Mommy is not 100% - Part 2

So I thought the antibiotics were working, only to find out the lump in my throat has changed shape...... Since I went to the ER on August 11th, I have been to the GP twice, an Ear Nose and Throat Dr. (who did a fine needle aspiration), had a CAT Scan and had a biopsy........ I will know something late next week. All Dr.'s involved are pretty sure that I have a severe infection and are confident with all of the procedures that they have done that at the best thing that will come out of this is that a lot of the infection will be removed from my neck and the antibiotics will have MUCH less infection to work with. The positive is that I'm in a little less pain when I lay down; however, I have not been able to HOLD T since Thursday (the 24th) as I could not lift more than 5 pounds for 24 hours and 10 pounds for the next 24 hours as the biopsy was VERY close to my jugular vein.

I'm going to try and hold T tomorrow...... I miss having my baby in my arms, loving on him sitting on the floor or leaning over his bed is just NOT the same.

Mommy is not 100%

Hello all --- I’ve included a picture of what I felt like doing because of how I’ve been feeling for the last 2 weeks……..Let’s see, it all started on Wednesday, August 2nd with a MIGRANE that lasted for TWO HOURS (even with medication). I was crying I was hurting soooooo bad; then the migraine finally passed and became a regular old headache (normal, usually lasts a couple of days after a migraine; THIS TIME IT LAST FOR OVER A WEEK).

Thursday (3rd) morning I woke up with a sore throat, not bad, so I just figured this was all allergies. The weekend came and went and I was not any better, still thinking is ALLERGIES (silly me) I wait and by Wednesday it was HOUSTON – OK TEXAS WE HAVE A PROBLEM, I now had excess drainage coming from my left eye and a crick in my neck. Still silly me I think its ALLERGIES. Well Friday (at 4:00 p.m) I rubbed my neck and realized there was this HUGE LUMP on the side of my neck, a lump that was not there Friday morning when I took a shower and got ready for work, a lump that did not hurt until I put rubbed it. Plus T is 11 months old and he likes to pat my neck so the pain I felt when I barely touched it would have definitely been felt by the flailing arms of an infant. It was at that moment that I realized something --- the crick in my neck WAS GONE. Oh yea, did I say "IT WAS 4:00 P.M. ON FRIDAY?"

So where do you think I wind up but in the Emergency Room at 9:30 p.m. on a FRIDAY NIGHT. My mom’s back was out so her sister offered to watch T, however, I wanted my mom to watch him as my mom has a bed for T (so I had to wait until T was ready to conk out, he decided that staying up WAY past his bedtime was a good thing, I think he sensed that mommy and mawmaw were not feeling well). Oh yes I left a tad bit of information out; A WAS WORKING THE 4:00 P.M. – 2:00 A.M. shift during all of this. I thought about calling A’s parents but since I did not know what they were going to do in the E.R. and I knew that my mom had an extra bed if I was unable to drive home and her house was much closer to the hospital so I decided she was a better choice.

Jump forward to the E.R. (God bless them and punish them all at the same time). They got me in and out and the Nurse Practitioner diagnosed me with STREP, however, he did say that he thought it was a little strange that only one side of my face was swollen (I thought what does he mean, my face is swollen, when I got there I had no external swelling, just a lump I could feel when I touched my neck). He went on to say that even though this was not normal for STREP and it was even more weird that no one else (i.e. HUSBAND, BABY, CO-WORKERS) was not sick he was sure that’s what I had and left it at if your not better by Wednesday, you better go to your regular doctor. Just one little issue HE NEVER DID A STREP TEST, he just gave me a Z-pack. The best part of my E.R. trip was that I was out of the E.R., had T picked up and waited 20-minutes for my prescription and took the 25 minute drive home and was even able to FALL INTO BED by MIDNIGHT. Before I left, I even thanked the E.R. nurse for getting me in and out of there before all of the people that REALLY NEEDED TO BE HOME were brought in from the partying; he laughed and said no problem.

