It's always something at the Nordlander house...

Ryan woke up Sunday morning and asked for OJ. When he took a drink, he started screaming. I thought he had bitten his cheek (which is something he's recently learned to do). I looked in his mouth and saw a HUGE ulcer on his tongue. A little while later, I noticed what looked like ant bites all over his hands. In the past we have had a problem with fire ants getting into his bed and biting him in the night. I looked down and noticed that he had them all over his feet too. That's when it clicked....hand, foot and mouth disease. He's had it before, when he was a baby. And I'm guessing he picked it up at VBS last week. I called the doctor and he said that's what it was. He started with a rash on his bottom that afternoon. Then yesterday morning, Ryan woke up and the rash had turned into blisters, too. I called the doctor again and he wanted to see him. We went in around 4:00 yesterday and got seen by Dr. Dockray. When he looked at his hands I could tell he was thinking I was crazy for bringing him in (it doesn't look that bad there)...then he looked at his feet and got a little more concerned. But it wasn't till I took off his diaper and showed him all of the blisters on his bottom that he realized how serious it was. He said (and I quote)..."It has been many, many, many...and I mean MANY, years since I have seen a case of it this bad. This is pretty serious." He said that basically the blisters form on the nerve endings...hence why they hurt so bad. (I got it too the last time he had it, so I know the pain that each blister causes.) He gave him Tylenol with codeine to help with the pain. I asked him how long he needed to stay away from other kids. He said that he needs to stay away from everyone (not just kids) for the next week and a half. He said that since the blisters just showed up on Sunday, he's still at the beginning of it and it will get worse. The spots need to be gone for 4-5 days before he gets around people. (I'm going to go crazy being stuck in the house for over a week!) Fast forward a few hours. I get a call at about 6:15 last night that his fever had shot up to over 102 and he was shaking and throwing up everywhere. By the time I got him, he was lethargic and still throwing up. I called the doctor for a third time. I finally talked to the on-call doctor about 9 last night. We had put Ryan in the bath and gotten him to stop shaking...and the throwing up had slowed down some. She said to keep him hydrated and wake him up throughout the night to make sure he would respond. Luckily, we had a smooth night. He woke up this morning...and the fever is back. It's almost 103 today. I'm doing my best to keep fluids going in.

I tell you all of that to say, please pray for my little boy. Pray for his body to fight off this virus. Pray for him to not get dehydrated. It's hard to see him just laying there with no energy...that's not like him. I'm ready for my crazy two year old monster to be back! Also, please pray that Drew won't get it. It's impossible to explain to a baby that he has to drink or else he'll end up in the hospital. Thanks!

Drew's Song

We have come up with an "official" song for Drew. Each of the lines in the song have meaning (to us, at least). Here goes....

Hey little merman
Shaped like a coke can
With hair like Papa Duck.
You're cute as a muffin
You drool like nuthin'
And you bee-bup everywhere, yuck!

Now to explain (in case you're curious)...
Hey little merman - Drew can do this crazy thing with his feet...he makes them look like a mermaid tail. But since he's a boy, he has to be a "merman" according to his Aunt Bebe (Molly).
Shaped like a coke can - Each time we go to the doctor for check-ups, Drew is in the 75th percentile for weight and less than 25th for height. So, he literally is the shape of a coke can. He's short and round!
With hair like Papa Duck - My dad (aka Papa Duck) has lost almost all of the hair on the top of his head. He pretty much just has hair around the bottom, along the back...very similar to the "do" that Drew has.
You're cute as a muffin - No real significance to this line, it just goes.
You drool like nuthin' - Man, this boy can drool! He always looks like we've just pulled his clothes straight from the washing machine...without drying them. His shirt is always SOAKED from the neck, all the way to his belly button.
And you bee-bup everywhere, yuck - Ryan tries to tell us when Drew has spit up, but he calls it "bee-bup"...and Drew is REALLY good at this, too. After eating, the first burp is always dry. (And then people think he's done and go back to playing with him...but really he has more in store.) Then comes the oh-so-lovely WET burp...which can soak you!

You could poke someone's eye out with that!

