We Can't Catch a Break at our House

Well it's been a good two months since I've been able to blog. Not only have I been spending what little free time there is working on tax returns, we can't seem to catch a break at our house these days. Ever since Cutler was born, it seems like we've (mainly I've) had one thing or another happen. I know things could be worse, but things could've been a lot better the last few weeks!

The reason I'm getting to blog right now is actually because Kinley is at Grandma and Papa's staying the weekend. While I planned on being real productive while she spent two nights away, I've ran fever and haven't felt like doing anything most of the time. Yesterday, I literally sat on the couch staring at the walls and dosing off all day while nursing. I had big plans to knock out another tax return and do some billing, but that didn't happen. I did get it done today though since I felt a little better... and I'm posting this. Yay for me! 

I guess I'll start with why I was running fever. Well, last Saturday, April 14th, I went to get my hair done. When I got home, Kinley had thrown up and she was laying on the couch acting pitiful. She continued to not eat the rest of the day and just acted like she didn't feel good. The days leading up to that, she had been tired acting and had actually thrown one of the biggest and oddest tantrums on Friday where she was crying uncontrollably and trying to get out of her carseat. I thought it was a little odd but assumed she was just tired and being a brat. Now, I'm pretty sure that she was already not feeling good. Sunday morning she woke up with sores around her mouth. By Sunday night, the sores on her face were worse, and I looked in her mouth and she had sores all in her mouth. She definitely had hand, foot, mouth disease. We've never had it, but it definitely isn't fun. All she would eat for a couple days was smoothies and popsicles, and I kept pushing liquids down as much as possible. Sores also popped up on her hands and feet which turned into blisters, big ones on her toes. For a couple nights, the nights the sores were the worst in her mouth, she didn't sleep well. We were alternating Tylenol and Mortin for pain. We even gave her a little Benadryl to help her get some rest one night, but it didn't help much. Colt ended up sleeping with her that night. Poor girl, she kept saying, "I hurt myself. Take it off." By take it off, she was referring to the sores on her mouth. I would catch her picking at them and tell her to leave them alone and she would say, "Take it off. I don't want it!" We just kept telling her over and over that she had to leave them alone and let them heal. Well now, we are a week in and she's acting like she feels just fine, but her sores haven't completely healed yet and some of the blisters haven't popped. Despite all the hand washing, trying to keep Kinley away from Cutler, and trying to get too much of her slobber and germs on me, I started coming down with it on Thursday. I thought the rest of us were in the clear, but I was wrong. Mine started with a sore throat and headache. By Thursday night, I was freezing and felt like I had fever. Then in the middle of the night, I woke up sweating like crazy. Colt's parents had came and stayed with us on Thursday night and left with Kinley on Friday.  They left around lunch on Friday, and Colt took a nap because he was heading out to work the night shift and the rest of the weekend in Sulphur Springs. I literally spent pretty much all day Friday on the couch feeling awful. I still thought it might just be allergy related though. As soon as Colt left Friday night, I looked in my mouth and sure enough, there were bumps in the back of my mouth. This morning, I woke up with an even worse sore throat. It feels like little knives in the back of my throat. Now it's Saturday night and I think I'm starting to see little bumps pop up on my hands. This morning I was still thinking Cutler was in the clear. When I changed his diaper around lunch, I looked at his foot and there was a big sore on the bottom of his foot. Then I found another on his hand. Poor guy. However, if he already has sores, from everything that I've read, then he's probably already had the sore throat and bumps in his mouth prior to that. He didn't act unusually fussy that I noticed though. I tried to look in his mouth today but couldn't really see anything. I told Colt  that may be why he slept so good on Thursday night though... maybe he was feeling wiped out. Then he did want to nurse and be held literally ALL day on Friday. I'm just hoping he doesn't get any more sores (so far he hasn't) and that he doesn't end up having it as bad as his sister did. 

