19 JUNE - Iowa City Visit - Allergy and Pulmonary

Thursday, June 18, 2009 - Iowa City Ronald McDonald House

We made reservations to stay here overnight for $20 since Jaren's appointment was first thing in the morning. Ed said, "I wonder if the Hamburglar will be jealous that I'm spending the night with Ronald tonight..." Hehehe

So, here is where we stayed for the night. Unfortunately Jaren does not sleep anywhere, but his crib so it was a LONG night for Ed! He was exhausted the next day, poor Papa!

Some different views of the room we stayed in. Since they don't have housekeepers, we were in charge of cleaning our rooms before we left for Jaren's appointment.

Jaren and I playing a little game they had there.

LOVE this pic!!! He's such a ham!

Friday, June 19, 2009 - University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics - Allergy and Pulmonary Visit - Skin Poke Test

Room 19... here we stayed in a TINY room for over 4 hours!!! Thankfully they brought in a TV and DVD's for the kids. They also had some toys for Bear to play with while he waited for his results.

They tested him for 46 different things, on his back and his arms, poor guy! If a hive formed, they measured how large it was and they also measured how large the red blotch surrounding the hive was. This tells us how severe the allergy is. As you can see in this photo, his allergy to cats and dogs is pretty bad.

They mark with a pen on his back to tell them what allergen was placed there. They place a drop of each allergen that is being tested on the skin and prick it so the allergen can enter the skin. If a hive forms, it's most likely an allergy. Not a test that I like to see my kids have to undergo! I took Oliver by myself at 18 months old and he SCREAMED for 20 minutes while I had to physically restrain him. I MADE Ed come this time and Jaren was mellow as can be! The kids didn't want to stay in the room to hear him cry so we walked a little ways to see my favorite nurse, Perla, who took care of me during my stay for my parathyroidectomy in January.

Here were the positive results: Cats & Dogs, Milk, Eggs, Peanuts, Wheat (barely visible... Ed doesn't think there was even a hive there!), Chicken (yeah... chicken... who'da thunk?!), Mold, Chinese Elm trees, Hickory trees, Pine trees.

Waiting for the results...

Jaren's new inhaler! He did really well and didn't fight using it!!!

Asthma Strikes Again - April 2009

Well, it's Springtime, also known as allergy/asthma butt-kickin' time! I HATE this time of year for my boys! Oliver and Jaren's allergies go haywire and of course that all triggers their asthma attacks as well... soooooooo of course we end up in the hospital for a couple of days with Jaren. He was also admitted on May third of last year because we could take him home on our anniversary which falls on the fifth! Poor little guys!

I thought this was a good idea for them to have this on Jaren's door!!!

He looks so peaceful when he FINALLY falls asleep!

Jaren pointing to his wristbands. I know they probably bug him like crazy!

Olive Garden Baby Shower - Ollie's 2nd Ambulance Ride

Last night a bunch of us girlies got together at the Olive Garden for Meg's baby shower! She's having her first baby girl at the end of the month! Yay! We had so much fun eating, talking and laughing! I absolutely LOVE my Girls Nights Out! :o) They are an absolute MUST in order to remain sane and connected! Seriously... I feel re-energized afterwards!

Lindsay, Krista, Martie

Meghan H., Meghan G., Me

We met up there about 6 pm and waited for a while (almost 2 hours... yowzers). Luckily, a seat opened up for me in the lobby and I plowed through the crowd in order to sit and rest my weary bones! UGH! I have to say... my neck feels great, but my bones still hurt really bad! It hurts mainly in my knees, but sometimes they hurt so bad that I feel the bone pain in the teeny tiny bones in my TOES!!! Crazy, huh?! My surgeon said that it would take a while for the calcium to feed my hungry bones! On Tuesday I go back down to Iowa City for my post op check up and x-rays. I'd like to have a bone density scan just to see where most of the damage is done. I had all of the kids for the first time by myself in TWO MONTHS! Man... I was just exhausted!!!

Anyways... Meg H. picked me up at around 5:30 and we ventured out to pick up some clothes for the baby shower and a book... of course! I love giving books as gifts! My kids LOVE to read... and Jaren is starting to sit for longer periods of time now so it's fun to sit and flip through books with him! :o) We got there and like I said I sat for a while, took all my pills while I was sitting there (Thanks for the H2o, Krista!) waiting. Mandy came and Matt was there with 3 of his kids! I got to meet him, but didn't really get to talk with him since the lobby was PACKED with people! I feel bad that I didn't get up and give him a hug and greet all the kiddos, but my legs were KILLING ME!!! (Don't think I'm a huge jerk, Matt... cuz I'm not!) :o) I'm sure we'll meet again! SOON... or so I'm told! ;o) So... we finally are seated and of course it's like the table the furthest away from where I'm sitting!!! I was pining for my sweet wheels aka: my walker! Yeah... I feel like an old woman hobbling around on my weak legs! Yes... thanks again, Krista... for the old lady comments! Hehehe! You know I love ya! Man... I had so much fun last night... I must have REALLY needed to get out of my house... since that's where I am pretty much ALL of the time since our van is dead and has a flat tire. BLECH! Okay... my mind is just going all over today... sorry if you aren't following... :o)

So... we are seated at the table and we order. Meg opens her darling presents, we take pictures. YES... pictures... we seriously see a guy that looks AND sounds just like Jerry Stiller, George Castanza's dad on "Seinfeld"!!! Okay... so I HAD to take a picture of him with Meghan's camera! He even had a shirt on that looked like he borrowed it from Kramer! I wanted to go over to him and ask him to say, "SERENITY NOW!!!". :o) "Festivus... for the rest of us..." Good times!

