Route 66 Marathon

Well the last post I wrote was about Mike's running and so I feel like I should update and tell everyone that he did awesome. I so wish I could have gone but with Beck having just gotten out of the hospital and all it was better that I didn't. Mike said it was a fun run, which is what I would think if I ran as far as say....the mailbox, not 26.2 miles. But hey to each their own, right? Anyways he finished in 3 hours 46 minutes, almost a half hour quicker than the Denver marathon where he was so sick. He was beyond thrilled with how he did. And I am too. Great job Michael! I love you!

Denver Marathon

So my crazy husband decided that he wanted to run another marathon. After each of the last two, he has sworn to never do another one again. So you can imagine my shock when he said he wanted to run the Denver Marathon. I being the supportive wife that I am asked him if he was sure and reminded him that he had sworn to not do another marathon. He was insistent that he wanted to do another and signed up.He trained and trained for the marathon and felt ready for it, until a few days before. He came down with an awful illness. Supportive me told him it was okay to back out, no need to kill yourself. All those really supportive things. He again insisted on doing it.

Well he ran the marathon and did awesome! He was disappointed with his time but my goodness he ran 26.2 miles sick. I don't run 3 when I'm well. I am so proud of Mike. His new goal is to complete a marathon in each of the 50 states. He has three done: Washington, Ohio, and Colorado. He is running one in Tulsa, OK tomorrow. Good luck baby!

Pumpkin Run

At the beginning of October, Michael, Caiden and I ran the Pumpkin Run here in Colorado Springs. It was the first time I ever signed up and paid to run! Mike did the 10K. Caiden did the half mile and I did the 5K slowly, very slowly. I did run the whole thing and I finished it so that was good. I had fun but have not signed up for another by any means. I think it would be fun to do more of them but I would like to train more so I don't feel like such a slowpoke.

Mike of course finished his 10K amazingly quick and did really well. He enjoys the 10K distance a lot.

Caiden was adamant about his outfit that day. He had to wear running shorts, a long sleeve, and a visor because that's what runners wear. We gave Caiden the choice of running the quarter or the half mile. He wanted to do the half mile. He was the smallest, youngest and cutest kiddo there by far. He finished last but he finished first in his age group. As a prize for finishing he was able to go pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch which was a huge thrill for him.

Update on Bex

So Sunday night, Beckett desatted to 73% but was stable with oxygen so the doctors decided we could go home with oxygen, a referral to an ENT, and more medications. It is amazing how many different things he is on. The pharmacist had me pretty worried when he expressed concern about how many different steroids he is on. I actually had to make up a schedule so I would know what are AM, PM, and as needed medicines.

So Tuesday morning, we saw the ENT. She was very nice and I liked her a lot. She immediately said Beckett needs tubes for his ears. While she does tubes, she wants to remove his adenoids. Mike and I were fully prepared for that. She thinks his adenoids are causing the ear infections, which trigger a fever, which in turn triggers the severe asthma attacks. The ear infections are the main reason for thinking the adenoids are the culprit but we are still not positive because generally the flag for inflamed adenoids is inflamed tonsils. Well Beck's tonsils are pretty small and not inflamed at all. So she is also going to do a bronchoscopy to check his windpipe for size and obstructions while he is out for the tubes and adenoids. We are going to do this in two to three weeks. We are still waiting for a date because she needs to reserve time at the bigger hospital with a PICU. She wants to do it there because the hospital she normally does surgery at does not have the anestheologist she thinks Beck needs nor a PICU. Scary to think she feels the need for the PICU.

Yesterday we saw Beck's pediatrician. She was glad to hear the plan from the ENT but she too was concerned that his tonsils are not inflamed and wants to make sure before we put him under for it. Another concern is that when taken out before two years old, the adenoids will grow back. So we could be doing this again in a couple years. Anyways, she has also ordered a sleep study which will confirm or deny the adenoid theory. We are trying to do this in the next week so we have plenty of time to make a decision about adenoids. Dr. Y seems to think if adenoids are the problem, we will still have to deal with the severe infantile asthma. If adenoids are not the problem, she is afraid we will be on oxygen long term. We are all hoping it is adenoids!!!!!

Sorry for the long post but I know a lot of people wanted to know what has been going on.

Oh no, he's asleep....

