Recovery

I was about to fill out a blog when I saw a fire truck stop in front of my house. I was wondering what they were up to. I saw a guy in the front seat get out and walk to the front of the truck and he had to remove my trash cans from the road. How embarrassing.

Lee Joe's surgery went as well as could be expected. I took him in at 6:45 they had him ready to go at 7:30. He got out of surgery at 11 and we got home around 2.

It was a good thing he got the surgery done now instead of later. But he should have had it done a long time ago. Basically all the hearing bones in his ear were destroyed. The nasty thing grew to penetrate part of the bone that protects the brain. It didn't get the brain but in his ear now a little piece of his brain is exposed. THere is no chance of them restoring his hearing but hearing aids are an option. We didn't find that out about the hearing aids being an option until after the Doctor called to check on him later that night. His facial nerve is exposed and unprotected but still intact. If something happens to that nerve his face on that side would be paralyzed. All they were able to do for him is remove it and everything in his ear. They made his ear canal really large and now there is no chance the thing will come back but there is also no need for surgery again in 6 months. But every 6 months for the rest of his life he will have to have the ENT clean out his ear. and no one is to put anything in his ear ever because the risk of injuring his facial nerve is so high.

He has this lovely cup thing with an elastic band over his ear with gauze inside. I told the kids he is the one eared pirate. His ear is still there of course but it has stitches all around the back of the ear. and there is nasty drainage from his ear it is packed with foam. It is pretty gross.

The rest of yesterday wore me out. I had to make separate plans for Kailyn and Hannah yesterday. I had to go pick up his medications once All the kids were back at home from school and all their various places. The worst part of that is our insurance for medications is a joke. His antibiotic was $125 and the insurance knocked it down to $122. And that was for 10 pills!! I spent $166 at Walgreens. He is on Tylenol now for pain. After that I had someone bring us dinner and I left with Kylee and Autumn to their last basketball practice. I went to Target while they were there to get Amber some Dayquil. I didn't realize we were out when I went to Walgreens earlier. Dropped off those two in exchange for Amber to go to Honor Orchestra. My car pool didn't work out so I picked her up and went to Winco for some groceries so I wouldn't have to go anywhere today. We got home at 9:45. Everybody helped take care of Lee Joe. He was still really dizzy and groggy last night. And after 10 I changed the dressing on his bandage and got to sleep at 11. Long long day.

Today I am tired and taking the day really slow. Lee Joe is up and around a little more and he will be home the rest of the week. That is what the nurses all said and the dr. What did I say!! I think I have said plenty

Surgery Looming

I should be in bed for Lee Joe's surgery. He has to be in at 6:45 and I have to get 5 kids in all different directions after that. But we got most of our office sheetrocked this weekend and now the new bedroom is full of mess. THe closet and furnace room needs sheet rock and then mudding away we go. We had company for dinner today. Lee Joe's friend he has worked with and his family. Kelsea scored 6 of her team's 18 points on Saturday. WOO HOO! She got knocked down and stepped on in the middle of the game and started crying. She said later she didn't know why she cried. We getting into that very emotional stage with her. She cries very easily. They won in the end only by 3 points it almost became a nail biter. Kylee scored in her game and Autumn tried to shoot for the first time. No parties this weekend.

I am nervous for Lee Joe mostly now. I better get some sleep. I will blog when I have more to report and will tell some humorous stories later unrelated to us. Just a great laugh.

Quiet day

Another quiet Friday. I picked up Kailyn. That has been it so far. Amber is up in Idaho City on an Honor Society retreat for the day. They are suppose to be playing in the snow and having fun but the news reported that their water system in Idaho City is messed up so hopefully they can still have fun.

The weather here has been beautiful the last 3 days. Sunny and almost 50 degrees. I need to clean the back yard before it rains next week.

