Hello everyone! It's been awhile since I have updated the blog with what is going on with our family. So I supposed I have alot to update everyone on!
As all of you know (well at least I hope you all know) we left the hospital on July 22nd, the doctors said the only thing we needed to work on was getting Maizy to eat more before we used the feeding tube. The doctors said we could go home if we learned how to do the feeding tube and administer Maizy's medicine, if we weren't comfortable with it we could simply stay at the hospital. Needless to say we told them we would learn to do the feeding tube we wanted to go home...now! By the way the only medicine she really had was a multi-vitamin and an acid reflux dose neither of which she is still on.
So they trained us on replacing the feeding tube in the event that it came out, and they also had to teach us to administer the medicine. Administering the medicine was a real chore (massive, massive sarcasm) let me attempt to replay this task to all of you:
1. Nurse brought in a box with an obnoxiously large medicine bottle
2, Nurse asks me if I can read the massive label on the massive medicine bottle
3. Nurse them asks me to read the label on the massive medicine bottle outloud
4. Then the nurse gives me a syringe and asks me to draw out the dosage that is stated on the label.
5. The end
As most of you who know me would expect I did not let this remedial task go by without making a comment. I looked at Traci...then looked at the nurse and simply asked "Did you just have to make sure I know what numbers are, and if I could friggin' read?"
The nurse looked at me and said "Yes...you would be surprised"
So after Children's Mercy was comfortable with our reading skills, we were able to leave! It was fantastic being able to leave, Traci and I were thrilled and we hurried over to the Ronald McDonald House to get ready to go home. When we first were told we could go home we told Traci's mom who was there as well, so she immediately went over to the Ronald McDonald House and started cleaning up the room. When we arrived at the house the room was the cleanest that it has very likely ever been...it was amazing. Rhonda missed her calling in life, she would be an amazing hotel cleaning lady...seriously it was amazing.
We were ecstatic to return home and sleep in our own beds and to just be home!
It wasn't too long after we made it home that we were able to take out Maizy's feeding tube, and she has been eating like a champ ever since! It seems like every day she gets a bit brighter eyed and smile a little bigger. And she is gaining weight as well, she is now 9 lbs 5 oz!
Piper sure is loving her sister, every morning when she wakes up she insists that Maizy lays down in her bed with her, she gives her a big hug and says "Hey baby girl, hey bright eyes, hey baby Maizy." Except for today when Maizy stretched out and let our a giant fart in Piper's bed, Piper giggled said "she tootied in my bed.....she can leave now."
All in all things with the girls have been great, Piper finally got to have a birthday party since she had her real birthday in Kansas City, hey what 2 year old can say she had her birthday dinner at a Thai Noodle Shop!! Well her birthday was of course Elmo themed, and Traci and Allison Poore also came over and helped make cupcakes. I was informed to stay away from the cupcakes and go sit with Maizy...apparently they are not privy to my amazing, super awesome cupcake decorating skills. I did however overhear when Allison asked Piper what she thought of the cupcake she decorated reply with "Um...its different." Nice Piper...real nice.
The last week has been a bit of a challenge, and I need to thank alot of people for helping us. Traci had been having some pain in her ear while we were in KC, but we had so much going on she never made it to a doctor to check it out. We ended up in the emergency room a couple weeks ago when Traci had severe head, neck and ear pain. It seemed to have resolved itself when we left that day...well that it came back with a vengence on Monday. Everything was fine on Monday when all of a sudden Traci said she felt like she had fluid filling up her ear, then she was hit with a massive headache along with terrible neck pain....then she lost her balance. In the span of about 5 minutes she went from being just fine to collapsing on the floor. It was monday morning and I hadn't had my coffee yet, so I let her lay there for a bit and had Piper crawl on her while I finished my coffee then I asked her if she could move because I needed to get to the bathroom to go pee....ok that didn't happen, if it went down like that I wouldn't be typing this blog I would be crippled, maybe even dead.
In all seriousness I was very concerned, we need to get to the hospital fast. Thankfully Allison Poore was home and she came over to watch Piper while I rushed Traci to the hospital. She ended up spending the night in the hospital and then getting an MRI on tuesday to see what was going on. When it was all said in done Traci has an infection in her Mastoid, which is the hollow bone behind her ear, and she also has they discovered a viral infection in her inner ear. Of course these all have names but I can't come close to spelling them so you just get a brief description. Traci was bedridden from Monday till the evening on thursday. Thankfully, Grandma RaRa, Allison Poore, Grandma Dodo and Aunt Delisa were around to help us out when they could. So I have been in charge of the girls and taking care of Traci as well since Monday. Thankfully Traci can now get out of bed and open her eyes and has been sitting up on the couch. She is still dizzy, and her hearing is still distorted but she is on the road to recovery. A big thank you to Dr. Cramer for all her help during this trying and scary time.
Piper enjoyed her time with just daddy, last night I made my pesto pasta with kale and white beans and Piper was very excited to have some macaroni. Well I made Penne pasta...and when I gave it to her she looked at it and started screaming. Apparently there is a very big difference between whole grain macaroni and whole grain penne. She told me "this is not macaroni this is different" all I could do was say "it's all the same!!" Piper responded to this by saying "no daddy it's not all the same...this is not macaroni!" I had nothing...no response...so I made her macaroni.
In all seriousness it was tough but the girls were terrific, Piper was scared but she was a big girl and she realized that mommy was sick so she wanted to help mommy all the time.
I am sure I am missing something but I will do a better job of updating the blog on our adventures. Thank you to everyone that has helped us during this summer, between Maizy and Traci this summer has been a challenge...and Piper and I have decided we are moving...we can't handle this anymore. I am buying a VW bus and Piper is going to learn to play the banjo so we can start a band. Piper inform me today that her and I were in a band and the name of our band was "black beans and quinoa" so watch out world here we come. Of course I am kidding, I love my girls, its been a tough road but I wouldn't want to do it with anyone but them. Piper has been a champ, she has had to deal with alot more then most 2 year olds and she has been amazing the entire time. On top of Maizy being superwoman and Traci being supermom I am one lucky guy!
Thank you to everyone for their help, and kind words, we love all of you and we are ready for this challenging summer to be over!
