Miss Maelee's Big Owie

I cannot believe it's been a month already since Maelee's surgery.  Between that, photog picking up and fun projects on the house, it's been a busy month!  But I finally have a few moments to catch you all up on the why-fore's concerning the whole thinggy...

About a year ago Maelee had her first UTI {urinary tract infection}, and about 2 months later she had another one.  About 2 months later, another one.  Again a month later.  Again a month after that.  2 weeks later she had yet another one and 3 days after she was off the antibiotic for THAT UTI, another one sprung up in it's place.  Her fevers were getting up to 107.5* which is definitely enough to freak a Mommy and Daddy out!!!  Somewhere around the 3rd UTI we were sent to a specialist, had an ultrasound and finally in the middle of her 7th UTI she had a VERY painful VCUG {not entirely sure what that stands for but basically it involves a catheter, an X-Ray and trying to convince a 3 year old that it's ok to pee on a table so they can get the right X-Ray image.  Yeah, that one was fun!!!}

Anyway, we found out that poor miss Maelee had stage 4 reflux which is seriously no bueno.  Reflux is when the valves on the lower end of your ureters - or the tubes connecting the kidneys to your bladder - don't work right and let the pee go back up toward the kidneys {and your dear little kidneys can't handle even a tiny bit of bacteria... urine is FULL of it!}.  There are 5 stages, 1 being low and 5... you get it.  :O)  So to hear she had stage 4 was scary.  Basically every time she tried to pee, most of her urine went right back into her kidneys, hence the insane UTI's.  Then it would drain back down, making her pee again and start the cycle over.  And over.  Yeeeeah.  Poor girl.  It sucked to say the least my friends.  Luckily, we had a feeling going into that dr visit that she was more than likely going to need surgery so we weren't surprised when the specialist said that was the only option to get her better.

Maelee was so freaked out by that whole appointment that she kept telling us, "I don't ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER want to go to the doctor again!"  Oh, if she only knew what she was in for... we told her that Kiki, her birth mom, was going to come see her in the hospital and she got all excited for that... So we "forgot" to remind her that the hospital was full of doctors and that one in particular was going to, well, you know... cut her open.  Who are we to not let her focus on the positive?  Ha ha {I say that dryly, FYI}.

So the big day came and she was pretty excited for all the nifty things in the hospital.  They gave her a turtle, a coloring book and some crayons and once we were in the prep room she got to play in a power wheels race car.  She thought this place was pretty neat, that is of course until she realized that she wasn't going home anytime soon.  Then the minor freakouts started.  Luckily, hospitals have some lovely drugs to take the edge off.  When that kicked in, she got LOOPY!!  Pulling faces at all the nurses, pretending to take pictures of Clint with a camera that was evidently only as big as her eye... it was pretty funny.  We had our Kindle Fire for her to play on and so after seeing that, the anesthesiologist gave her his smart phone to play a game on while they wheeled her back into the OR.  She didn't even realize we weren't there, which was a relief in a way and a bit sad too.  I was sad at least!! 

Gee whiz did those 3 hours draaaaaaaaag oooooooooon.  We had her ID number and could watch on a screen what her status was, but that did little to ease my nerves.  We sat next to a fish tank in the waiting room - nice of them to give us something aside from soap operas on TV to watch - and there was one fish laying completely on it's side!  It looked a little bizarre and I guess the staff was pretty tired of people telling them their fish was dying cuz there was actually a note on the tank saying that the fish was, in fact, still living.  :O)  Ah, something to smile about.