He just sounds like he is running a marathon. My little man continues to be breathing really loudly and quickly. I tried breathing 60 breaths in a minute and couldn't maintain it. I don't know how he does. At one point last night his rate was 80 breaths per minute. Crazy!!!! Anyways, last night was rough. I let the doctor know that Flonase keeps Beck wired at night and so we give it to him in the morning. Well that did not get relayed to the nurses who insisted it was ordered and he needed it last night. Well guess who was all smiles from 2AM-4:30AM? That's right, Beckett was! He wanted to play with the blinds, climb onto the window sills, jump on my little couch, and repeatedly put his fingers in my eyes while saying "Dyes." Fun times. Sidenote: I did talk to the doctor about not giving that med to him tonight. :) Bex slept in until 5:30AM, at which point he ripped his O2 out. He desatted to 76% at which I warned by the nurses that we probably would not be going home. Not the news I wanted at 5:30AM!!! Well the doctor came in later and confirmed that she would not send us home when he was that low. He needs to be in the high 80s off oxygen before she would entertain sending him home on oxygen. The day went by pretty smoothly otherwise. It was nice because as soon as I would get tired of being a circus act for Beck, a set of grandparents would show up. Yay for grandparents! So tonight the plan is to try and turn the oxygen completely off. For us to be able to go home tomorrow, he needs to stay above 85% while asleep. We will see. I am hopeful but not confident that he can maintain that. I will post results in the morning.

Happy thoughts

So I feel the need to post about something happier than Beck's saturation levels. Hmmmm.....what to write. Okay, I have one. Quite a few weeks ago, two of my best friends in the whole world, came to town. They both came with their husbands and kiddos. Their husbands are as crazy as mine and were here for the Great American Beer Fest. So we spent the first night at the Rockies/Cardinals game. Then the next morning we took all the kids to the Children's Museum in Denver where the kids all had a ball, running around and playing. We then went back to the hotel and got the guys ready to go. They headed out to the Beer Fest and all of us girls Jen, Alexis, Marci, myself and five kids headed to dinner. We ate at a little cafe where no one cared how loud the kids were, that the kids ate off of everyone else's plates but their own, or how much got dropped on the floor. It was so much fun! Then we walked back to the hotel, put all the kids to bed in one room (they were adjoining) and opened a bottle of wine in the other. We sat and talked and laughed so much and so hard. I had an amazing time with some of my favorite girls. There were more than a few frustrating things that happened that weekend but we will not mention a single one since this is my happy post.

Back at Square One

So last night I posted about how Beck was pulled off oxygen on Wednesday this week, three days ago. Well we are officially back at that square one our doctor warned us about. Beck went to bed with a fever last night and woke up with one this morning. I took his pulse ox and he was pretty low, 81%. So we put his oxygen back on him and kept an eye on him. I called his doctor and spoke with her. She said he needed to be seen so away we went. We saw the doctor who immediately counted his breaths at 56 breaths per minute on oxygen. She was also concerned to see him retracting, using his entire torso to take each breath. So they did a direct admit and now here we sit in the hospital.

The really frustrating thing is that this is EXACTLY where we were 3 months ago, low oxygen, ear infections, fever. And still no definitive answer. We have had to increase his oxygen this time because of how hard he is working to breathe. It is scary to hold your little one and feel him working so hard to breathe. He is so miserable being here. Please pray that we can go home soon.

Good News for Beckett

I have not been good about blogging for awhile but wanted to update what has happened with my youngest. Beckett was put on continuous oxygen back in mid August after being hospitalized for low oxygen saturations and high fever. We had weekly pulse oximeter readings each week through mid October with no change, saturations were in the 78-88% range. So our doctor, being as discouraged as we were, referred us to Children's hospital in Denver. We went up there on October 20th and the doctors we saw were amazing. They started with an echocardiogram and reviewing chest xrays. Heart and lung problems were quickly ruled out and so we focused on his nasal area. The doctor we saw hypothesized that he has airway obstructions, not really sure what that would be. He thinks mostly likely adenoids. He prescribed some steroid drops and told us to keep everything else the same. Which meant we had to keep the oxygen around that we were so hoping to get rid of. We did three weeks of the steroids and then did an overnight pulse ox. Beckett had saturations over 90% (our goal), 98% of the night. So we now as of November 12th, almost exactly 3 months after starting it, took him off the oxygen. Yay!!! We have to keep him on all his medications for at least 6 months as we are not completely cleared of everything. In fact, our doctor said to be prepared to be back at square one if Beck should get sick again. Ugh! So we are praying for healthy days!!!