Our room is much closer to done. The window is all trimmed out. All that is left is to finish the painting. We need to trim around the closet and door and the flooring. I have a couple of tropical ocean pictures I just framed for the room. Our neighbor is going to come over and work on sheetrocking the office and closets this weekend. I just love that kind of stuff. We are "dreaming" about maybe digging out the crawl space and turning it into a basement. Lee Joe wants a pool table for some reason. I would like a separate laundry space and storage and a movie theatre room. Lee Joe could dig it out. We will see. It is fun to dream.

Whoa, where did the time go?

It is nothing less than eventful. The girls were home for a 4 day weekend. Last week was more than crazy. Friday we all cleaned house. Not that you could tell by Mon. Sat Kylee and Autumn played much better in their game. Autumn went to a birthday party and Kelsea had her game. They have won every game by a huge margin each time. I had to leave and orchestrate a rescue for my friend who got stranded on the freeway with 4 kids and I went to go get her 5th and Autumn from the party in the middle of Kelsea's game. Lee Joe worked hard all day. He took the girls to a BSU basketball game that night and I stayed home and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

Sunday was my mom's birthday. We were trying to surprise her and almost missed her, she has been house sitting for her landlord.

Monday Lee Joe took Amber and Kelsea Skiing. Kelsea scared Lee Joe several times with her blasting down the mountain. She didn't know how to turn so she would ski straight down pretty fast. Her take on it was that "they took forever to get down the hill, Dad was stuck in a bush and Amber was too scared and would slow down constantly." They had a good time and came home in one piece. Kelsea said that she bruised each hip. One was when she was skiing and the other was after she turned in her skis. She slipped on some ice when she was running. Go figure.

So far this week I missed a doctor's appt for Amber. That is the first time ever. And we spent over 2 hours at the orthodondist today. The other craziness calmed down some and there is 2 basketball games left so that is a week and a half left of practice. Life will get peaceful for a little bit again. Hopefully we won't have any birthdays for a few weeks.

Lee Joe had his preop appointment for his surgery that will be Monday. They are going to pack his ear with foam. It will take 4 to 6 months to dissolve. His surgery is going to last 3 to 5 hours. It sounds like the recovery shouldn't be that painful and tylenol should relieve the pain. I talked to someone who's husband had the same surgery. She said after the 2nd surgery her husband's ear looked pretty gruesome right after the surgery.

I tried to get a cold on Tuesday. I felt really yucky. I took Airborne a few times and vitamins and I felt great yesterday afternoon. I kicked it!! I kicked it!!

Hannah's funny quote of the week. For dinner on Sunday we had "Gross Beast" Roast beef.

Valentines Day was very nice. Lee Joe got a Super Bowl Champions shirt and hat. He was so excited over that. Lee Joe got me a certificate for an aroma facial and manicure to Panache Day spa. He did good. We all went out to dinner together and had a nice time. The girls all got chocolates from us and the little girls got a little stuffed animal and Amber and Kelsea got cute rainbow flip flops.

I had to call Lee Joe on Mayanne's comment. It was so funny.

Lee Joe has something gowing in his ear. He has no hearing in his ear and it gets infected often. It has damaged the hearing bones in his ear. If we don't get it removed it can continue to grow and cause him to get an abcess in his brain. They are going to drill through the bone behind his ear to get to it and clean it all out. It is really close to the fluid in his ear that helps him keep his balance. If it drains out of his ear his hearing can't be restored and it will take him a week before he will be able to keep his balance. If it stays they will be able to restore his hearing, but that surgery will be six months down the road. When they do that surgery they will move his ear to get in there to see if they got everything and rebuild his eardrum. I am not looking forward to it at all. I don't like it when they hurt my hubby. He also reacts badly to pain medications and that is not a good place to deal with trauma to the body. They said he will be uncomfortable and down for a couple of days, I say it will be a week. When he recovers I am sure I will be ready for a vacation.

Happy Valentines Day!

Love to all!!