Within minutes of Maelee's number popping into the post surgery column her doctor came out to let us know that everything had gone perfectly and that we would be able to see her within the hour.  The anesthes... oh never mind, it's too big a word!  The drug doc :O) came out and told us 15 min to an hour.  He quickly came back and said just kidding, she's awake and wants her Mommy and Daddy!!!  {Yay!}  Boy howdy was she CRUSTY!!!  I totally don't blame the poor kid, and since she had so much pain medicine in her body, it amplified the crusties like crazy.  I climbed up in bed with her and just held her and sang our lullaby until she fell asleep in my arms.  I felt a little funny lying in the bed while they wheeled us to her private recovery room in the pediatric ward but my baby needed her mommy so it was all good.  :O)

The next few days were pretty miserable so I'll just hit the most important bits.  Maelee's surgery was, officially, a bilateral ureteral reimplant - which in layman's terms means they went in kinda like a C-Section in her bladder and disconnected those tubes then reattached them correctly and closed her back up.  She emerged from the knife sporting an epidural which at one point settled into her right leg and made it go completely dead {that's a little unnerving when you're an adult, imagine being THREE!!  She rolled over and her leg didn't come with her - she FREAKED OUT!!  Yeah, try explaining that one to a 3 year old!}, it was sad and amusing to hear her shrieks of delight about every 30 min or so after they switched pain meds when a little feeling would come back into her leg, "I can MOVE MY TOES!!!".  LOL It was hard to watch her not be able to support her own weight when she tried to stand - her leg was total dead weight and of no use.  She was SO frustrated that she couldn't walk.  :O(  Unfortunately for the poor girl it also made her itch.  Like.  CRAZY.  Even with the medicine to counter that side effect she was still constantly scratching all over her body.  Aside from giving herself bleeding owies, at one point she actually scratched most of the tape holding the epidural tube in place clean off and the nurses had to come in and put new, super-duper sticky tape on her WHOLE back {why they didn't just remove the epidural and control her pain with oral meds is still a mystery to me} and just imagine how much fun it was to remove that super-duper sticky tape... After taking all the tape and sticky crap off over the next few days, Maelee was terrified of band aids!  "No, Mom!!  No band aid!"  Sad side effect...

The next listed pain in the rear during the whole experience was the poor kid's Foley catheter.  The tube itself didn't seem to bother her a whole lot, but one of the after-effects of her surgery was random bladder spasms.  Evidently it's not a very common thing, so the pediatric unit didn't have the countering medicine on hand to control them and getting it was a process.  Those spasms were SO miserable for her!  She would instantly get the feeling that she needed to pee.  NOW.  And it was so intense that she would suddenly stand up in bed and start sobbing, begging us to let her go to the bathroom - only problem is that she was hooked up to so many different tubes that it was a process to let her go anywhere.  We tried to explain to her that the pee wasn't stuck in her body, we even showed her the catheter tube and let her see the urine going into the bag but it didn't do anything to comfort her during a spasm.  It was awful.

Last "oh brother" was her IV.  It was almost in the crook of her arm so every time she bent it, the hose would kink and set off an alarm.  Geez.  Not cool.  It was just sad to see her so grumpy, she had so much crap being pumped into her that she was nowhere near "herself".  She was a step or two beyond crusty pretty much the entire hospital stay.

BUT there were some fun moments too - promise!  Kiki came as promised and had the best timing.  She and a cousin made it to our recovery room just as we were getting settled.  Kiki read Miss Maelee a story and they fell asleep in her bed together which was so sweet.  They stayed a few hours and we were SO glad she was able to come.  The next day Maelee really wanted a balloon so so badly so her nurse Maria brought one in just for her which totally made her day.  We heard there was some sort of national helium shortage and so her helium filled balloon was pretty special.  :O)  Then Russell and Jonnet brought Madi over to visit for a few hours the night after the surgery and brought her a Twilight Sparkle stuffed animal {those of you with girls probably know exactly who that is.  Madi and Maelee are SO into My Little Pony right now!} and a set of My Little Pony figurines.  We got her a few new books, night gowns, slippers and a Rainbow Dash baby doll {again with the My Little Pony LOL}.  She also was able to go into the courtyard of the pediatric ward and hold a couple bunnies and a chicken the last day we were there.  She was pretty stoked over that little adventure!  They gave us a wagon to pull her around in since she had so many tubes hanging all over the place.