The real problem started when I got home – when I looked in the bathroom mirror and realized that the swelling the nurse practitioner was talking about was the entire left side of my body from my eye down to my neck. I thought THAT was my REAL problem only to discover that when I laid down I felt PAIN. I wanted to scream like LUCY because I was in SOOOOOOO much pain and moving was not even an option as the pain became worse. A got home, felt my face and said "HMMMMMMM, I wonder what caused that."

Saturday morning came and THE HEADACHE THAT I HAD SINCE THE MIGRAINE WAS GONE ALONG WITH THE SORE THROAT AND EXCESSIVE EYE DISCHARGE. At this point I only had pain is when I was laying down or tried to move while I was laying down….. WEIRD HUH? Oh yes and I did still have pain when T patted my neck….

Sunday, my dear friend Rachelle from like FOREVER (I don’t remember not knowing Rachelle's family) and her family and some friends met A, T and I for lunch. Rachelle, being a Registered Nurse said, yep, it kind of sounds like STREP, but STRP does not usually swell on one side, so make an appointment with your Doctor.

So being the good patient that I am I called the Doctor first thing Monday and was very clear, I’ve already seen a Nurse Practitioner at the E.R. and visited with an R.N. and I NEED TO SEE THE DR. (OK Mom, dad, and all of you that REALLY KNOW ME, stop laughing about the good patient comment; I really try to be a good patient. I just hope the nurse I gave a shot to when I was 2 is not reading this; if she is SORRY. That’s another story; short version, don’t set a needle next to a two year old, especially one that knows what your going to do with it. See I should have been a NURSE, I was already in practice.)

The pain when I laid down had not subsided by Tuesday; I had an appointment for Wednesday morning and boy was I glad. I woke up Wednesday with the SWELLING ALL BACK (the knot had never gone away, however, the swelling in my eye and face had gone down but I still had swelling in my neck), a severe sore throat and now I was in PAIN if I moved too suddenly. I went into work for a couple of hours and left for the DR. and what did he do but a STREP test immediately and determined that I DID NOT HAVE STREP……… However, he figured that I probably had a sinus infection and the antibiotics they gave me in the E.R. was enough to get rid of the sinus infection, but not THE LUMP so he was going to go for 1200 m.g. of antibiotics a day for 10 more days and he ordered a cat scan and a visit with the Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor just in case it was my thyroid. His diagnosis, a swollen gland, which got clogged from a sinus infection. He did however want to cover all of the possibilities, so basically, tests, tests and more doctor’s visits for the next few weeks.

After my doctor's visit Wednesday I started having shooting pains in my neck up to my ear if I sat for very long or if I lay down. Thursday I was not any better. Today (Friday the 18th) I’m some better ----- GLORY HALLAUGH THE GROSS AMOUNT OF ANTIBOTICS ARE WORKING, the pain is still there, just not as bad when I am sitting or when I lay down and the swelling has gone down some.

Nurse AL’s diagnosis, a swollen gland……….

Ya'll Come Back, Now, Ya Hear

I have not forgotten all of my friends in BLOGLAND…… I was sick and A worked nights last week and T was NOT happy that daddy was not home every night last week……… to be continued……. Over and out

God, Us and Adoption

"Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans….." James 1:27

After the decision to adopt our children came we decided immediately that WE WERE ADOPTING INTERNATIONALLY. We talked with several domestic agencies right after we married (just to get information) and determined that you had to be married for 2 years so we put everything on hold and besides we had decided not to adopt domestically. We finally made it to 2 years of marriage and began researching agencies and decided that our first adoption would be from Guatemala; then we'd go to China and if there was an Adoption Number 3 we'd decide on a country then.

Well, well, well, God intervened and brought a young woman named Melissa into our lives, she lived the next town over and was pregnant with number 2, number 1's dad was in prison and number 2's dad was nowhere to be found. Melissa never called us back and so we decided that we'd give her until Easter and if we did not hear back from her we would move on. Well, April, 2005 came and we moved on, we talked with a couple of other International Agencies and joined a Texas Christian Adoption Support Group called Forever Families for families that adopt Domestically, Internationally, or who are interested in Adoption. Through Forever Families we met Suzanne, a mom of 14, the 12 that are adopted were international adoptions. Suzanne kept inviting me to this DOMESTIC adoption informational meeting knowing that we were adopting Internationally, especially since this Domestic Adoption fell through. She kept telling me that God laid it on her heart to invite me, I reluctantly went and by the time I left this meeting God had changed my heart….. we needed to adopt Domestically, possibly children in Foster Care.