Well, here we are on vacation in North Carolina...and what a time we've had so far. On Saturday, our first REAL day of vacation (we won't count Friday since we spent 15 hours of it traveling), we woke up and decided to head to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Pretty much the entire family went...minus my mom and grandparents. Ryan is in a "do everything myself" mode right now...and he doesn't want help with anything. Our food came to the table and Rob was helping him butter his pancakes. Ryan, with fork in hand, got upset and said "No, Daddy," as he threw back his arms. Rob's face was in the dangerous path of Ryan's fork. The next thing we know, Rob has his hand over his eye and is running from the table. Steve went to check on him (since I'd be a little out of place in the men's restroom)...and soon enough they were headed back to the table. We assumed everything was fine...until Rob sat down. He had been stabbed in his eye with Ryan's fork...and was bleeding from his eye ball. Gross! We ended up calling our doctor in Houston, and he said to get straight to the ER. So, we did what every family would do in that situation...we finished breakfast and then headed to the hospital. (As Rob put it, "You never know how long you'll be there, so we might as well eat first!") Rob spent 8 hours of the day in the Pardee Hospital in the mountains of N.C. (I bet he's glad he finished his food first!) He ended up being seen by 4 doctors because they all wanted to get another opinion. In the end, he was told that he had a "punctured cornea"...luckily only one prong of the fork got him. He had to see an ophthalmologist on Tuesday to make sure there was no permanent damage (it could've changed the shape of his eye, somehow). He got good news from his follow-up...she said everything was healing just fine. This has really taught Ryan a lesson about hitting...too bad it was at Rob's expense. (Molly took a nice close-up picture of his bleeding eye as we were heading to the ER. I'll post it once she sends it to me.)

The Birds Strike Back!!!

One of Ryan's favorite things to do outside is scare the birds. Any time he sees a bird, he asks if he can scare it away. He runs at them screaming...until they fly off. I don't know what's so amusing about it...but he could chase birds all day if I'd let him! Well, today the birds struck back (or one bird in particular). I decided to take the boys to Bear Creek Park this morning, just to get out of the house. Because of all the rain a few weeks ago, most of their animals weren't out. But, there WAS a rooster running loose. As soon as Ryan saw it, I heard those oh-so-familiar words, "Mommy, me scare bird. Peas. Peas. Peas." Not knowing much about roosters, I said it was okay. So...he took off running and screaming at the rooster. The rooster did not runaway, however. Instead, he started doing this little dance in a circle around Ryan. I thought it was so cute that I got out the camera and started snapping pictures. I looked up from behind the camera right as the rooster jumped and attacked Ryan. All I saw was a rooster in the air, feathers flying, and Ryan grabbing his arm screaming. Ryan ran to me still holding his arm. I looked...and he has battle wounds on his arm. I guess he messed with the wrong rooster! One thing I do know about birds is that they are dirty. So I ran to the car and got the Germ-X...it's all that I had handy. I cleaned it as good as I could till we could get home. (Don't worry, I called the pediatrician just to check and they told me to keep it clean with peroxide and keep an eye on the marks to make sure they don't become infected.)

Ryan's New Friend

As of today, Ryan has a new friend...his shadow! (As always, Ryan is able to keep everyone around him laughing.) We were on our way walking home from the neighborhood park when Ryan looked down and noticed "someone" following him. We explained that this is his shadow. We were "jumping" on his shadow's head. He thought it looked like so much fun that he wanted to do it too. He started running towards his shadow's head...and kept on running...not realizing that his shadow kept running, too. He ran quite a ways before he realized his shadow wasn't holding still. So, we diverted his attention and had him jump on other people's shadows. When we started heading home again, he turned to his shadow, waved, and said, "Bye bye shadow!" Then began walking. He turned around and noticed that his shadow was still following him. So again he waved and said, "Bye bye shadow!" and continued walking. He turned for a third time, and his shadow was STILL there! This time (with a little more attitude in his voice) he told his shadow good-bye. His shadow followed him all the way home...despite how many times he told it bye. When we got to the front door, I told him that his shadow would stay outside until next time we go out. So now every time we go out the front door, he looks for his shadow...making sure he's still there!

Wow....It's been a while!