Once we got home and had all the tape residue off and she could move around on her own she perked right up and was a lot more content.  It took about a week for all the steri-strips to fall off her incision site, but once they did she realized she was all better and started not only showing everyone {and by showing, I mean SHOWING!  Shirt up to her chin and bottoms almost to her knees!!} but after a bit she also wanted them to touch her "big owie"!  Funny girl.  We have finally trained her to be a little more modest in her showing off of the scar and after a few weeks life went completely back to normal.  She has to take a daily antibiotic for the first 3 months after the operation and will go back in for a final VCUG in December to make sure all is well.  She has over a 98% chance of a success so I'm pretty confident we'll be finished with this whole craziness by Christmas.  The only real recovery issue she had was going to the bathroom for the first few weeks.  It didn't hurt her, she just had to re-train her bladder to do it's job. Once it healed up enough to be able to stretch and fill up she was good to go.

I gotta tell ya, seeing your baby go through something like this is not fun.  I'm grateful that she has no clue what the concept of milking it is cuz I was all prepared to let her eat gogurts and watch movies all day for as long as she "needed" to, but she is too much like her Daddy to stay down for long.  We were told that as soon as she got on our nerves that meant she was better and we were over the stress of it...  I guess she is feeling GREAT!!!  Ha ha  She actually is doing amazing and is right back to her stinker-pot self.  Man alive I love that little girl and I am SO SO SO thankful I get to be her Mommy.  She is a light in our lives and everything, EVERYTHING is worth it to have her in our family.  She is one incredible little girl, and she is our incredible little daughter.  Love you Maelee.

What do you get...

...when Mom finally gets a chance in the morning to enjoy a nice hot mug of cocoa and is beckoned by two giggly girls hiding under a blanket on the couch with Dad?



A Hot-Cocoa-Head!

She probably would have had a slight melt down had Clint not cleaned her up kitty style... yes, he licked her face!!  Only once, don't let your imagination go too crazy now  :O)

::Disclaimer::

Just FYI, I HONESTLY wasn't going for a pity party {regardless of what Clint thinks!! LOL} with my previous post.  I was just thinking about everything and found it humorous how much sickness we've dealt with lately.  Must mean we've got some amazing blessings headed our way, eh?  Oh yeah, baby!

Holy Toledo!!

I just have to marvel at the mere fact that we are all still alive after the last 2 months!  Whew!  I will try to keep this from depressing you, but my heavens!  This needed to be documented!

So, about 2 months ago I made a super-big-girl decision and willingly had my wisdom teeth removed {owie!}.  The 8-hour pain relief drug only lasted 45 minutes and somehow I missed the bit of instruction {a pretty important tid-bit of advice, it turned out!} to not remove the packing for at least an hour after leaving.  So, my Dad-in-law took me to get a chocolate shake... bad idea.  Anyhow the pain was pretty bad for the next few days, but I didn't think it was a dry socket cuz I had heard those were excruciating and I didn't think my pain was THAT bad {but I still thought I was a pretty big wuss}.  Turns out it WAS a dry socket, and I guess instead of being a big wuss I was actually pretty tough!  LOL  The gaping holes in my head are still healing {no gum for TWO WHOLE MONTHS!  I'm going crazy!}, but it's pretty amusing to freak Clint out with all the food that comes out of those holes.

Moving on... So, while I'm still recovering from all this, Maelee K decides to have a severe allergic reaction to some unidentifiable source.  We're talking purple hives all over her body and fingers and toes so swollen they started to turn green and look like little water balloons!  We put her on a steroid for a week and she was fine... for a month or so...  that's when the month-long bout of diarrhea started.

More on that in a minute.  Don't want to get ahead of myself!

Clint comes home a few weeks after the purple hives incident with a fever of 104.8, which lasted hours and hours.  Needless to say he got pretty loopy and delusional.  At one point while I was putting cold cloths all over his body {because he absolutely refused to take a cool bath}, he kept trying to pull the covers over himself because he was SO hot that the cool cloths almost sent him into convulsions he was shaking so bad.  I told him that it wouldn't do him any good to have cool cloths on if he just covered back up.  I finally had to just sit on the blankets to stop him.  He got all huffy and told me, "Quit baby-guarding!!"  WHOA!!  THAT one took me back about 15 years!  I teased him and he said, "well, that's what you are!  Big baby-guarder!"  Turns out he had a pretty nasty case of strep that kicked his tail for the next 3 days, and then passed on to his nurse... me.  Lovely, eh?