That was just our latest unfortunate thing going on in our house. Besides that, when Cutler was almost 5 weeks old, I had to have surgery. My back had started hurting the week or so before my surgery. I just assumed it was pregnancy related at first and then thought it was a bladder infection. I had issues with bladder infections during pregnancy. I even called the nurse hotline the weekend before my surgery and asked them to prescribe me something for a bladder infection and had started taking it. Well, Sunday night March 11th, I was hurting pretty worse. I decided to sleep in the spare with Cutler so that Colt could get some sleep in our room because he had to leave to go work in Sulphur Springs at 5 am Monday morning. During the middle of the night, I started hurting so bad that I was in tears because it wouldn't ease up. I went and woke Colt up and told him that I thought it was more than just a bladder infection. He hopped out of bed and started trying to figure out a plan. He couldn't find anyone to work for him at that late of notice. He called my parents in the middle of the night and they immediately headed our way. They got to our house around 3 or 4 that morning I think. Colt had to leave to go to work at 5. He looked at all the doctors working everywhere and wanted me to go to the south Tyler ER at 8 when a certain doctor came on. I took some Tylenol and was able to rest a little bit until then. About 8:30, my dad and I went to the ER while my mom stayed home with Kinley and Cutler. Colt had called ahead and explained what was going on to the doctor so when I got there, it was really quick. Colt and the doctor on call were thinking that I might have a little kidney stone from the way I was acting. The doctor on call decided to go ahead and scan me just in case. He came back and said I was full of stones, some that would not pass on their own, and I needed to see a urologist that day. He told Colt that I was way tougher than he was! Colt told him that I was like an old Chinese lady when it came to pain. Haha. Evidently I had a kidney stone causing blockage on my left side that was about 8mm, one on my right side that was about 7mm and a lot of little kidney stones on both sides. I was referred immediately to a urologist. I was told to go straight over, but I stopped by the house to pump before I went in. I hadn't been pumping a lot. Since my mom was staying with Cutler, I needed to get her some extra food depending on how long my appointment took.  My dad and I went to the urologist. He recommended having surgery ASAP. He said I could wait until the next morning but he would go ahead and do it that afternoon as soon as he could fit me in. Of course, he mentioned worst case scenario and said that since both kidneys had obstructions, I could have kidney failure and die, etc which freaks you out a little! He also said one of the stones had been there so long that it had started cracking in half which allowed it not to cause more blockage than it already was. My back had been hurting during pregnancy and my OB had thought it was my sciatic nerve. Well, we're all guessing now that it was kidney stones! We scheduled my surgery for 5 Monday night so I got to go home for a couple hours before I had to head back up to check in at the hospital. I had lots to do. I wouldn't be able to nurse for a couple days because of anesthesia and pain meds so I needed to go home and figure out formula (which I had never done before and never had to give Kinley) Luckily, before i went in to the hospital, Brianna brought us over some formula to use and get us by. I did get pretty frustrated that day with my dad! I had a couple hours to get everything lined out at home. My dad was understandably hungry and was going to get food to take home for him, my mom and Kinley. We went to Jucy's on the way home. Rather than going through the drive-thru like a normal person, he parked and wanted to go in. Well, he didn't want to go in. He parked and handed me money for ME to go in. Keep in mind, I was in pain and couldn't really take anything before my surgery. THEN to make matters worse, I finally made it back out to the car and he was in the parking lot talking to someone he knew and continued to talk to them FOREVER! I was about ready to lose it! Fast forward a little bit, my dad and I went to the hospital to check in before my surgery. Colt got to the hospital right before I got wheeled back for surgery. My surgery took about 3 hours because I had so many stones. The doctor said I made his job fun because he lasered the two big ones and then pulled out all the small ones. I just imagine a video game! Because they layered two large stones on both sides, I ended up with a stent on both sides for a while. Stents are NOT comfortable at all! I had to keep them both in for a week. It's funny because that same week, Colt had someone come into the ER because their stent was hurting them. I'm pretty sure he felt like telling them that his wife was at home with two of them. We got home late from the hospital after my surgery that Monday night. By the time we got home, Colts mom had made it to help and my dad had headed home. My mom and Dede both stayed the night. Thankfully, Kinley was already in bed.  I was still hurting so bad when I got home and shaking from the anesthesia that I could't hold Cutler. It definitely wasn't fun or ideal not being able to hold or care for my 5 week old all day long. Since my mom had Cutler all day, Dede took him for the night so I could get some rest. I don't think I would've been able to get up with him all night and feed him or at least I definitely wouldn't have felt like it! Both our moms headed home the next day. A week later when I got my stents out, Colt was working again. My mom came and watched the kids, and my dad insisted on going with me to the doctor. It wasn't as bad getting them out as I thought it would be.  I felt fine afterwards so we all went to Jason's Deli for lunch. Then I drove and let my mom run in Raquet and Jog to look for her some shoes. I sat in the car because I was quickly going downhill and hurting more and more. Colt called saying I better get my butt home because I had just had a procedure. He was right. I ended up hurting so bad by the time we got home that it was as bad as the kidney stones Evidently when you have stents removed, you can have spasms afterward. Well, let me tell you, they hurt! The next day I was fine though. Since then, I've had to do a 24 hour urine sample. Then I go back in May to see the uroligist again to try to see why I make so many stones and try to get to the bottom of whatever my issue may be. 