During our dinner, the waitress comes over and asks if anyone has a white van. Krista piped up and said that she did. Then the waitress said that someone had hit it while in the parking lot. She went out to see if it was hers... later she saw that they had left a note. She wasn't too worried about it... because there was a crack in the bumper from a previous mishap. We think that they must have thought that they had done it. Good thing we are honest folks... RIGHT, KRISTA!?! ;o)

We had so much fun until Ed called Krista's phone and said that Oliver was in the ambulance. I was like, "What happened?" He said that he came downstairs and told him that his stomach hurt and then he started having an asthma attack and couldn't breathe. Ed gave him an albuterol treatment and that did nothing, so Chad came over to be with Jaren and Eden while Ed followed the ambulance to the hospital. Ed had to work at Goodwill overnight so his dad went to the ER to be with Oliver and took him back home with him at 12:30 at night when he was released. I guess his tummy ache was because he has impacted feces... yum. More water and fiber, please. Poor little man. He seems to be doing better today! Thank goodness!!!

Oliver + Asthma = Ambulance

Have you guessed what this photograph is of?

It's actually a Civil War Ambulance Crew... which brings me to my next blog...

On Monday, March 24th I sent the kids to school as usual. I was tired and Jaren was sleeping so I decided to take a nap as well. After a while I heard the phone ring and it was Ed on the other end asking,

"Where were you? Where were you?"

I said, "I'm here! I'm here! I was taking a nap! What's going on??"

Apparently the school was trying to reach me, but I had not heard the phone ring as I was in la la land! He was in the car on his way to Oliver's school because Oliver wasn't responding to his inhaler at school. He said the ambulance was on it's way to pick him up from school as well. I was like, "WHAT??" Evidentally he told his teacher that he needed his "treatment" (inhaler) and so she sent him to the office downstairs. The secretary gave him a few puffs, but Oliver said it wasn't working. She must have turned around for a split second and so he decided to try and go back to class. An associate found him crying in the hallway and noticed that he was having trouble breathing so she took him back to the office. The secretaries husband has asthma and so she decided to call 911.

The ambulance got there and started an IV and gave him some oxygen. Whenever they'd take the oxygen away his oxygen level dropped to 80.

So, I'm at home wondering if he's ok and if someone is there with him so he's not alone, freaking out in the ambulance. Ed said that he was pretty quiet and just laid there. Later, Brenda, an associate that works there (I also babysit her daughter), said that she offered to go with Ollie since he knew her, but the EMT's said that it wasn't necessary I guess.

So... Ed gets there and follows them to the hospital where they could give him more powerful breathing treatments. They got him back to "his normal" and came back home the same day. I got a bag ready for him with coloring books, his leapster, reading books and some clothes as I thought he was going to be admitted.

We definitely need to ramp up on his meds now that it's getting into allery season. He was also running alot at recess which I'm sure triggered his flare up! He says that he wants to be a firefighter now, since the guys in the ambulance were firefighters! He's such a sweet little guy even though he's got a lot on his plate at such a young age.

Breathing Buddies

It's that time of year again... when Ollie's asthma and allergies start flaring up! I kept him home from school the other day because his breathing was HORRIBLE! I wanted to get it under control before sending him back. I knew I could keep an eye on him better while he was home. The previous night he woke up about 2:30 am and said he couldn't breath! I jumped out of bed and gave him a breathing treatment. He's been using his Albuterol (Inhaler) several times a day. We now need to up his meds during this time of year. Pulmicort (inhaled) TWICE a day - Preventative, Xopenex (inhaled) every 4-6 hours as needed and his children's allergy meds (liquid) 1 tsp. each day. I hate to hear the raspyness in his breathing! My poor little man! We called our doctor and he told us to up his meds and keep an eye on him. He said that he sounded fine. In a couple days, he'd be like new again! That's a relief! He's been on his nebulizer since he was about 18 months old, so he's used to it by now! He knows what he's doing.


Jaren has been fighting a cold for over 10 weeks now. It started as a cold and turned into sinus infection. Don't worry... we've taked him to the doctor like 5 times already... it just has to run it's course. Our doctor prescribed him a lower dose of Xopenex... the same thing that Oliver is on. It has helped his coughing and gagging alot. Ollie has been such a good helper and helps me give him breathing treatments. What a sweet brother!

I LOVE this picture of the boys.