Monday, August 24, 2009
In which Caryn is STILL trying to catch up!
It's been long enough that now shame is starting to set in. Many things have happened...most of them medically related. I have henceforth decided to dub this year, 2009, the year of medical woes, or MW's. I mean we are in August for crying out loud and I think we just completed our 4th trip to the ER, not to mention numerous Dr.s appointments. So lets back track a bit. Last year we noticed that Walker would have these moments where he would "zone out" and at first we just thought that he was ignoring us...then we would try to get his attention and he wouldn't listen...so we would yell...nothing. So i started to pat his face or flick him to get some sort of reaction and there was nothing not even a twitch to acknowledge that he had been flicked. These episodes would happen anywhere between 5-7 times a day and maybe last a total of 5-15 seconds ( and when it's happening it seems a lot longer). We kept swearing that we would take him in...then in January they stopped. All was well, until they started back up again in March...and we went back and forth on what to do. I thought i knew what it was, but we didn't have any way of knowing. So in June I finally decided that we had to get on this, when, Walker started walking while he was zoning...he would just veer off and walk. Short of picking him up and carrying him he would just keep walking until he came out of it...and we'd ask him where were you going and he would say "i don't know". The last straw was when I told him to climb up into his car seat (which he does quite well) and I turned to put my purse in my chair and when I went to buckle Walker in he was standing in the middle of the parking lot lane...I went and grabbed him and thought unless we get him help. He could be putting himself in real danger and not even know what he's doing. I took him in and we met with his Pediatrician and I told her what was happening and that I'm not a crazy mom...I believe that Heavenly Father was really blessing us because Walker had 2 episodes in the 10 minute time frame of our Dr. visit...not only that she had done a "something medical thing" for 2 years with a neurologist so she had seen it before and knew the quickest route to go. She set us up to have an EEG done on Walker before he had an appointment with a neurologist so that all the work would be done for them to look at. So while we wait untill August for Walker's EEG let me fill you in on what else is going on. Meanwhile, David was released as the Elders Quorum President and was called as a Seminary teacher. In July David's sister and her family came to visit (5 boys)and his Mom and Dad (and 2 kids) came to visit...so we had a house of 15....and our dog. During which time Caryn took another visit to the ER...this time for severe abdominal cramping...after 4 hours, they told me I was fine and sent me home. Had the cramping all week went back to the Dr. and they said we found blood in your urine but no infections or anything so they did a cat scan....again nothing was wrong...so I guess I was just faking it for a week. This is all while David family is here...then the Bishop wants to talk to me so he comes over to our house which is bursting at the seems with family and we step outside....now let me, let you in on a little secret I KNEW the Bishop wasn't here to see me...well let's put it this way I knew there were "changes" in the ward and a few people were gonna get moved around but I had only been in Primary for like 10 mths so i figured he was there because I was going to be released and put in as a Primary teacher or I was going to be asked to be David's seminary helper (and no I don't think seminary helper is a real calling). So we are standing on my front porch and Bishop says Caryn we'd like to extend to you the calling of Primary President!!!!!!! WHAT THE.....uhhhhh..... wait .......the current Primary President has only been in less that year and a half.....are you sure....and of course me being me and feeling well astounded I just laughed and said NO WAY ....noooooo .....laugh ......what.. ......nooooo.....give me a minute.....after I did this for like 3 min I looked over and there was our good bishop just waiting... and I realized what a dork I'd been. I said ..."of course I'll accept I'm sorry I kind of over reacted, but yes I'll serve in what ever way you need". If that isn't classic Caryn a great spiritual moment and I dorked it up! I have to say that it was a punch that came out of nowhere! I also wasn't real thrilled to be following in Meridith DeLaMare's footsteps (her husband got a stake calling so they had to release her, but she made it look so easy and she was so organized...why....why)...so we will see where this adventure takes us. Now back to Walker...on Aug 18th we took him to Children's Mercy Hospital where after only 4 hrs of sleep in a 24 hr period he was hooked up to the EEG machine and was tested...then we had lunch with Aunt Kristi (she was our designated driver) and then we came back and meet with the neurologist where they diagnosed Walker with Petit Mal Epilepsy also know as Absence Seizures. So we are just now starting to get him on his medication so it will help with the seizures and hopefully Walker will out grow it in the next 10yrs or so. BUT wait we aren't done because the Crowning glory is that Walker walked into the corner of our wall (we think he was having a seizure (they are harmless...no body convulsions...just "zoning")) anyway he hit it just right and put a nice size gash into his fore head...So we took yet ANOTHER trip to the ER to get his little head put back together. SO now you know,that if I haven't gotten around to blogging...and if there is another significant pause in my writing, I'm either at the ER or a Dr.'s office or very busy drowning in my Primary calling. ......as soon as Dave gets home I'll post some Walker pictures!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
In Which...Caryn tries to catch up
Okay so I really like how Natalie Allen starts off her blog posts it's cute and catchy ( hers start out "the one where...." )and I'd like to steal the idea. Walker and I have been reading "Winnie the Pooh" by A. A. Milne.... and he starts his chapters off with "In which Pooh and Tigger etc..." so I'm stealing that too... not an original thought in my head! So in looking back to try to catch you up I realized that I had an omen on Jan 1, 2009 the first day of this "Awesome year"...what was the omen....I got one of those little helicopter caught in my hair....who starts out their year like that.