One other thing that happened the last few weeks was that I got mastitis right before Easter weekend. It was almost to the point that we didn't go to Colt's family for Easter. I sucked it up and ended up just taking my Tylenol and Advil with me. Before I got it, I had just made the comment that I hadn't had it or had any clogged ducts this time around. I spoke too soon. We were mattress shopping that Friday and I started hurting and feeling bad. By the time we made it home, I was worse and definitely had redness. I started alternating with Tylenol and Advil to try to ease the pain and started trying to get the clog out.  I had given Cutler a bottle Thursday night at soccer and during dinner, and I hadn't pumped when we got home. Well, I paid for it. 

So to sum it up, kidney stones when little man was almost 5 weeks, mastitis when little man was almost 7 weeks and now hand, foot, mouth has taken over our house at almost 9 weeks! This is why I said we can't catch a break. I hope we get to feeling better and  stay feeling better!!

I'm hoping now that I am pretty much caught up on my work stuff that I'll have a little more downtime and be able to get a few more posts done more frequently! I at least need to get Cutler's birth story on here... since he is already a little over 2 months old!

***UPDATE - I ended up getting hand, foot and mouth BAD. My hands and the bottom of my feet ended up covered in sores. I even had sores up my legs and on my knees! After the external sores, my mouth got worse again too. I ended up with bumps all over my tongue and back of my mouth. It was AWFUL. It literally felt like my hands and feet were on fire one night. I text Colt and told him he had to get me some type of anti-itch or pain spray to put on them. His response was, "you know it's not going to help right?" He bought be some spray anyways and brought it home. I had sores on all of my fingertips so it hurt to touch anything, take lids off, etc. The feet part, it felt like I was walking on needles because of all the sores on the bottom of my feet.  I felt like one night, my hands were the worst feeling, the next my feet, the next my knees and then my mouth again. I was bad for a full week. Now my hands still are healing and still have dead skin coming off. I read that for some reason adults itch worse than kids and that adults can end up with worse symptoms. I believe it because I looked like I should've been on a Hobbit movie or something! It's been almost 3 weeks since Kinley's started and her poor feet still have skin coming off all around her toes. Cutler ended up with at least one sore that I could see on the top of his mouth. His throat was also red but it was hard to look and see much more than that. I think he was hurting though because he got more fussy there for a few days and his latch while nursing changed. I'm not sure if it was all his latch changing or if my skin was just sensitive all over from having it myself, but nursing is still a little painful at the moment and I'm still cringing when he nurses and recovering from whatever went on those few days. Luckily, he never got it too bad though I don't think. He didn't end up with any bumps on his face. His feet got maybe 10 or so bumps and his hands just a few. Of course, Colt, with his awesome immune system, never got it at all! I do know that I really hope we don't ever get this again and spread it around to each other. It's definitely not fun at all and made us homebound for about two weeks!
***ADDITIONAL UPDATE ON MAY 12th - Kinley is now in the process of losing two of her fingernails and one of her toenails from hand, foot, mouth. We noticed her thumbnail yesterday or the day before. It looks bad, and we're hoping it ends up growing back ok. She's also losing the index finger on the opposite hand. Then one of her toenails looks yellowish and loose. This is the sickness that just keeps on giving.