MRSA and cellulitis

Hello friends. Been awhile since I have written. It has been one crazy week, close to two weeks. Sam was bitten by what we believe was a spider on his bum about three weeks ago. It caused severe itching and just irritated the crap out of him. Then it started to grow. That next Monday I started caring for it at home by peroxide and antibiotic ointment. It started to look better, but then turned into a monster. By Wednesday he said he needed to go to the Dr. He went to an urgent care and they told him that it was probably a spider bite (not a brown recluse) that bite him and now was becoming infected. And me cleaning it only made it worse. Now instead of a little bite his entire bum was red and swollen. She put him on an antibiotic called bactrim and some steroid cream to put on the area. By Friday night it wasn't working. It was getting worse and the itching was driving him crazy. So he went to the ER. They doubled the dose of his bactrim and put him on some pain pills. And once again telling him if it gets worse come back, and they would probably have to admit him into the hospital.

The poor guy came home and followed all of there instructions, while me and the kids went swimming for 2 days. I was just trying to keep the kids out of his way, and of course wanted to be at the lake:)!! He layed on the couch and took his meds as directed. By the time Sunday night came around I looked at his lesion, and it seemed a lot worse. His leg was swollen. I have a little medical experience, and to be completely honest I was scared. This freakin' thing kept growing and nothing seemed to help at all. The man was miserable!! And he was now breaking out in a rash on his stomach! I told him he needed to go back to ER, but he was hesitant because they would want to keep him. We have NO insurance on Sam. He woke up Monday morning and went to work. My stomach kept on twisting telling me something was really wrong. I called him and urged him to come home. He didn't listen..."Someone needs to drive the fork lift"!! By noon he was so miserable with uncontrollable itching that he came home. He ran in the house and took a hot shower. He says that the hot water on his leg and bum was such a wonderful feeling, close to an orgasm as he explains.

So by now we know he was bitten by a spider, which became infected and has cellulitis. And is only getting worse!! The antibiotic is NOT working. So he is finally convinced to go back to the ER. We decided for him to go to the urgent care first because if he did need to go back to ER then they would call ahead and tell them he was coming. MISTAKE. They did tell him that he needed to go the ER but wouldn't call ahead.

Both set of our parents must have heard the concern in my voice because my mom came and got my brothers dog that I was babysitting and my 2 girls! Sam's parents came and got my 2 boys, so when I got off work I could go automatically to the ER without having to worry about them. What a blessing!!

He sat in the ER waiting room for a couple hours and when the triage nurse finally saw him, they realized this guy wasn't joking around. They started by saying they were going to give him a couple shots, and Sam informed him he's had shots they didn't work and he was sent to the ER believing they would have to start in IV. The Dr. actually listened and started and IV with medicine of adrenaline and something else for the itching and allergic reaction to the med. By this time Sam's entire stomach and arms are ate up with a rash. NOTHING seemed to help.

A spinal cord injury came in and we didn't see a Dr. or a nurse for 3 hours, and when we finally did they realized Sam was only getting worse. Basically to make this story a little shorter, we got to speak with a great Dr. that spoke to us like we were human instead of a complete annoyance. He was just going to hospitalize Sam over the allergic reaction he didn't even know what was on his bum. After seeing that he told Sam he would be spending at least a couple days in the hospital. They ran a bunch of test, and took him off the the bactrim.

Sam spent Monday night through Thursday afternoon in the hospital. He has MRSA that staph resistant to antibiotic, cellulitis, and had a severe allergic reaction to the bactrim. They have him on three different antibiotics and several different meds for the allergic reaction. He was discharged with 6 or 7 prescriptions, and will have to go in for outpatient care of IV abx treatment. Crazy story. We are completely exhausted, but so relieved that everything is starting to look better. You always realize how much friends and family care in a situation like this. Thank you all for the help and most of all the prayers. We have such a wonderful church family that has been there the entire time!! Also we are having help from a charity to pay for one of the meds that cost over 1,000 dollars for a 10 day supply. We only have to pay $5!! What a blessing!! We are also filling out paper work to see if we qualify for financial aid to help pay half or even all of the hospital bills. I pray this will work out for us!!