Then I had the whole Hospital thing happen that I blogged about but then magically deleted...but I will give you the cliff's notes version... woke up on Thursday morning to a sharp pain in my back ...I thought I slept on my back wrong so I got up and stretched it out...but it kept getting worse then I began to feel the need to throw up, so I threw up and figured I had the stomach flu. Went back to bed, but was just feeling so uneasy, I felt i had to throw up again, I was so uncomfortable, my back hurt from feeling sick...it just got to be too much so I made myself throw up. I was so desperate for a break in the pain...after that I went back and laid down. At that point, I realized I was trying not to breath too much because that hurt, I was shaking and there was no relief. That's all I want was a moment of relief, just to take a breath and steady myself. David meanwhile was try to help, and usually I'll tell him exactly what he can do to help... but this time, between crying, all I could do was ask him to make it stop hurting...looking back this may have freaked him out, but I was a bit busy so.... Anyway I guess I got to a point where I realized that I was vomiting because of the back pain, not the cause of the back pain was because of the vomiting...and I wanted an ambulance, because they could get me some form of medicine, FAST!!! So I told David we have to go to the Hospital NOW something is wrong. By the time we got to the ER I could barely walk, and I was shaking so violently that I couldn't write my name, Quinten had to help me. They called me back to "check me in" and the nurse is asking questions and i can't talk, I'm trying not to breathe, and trying not to scream "DRUGS, I NEED DRUGS", so I was a bit annoyed, and I know it is their job, and to to be honest, they got me back there really fast (it didn't feel like it at the time because I swear time had slowed down to taunt me). My favorite part was being asked the question "...on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most painful, how would you rate your...I cut her off to say "10, I'm a 10 now". A 10 is when you say to yourself, if you can't fix this, then for real I'd rather be dead (I'm not joking). They got me in a ER room and the ER nurse came in and said "...on a scale of 1-10"...she looked at me and said "Never mind honey your a ten"...within in mere moments I had an IV, and morphine coursing through me. (anyone still reading) I now love morphine. About an hour after I had calmed down, they did a scan and found a kidney stone....yep a tiny little stone was wreaking so much havoc. Now here is how the explained it to me, 1-2mm stones are normal, 2-3mm are big, 4-5mm your probably going to need some "help" getting them out...mine was 6mm! I never do anything small ...and I loved the way that the nurses were all "ughhh a 6mm you poor thing".... see at this point I had a Morphine crush on all the nurses. I truly loved them for helping deliver the medication that was keeping the pain at bay. So long story short I was admitted and at 7:00 am the next day I had surgery to have the Stone broken up and removed, and then have a stint put in. Then I got to enjoy more manageable pain and pee blood, and lay comatose on a couch for the next week until the stint was removed. People say that having a kidney stone as painful as labor....I'd like to say a stone is worse (at least mine was)...and at the end of labor you get a baby for all your pain and suffering....Kidney stones...nothing. It also put a good perspective on my pain tolerance....the whole rest of the stay when asked the "from 1 to 10 pain question" I was always like well this is no ten, so like a 6-7, it hurts but I'm happy its not a 10. The good news is that once you have had a stone you are more likely to get them...AWESOME! So moving on from that I spent February trying to recover....I spent March gagging over the hospital bill that just kept rolling in. April my insurance was kind enough to drop coverage of my insulin I was using but, said if I still wanted it I could spend $269 to get it a month...so I had to switch back to the other stuff...and we went from a 2 car family to a 1 car family ...NOT by choice. Then we went roller skating with The Johnson's and I was trying to do a Double Back flip on my skates...okay fine I was going really fast and tried to stop and totally biffed it...and the first thing to hit the hard floor...my knee..followed my all of my body weight on it...I'm honestly surprised that I didn't shatter my knee. 4 days later on a rainy Wed evening at my mom and dads I came into the entry way and my wet sandals, and their ceramic tile met briefly as my feet went flying out from under me...I landed almost simultaneously on my rear and back of my head. When my head hit I yelled out in pain and everything flashed white. My thud and yell were followed by the doorbell ringing. So whoever rang the bell got to hear the whole thing. Not only that but then my mom and dad came into the entry way yelling "what was that"...What happened" "are you okay" "what was that noise" "Caryn fell" and the entire time I'm thinking painfully there are people still at the door waiting to come in...so I'm like "answer the door"...and who is outside but my mom and dad's Home Teachers...