Littlest Pet Shop's Tonight

Tomorrow Madison is having 3 ingrown cut out of her 2 big toes. Two sides on one toe and one side on the other. This surgery sucks. I had it done when I was in middle school. And although that feels like it was a million years ago, I still remember this awful procedure. I remember the ugly toe wraps I had to wears for 3 days, to middle school - (embarrassing!). I remember a gazillion shots in each toe. It was horrible.

 

I am so thankful that they are sedating Madison for this procedure/minor surgery. 

 

But tonight Madison is playing Littlest Pet Shop's, eating Pizza (and soon to be eating the tomato soup she just requested) and watching Disney Channel. I love watching my baby girl playing with her toys and just being a kid.    



Today was our first visit to the ER. We have been in our small town for just over 2 years so I guess it was time, right :)?

The Story:
We were picking up The Girlfriend this afternoon. Austin got out of the car to go get her and closed his finger in the door. He had to open the door to get his finger out. It was pretty weird to watch from inside the car. Anyway, he got his finger out, told me he was ok and went in to get The Girlfriend. They came out and we were driving back home and I asked him how his finger was. He obviously said that it hurt and that I needed to stop the car that he thought he was going to be sick. I really looked at his finger and it looked pretty bad, dented in and turning purple, not swollen. I decided it was a good idea to get it x-rayed. So off to the ER we went. A million dollar copay later - it's not broken, he got a band-aide and a ice pack and off we went.

Maybe I over reacted but I thought it looked bad and was pretty sure that it was broken. And nothing is open but the ER on Saturdays and Sundays here.

So that is the story of our first ER visit in our small town. Glad to say that it was a pretty boring visit.

3 minutes

Madison went to the ENT today. She has had a rotting smell coming from her mouth/nose. We have been to the dentist, and had her MRI and everything there was great. However her MRI was of her spine and did not cover her head, so we were not able to see her sinus or anything in the head. Her neurosurgeon suggested we take Madison to an ENT. ENT - Dr A checked Madison out, and took a complete medical history, and said that he would feel better having a CT (glad he didn't say "to rule some things out" - those words, over 5 years later, still sting). It took insurance about an hour to approve the CT because Madison just had a scan and they felt another round of antibotics would do. With a little (or a lot) of convincing from Dr A's staff, her CT was approved and was done there in the office. Madison did great. And the results... 3 minute pause, 3 minutes of silence while Dr A scrolled thru her scans, 3 minutes is a really long time. Try it, watch your computer clock tick away 3 minutes. That is what I did. I couldn't bring my self to look at scans I know nothing about. So I watch the clock tick away 3 minutes. It felt like a lifetime. Then Dr A said NED - no evidence of disease, no tumors, no cancer. I cried happy tears. I wasn't prepared, going into this appointment, for the threat of cancer to be so prominent. I hate that this is our, wait that is selfish, this is her life. I'm so happy that the CT today and her MRI on December 8th were NED, but over 5 years later I still worry about everything. It's really hard. I want to not have to worry about one day hearing the words your daughter has cancer again. I don't want to ever worry about Madison not being a part of our life. If this is her last (fill in the blank - birthday, christmas...). She is amazing, beautiful, smart... I could go on and on, little girl. I love her so much. I want her to have a normal, beautiful, long life.    

mother of the year

this morning Madison told me that she wasn't feeling well
she wanted to stay home from school.
last night she stayed up too late so i told her that she was just tired
and made her go to school.
she lasted all day, but when she came home she tried reading
her AR book to me and had to stop half way thru
her voice was gone, and she really didn't feel well
I took her temp and it was 101.7
she really was sick
I should have know better,
she loves school and would never ask to stay home
unless she really was sick.
lesson learned.