Luckily, neither of the girls came down with it, but I was supposed to take the girls on a road trip that weekend to go see Kiki {Maelee's birth mom} and get my comp fixed.  Nothing doing, that strep knocked me on my rear for a few days.  I ended up going down the next week to surprise Kiki for her birthday {totally awesome day!} and on that trip the girls started throwing up.  I'm STILL trying to get the smell out of the car.  Gross, I know!  Madi's only lasted for a day, but Maelee K continued throwing up for about 2 weeks.  She had NO interest in Pedialyte, and we were so worried about dehydration.  I snuck some into her bottles {like 2oz to 6oz water, plus formula} but it wasn't enough to make us feel better.

Then Clint caught the stomach bug.  Then I caught it.

Then I got really smart and took Maelee into an allergist.  Before she was even born, her birth family told us that a lot of them are lactose-intolerant and so she probably would be too.  She got super plugged up when ever she had normal formula, and it didn't improve when she was on soy unless we put a digestive enzyme in her bottle.  We've been doing this since she was a few weeks old {soy formula and digestive enzyme}, until a few months ago when we weaned her off the digestive aid.  TURNS OUT she's allergic to SOY {hence the purple hives and puffy fingers/toes} and the only way she had been digesting it was the enzyme we had been putting in her bottles.  Once that worked its way out of her system she couldn't handle the soy anymore.  The steroid helped, but when it wore off the diarrhea and vomiting started.  AND, she's NOT lactose-intolerant, her acidophilus is really low {that's a bacteria in your body that helps you digest dairy} and that's why she couldn't handle anything with milk products in it.  SO, she's off the soy formula {yay!} and on milk-based, plus a digestive enzyme again and an acidophilus supplement.  {Man alive, I totally feel like my mother!!!}  Don't laugh, it's the first time in her life that her poor little body has been working right so I'll do whatever I have to!  And luckily, we only have to supplement her until mid-July.  Then her body will be able to take care of itself.

So, for one week she was great and we were all healthy.  It didn't last.

A couple Saturdays ago her eardrum ruptured.  It was pretty gross.  We didn't even know she had an ear infection.  She wasn't showing any signs except a slight fever that came and went {and she's teething so I didn't worry}.  We put her on amoxicillin and a few days later... ANOTHER ALLERGIC REACTION!!  She broke out in hives all over her body again.  Evidently she's allergic to pennicillin and even though she's had it before without a reaction, now that she's had one she won't be able to have it again without benedryl to counter the allergy.  We got her switched to K-flex, but now she has a double ear infection {and is doing a LOT better this week!}.  Yeah, I know!!

You think it's over don't you... not quite.  I woke up Monday morning with strep, AGAIN.  Clint took the day off work to baby me and care for the girls so I could rest {which was nice cuz I could barely get out of bed}.  I had to take the pill antibiotic this time around {instead of that totally ouch shot in the rear}, and let me just say that I would take the shot over this slow recovery ANY day!  It's Wednesday and I still flinch when I swallow.

You know, it may not sound like it but I swear that we usually, USUALLY don't get sick very often!  LOL  If you actually read all of that... good job.  Thanks for letting me write it all down so I could laugh at us.  By next week we'll be healthy again and back to normal.  That's the hope at least!  :O)

Crash

Sorry folks.  I actually have to apologies to make.  First because it's been a while since I posted.  And second, because this is a sad post.  We may have lost a dear member of our family to a mysterious crash.

Our computer.

Yes, our computer crashed containing all our family pictures, a good portion of my clients' pictures, our documents, blah blah blah...

Gag a maggot.

And our external hard drive somehow blanked itself a few months ago and I hadn't figured out how to fix it yet so there is a possibility that none of it is backed up.

Double gag a maggot.