Man, it's been a LONG time since I've had time to update this! After my appendectomy, it has definitely taken me a while to get back in the swing of things. I think we are FINALLY back to normal, as far as our schedule is concerned. There have been some other "issues" that have come up recently. First, several weeks after my surgery, I developed a very painful lump in the vein where I had my IV. I asked the boys' pediatrician and he said that it's a blood clot. But it was nothing to worry about since it's in a superficial vein. Over the next few weeks, I would wake up in the morning and new clots would have "popped up" over night. I now have 4 of them, all in the same vein, going up my arm. They hurt like crazy. I called my doctor and they said to take Advil and apply heat. With two little ones in the house, I've yet to find time to do that. So, I'm just dealing with the pain. The second issue...I took a short nap on Monday, and when I woke up I could not see out of my right eye. With my left eye closed, I wouldn't have been able to tell you if there was anyone standing in front of me. It looked like I was in the middle of a cloud. I went to the eye doctor on Tuesday morning and she said that my eye had gotten dry while I was sleeping and when I opened my eye, I ripped off the outer layer of my cornea. She said that she could see where the cells were healing. I was given a prescription for eye drops and go back to see her in a week (so Tuesday). Hopefully the drops will work and restore my vision completely. We'll see, I guess.

Back at it.......

The Nordlanders just can't stay away from the hospital, can we??? I started having stomach pains on Monday and thought nothing of them at the time. Over the next two days they continued to get worse. I woke up in the middle of the night on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning with pains so bad that I couldn't sleep. The pains went all the way from my c-section incision to up under my ribs and around to my back. When my ob's office opened for the day, I called to see if it might be a complication from the c-section. The nurse told me that it sounded like really bad constipation and that I should take milk of magnesia and I'd feel better soon. So I took her advice....and nothing happened! I had a doctor's appointment for Ryan at 3:45 that afternoon, so I headed out. When I walked in with him one of the nurses saw me and said that I didn't look good. She said that she wouldn't let me drive home, and asked if Rob could meet me there. Rob came up and on our way home he dropped me off at the urgent care center. They checked me over and the doctor said that it looked like I had some crazy stomach bug that is going around. This isn't your typical 24-hour bug, he said that this one lasts a week. He told me to take a prescription for the cramping, and to see my doctor in a week if I wasn't feeling better. By Friday afternoon I was in worse shape than before. So that evening, my mom brought me to the CyFair Hospital ER. They did a CT scan of my tummy (after drinking 4 cups of the world's nastiest "berry smoothie" flavored barium). The tech said she saw something funny on my right side and she would have the doctor take a look. He came back with the results...a ruptured appendix. He told me that, for some reason, instead of the infection going all through my abdominal cavity, it had contained itself on my right side. (I know that "some reason" was God's hands inside me, keeping everything under control.) They informed me that I wouldn't be going home, but I'd be heading to surgery to remove my appendix. I finally got into a room around 3 am Friday morning. The doctor that was set to perform the surgery had a super-busy morning, with several operations in line ahead of me, so mine wouldn't be until sometime in the afternoon. At 2:30 pm they wheeled me down to get prepped for surgery. I had a chance to meet all of the doctors that would be present during the surgery...everyone from the actual surgeon, to the anesthesiologist, to the nurse. I was totally impressed with each one of them. God definitely hand-picked these doctors just for me! (The old-man anesthesiologist did a little dance to distract me while I got my third IV line inserted! It was pretty funny to watch.) They started some meds in my IV, and off I went! I don't remember anything until later that night. The doctor told Rob that everything went well, but that there was a lot of infection. (It was supposed to take 20-30 minutes, but ended up taking them an hour to get it all out!) So, now I'm in my room and starting the healing process. I am really sore, so getting up out of bed to go to the bathroom hurts like crazy. The doctors brought me a "potty chair" to put right next to the bed so that I don't have to walk far. I call it my "latrine"...since it starts to get a bit funky smelling if they take too long to empty it. I also have a drain coming out of my lower abdomen that drains any infection and fluid that is still trapped inside. It looks like a ball attached to a tube that goes into my belly. I have nicknamed my drain "Clifford" because it's almost like walking a dog on a leash...only it's with me at ALL times. And Clifford is the appropriate name because the fluid coming out of me is red. So, I have Clifford the Little Red Dog!

This whole thing has been quite an experience, and I thank everyone for their continued prayers. I was supposed to get discharged today, but because of the large amount of infection they found, they say that I will be here for a couple more days. Please pray for me, as this is the longest I have ever been away from my kids. Pray for my kids as they are missing having Mommy at home. (When I left for the ER, I kissed them like I would be back in a few hours. If I'd have known I would be admitted to the hospital, I would've taken a little longer to love on them before walking out of the door!) Rob is at home with Ryan and Drew, so pray for him to have the energy it takes to be "Mr. Mom." Also, continue to pray for my milk supply...not being able to nurse is doing some damage on my production. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your prayers. I am blessed to have so many people who care about me and are supporting me (in all different kinds of ways) through my healing process.