Chloe and the Swollen Spleen

Once upon a time there was a cute little 2 year old red head named Chloe…

Chloe has Hereditary Spherocytosis she inherited from me. My family has a long history of this blood disorder. My grandmother, mother, aunt, myself, my sister, my 2 cousins and now mine and my sister’s children. The 50/50 chance of inheriting the gene doesn’t seem to apply to us. The main problem with this disorder is the enlargement of the spleen due to increased activity. In the past, we have had our spleens removed around the age of 5. These days they like to put the surgery off as long as possible to keep the spleen functioning to help you fight off childhood infections.

Chloe (and now Carlee) are seen at St. Jude’s every 6 months. They monitor the anemia and size of the spleen. During Chloe’s latest visit at the beginning of the month, the doctor noticed a drastic increase in the size of her spleen. We went for an ultrasound of her spleen and gallbladder. A few weeks ago I received a phone call with the results of the ultrasound. They want to go ahead and meet with Mitchell and I to discuss removing her gallbladder and doing a partial splenectomy.  I was not expecting this news.

Chloe’s spleen is swollen to 500mL. Regardless if you know how big a spleen is supposed to be, picture half a one liter coke bottle. That is how big her spleen is inside her little 32lb 2 year old body. She also has gallbladder sludge. The sludge hasn’t turned into gallstones yet, but they know it’s coming and would like to remove the gallbladder before she starts hurting.

Today Mitchell and I met with the surgeon and the hematologist and discussed options, risks, benefits and general information about the surgery.  We have decided to go forward with the surgery. They will be laparoscopicly removing her spleen and gallbladder on March 1st. We will go in on the 28th of February for Pre-op where she will receive a blood transfusion that night to prep her for surgery. On the 28th, they will not only “physically” prep her for surgery, but emotionally also. They are going to roll play with dolls, said something about Mitchell wearing a bunny suit (not kidding, can’t wait to see this!) and basically walking her baby doll through her surgery to help her understand.  She should be able to go home that Thursday or Friday. She will then have an ultrasound follow up around a week after her surgery and will be dismissed to go back to the sitter. Amazing how short the recovery is!

This is probably going to be way scarier for me than it will be for her. There  are two things that comfort me the most, one is that she is under the care of the chief of surgery of St. Jude hospital and the head of Hematology at St. Jude hospital. I couldn’t think of better hands to be working on my daughter. The other is when I had my surgery at the age of 5, I have nothing but fond memories of it. They are so wonderful with the kids and turn what could be a scary situation into an actual happy experience.

So please keep us in your thoughts and prayers while we go through the next few weeks.

At What Point is This Not Normal?

Warning, this is a I hate being pregnant post. It is strictly for me to vent. Warning, there are a ton of gross pregnant stuff coming up. Read at your own risk.

#weloveyou2010

Please world, as you look at the hate spread recently by a fellow Arkansan, do not group us together.

Please do not think the citizens of the school, community, or state are all bigots.  Please do not think we are bullies. Please do not think we don’t care. And, most of all, please do not think we are not doing anything about this.

#weloveyou2010

There are those of us who look beyond the color of ones skin or their sexual preference. We don’t care where you came from, how much money you have, or who your family is. There are those of us who do not judge a person without knowing them. And there are those of us who will stand together tomorrow and wear purple to support our loved ones, friends, family and fellow citizens who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Those of us who will stand up against hate. Stand up against intolerance.

Consignment Sale

Twice a year I drive my family crazy. I make them try on clothes to see if they still fit, box up clothes that are too small and start the consignment sale routine… Enter items, print tags, hang up items, tag items.  All together I spend about 12 – 16 hours (this doesn’t include the drive to drop items off, pick items up, etc) getting ready for the Popsicle Kids Sale.  You might think this is a lot of work, but I’m basically trading the kids clothes for the correct size each year. And I get to shop early!

This year was a little different that most.  First,  I put back Chloe’s clothes to have for hand-me-downs for Carlee. The other is I went strictly looking for items for Carlee. Gage had a ton of stuff that still fit him from last year and Chloe got a LOT of hand-me-downs from my niece, Logan.

I must brag on the deals I got this year.  Mom and I shopped early on Wednesday and got a high chair, bumbo chair and mattress for $50 (retail value would have been $150).  Tonight I went and early shopped the half price items and got the following:

• 20 Sleepers/gowns for Carlee
• 1 pair of Jeans for Carlee
• 10 dresses/outfits for Carlee
• 2 pairs of shoes for Carlee
• 3 sweaters for Carlee
• 3 pairs of cotton pants for Carlee
• sweater for Chloe
• PJs for Chloe with Snow White on them (she’s been asking for some for weeks)
• A shirt and jacket for Chloe
• Elmo shirt and pants for Chloe
• 2 pair of pants for Gage
• Sweater for Gage
• Shirt for Gage

All of this for $68.