My heart was changed, BUT A's was not...... Two weeks later one of my aunts called me to tell me that she read in the local paper that the agency that Suzanne had encouraged me to go to was having another information sessions in a building half way between where my office and A’s office (and we only worked 5 minutes apart..... HMMMM what was God up to???). We went to that meeting and by the end of it A said, we are adopting DOMESTICALLY and through Foster Care, I was not sure that he was 100% on the page, but it was a start. Melissa’s due date was nearing and she contacted us again but when we called her back she flaked out on us AGAIN. I held firm that God was in control and it was going to be ok.

Suzanne and Julia (also a member of Forever Families) were on the board of another ministry called Here I am Orphan Ministries and I had gone to one of their workshops in May and they were having another one in August and A was able to go. After talking with Suzanne and Julia after that workshop it was obvious that A was on the path to Domestic Adoption with me. In September we turned our Application in to be a Legal Risk Foster to Adopt family (usually infants taken from the hospital and if any, their siblings). The birth parents have about 6 months to get their act together before you have the option of adopting the children. We were approved on January 12, 2006.

However, God had other plans for us, on January 10, 2006 we received a phone call about T from A's cousin, she was friends with he birthmother. Our adoption with T is a Private Adoption, which can be finalized any day.

God has moved in our hearts in such a miraculous way over the past several years, we realized that our desire for International Adoption was just that OUR DESIRE. We have come to the realization that Adoption is the least segregated thing that a person can do and are willing to go where God leads us. In our wildest Adoption Dreams did we ever think the child that we plan to adopt could possibly be born right here in our local hospital and that one of our relatives is friends with the birthmother that works at our local mall.

God is a God of Grace, dignity and LOVE. A and I are so blessed to be part of this miracle of life.

AL

P.S. - I have attached a picture of Ana and her dad on her ADOPTION DAY; she was adopted from Kazakhstan. Ana and her family are in our Forever Families group.

Charity --- I mean SILAS

I know that I said that my next post would be about our Adoption Journey.... however, that will be a long entry so I'll do it over the weekend.........

A moved into our Apartment about 6 weeks before we got married and then once we got married we lived there 10 months at which time we had ENOUGH of Apartment life so we bought a house. We moved Faith in and then got a dog named Queen Esther that we called Essie, well Faith HATED her so we took the dog back and waited a few more months and my aunts cat had kittens so we took one, a girl we named Charity.

Six months goes by and we decided to have HER fixed and declawed. On that day I was off and my cousin and I hung out while I was having a garage sale and then the phone rang. After the caller introduced himself (between the laughing) I realized it was the vets office, he called to tell me that Charity's name needed to be changed to Chester and HE could not be Spayed, however, HE must be Nutured........ In our defense Charity was not developing his boy kitty parts; he was the runt of the litter and even at six months he was JUST developing and A and I neither one had a male kitty since we were small children and both of us had indoor/outdoor kitties and Faith was such a GOOD kitty that we did not have much to compare with the activness; SO HER being a HE explained A LOT...... namely the new SMELL coming from the litter box. Now he's more than made up for his RUNTNESS, he's ALL developed and is about 16 pounds.

Silas as his name was changed to is as onry as they came. He shredded paper, ripped the blinds in half, opened doors, and harassed Faith and Josie endlessly to name a few of his INDESCRITIONS........ SO when T came into our lives we knew we had to make a change.

Since it was obvious that Silas was NOT HAPPY..... we decided to try a new living arrangement, so he went to live with A's parents and sister and low and behold he became a totally different cat, when they took him he was their only pet, now they have a DOG, a male dog and they keep the animals apart 95 percent of the time (the dog has the front half of the house during the day and the cat has the front half of the house at night).

I have attached a picture (sorry it's so small) so you can see he is a handsome kitty and he's so sweet to HUMANS and apparently he does NOT like female animals......