A sudden cloud burst

 The kids were playing outside one late morning in August, I was trying to get in some outside time before it rained. I was sitting in my garage with my neighbor, Jessica, while our kids played, and all of the sudden in began to pour. The kids were soaked before we could get them in the house so they played in the rain. It, of course, is fun for the kids, but it just requires more laundry for mom. Ha ha.

 And then suddenly the sun was out again.

The rest of August fun

We went to Waterway Square again and brought fun snacks. We went to the pool a couple more times on Saturdays with Daniel.

 We bought a trampoline! Finally! The kids had been earning and saving money for awhile! Even though Addie is crying in this picture, maybe Bensen was teasing her, they love it!

 We went to the pool with Parker's former preschool teacher and class.

 One day we had Kaitlyn over to play and I was folding laundry and then they all wanted to wear Daniel's shirts... Cute but they do it a lot and I find it annoying that I have to put them all away later :)

Children's Museum

We also went to the Children's Museum in The Woodlands. We had never been there so I decided to try it. We went with our friends that live next door. The kids had a lot of fun! They did not want to leave, but Addie needed a nap...

Kaitlyn and Bensen

Pump It Up

Since I was finally feeling like I had some energy, I tried to hurry and squeeze some fun things in before we had to go back to school and so one of the days we went to Pump It Up. Brittany and some friends went too. Addie had previously been afraid of this place and usually cried the whole time. But this time she decided after a short while of me holding her that it looked fun, I guess. She asked me to put on her socks and she joined the other kids like she had always done it. Now she asks to go almost every day.

Rundown

After we got back from our trip to California I started to feel worse then usual. I had been feeling sick for awhile. Real tired and nauseous all the time. The good news was that I lost weight because I lost my appetite. I no longer wanted to eat. Ever. Not even good stuff like chocolate and ice cream. Weird. But after the circus trip I got worse. I had a doctor appointment coming up and I had been going every month to get my blood tested and see my rheumatologist. I guess my blood work wasn't so good so I had to keep going often. Anyways, I got my blood drawn on a Tuesday like usual for my Thursday appointment. I had been feeling really light headed that week and I just thought I was more tired then usual.

 

On Wednesday I was trying to avoid standing up and going up the stairs. If I had to bend down I would just crawl until I had to stand up for something else. Then my doctor called early that afternoon and said she got my blood results and I needed a blood transfusion right away. I didn't even know what that was exactly. She said she could not get a hold of my physician and so we both kept trying. She eventually told me to just go to the emergency room. I loaded all my kids in the car and started to go, but then I pulled over and tried to decide what to do with my kids. Do I take them, do I ask someone else to take them? Daniel wasn't answering his phone anymore and didn't even know I was headed to the hospital. I tried calling my old visiting teachers but one didn't answer and the other wasn't home so I ended up calling Brittany, my sister-in-law, who I tried not to bother because her husband was sick. She didn't answer so I drove to her house... She answered the door and was heading to the pool so I felt really awful about bothering her and I thought that I should have just taken them with me. She said it was fine to leave them with her and I hoped that Daniel would just get them when he came home from work.

 

I went to the hospital and they admitted me. They checked previous lab work and talked to my doctor. They had to re-run my blood work to see what it was right then. It took a long time. Daniel had come straight from work and I just kept worrying about the kids and telling him that he should go get them so Brittany didn't have to have them for longer. He didn't leave until it was time for them to go to bed.

 

By the time they got the blood test results and decided that I needed two units of blood it was late. I was admitted to the hospital and wheeled in the hospital bed up to a hospital room. This whole time I felt really silly being there and having people do things for me. Daniel came back after the kids were in bed and Brittany stayed with them. I thought Daniel should go home that night and take care of the kids and be comfortable in his own bed. And I didn't want Brittany to have to be away from her family taking care of mine. I just felt dumb. I didn't feel like I needed to be in the hospital. I hated feeling helpless.

 

Daniel wouldn't leave and stayed the whole night. It took so long to analyze my blood and the donor's blood. My transfusion wasn't started until like 1:00am. It was supposed to take 8 hours for the transfusion. Four hours for each unit. My IV was put in when I was in the ER. It was in my elbow. When the transfusion was first started my vein blew up right away. My arm started swelling and it hurt sooooo bad. They stopped it and sent in another nurse to start a new IV. My arm still hurt a lot. I started shaking and my teeth started chattering and I could not control myself. The nurse put warm blankets on me and after awhile by body calmed down. I don't know what the deal was with the uncontrollable shaking. The transfusion was finally started. I laid there with my arm on my stomach staring at it most of the time because I was so afraid my vein would blow. It never did, but I didn't really sleep.

 

My transfusion was finished after 8:00am. After that everything took so very long. I kept trying to sleep while waiting but it didn't really happen. Daniel had left when the transfusion was done to go see the kids and let Brittany go home. Daniel and the kids came to visit and then left. Then they came again. The kids were going crazy waiting in that hospital room and SO WAS I. My rheumatologist had come and said I was good to go, but they still took forever. I didn't leave until about 5:30pm!

 

A friend, Morgan, brought dinner to us that night when we got home. It was so very nice of her. And then to top it off she came and took my kids the next day for a couple of hours. I was so grateful.

 

I was grateful for Brittany's help with my kids, Morgan's dinner and taking my kids, for Loni bringing dinner the next night (and a Dr. Pepper), for Megan watching my kids for another blood draw and dr. appointment, and for my blood donor, whoever he/she is. I never thought I would be needing someone else's blood one day.

 

After all that, I had to start the dreaded steroids. I have gained ten pounds and feel chubby around the middle and my face. I became moodier, as if all the other medications and lupus didn't already contribute enough to that. Ha ha. I started another drug that is supposed to keep my body from rejecting its own blood any further. The same medication people take that have had transplants. So anyways, my body had decided its own blood was foreign and was trying to get rid of it.

 

I'm doing better. I did get the Shingles (comes from the same virus that causes chicken pox that lives in your body forever once you get it, apparently) recently since my immune system is weak. I didn't know what that was either, but since I was already on steroids I just added another medication that I had to take 5 times a day for a week and then they were gone. The steroids had helped keep the shingles low key. I have been able to stop taking the steroids just recently and I am happy about that.

 

It really wasn't all that bad. I felt much better after my transfusion. I was no longer light headed and my lips were not white anymore and I had pink in my cheeks again. I just didn't know what it all was. Now I know what a blood transfusion is and found out about others who have had one or a few. And I learned about shingles. Which I should never get again just like chicken pox.

 

*My kids watching tv in my hospital bed waiting to get the heck out of there!



The Circus!

We went to the circus at the end of July. The kids each had a free ticket from the reading program at the library this summer and so we decided to go for it. It is expensive and just the two tickets for Daniel and I cost a lot, but we thought it would be worth it with 4 free ones. Neither Daniel nor I have ever been to a circus before so it was a new experience for all of us.We had fun and I'm glad we could go and be together.

We got popcorn to share at intermission. Everything was so expensive. I packed a lunch that I snuck in, but the bucket of popcorn was 5 bucks so we got them one to share. I really wanted to get them a souvenir but it was at least $20 for one thing! $20 was the cheapest! Yikes!

 The tigers.

 The elephants.

 Us.