And to make matters worse, I haven't printed off pictures since we signed the severance papers for Keahi back in August.  So if all those pics are gone, we've lost my brothers' wedding, Keahi's first Christmas, V-day, Easter, along with her sealing and blessing.  I guess to sum it up, I may have just lost all the pictures from the last 9 months of my children's lives.  Yes, some of it has been blogged, but I can't print those pictures.  If you know me but at all you understand just how important photography and {above all} photos of my family are to me.

Gag a big fat maggot.

Sorry for the gross visual, it's that or swearing... 

My brother is a comp whiz, so I'm really REEEEEEALLY hoping he can fix or at least retrieve our info off it.  I'll keep you posted.

Dry Socket

Wikipedia definition:  In dentistry, a dry socket is a layman's term for alveolar osteitis. The alveolus is the part of the jawbone that supports the teeth, and osteitis means simply “bone inflammation”. It is an irritation of the bone open to the oral cavity after the loss of or premature disintegration of the blood clot.


Alveolar osteitis is a painful phenomenon that most commonly occurs a few days following the removal of mandibular (lower) wisdom teeth. It occurs when the blood clot within the healing tooth extraction site is disrupted. In rare cases, the removal of the upper wisdom teeth can also result in alveolar osteitis.


Tiffany's definition:  OW!  Where's my Tylenol?!?  I need a hug and more ice cream... sniff...

Oh To Be So Innocent...

Madi and I were driving home from a friend's house on Saturday and we passed a water tower. You know the kind - tall, round, rusty, with a ladder going up one side to the top that's shaped like an upside down cone? So anyway, Madison sees this water tower and tells me that that's a tower for princesses. "Yeah, sweetie." I say, not really paying attention to her ramblings... until she said something that truly caught my notice!

"Mom, that's where all the princesses go to get knocked up, huh?" I almost slammed on my brakes I was so shocked! Did that just come out of my 3 year-old's mouth?! Seriously?! So young?!?!?

I turned the radio down and asked "What did you just say?" "That's where all the princesses go and get knocked up in the tower! And the dragon comes and watches them, huh Mom?" The wheels finally stopped spinning in my head and the light bulb turned on. Madison says her "L"s like an "N" sometimes. So, a locked door is a knocked door... actually... come to think of it, that's the only "L" that she substitutes an "N" for... Hmmmmm... So anyway, I realized that she was telling me about a bunch of LOCKED up princesses, not KNOCKED up princesses. But read on, it gets worse.

"Yeah, that's a tower just like princesses get LOCKED up in, Madi." I say, really emphasizing that "L". "That's right Mom. And the princes come to that tower and they knock those princesses right up. They just come and knock them up, huh?"

"Yes, Madi. That's what those princes do. How 'bout we sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?"

::Madi and the Big Debate::

Before I post the wonderful details of our experiences at the Temple last Saturday{that will be in my NEXT post so this won't be forever long}, I'm going to preface it with a story.  A story of wit, cunning, attempted trickery and a little girl too smart for her own good...

So, last week I realized that the girls have to have white earrings in {and since we just pierced them a few months ago, they HAVE to have them in}, problem: Madi has sensitive ears {courtesy of her mom, sorry about that babe!} and thus, her ears hurt when we change her earrings.  In fact, she hasn't let me change them for over a month!  {Yes, my little girl was the one wearing pink earrings with her Christmas dress.  No one else cared but me, I know, I know.}  I thought about this problem and, I thought, came up with a very smart solution.  I hid Madi's earrings in my pocket, brought a hand mirror and sat next to Madi while she was coloring.  The scene played out like this:

Tiffany: "Hey Madi, do you know where we're going this weekend?"
Madi: "The Temple!"
Tiffany: "That's right!  And did you know that the Temple is SO special that when we're inside, everyone wears white.  All the dresses are white, the shoes are white, even the BOYS dress in white!"
Madi: "Wow!  That's cool, Mom!  But what about my hair?  Does it have to be white?"
Tiffany: "No, you can just wear a white flower, ok?"
Madi: "Oh, ok."  She thinks for a second and then gasps.  "Mom!  What about my earrings?!"  I was TOTALLY amazed that she actually thought of that by herself!  So, now I'm thinking this is going to work, the spirit is on my side, right?... Wait and see for yourself.
Tiffany: "Heavenly Father wants them to be white too.  Here, look in this mirror and tell me what color your earrings are."  She looks at one, then the other.
Madi: "Mom, they're pink."
Tiffany: "Do you think Heavenly Father would want you to wear pink earrings in the Temple?"
Madi: "No, I don't think he would."  I pull out Madi's earrings and ask her to pick out the white pair, which she does.
Tiffany: "So, Madison, what do you think we should do?  Should we change your earrings for Heavenly Father?"  Oh, I just knew I had this one in the bag!
Madi: Thinks for a bit, then says "Hmmmmmmm.  I think..........................................................  I don't want to go to the Temple."

I KNOW, RIGHT?!  Where does this kid COME from?  So, I'm trying to not bust up laughing, and grasping at anything I can trying to still come back and win this debate.

Tiffany: "Well, Madi... it's really exciting that we get to go to the Temple.  We'll get to have Sister Sue sealed to our family so she can be ours forever!  And only really nice people get to go in the Temple.  Mommies and Daddies who go to church and pay their tithing, and at very SPECIAL times very good little boys and girls get to go in with their Mommy's and Daddy's.  Aren't you excited to get to go in the Temple?"
Madi: She thinks for a bit again then, "Mom, I was mean to Bear {our dog}.  I hit him and told him 'No bark' so they won't let me in.  Sorry."
Tiffany: "Oh, Madi!  Heavenly Father will forgive you, so it's ok.  You can still go."
Madi: "He doesn't care if I'm mean to Bear?"  I tell her no and try to steer the conversation in a new direction... Bribery.
Tiffany: "Ok, Madison.  If you'll let me change your earrings, we'll go to the store and you can pick out ANY toy you want.  You can get a toy {"Mom, I have lots of toys."}, or a new puzzle {"Mom, I have lots of puzzles."}, or a new book {"Mom, I have lots of books."}!  You could get anyting you want! {"Mom, I have lots of stuff, I don't need anything else, but thanks."}

WHOSE KID IS THIS?!?!  She's definately not MY child!  Oh, wait.  She's CLINT'S offspring... that explains it.  {He was SO proud when I got to this point in the story}

Tiffany: "Alright, Madi.  You have 3 choices.  You can either let me change your earrings right now and get a prize at the store.  OR I will sit on you and change them anyway.  OR I will sneak into your room tonight when you are sleeping and change them while you sleep!"
Madi: Contemplates her options, carefully weighs the pros and cons then decides: "I think you better change them when I'm sleeping tonight Mom."

So that's what I did.

If this is what I am faced with when she's 3 1/2, what ON EARTH will she be like when she's 13?  That is one ridiculously smart girl, and I am in trouble!

Ok, I know. I need to update.

I promise I will post pictures! I PROMISE! They are on my computer at home... but the internet is having traumas and I never remember to bring them over to the inlaws to post... have patience! They are coming!

Madison’s Black Eye

We were at Ayden’s 2nd birthday party last night (Brian and Marie’s little boy) and one of his presents made quite an impression… You know those tennis balls that come with the Velcro pads to play catch? Clint and his friend Dustin were throwing the ball back and forth and evidently Dustin isn’t very good at the whole “catch” part of catch… The ball ricocheted off his pad (or something!) and made a beeline for Madison’s eye. Here is the damage -

This afternoon he bought over an “I’m so very sorry” present…

Haha, Dustin! That’s right. I now have a pirate for a daughter! Arrrrr!

Oh, and the other night I was making dinner and Madi went to the bathroom. After washing her hands she asked to put on some lotion, I said yes, just a little bit and then come out and watch “Signing Time” while I finish up. I could hear her singing along with the songs so I figured she had obeyed… NEVER ASSUME!

I had to laugh as the words of Elder Wirthlin came to mind, “Come what may; and love it!”