Today is much better. I had an appointment this morning and we have an ortho Appointment for Kelsea. I have been able to clean the house a little. I think we are all going to dinner tonight and Kelsea has basketball. Amber has an open house at the High School tomorrow-oh my.

A Hamster had a near death experience last night. The cat dicovered that there was a rodent in the house and knocked Kylee's cages off the shelf in her room. It is up quite high in her room but she found access off the bunkbed. I woke up to Kylee crying hysterically and the cage and litter all over everything. I was looking for the Hamster. The dog was under the bed. I was checking to see if the Hamster was with her under there when she(the hamster) peeked out from under her wheel. I trapped her under the wheel and put her in one cage while Kelsea helped me find the parts to other cage and put it back together. This was at 12:30 last night. It took me several hours to fall asleep after that excitement. I am just happy the Hamster is OK. We are going to come up with some sort of protection to keep the cat from having access and if we do it right, if the hamster gets out it won't be able to leave the shelf.

Lee Joe's surgery will be Feb 27. More about that later.

last week summary

Kelsea went skiing on Weds. She found it it was very easy and fun for her. But it was so sunny up there her face got toasted. Then to really make it a headache the bus she was suppose to ride home didn't show up when it was suppose to so she didn't get home until after 7. She was suppose to speak at new beginings. Amber stepped up and prepared a little talk for her and gave two talks. Her nose cast came off that morning to her relief. So Thursday Kelsea missed school because her face was swollen from the sunburn. She was only a little sore everywhere else. A friend of mine's son said he could tell all the kids who went on the ski trip because they were all sunburned.
Amber had a concert on Thursday.
I got a call to pick up Kylee or Autumn on Tues weds and THurs. Kylee made it all day finally Thur and Fri. THey are finally well and have made it to school all day today. Hurray!!

Friday there was a bank robbery and it put Amber and Kelsea's school in lock down. They got stuck in Science and Orchestra for the rest of the day. Amber was fine when she came home. Kelsea about went nuts. They got home an hour late from school. Then Amber had her follow up visit on her nose. I almost forgot, AMber remembered on time and we made it there right on the minute. Her nose is still a little off to the side. Not as bad though. She doesn't care. So we will wait until she is done with sports and see how she feels about then.

Saturday was unbelievable. But to sum it up Kelsea scored 6 points in the game. Her team won 48 to 5. Kylee and Autumn were cute in their game. THere was a party for Matt's daughter Ashlee. We had it at Pojos. Kelsea babysat and Amber had a party and a dance. By the end of the day I was exhausted once again especially since Lee Joe worked all day. Poor guy worked 13 hours.

Our neighbor worked on our downstairs again. We have a door in now. The closet has custom shelves and the window is trimmed out and looks good. He is doing a fantastic job.

This evening will be crazy. Lee Joe will be around to help thank goodness. All 5 girls have stuff tonight and this whole week will be crazy. I have to go so I can buy something for Kelsea she needs for her concert tonight. Let the fun begin!!

post b-day party

Amber and Kelsea went to a school dance Mon. Playing oboe was difficult so Amber missed honor Orchestra. She said that there was a blacklight in the gym and her nose glowed. One of the instructions on her after care sheet said that she wasn't suppose to smile excessively.
Kylee and Autumn both came home with prescriptions Monday
I sent Kylee and Autumn to school on Tuesday hoping they could make it. I brought them both home at 11. We went shopping for Amber even though they didn't feel well. We went to Build A bear and they made a bear for Amber with a WNBA basketball outfit and they each got and outfit for their bears. We had a nice birthday for Amber. Melissa and David gave her an i-dog, it is real cute. My mom gave her scrapbooking cds for the computer. She got clothes, a pillow topper thing for her bed, a big book of classical piano music,and the bear, I guess that was it. I am going to take her out later for a CTR ring.
Kelsea is skiing for the first time with her PE class. We will see how that went later tonight when she gets home.
Kylee made it to school today, Autumn didn't. I am just home today taking a much needed breather of a day.

