Friday, September 26, 2008

This Week........

......started off normal enough, but to keep in line with daily drama around here, quickly got out of hand.......on Monday, everyone went to school, even Taylor. She came home very tired and I gave her meds and made her stay down for the afternoon.
On Tuesday, I sent Briana off to school, got Taylor ready for school and the quints ready to head out to therapy (we have back to back sessions at two different places on Tuesdays)......but when Taylor came downstairs for breakfast, I knew something wasn't right.
She was telling me she was swallowing blood and looked a bit pale in the face, so I called the ENT practice of dr.s who did all the kids' surgeries and the on call dr. called me back 9 minutes later! Anything with the word "blood" in it was an immediate "Do not pass go, do not collect 200.00, go straight to the ER" which couldn't have been anything positive. So instead of going to therapy with all the kids in tow, we were now headed to the hospital where the ENT office had just opened up their new medical offices. We walked right in, got assessed by an ER dr. who then paged the on call ENT clinic dr. who then walked over from his offices, who informed me that Taylor needed to be rushed into the OR for a "re-do" on the right side of her throat. I called a friend from church, who came and got the quints for me and watched them for the day. Steven was on his way from work, but not before they had to start an IV on Taylor - boy she was so brave - much more then I could be! She held so still and though it was massively boring for the quints to sit on the wall and read books, they did so good for an hour and a half in the ER triage room (we couldn't really call it a field trip because there was nothing in there you were allowed to touch !). So the day in a nutshell was:
7:00 am - wake up and realize we are having blood swallowing issues
7:30 am - called ENT practice and left message for on call dr.
7:39 am - on call dr. calls back and says go straight to ER
8:00 am - arrive at ER
8:30 am - assessed by ER doctor who then pages ENT dr.
9:00 am - ENT dr. arrives to assess Taylor
9:30 am - start IV on Taylor, friend picks up quints, dad arrives from work
9:50 am - wheeled into OR for "re-do" on right side of throat / left side looks lovely!
10:30am - wheeled into recovery where dad gives a kiss and heads back to work
11:00 am - mom goes back into recovery to sit with Taylor who is still sleeping
1:30 pm - discharged from recovery, head to Walgreens to pick up new medications
2:00 pm - we are back home, starting over with a cold liquid diet and missing school for another week

Later on at night - mom is so thankful things turned out the way they did and we had loving friends around us to help when we needed it........Taylor was so lucky to have caring dr.s and staff working on her even though it was on an emergency and rushed basis.......now, we are resting, resting, resting and catching up on schoolwork !!!!
Blessings on your week !

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Taylor's Tonsils





Taylor had her tonsils out this past Monday and she did remarkibly well...much better then the other four combined. The hardest part was she wasn't due to be checked in until 10:30 and taken to surgery until 11:30. They schedule their day based on age (youngest to oldest) so now that the kids are getting bigger, they are going later in the morning........a hard sell when you can't eat or drink after midnight no matter what time you are scheduled. I had my girlfriend come up to my house with her kids (she homeschools) to watch the quints and get them on the bus to school while I took T to the surgery center. Having never had any experience with hospitals, minimal exposure to dr. offices and urgent care centers, etc.....she was expectedly nervous and trying not to cry but the doctor is such a sweet lady and the nursing staff is so pediatric oriented - they treated her like a little queen and that helped a lot. Steven met us there right before she was taken back and stayed until they put her in recovery. She was so nervous about waking up during the surgery and she ended up being knocked out not even two breaths into the gas mask - snoring away :-) The anestesiologist was shocked she went out so quickly and without a fight......it was funny really. My friend got the kids on the bus and drove her brood back home while I sat with Taylor in recovery and Steven went back to work for the day. Then my cell phone rang about 1.5 hrs. into recovery.....it was the preschool. Generally speaking, when the school calls during the day when your kids are there, you brace yourself for something going wrong....well, this teacher calls and says, "Hi this is Miss Lynn, you need to come get Jiliana from class - she is lethargic and has a fever of 102*.....can you come get her?" - WHAT THE HECK? I am in a hospital, my husband is already back at work after having taken off for a 2-hr. lunch to be at the hospital with me and Taylor - our emergency contact on the forms for preschool is my homeschooling friend who just went home after getting them on the bus.......there is NO ONE to pick her up - not this day anyway. So after some prayers and clear thinking, the best I can do is tell my husband to bring work home with him and go pick her up since she has a fever and we dont' know what it is. The teacher also shared that the preschool policy is after a fever the child stays home for a day to "recover" then can come back - all except I am supposed to be caring for Taylor who just had her tonsils out and the only alone "spoiling" time she gets is when they are ALL supposed to be at school.........*sigh* I would say "what next" but I know better now !