Foot Doctor

Austin and Madison had an appointment with the foot doctor. Austin got an ingrown toenail cut out (without being numbed) and Madison went because she has flinstone flat feet and it had been suggested we have them looked at. Madison went first and did great, the doctor was funny and great with kids. He found a wart on her big toe (gross), and put acid and a band-aid on it to remove it. He also had orthotics cut for her shoes and told us she needs to were them 80 - 90% of the time and she may be out of them by the time she is 14 - 7 years, yikes. Then Austin went, this was a follow up visit for his ingrown toe nails. The first visit he was just put on antibiotics, even though the doctor offered to just cut the toe off. He guaranteed that would solve the ingrown toenail problem permanently. This time he wanted the nail cut out - even after my horror story of 9 shots in each toe just to numb them. He was tired of it hurting all the time. The doctor looked at his foot, grabbed his clippers and started cutting, I couldn't watch. I felt so bad for Austin. I know that had to really hurt. He was tough though So, Madison has a follow up in 2 weeks to check both her wart and her orthotics. Hopefully that will be the end of our visits for a while. We really like the doctor, but specialists are expensive.

these 2 had a great day together
it was so nice seeing them get along,
I let both of them stay home from school and enjoyed
watching them wrestle and play and just hang out.  

she was a little nervous - new doctor and all
Austin did really good keeping her laughing 

WART ON MY BABY - GROSS

exhale... a little

CT came back clean, not cancer. We got the results the same day Madison did the chest CT, I'm bad at updating. Madison is still coughing, but she is sick too. Her fever was 102 on Monday so she had to stay home from school. She was really upset and promised that she would cover her mouth when she coughed so she didn't get the other kids sick. I explained that this is a different kind of sick and that temps over 100 = days home with mom. We watched Barbie Fashion Fairytale 5 times, no joke. It was so nice to spend the day lounging on the couch with her. 

So back to the cough, we were told that something in her room could be causing her to cough. I had her take the 50 stuffed animals that she sleeps with out of her bed. She is down to 2 that she just can't live without. I washed her sheets (2nd time this week, this time with baby detergent). I vacuumed her mattress and under her bed. I dusted all the wood part of her bed. And... she is still coughing. Dr M (ped) said that if she is still coughing this week to bring her back and she will refer Madison to a pulmonologist. I will see how she is doing Friday.  

holding my breath



 Madison had an appointment with her pediatrician today. She has been coughing every night for over a month now, but just at night. Dr M checked her breath sounds, did several breathing tests, gave her a breathing treatment, did another test, and everything came back normal. Madison does not have drainage, bronchial asthma, or anything else that Dr M tested for. So a chest CT was ordered, "just as a precaution". Madison did great getting through all the tests and the CT, and now we wait. And I worry. Mostly because I have read that one of the first place brain cancer spreads is to the lungs. I know that is what Dr M is testing for, I told her that I read too much online and ask if she is checking for spreading. (we don't say cancer, because Madison still does not know that she had cancer) Dr M said it was just a precaution, but yes that is what the test is for. I love that she is so cautious with my daughter, but really it's just a cough, just at night.... why does everything have to be a scare?

a reason to smile

Madison's MRI came back clear, there is a little  spot on her scan that Dr M doesn't like and we    will be watching that again next scan in 6 months,  it was verified that the spot is not tumor and is  not a reoccurence.

Madison's MRI

First Madison's blood pressure and pulse ox are       taken (with the help of her bink and daddy bear)

next she coats her mask with a flavored       chapstick (sedation gas stinks, and the       chapstick is supposed to help cover the smell)

then she waits, and waits...

I always take in and "help" get her settled,
this time she was holding her breath so
getting her to sleep took a bit longer then usual

she is finally out, and ready to begin the 45min MRI



then she is brought back to her dad and I to wake her up (with the help of oxygen)



she's never a happy girl coming out, and this time we left her IV in because
last time she got sick (i had her IV take out      before she was awake
and we could give her anything to help)
this time she was fine and told our nurse that      her IV hurt really bad and asked
to have it taken out shortly after waking up



her reward for doing so great - A quick stop to      Toys R Us to pick up Woody