I see sick people

Well it's Mon and now Kylee and Autumn are both home from school today. I think Kylee has strep. She will go to the Dr this afternoon with Autumn who is barking like a seal. Dylan wasn't feeling well either and I brought him home when I picked up Kailyn. So I get to take 5 little kids with me this afternoon to the Dr's office. It quiets down this evening a bunch. Kylee and Autumn won't be going to dance or basketball.

Sat was the overlapping game day. First Amber did some service for Honor society. Some of her friends saw her nose. A lot of her friends were sweet to her. One friend asked her what nose did she pick out? I watched some of Kelsea's game and then went to Kylee and Autumn's. Kelsea's team won 22 to 6. Kelsea scored 4 points. She was guarding a friend on the other team, she was kind and didn't guard her too tough. Kylee and Autumn were cute. Kylee was still feeling kind of yucky so she trooped through the game. she probably shouldn't have played.
We came home and super cleaned the house and Lee Joe said if we got close to done we would go look at sofas for the living room. We got close to done. I went to the stores and Lee Joe took Kelsea to a birthday party. he met me at the store and we got a great deal on a burgundy leather sofa. It is so pretty. We brought it home in time for our super bowl bash that became more of a small hurrah. Which was fine really because my house is still pretty clean. and the living room lookes so nice. It was a good excuse to go out and get something.
So sunday my sister and her family came, Matt and Ashlee came(his daughter) and our neighbors from around the corner came. And Lee Joe was so excited that his team won.

And the big, happy and somewhat depressing news is Amber is 15 tomorrow. I can't believe she is growing up so fast. And that means I am getting old. Oh my.I am really blessed with her. I couldn't have asked for a better mellow teenager. She loves her music and has a great sense of humor. We are just starting the boy and girl discovery thing and she is not consumed with who likes who. She loves church and has a natural testimony. She enjoys seminary, sings louder than the rest of the teenagers there and knows who she is. She is very responsible and intelligent. And sensitive to those around her-if they aren't her sisters. She has been so good about her nose. She is not bothered by the nose cast too much. She did say on Friday when we went shopping for button up shirts for her(she can't where pull over shirts because of her cast) she was glad since she didn't have her contacts or glasses on that she couldn't see who was staring at her nose.

We have to brush lots of hair before we go to the Dr. Everyone, have a good day!!

Amber is doing well

Thanks Devanie for helping with the picture. Amber is doing well. She is resting. She was to be there at 7:15 this morning and we got home at 10am most of it was waiting for them to call her in and then waiting to see how well she came out of anesthesia. She is tired and has the cutest little nose cast. Her friends said they wanted to sign it. We don't think so. So we can joke and say she got a nose job for her birthday. She will still be able to play her clarinet and oboe. Good thing because she has a concert next week. By the way, Amber is like a 1/4 inch shorter than me barefoot. But with some shoes she is taller. I am 5 ft 7in. Kelsea is growing like crazy lately and is catching up fast. They are both in a size 10 shoe. Kelsea's hands are bigger than Lee Joe's.

Kylee has been home sick the last two days and watching Princess Diaries 1 and 2 and Ella Enchanted. We been eating at McDonald's a lot so we can get the Strawberry Shortcake toys. I don't eat the burgers there anymore but the kids do. This weekend will be busy.

On Lighter Note

Here's our family picture.

Amber is having surgery too

Boy we are having quite a year already. Amber is having "surgery" tomorrow to straighten her nose. They are going to put her out and rebreak her nose. She also has a deviated septum. If it was Kelsea she would be freaked out. Amber is just fine except I started to think about this next week. They are going to put some sort of cast on her nose. It will probably still be on on Tuesday-her birthday. New beginnings is Weds and she is suppose to speak. She also has a concert on Thursday. We have to figure out if she can play her instruments after the surgery but she won't be able to play basketball for 6 weeks and she is having issues with that.