.......the rest of the week................

Awhile back, Steven and I had decided I should get more involved with the local chapter of the multiples club here in town and I have been trying to find places to help since the summer ended and school started. This past Thursday was the monthly meeting which I desperately wanted to attend, however was leery of asking my poor husband after the previous days' shinanegans (sp?). He gladly let me go to the monthly meeting including the break out time prior to the general meeting where we meet in small groups based on our multiples age. Then there was the general meeting and afterwards we went across the street for drinks at the Elephant Bar. I was happy to volunteer to be a Caring Touch Coordinator since it's involvment with a pregnant mom following her thru the babies' 3-month mark. It is sporatic whenever we have a pg. mama join and I can be involved as much or little as I want (phone calls or home visits, etc).....I got to know some of the ladies' much better after our meeting last week and feel I can now have more of a voice in the local club functions, etc......Briana had a track meet and although she fell down and got hurt, she said other kids stopped running to help her up - from other schools no less - so there are polite kids left in the world these days !
Friday was Anthony's pediatric endoranology apt. for a blood hormone level test....Steven had already agreed to take him since he does better with his dad. They were running a bit late, but no worse the wear for it......Anthony did great - didn't even cry during the IV insertion and had fun spending the day with Daddy, although it is a long day laying in a chair with an IV in your arm, watching movies and not eating until after it's done....especially for a four year old. Anthony was a real trooper and slept the whole way home so he could be ready to show his siblings his battle scar when he got home. We usually get results after 7 to 10 days. I went to the gym Friday with the four that were home with me, although that proved to be difficult since it was pouring down rain all day.........but they had fun at the gym, so I decided to further abuse myself by taking them to Walmart to get a gift for Taylor's friends' birthday whose party was the next day.....the kids did so good sitting in the cart, going to the TOY SECTION, not asking for anything and picking out a toy for Taylor's friend - they earned a candy at the checkout line.....I was massively impressed since I try to avoid Walmart at all costs and NEVER take the kids due to too must eye candy and busyness in the store. The hardest part was walking in and out of the parking lot in the rain because of sensory issues, etc......sometimes I really wish I could have handicapped cards for the van, just to avoid the dangers of crossing a large parking lot with all the little ones..........so that was the end of last week; not to be repeated anytime soon !!!!

.......the saga continues........

........okay so to continue the saga for the week for last week, Steven picks up B from middle school and as they are driving home he asks her, "So did they do a random check for lice at school today or something weird like that?" to which Briana quickly replies, "No, I just saw a bunch of white stuff like spots in my hair and I didn't know what it was, so I went to the nurses office because I thought it was lice" - WHAT?!?!?!?!? After poor Steven pulls the car over and yells at her things I can't repeat, he drives her home, orders her to take a shower, don't touch her hair and sit in the middle of the floor in her room until her mother gets home. Oh yeah, he added the whole "your mother's gonna kill you" line to make sure she understood how serious this was.
Her uncanny ability to run her mouth caused dad to miss work, mom to have to rush home from running around in the morning and spend the whole afternoon calling and planning to take her to the PCP's office (all the way across town no less!) to verify so does NOT have lice and to get a note stating such. So I get home, check her out, brush and wrap up her hair, get the quints lunch, get them on the bus for school, call the dr. office and was lucky enough to get a same day apt. in the afternoon while everyone else was at school.
After driving across town in the van (easily $10 in gas) waiting for almost an hour in the hallway of the dr. office (it was WED, the most crowded day of the week with all four dr.'s being in the office seeing people) getting a note verifying no lice, just dandruff with a side of stupidity - also asking for a medication for dandruff shampoo - we were on our way back home for the day--trying to beat the preschool bus home by 3:30. I had long since given up going to the YMCA to work out or getting any laundry or housecleaning done. I walk in the door, take the kids off the bus, get snacks for all and walk right back out again - to pick Taylor up from Girl Scouts......no bus ride home on Wednesday due to G.S. not ending until 4:30. Come back home and decide that after the day I had, kids in this house will be lucky to get any food for dinner, much less something hot and cooked :-)

Sunday, September 14, 2008

What a Week!