(Stake)President and Sister Goodson. Does it get any better? I took off in flash and got home and iced the small planet that had formed on the back of my head. Now everyone was all freaked out because that actress had just died from a hit to the head. But I made it clear my hospital days were done...until Friday when I still was sleepy and my head was still pounding and was finally convinced that i should get it checked out... So back to the Hospital..weeee! What did they ask "on a scale of 1-10 ....." I said listen " I had a stone and that was a ten this is like a three", because I can't think of another kind of pain that can top the stone. So after a CT scan all is well in my head (insert head joke here) and now we are looking forward to a new round of jaw dropping bills. So I know that was a lot and well pretty whine-e...so let me tell you about the great things that have Happened. Our great friend Melanie got baptized and it was amazing to be a part of it and learn with her. We acquired a dog a small shi-tzu named Winston that has been passed around the family, and yes he has his moments, but our boys love him and we have a lot of fun with him. Going to the hospital helped me realized how thankful I am for so many things...people in the ward...daivd...my mom and dad...being healthy. Losing a car helped David and i see that we can still be happy and loving and thrive even if we don't have everything the way we want it...as long as we are doing thing the way the lord wants it, we'll be okay...honestly okay. I learned nothing from having the helicopter stuck in my hair!?!
Then I had the whole Hospital thing happen that I blogged about but then magically deleted...but I will give you the cliff's notes version... woke up on Thursday morning to a sharp pain in my back ...I thought I slept on my back wrong so I got up and stretched it out...but it kept getting worse then I began to feel the need to throw up, so I threw up and figured I had the stomach flu. Went back to bed, but was just feeling so uneasy, I felt i had to throw up again, I was so uncomfortable, my back hurt from feeling sick...it just got to be too much so I made myself throw up. I was so desperate for a break in the pain...after that I went back and laid down. At that point, I realized I was trying not to breath too much because that hurt, I was shaking and there was no relief. That's all I want was a moment of relief, just to take a breath and steady myself. David meanwhile was try to help, and usually I'll tell him exactly what he can do to help... but this time, between crying, all I could do was ask him to make it stop hurting...looking back this may have freaked him out, but I was a bit busy so.... Anyway I guess I got to a point where I realized that I was vomiting because of the back pain, not the cause of the back pain was because of the vomiting...and I wanted an ambulance, because they could get me some form of medicine, FAST!!! So I told David we have to go to the Hospital NOW something is wrong. By the time we got to the ER I could barely walk, and I was shaking so violently that I couldn't write my name, Quinten had to help me. They called me back to "check me in" and the nurse is asking questions and i can't talk, I'm trying not to breathe, and trying not to scream "DRUGS, I NEED DRUGS", so I was a bit annoyed, and I know it is their job, and to to be honest, they got me back there really fast (it didn't feel like it at the time because I swear time had slowed down to taunt me). My favorite part was being asked the question "...on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most painful, how would you rate your...I cut her off to say "10, I'm a 10 now". A 10 is when you say to yourself, if you can't fix this, then for real I'd rather be dead (I'm not joking). They got me in a ER room and the ER nurse came in and said "...on a scale of 1-10"...she looked at me and said "Never mind honey your a ten"...within in mere moments I had an IV, and morphine coursing through me. (anyone still reading) I now love morphine. About an hour after I had calmed down, they did a scan and found a kidney stone....yep a tiny little stone was wreaking so much havoc. Now here is how the explained it to me, 1-2mm stones are normal, 2-3mm are big, 4-5mm your probably going to need some "help" getting them out...mine was 6mm! I never do anything small ...and I loved the way that the nurses were all "ughhh a 6mm you poor thing".... see at this point I had a Morphine crush on all the nurses. I truly loved them for helping deliver the medication that was keeping the pain at bay. So long story short I was admitted and at 7:00 am the next day I had surgery to have the Stone broken up and removed, and then have a stint put in. Then I got to enjoy more manageable pain and pee blood, and lay comatose on a couch for the next week until the stint was removed. People say that having a kidney stone as painful as labor....I'd like to say a stone is worse (at least mine was)...and at the end of labor you get a baby for all your pain and suffering....Kidney stones...nothing. It also put a good perspective on my pain tolerance....the whole rest of the stay when asked the "from 1 to 10 pain question" I was always like well this is no ten, so like a 6-7, it hurts but I'm happy its not a 10. The good news is that once you have had a stone you are more likely to get them...AWESOME! So moving on from that I spent February trying to recover....I spent March gagging over the