Small Town Annoyances

Around three years ago I was talked into leaving Jonesboro and moving to Pocahontas so we could be closer to Mitchell’s son. I was ok with this at first but soon became horribly homesick and started hating the place. I’ve tried over and over to accept living here, but I don’t know anyone, I only have 2 friends here and there is nothing at all to do.

Changes

One day while driving my 3 hours a day drive to work and back I started thinking about my life.  I had several questions I was asking myself over and over and the number one question was “Are you happy?”.

No, I was not at all happy with my life situation.

The Pregnancy Mask

Over the past few weeks I’ve noticed a discoloration of parts of my face.  I’ve been freaking out and about to go all Michael Jackson and start bleaching my face.

I have a little pregnancy app on my phone that gives me week by week advice.  This week it mentioned the “Pregnancy Mask” or melasma.  After googling this, it is exactly what I have going on. Apparently this is caused from my hormones and will go away after I have the baby.  It made me feel better to know that I’m not going to be spotty forever.  But, can pregnancy leave at least one part of my body alone?  Please?

Let's Play a Game

It’s called… what did Jennifer find in her car when she cleaned it out during lunch…

1. 10 Chloe socks.  Notice I didn’t say 10 pair, just 10 socks.  She takes one shoe and one sock off every night on the drive home.  Leaves the other one alone.
2. 3 pair of Chloe’s shoes.
3. 2 books
4. 1 truck
5. 1 sippy cup (Yes, just 1)
6. 1 elmo
7. 1 pair of elmo slippers
8. 4 hair bows
9. 2 old cellphones
10. Goggles.  The mad scientist kind, not the swimming ones.
11. 1 passy

It's a Dog eat Dog World

A few Saturdays ago, Chloe and I were playing in the living room and there was a knock at the door.  A cute little neighborhood girl had a “Lost Dog” poster she was passing around.  She asked me if I had seen this dog. Me, being sympathetic, wrote down the phone number and told her I hadn’t seen the dog but would be on the look out for it.  As she was leaving I told her I hoped she found her dog.  Her response was one I was not exptecting…

Girl: “Oh, that’s not my dog.  That dog ate my dog and I’m helping someone try to find it.”

Me: “Well, that’s disturbing.” Seriously, what do you say to something like this?

Surviving Stomach Death Flu

Thankfully I survived the Stomach Death Flu of 2010. I’m much, much better now thanks to finally getting some good rest. I didn’t want to get the kids sick, so I locked myself in my bedroom with Gatorade.

Mitchell and Gage had a “boys night” of root beer, pizza and staying up past Gage’s bedtime. Gage has shown interest in the planets and astrology, so Mitchell found Gage some Solar System posters for his bedroom at the dollar store. I do wonder if Mitchell and I are the only parents who get extra excited over finding toys the kids can learn from, not just tear up and throw in a toy box. But, that’s another post. So they came home and Gage learned about the different planets. Gotta love geeky dads and their ideas for a boy’s night!

Mom took Chloe Friday for me and kept her until Gage and I went to get her last night. My favorite Gage quote of the night: “That (patience) sure takes a lot of work, GG.” (when I told him he had to be patient and wait to get his paints out.

So now that I have energy, I guess we are going to spend family day cleaning house since mommy was out of pocket most of the week.

Stomach Death Flu 2010

Mommies are pretty bad ass.  Not only do we work and raise children, we also keep the house, do the laundry, cook meals, take care of daddies…. does the list stop?  Time is a luxury we don’t have. Being sick is definitely something we don’t have time for.

Too bad too sad for this mommy.  Stomach death flu 2010 has hit and knocked me right on my bottom.  I’m going to use the term “stomach death flu” I will let you use your imagination as far as what symptoms go with “Stomach death flu”.  It ain’t pretty folks.

Monday night stomach death flu hit and stayed with me until the early hours of the morning.  I had Zofran (godsend drug btw) left from my morning sickness days and took it along with imodium and pepto and booked it on into work.  Mommy’s don’t get sick days for themselves you know.  Those are saved for the little ones.  Besides being pretty delirious, I made it through the day Tuesday.  Got home, Tuesday night… DUN DUN DUN stomach death flu came back! Worked Wednesday, Wednesday night, same story. Finally yesterday stomach death flu came in for the final punches giving me all he had.  Water was even kicking my ass.  I had to give up and head home.  I got in bed around 3pm and did not wake up until this am.

Mommies also don’t go to doctors.  We just don’t have the time. When a mommy does go to the doctor, you know it’s pretty bad.  Pretty bad happened this morning.  Have you seen Ghost Busters?   Remembers Simer? Oh yeah!  After turning into slimer this morning I decided it was time for mommy to take a sick day for herself and go to the doctor.

They cannot tell if I have a viral or bacterial infection of my stomach because I’m so dehydrated.  We are waiting until Monday to see if I am any better and going from there.

Luckily Mommies have Mommies.  My mom came and got Chloe from me this afternoon to keep this weekend so hopefully she will not get this mess from me.  The last thing a sick mommy needs is a sick baby too.