Okay, you know when you have one of those days that calls for a do-over and then you realize it's taking over your whole week? Well, that pretty much sums up the last week for me. It started off on Monday, when I went to an at home business meeting and was late because my girlfriend and I went out to eat first (how often do you really do that?!).....then on Tuesday, I had therapy for Alexis at two different places, but the second place called to cancel so after feeding therapy finished, I decided to take the kids to Focus on the Family to place in the indoor place area. The kids were okay, but it had been so long since we had been there that they were a bit on the hyper side and other families stared (for the first time in a long time.)....then the bus showed up early, so we didn't have backpacks and water bottles ready on time to load up for school either. Now we are onto Wednesday which proves that when you think things couldn't possibly get any more crazy, they do. I had Taylor home from school that morning to go to the ENT for a pre-op for her tonsil surgery as well as having all the quints there to have the four checked out post-op.
I load everyone up, get to the office on time and realize i am at the wrong facility. A new hospital opened up two weeks ago in the northeast part of town and the ENT practice of six drs. all rotate clinic between their old office (still totally open and functioning) and the new offices located at the new hospital that just opened. So I find out from the receptionist at the old office that the dr. is doing clinic that particular day at the new facility, of which I have never been to! So I load everyone back into the van and while attempting to find the new my cell phone rings. Seeing it's Briana's - I'm a bit concerned since it's supposed to be on vibrate in her backpack for the day. So she proceeds to tell me that she is in the nurses office at school and she "thinks" she has head lice - I need to come pick her up. Excuse me?!?!?!?
So, like any good wife, I immediately said "Call your father" and hung up - within thirty seconds I get a call from my distraught husband, "What the hell am I doing now?" is the response on the phone! We quickly assess that he has to pick her up at shcool and run her home because I am on my way to the ENT appoitnment, now one hour late and trying to find the new facility.......*sigh*, I give up!!!
I will update more on the week later today or tomorrow, I am on my way to work out some of my frustrations at the "Y". Blessings to all :-)

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

My Famous Quote

A friend found a quote on the AP from me from the RNC last weekend

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080906/ap_on_el_pr/mccain_palin

Saturday, September 6, 2008

* PALIN POWER *






Well, today was such a life changing kind of experience! Steven, my best friend Rachel and myself attended the Republican Rally right here in Colorado Springs! John McCain with his wife, Cindy and his VP pick, Sarah Palin spoke and I was within 100 feet from them! It was an incredible thing to be there - have you ever seen 13,000 american flags waiving in the air while singing ".....o say can you see" ?


We quite enjoyed ourselves despite the lack of accessable restrooms, the pounding sun and occational pushing and shoving from the back as people jockyed for position....I was the first row right after the VIP section with the press, large company CEO's and other Republican reps from the city and state, etc........


Saying I was there was one thing, but having the up close and personal pix to prove it was another!!!


I had special shirts made for Steven and I that read "McCain * Palin - Officially Endorsed by the Denny Quintuplets" and on the back was a group shot of the kids with their names.........I got interviewed four times and quoted in an AP article and Steven was stopped by a reporter from the Washington Post on our way back to the car!


What a great day today!!!!! A once in a lifetime opportunity for sure !!!!!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

What to do What to do?

So, I am lamenting about the fact that I don't know what to do with myself because all my kids are in school now! So I sit down at the computer to check email and realize that I can't move! That would be because I went to work out this morning at the YMCA with my best friend and am now so sore my butt can't seem to go in an upward motion as is with standing from the sitting position.......well, I think I'll be here for awhile.......

PS - I don't think I have had a heartrate this high since my c-section with the babies ..........