hospital bill that just kept rolling in. April my insurance was kind enough to drop coverage of my insulin I was using but, said if I still wanted it I could spend $269 to get it a month...so I had to switch back to the other stuff...and we went from a 2 car family to a 1 car family ...NOT by choice. Then we went roller skating with The Johnson's and I was trying to do a Double Back flip on my skates...okay fine I was going really fast and tried to stop and totally biffed it...and the first thing to hit the hard floor...my knee..followed my all of my body weight on it...I'm honestly surprised that I didn't shatter my knee. 4 days later on a rainy Wed evening at my mom and dads I came into the entry way and my wet sandals, and their ceramic tile met briefly as my feet went flying out from under me...I landed almost simultaneously on my rear and back of my head. When my head hit I yelled out in pain and everything flashed white. My thud and yell were followed by the doorbell ringing. So whoever rang the bell got to hear the whole thing. Not only that but then my mom and dad came into the entry way yelling "what was that"...What happened" "are you okay" "what was that noise" "Caryn fell" and the entire time I'm thinking painfully there are people still at the door waiting to come in...so I'm like "answer the door"...and who is outside but my mom and dad's Home Teachers...(Stake)President and Sister Goodson. Does it get any better? I took off in flash and got home and iced the small planet that had formed on the back of my head. Now everyone was all freaked out because that actress had just died from a hit to the head. But I made it clear my hospital days were done...until Friday when I still was sleepy and my head was still pounding and was finally convinced that i should get it checked out... So back to the Hospital..weeee! What did they ask "on a scale of 1-10 ....." I said listen " I had a stone and that was a ten this is like a three", because I can't think of another kind of pain that can top the stone. So after a CT scan all is well in my head (insert head joke here) and now we are looking forward to a new round of jaw dropping bills. So I know that was a lot and well pretty whine-e...so let me tell you about the great things that have Happened. Our great friend Melanie got baptized and it was amazing to be a part of it and learn with her. We acquired a dog a small shi-tzu named Winston that has been passed around the family, and yes he has his moments, but our boys love him and we have a lot of fun with him. Going to the hospital helped me realized how thankful I am for so many things...people in the ward...daivd...my mom and dad...being healthy. Losing a car helped David and i see that we can still be happy and loving and thrive even if we don't have everything the way we want it...as long as we are doing thing the way the lord wants it, we'll be okay...honestly okay. I learned nothing from having the helicopter stuck in my hair!?!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
more Little America
This post is for my idol Heidi, whom I have a blog crush on. So I now know that you are also a traveler of i-80...so Little America was like the "we are actually getting close to having this ordeal over with" point. We always did potty breaks there and ate ice cream there... to this day I swear someone brings it up and I have to use the restroom and crave a vanilla cone (I preferred the vanilla over chocolate or twist). Anyway now when we stop on our way out to Idaho we stop because they have some of the nicest bathrooms around (you go to the convenience store by the gas pumps) and by nice I mean when you go in it is floor to ceiling walls so I can take my kids in with me and not worry about them crawling under four stalls while I'm trying to get my pants up. I even had a "blow out" with one of my children, and so I had to spend like 20 min in that restroom area giving my child a sink bath and changing clothes...its a good bathroom! But my best memory was when David and I got married we had to drive out to MO so the day after our wedding we headed out, but we "lingered" to long and got quite a late start and we went from Provo to Little America (like 4 hrs) and we decided that we were too tired and need to stop so we stayed at the Little America hotel....now it was 1998 but OH MY GOSH the rooms were ghastly. We apparently got the red room...guess what it was decorated in...guess. Red carpet, red vinyl chairs, red and white print curtains and spread....in was nauseating.... and they had 3 channel...TOTAL...and we actually watched on....called "Let's Eat"it was on the eating habits of insects.....how's that for our second night together! we have a chuckle when ever we go back to visit and say remember when we were to lazy to drive 45min more and get a normal hotel room.....has any one else stayed there? where there different colored themed rooms...have they remodeled? anyone ? Bueller? Bueller?
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Where did Carrie go
Okay I Just spent like 2 hrs typing to you the experience of me being in the Hospital recently and toward the end I somehow (?) Deleted the ENTIRE flippin' thing and I'm soooooooo cheesed off right now and while I was trying to find ways to retrieve it I came upon this which I wrote but never posted ....yes it happened in July but enjoy it anyway!