I love Science

Everyone watches their child go through the milestones, rolling over, sitting up, first steps, first words, etc, but I think many parents overlook other milestones their children reach.  This weekend Mitchell and I watched Chloe perform a science experiment.

She was eating dinner and drinking from a water bottle (daddy was, so she had to also).  This water bottle has a handle on it.  First she saw her spoon fit through the handle.  This was neat because it made a noise when it hit the table.  So then she tried her passy.  It fit, neat-o! She gets excited and claps. Time to try the bowl, nope too big.  That’s ok, the food in the bowl will fit, but it’s stick and doesn’t make it through to the other side.

But Chloe sat for a good 15 minutes trying to put objects through the water bottle handle.  She would turn the water bottle, look at it, almost like she was calculating in her mind the dimensions.

Of course with Mitchell and I both being science nerds at heart, we loved watching her focus for this long on experimenting (that didn’t involve picking food out of the floor!)

Sneaking in Santa's House

We took Gage and Chloe to see the Christmas lights around town.  There is a road they call Candy Cane Lane where all houses are decorated. There is a gentleman at the end of the road who dresses up like Santa a few nights during the Christmas season and let’s you take photos and hands out small toys.  He was not out this said night which started the following conversation with Gage (my 4 year old step-son).

Gage: “Daddy, can we go see Santa.”

Mitchell: “Santa isn’t home.”

Gage: “Where is he?”

Me: “I guess he’s up at the North Pole making toys.”

Gage: “Oh, when will he be back?”

Me: “I don’t know. We’ll check next weekend.”

Gage: “Do you think we could just sneak in and see if Santa is home or not.”

Me: “No baby, we can’t break in Santa’s house.”

By this time Mitchell and I can barely breathe we are laughing so hard.  Gage was being so sweet and innocent about it.

Alivia Diane Tilley

My sister and our family suffered a great loss yesterday.  Alivia Diane Tilley was still born 23 weeks early.

She weighed 5.5oz and was 8 inches long.  Her little footprints were the size of your thumb.

Please keep my sister, 4 year old niece Logan, and brother-in-law in your thoughts and prayers as they make it through the next few weeks.

8 Reasons Your Company Should Go Social

Great read by Craig McCoy.

Chloe's Website

http://www.chloespring.com/

Only a splash page up for now, full website coming soon. She might even blog!

My Geekchart

http://www.geekchart.com/img/geekchart.swf?username=geeksmakemehot
Geeksmakemehot’s Geek Chart

One year ago today I brought Chloe home …

One year ago today I brought Chloe home from the hospital. I remember holding her thinking, “I had no idea you could love someone so much.” As I put her to bed tonight, I was thinking the same thing again. I am so lucky to have such a beautiful young girl in my life.

Adventures of Zombie Cat

We have a stray cat that likes to hang around our house. Yes, we fed it once and so it is our fault she has taken a liking to us. But see, this cat isn’t your normal stray cat…. It’s a zombie.

First, this cat has had around 12 or 13 litters of kittens since we moved in here. Ok, I’m exaggerating, but not by much. Let’s just say she gets around. She’s the neighborhood tom cats’ favorite. During her 3-4 litters of kittens she’s had, we have only seen 2 of these kittens. I’ll come back to this.

Like your typical neighborhood stanky slut, this cat is ugly. She’s always dirty, has something wrong with her, and we have pretty much thought she was near death for the last year. But somehow she keeps on truckin’. (Yes, I had a better word picked out to finish the previous sentence but decided against it.)

Recently she had her last litter of kittens and we didn’t see her for a good week. We were certain she didn’t make it through the birthin’, how wrong we were. She shows up at our house looks like she had pretty much had her head ran over, split in half, eyes matted together, mouth wouldn’t open, skin and bones and her hair looked like she had been mud wrestling. It was so bad we started calling vets to see how much they would charge just to put her down. We hated to see the poor cat suffer. The vets were going to charge us close to $100, so we tried nursing her back to heath.

First, Mitchell fed her syringes of baby cereal and formula, he cleaned out her eyes with saline and put neosporin on her head. He continued doing this until she could open her mouth enough to eat on her own.

This morning, the cat looks almost back to normal.

Up until a few weeks ago, we have always just called the cat “Kitty”. Since coming back from the dead for the up-teenth time, we have stared calling her Zombie Cat. We are pretty sure she died months ago. She come back as a zombie kitty to keep whoring around the neighborhood. She has kittens just to eat their brains to survive.

Below is a photo of her taken today. I should have taken a picture a few weeks ago to really show how near dead this cat was.

Chloe already had daddy wrapped around h …

Chloe already had daddy wrapped around her little finger…

Mitchell: “Chloe, just because you dance when you are doing something you aren’t supposed to doesn’t mean you are too cute to get onto.”
Me: “Then why aren’t you getting onto her?”
Mitchell: “Because she’s too cute to get onto.”