20 Hours in Phoenix

So we flew to Phoenix from the cruise because that is where our kids had been taken. My parents committed to watching the munchkins and then a surprise birthday party was planned for a dear family friend. It took a lot but they took Caiden, Beckett, and his friend Mr. Oxygen with them to Phoenix for a long weekend. The airlines do not make it easy to carry oxygen. You have to have prescriptions, expensive equipment, letters from doctors, forms specific to the airline, waivers, supplies, extra batteries, the list goes on and on. Anyways they made it there and had a great time. We flew in on Sunday after the cruise and flew home on Monday. Although short, it was fun to see everybody, especially the kids.

Thirty

Mike and I turned 30 a few weeks ago and to celebrate we took a much needed vacation without our kids. That was a first all in itself. Anyways, we spent a week on a cruise with Mark and Mel. It was the most relaxing vacation ever. We really didn't do all that much but that is what made it amazing. We went to Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize, and Isla Roatan. Roatan was definitely the most incredible beach I have ever been too. Grand Cayman was pretty and clean, which I really appreciate. Cozumel was Mexico. Lots of people trying to get you to go into their shops by being the most obnoxious and annoying person in any 3 door distance. It is serious competition there to be obnoxious and annoying. We did have a good time at Senor Frogs where my husband was groped publicly by another woman all for a shot of Sex on the Beach. Belize, Belize, Belize....I don't know what to say. The first time we tried to visit Belize we were highly disappointed we didn't get to see Belize. This time, I am torn. I saw a lot of Belize which was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity and we saw some beautiful ruins but I am not dying to go back. Maybe in time. We flew from Tampa to Phoenix for about 20 hours there before coming home. We had an amazing trip and it would not have been possible without my parents who watched our babies. Here are some pictures from our birthday trip.

This is getting better?????

The virus Beck has ends with a rash which is bright red and covers the entire body. Now as beautiful as that sounds, it is far from it. It looks awful!!!! My kiddo has been a trooper though. Beck deals with it like it is nothing except for when it comes to an oatmeal bath. He hates them but they seem to have really helped. He looks tons better today so I think we are almost done with the rash. Yay!!!

Sick Kiddo = No Fun

Well this past week has been a crazy one! Beckett had been running a fever for about 5 days and I had been able to control it with Motrin. On Thursday last week, he started breathing really hard through his mouth. I took him in and was told he had an ear infection and indeed he was breathing really hard. On Friday, I took him in to have his O2 levels checked again and they were low but not terrible. He was given 2 more shots for his ears and we were sent home to control the fever. I did okay with that until that evening. So I called and was told to alternate Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours. That seemed to work until his fever spiked to 104.5 on Saturday. So I called the Advice Line and was told to go to the ER. We did and were told Beck needed to be admitted more for his oxygen level than anything else. So we got to ride in an ambulance to the Children's Hospital and spent the next two days trying to control the O2 levels. All tests came back normal which means it was a virus but no one knows why EVERY!TIME! he gets any sniffle, ear infection, anything, his respiratory system is compromised. We could not keep his levels up enough to go home without oxygen so we got to bring it home. Fun! Fun! We are hoping this will be a temporary visit for the oxygen and maybe get rid of it as soon as Sunday. Anyways, the virus has turned out to be Roseola. It is a simple virus with high fever and a rash at the end. The breathing troubles are totally unrelated to it and something we need to get to the bottom of before flu season. We don't want to spend all fall and winter living in a tiny hospital room tethered to the wall monitors.

I will post pictures of the icky rash tomorrow. Now there's something to look forward to!

I just have to brag

Seven years ago yesterday, my life forever changed. I married the man of my dreams. I remember everything about my wedding day. It was all I could have ever asked for, a beautiful ceremony, followed by the best reception ever (I am a little biased). I mean the reception itself was EIGHT!HOURS! long! All of that was an amazing start to an amazing marriage. I love my memories of that day!

On that day I gained so much more than the wedding and reception I hoped for. I married Michael. What an amazing husband he is to me! I am such a lucky girl! The past seven years have brought us lots of highs and just as many hardships. And I am so happy to have experience dthem all with Michael. There is no one else I would rather spend this life with.

My darling Michael, I love being your wife! My world is so good when I'm with you. I love you and I can't wait to spend many, many more anniversaries with you.

Father's Day 2009

This year was such a fun Father's Day! We have both Mike's and my Dad here in town and we have two new little ones to celebrate it, Beckett and Zachary. We started out the day going to church and then having lunch with my family and dinner with Mike's family. I am terrible about breaking out the camera with Mike's parents so I am sorry there aren't any pictures. I am usually so picture-happy.