VBS

OK. So my kids have gone to vacation bible school ever since they were old enough, and I have never volunteered to help. So the head of the children's department caught me off guard and asked if I could help. What is my first response, SURE. AHHH but wait I have a bunch of kids to young in my daycare. She informed me that workers could bring their kids to there nursery. So I gave in and did it.

I started the morning off at 6:30 am, and began my normal duties. Got the kids up around 7:30, got them dressed and fed them breakfast. Miss Shirley informed me that the bus would be there to pick up my kids around 10 after 8:00am. Due to me watching so many kids and not driving a bus myself I needed help hauling the children around. So I take the older ones outside and began the 40 minute wait for the bus. Yes 40 minutes!!! We finally see the bus and he drives right on by...what is going on here? I noticed he was picking some kids up from up the hill, and then he drove by again. Only this time he looked at us, and pointed his finger as if to say "one minute". He began backing up in the middle of the road and noticed someone behind him, so he drove on. We waited another 10 minutes and I said forget it, so I piled up the kids in my van. Thank goodness one of the parents took her 3 boys to VBS, so I did have enough room in my van. That bus never did come back, he was sitting there in the parking lot when I got there.

I will skip some other irritating issues I had!! Sometimes my over organized anal characteristics get in the way.

After informing Shirley of what had happened with the bus. She told me she had forgotten to let the bus driver know to stop at my house. That's great. I thought that was the reason she called me and woke me up from my Sunday afternoon nap. But anyways, lets move on.

So there is 15 minutes left until VBS is over for the day. Shirley lets me know that my kids need to be on the red bus. OK "is the bus the color red", I ask her. NO. They need to have red bands on their wrists. OK "so where do I find these red bands", she responds that she'll have to locate them. OK when will that happen while she is closing out VBS? By this point I am on the verge of going OFF!!!! The next thing I know my kids don't have red bands and have no idea they are even supposed to be on a RED bus. And Shirley starts telling the "red bus kids" to go to there room. Now I've hit it...that place I don't like to be...I'm about to lose my mind!!! I run all over the auditorium and try and locate 5 of my older kids to get to this room. The poor kids were confused and scared. Devyn was trying to help me find everyone, and thank heavens she knew were all of them were located. So I get them to this RED room and the guy says, well they don't have red bands....ARRRRRGHHHHHH. I don't care if they have them or not, Shirley didn't give them to me and will you PLEASE take them my address!!??

We all made it. 9 of us back home safely. I guess when it comes down to it, Shirley did make sure my kids got on a bus, maybe not the organized way I thought it should be but it happened. I can't stand chaos, and that's what the entire morning was!!!! But I am happy to say today was much better. I really loved it. I've taught most of the kids I have in Sunday School, and they are so precious!! Ester and I have 12 boys and only 2 girls in our group. They keep us busy. But what a blessing to watch them sing to Jesus, do crafts and learn a story about the bible!! I'm so glad I volunteered!!

God is Good!!

Tired

I've always loved my nap times, but lately it seems to be getting out of hand. WHY AM I SO FREAKIN' TIRED? I barely finish that sentence to myself when it hits me duuhhh I watch 9 kids (including mine) during the day. Along with trying to keep up with the laundry, dishes, straightening of the house, ect. All the while I am saying NO NO NO. I hate that word, and it seems to be the only one I say. Summers are so hard. They should be the fun and relaxing times, but for my family it goes into overdrive!!

But then again I am so thankful that I do get to have a nappy time. I am very thankful I am taking care of my kids and I don't have to pay someone to do the job I want so much to do. YES, there are times I would like to be alone and relax, but then I would miss so much!! For example the frog this morning they found. That poor frog, it endured over an hour of abuse from curious children. They built it a pond, made sure he had food to eat, and lots of rocks for him to jump on. By the time I said outside time is over that poor frog was pretending to be dead, do ya blame him??

