh? I did find out though at the very beginning of the interview, that it isn't a position like I currently hold. Rather it is more of a supervisory position. Very strange to me, but what the hell, I'm game! I'll give it a go if offered the opportunity.

The person also informed me that having the references that I did have, carry a lot of weight. Which I kind of knew, which is why I asked one person in particular for a letter of recommendation. Having her speak highly of you means a lot to prospective employers. So I was very grateful that she was willing to write a letter for me.

I was assured that I have made it to the next round of interviews. Rounds? Didn't know there were rounds, but I guess I am glad that I have made it to the next of the said rounds. Would have been much nicer if I had been offered the job right there on the spot right? But I will take what I can get. So another week or so of my being horribly nervous!

Tomorrow is the day

First off...I am officially on spring break....woooohoooo! Technically, it is supposed to start tomorrow, but I took a personal day. The nice thing is, Caitlyn and Matt aren't off next week, so I get the house to myself. ALL.DAY!! Sweet :)

My interview is tomorrow at 2:30. I am really nervous about this one for some reason. But I am thinking that I will be fine once I am in there and not having to dwell over what they will be asking me or anything like that.

Fingers crossed it goes well!

I am getting used to the hair. It's hard, but I am coping. I am fairly certain that in a few weeks, it will seem like it has always been like this. Until then though.....

The New Hair

I went to get my haircut today. I also got it relaxed. There is nothing relaxed about it....it is straight! Which is so strange to me, having had wild curly hair my entire life. the bangs are also gone. GONE!!! they blend in with the rest of my hair now. Which is even stranger than the straightness as far as I am concerned. I have also noticed that I have a very large forehead. Not sure if I really thought this whole change of hair thing all the way through really. Or if I just need to get used to the bigness of my head. My family likes it. But can they really say that they don't? I mean, aren't they supposed to say it's nice no matter what it looks like??

Here's the conversation that took place with Caitlyn upon my arrival home from the salon:

C: You look like a whole new Mommy!
N: Do you like it baby?
C: It looks very nice Mommy.

.......several hours later as we are sitting at home:

C: I might get confused Mommy.
N: Confused about what?
C: Cause I am used to you with curly hair and bangs.
N: Well I'm still Mommy just with different hair.
C: (crying now) But I like my old Mommy.

Yeah....I feel much better about the hair after that damn exchange!

Visitors

My cousin and her husband along with her 2 children were in over the weekend from Alabama. We haven't seen them in about 2 years so it was wonderful seeing them. Caitlyn loved playing with her cousins and we all hung out for a few hours befor they had to head out again.

Caitlyn asked me later why Stephanie "talks like a cowgirl." LOL Even after I tried to explain to her that it's because of where she lives, it still wasn't making sense to her. But she did tell me that she wanted to be able to talk like that as well. So I am almost certain that within the next few days she will suddenly develop a southern accent.

She is getting a cough again, which irritates me to no end. Hopefully though it is just the change in the weather and some seasons allergies. I am going to give her some of her inhaler for the next few days and see if that helps. I am thinking it's related to the weather because there are no other symptoms at all. Fingers crossed the inhaler does the trick and we aren't heading back to a cold like the one that she had a few weeks ago.

Matt took me shopping yesterday for a new suit for my interview. He was so wonderfully patient with me the entire time. I was really preparing myself for a battle before the trip was over, but that didn't happen. He was actually helpful by looking for the right size for me and picking out ones that he thought I would like. To say the least, he shocked me with his patience. He even helped me pick out shoes! Stunning!

Only 3 more days of work until Spring Break!!!

A very long overdue update

So there has been much going on here in the land of the Walshes. The reason for the recent hiatus from the blog has been more personal than anything. Matt and I have been doing some "housekeeping" so to speak. And in order to focus on that entirely, I had to forego the computer. And now that we are done cleaning up our house and things are starting to get back to normal, I think I am ready to begin telling the tales of my girlie again. Of which there are many as usual.

For starters, we have lost another tooth. And the tooth fairy came to visit again, leaving another $5.00. It's the tooth right next to the one that was lost first. So she is now missing her front 2 bottom teeth. And it is funny to hear her pronounce certain words, cause her tongue slides through the gap now. It's funny, you never really think about how much your tongue really does when you pronounce certain words. So when she is trying to sound out words when she is reading, they don't always sound right :P I am sure once she gets used to it, she will compensate for it. At least I hope she will.

She is still loving ballet and is now saying that she wants to be a ballerina when she grows up :) Her recital is the first weekend in June and we got to see the costumes that they are wearing....OH.MY.GOD are they adorable!!! Little pink fitted bodice and full tutu! Expect loads of pics for that!

Some interesting news for me, I filled out an application online on a complete whim. I really only did it because they weren't asking for a resume to be submitted at the time of applying, so I figured what the hell? Well, 16 minutes after I hit the submit button, the assistant superintendant was emailing me asking me to come in for an interview 2 days later! I couldn't do that since I was doing a training that day, but we were able to schedule it for the 23rd! And I am starting to think that it was a blessing in disguise, because there are huge changes happening at my co-op right now. So, hopefully this will work out for me!

Matt is in his master's program and it is in full swing now. It monopolizes a lot of his time, but he is hanging in there and doing well. I haven't had to "help" him out too much, which is good for me. I do worry though about what will happen during football season. He is always so crunched for time anyway during football, and I worry that he will end up falling behind in the classes. But I think he is determined enough to do well and finish the program, so he will certainly be giving it his all.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming now, and hopefully no more month long wait for updates :)