That is the question burning in the minds of my 5 loyal fans ( note I upped the number from 3).
JULY
That is the question burning in the minds of my 5 loyal fans ( note I upped the number from 3).
Well the long and short of it is we took a small vacation...no, took a trip...no a longish trek! that's it...Quinten, Walker, and I along with Nana & Papa packed up and headed out to Idaho to Kristi's Graduation from BYU-Idaho (we are very proud of her!) we left early Wednesday morning and drove to Cheyenne WY and stopped and took the kids swimming and then we went to eat at olive garden...where we got free dessert (not that any one cares)... the next day we took off and drove to SLC, UT and stayed with my beautiful Aunt Julie. Friday morning we packed up and drove to Rexburg, ID where we at lunch by the Idaho Falls Temple and then went to meet Kristi and be there for her Graduation Ceremony...Which I will be honest with you they pack it in like crazy we had like 15 min to get from one Auditorium to the next for the diploma's...there were a lot of people dashing about madly...Now I have to pause to give a shout out to my sister Kristin...WOW she spent that week packing her life in Rexburg up ...writing papers, taking test and finals did her apartment cleaning...went with out sleep for like 4 days and took two finals Friday finished the last one rushed up to meet us and take us to where we needed to be and the had back to back ceremonies stayed up all night to finish cleaning (and maybe a bit of playing ) and packing so we could be out of Rexburg early sat....wow what a gal!!! So Saturday morning we got the van fully loaded and Kristi's car loaded and we take off and back down to my aunt Julies...this was fun because we had walkie talkies and that's just fun! Back at Julies we had a great dinner and I was able to see 5 out of 6 of my Attridge cousins whom I had not seen in well...years. Now here is where the real adventure begins...we awoke and we left SLC by like 7:30 in the morning. Kristi and I were in the van with the boys, and mom and dad were in Kristi's car with ...each other...I was driving the luxury mini-van...(anything bigger that my car and with leather seats is luxury!) and just to be fair ( I didn't want to hog all of the driving time) I offered to let Kristi drive and to be fair she said okay, even though we both knew she had to be just exhausted...anyway about 45-60 min into her driving the van begin to make a noise and pull... we figured it was a combination of a strong cross wind and crummy road so she switched lanes and to be fair it got quieter...but about 5 min later we heard it again followed by a loud noise and a heavy tugging of the van ...unfortunately for us we were in the left hand lane and Kristi held it together while we waited for the semi to pass and the semi to get off of the on ramp before we could pull the car over to the side of the road. By the time we got off, you could hear the grinding noise of the rim of the wheel on the asphalt. We got out to check and the back tire had TOTALLY blown off the rim there was nothing left but the tread, the sides had blown off. Mom and Dad came over and got Kristi and took care of her... She was very brave she held it together and did a great job, and as soon as mom and dad where there she allowed her self to lose it... I would have been terrified if it were me....and what was I doing you ask, well apparently I handle my fear a bit differently than others, I got out and took pictures...Papa "the man of the Hour" got the spare on and we sped, at the death defying speed of 40mph to Little America..anyone who has ever traveled i-80 knows what I'm talking about. There we tried to get the back tire fixed but they didn't have our kind so my mom and dad had to hop into Kristi's car and travel the 45 min to Rock Springs and get two new tires (and because that did have the exact tire we needed and the two back tires needed to be the same) During this time Kristi and i stayed at Little America and played on the playground with the boys...it was a fun time we were happy to be alive and we were thrilled that we drove around back behind lLittle America and dumped our tire by the trash so that we didn't have to pay the 5$ disposal fee . Once Mom and got back we got and ice cream and headed out again but this time dad drove the van I think we was pretty worried about his kids driving a van with different front and back tires. So that night we get into our hotel and we all go swimming but i think the whole experience has taken a few years off all of us...we wake up the next morning and Dad is still stressed about the tire situation so in the afternoon we stop in Nebraska and we get ALL the tires checked and fixed, and apparently the tire guy said that the ones in the front were showing signs for also blowing out...how blessed are we. i know that before we left my dad spent time out in that parking lot either giving the car a blessing to last until we could get it fixed, or kneeling down in the parking lot saying a prayer...what a man of great faith...and I know that we were absolutely watched over because of that. The great part was that this all went down on my birthday and so now one really was atuned to that and to be honest I felt there were more important things to worry about then my b-day....(and I was away from David so blah anyway)...needless to say we made it home safe and sound and we have some great pictures of Kristi standing the tire bits.
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