Or all the times Nate tells me when he is peeing outside, "nobody wants to see your pickle". I came to find out his grammie told him this one day while he was peeing on her yard. I would miss all those funny sayings, and they aren't even trying to be funny. Just the greatest innocence in our world!

I remember one time when we went to the Discovery Center, Dev and I had to go to the bathroom. She informed me she couldn't get the napkins out to wash her hands off. I'm thinking what??? I look at her and realized she was trying to get "napkins" out of the tampons box. As I am dying laughing she is asking me what is so funny..."it says sanitary napkins".

Now I that I look back my kids have said so many funny things in their short lives, why didn't I write it all down? I will try to from this point on.

One more funny one before I leave, one day Nate was playing outside and told Jesus, "Jesus turn off your fan, it is way to windy down here".
These may be the most tiring days of my life, but so worth it.

I love my babies!!

Old friends

You know with my past I'm not to keen on seeing any of my "old friends". Due to a lot of them being more of drug buddies than friends. Also having the demands of my own family there is little time to keep in touch. Which in some cases is bad, because I did have some great friends. I guess what is bringing this all up is I just had a 5 hour visit with a great friend. Jake, he lives in Colorado now but has to come here to pick his daughter up for the summer. Boy, times change, it was really a good time visiting with him. I always get a bit nervous when I know I will see someone from my past, but this seemed so natural. He has really grown up, he has changed so many things. I am truly proud of him!!
Mom always reminds me that not everyone from my past looks at me and only remembers who I was, and today I felt like that was true.
Cheers to old friends and new lives.

our fourth

My sister-n-law started a new blog page, and I thought it would be fun to try. I've done a couple on myspace but I like this better. I don't know how often I will be able to do this, but I'm going to try to often. This is the blog I posted on myspace today.

Hello friends!! Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July. We had a wonderful and busy time with our family. You know the older I get, (which sucks) I realize I just can't do the stuff I used too. Of course, there are a few things I would never want to do again, but staying up late having a few drinks is one thing I don't mind doing every once in awhile. Only my body does mind. It takes me a couple of days to get myself back to normal. Sam can go go go, what the hell is wrong with him!?! I learned this even more last weekend. Dan and Andrea came down to the lake on Sunday and we enjoyed a nice relaxing afternoon out there with a few drinks. Before we knew it, it's midnight we're back home with a lot more than a case of beer gone. It seriously took me until Wednesday morning to feel back to normal. But no matter how many times I deal with this, I still don't stop trying. Like some miracle will happen, and I will suddenly be 18 again.
Friday night was my night to stay up late, so I tried. I was actually smart enough to stop drinking awhile before I went to bed though. I went to lay down and of course Sam is still going..."ya wanna go swimming?" I decided what the hell it's not every weekend you get to spend at the lake. We go down the dark trail to the lake and who gets in the damn water??? ME and only ME! Kind of pissed me off...he dragged my ass out of bed to go swimming is this muddy, tree infested lake (due to the water being so high)!! Well then he drags my brother out there, and he decides we should all go to the dock instead of behind the house. The dock isn't even on land, you have to take a row boat out to it. We do this, and then we remember the boat dock has no electricity and we can't see to open the lock. How annoying!! So we take the boat back to shore and forget it. All the while we think Andrea is reading in bed thinking we are idiots for even attempting this. OHHHH no she is trying to be sneaky...I'm gonna hide in the woods, and try and scare the shit out of them. HA HA your sneaky shit didn't work with us!! I didn't even realize she was out there. Sam and Dan did, but the MEN didn't get scared! Too funny.
I thought I would be suffering the next day, but I am happy to report we enjoyed another long and beautiful day out on the lake. Now I did have to have a nap on sunday, which didn't work out to well for me...Nate kicking me the entire time. But now that it's Monday I feel much better.
What a great weekend. Being with Mom, Dan, Andrea and my family. My girls learned how to dive (really good actually), Nate attempted the dive but did more of a belly flop. Hey kudos to him for even trying, and Luke enjoyed swimming and relaxing at the lake. Family, lake time, food, beer...what more could ya ask for...Ohh well safety and God blessed us with that too!!
Hope you all had a great Fourth.