PaPa

"I WANT PAPA TO COME HOME"

Need I say more, notice the tears and nose running!

Happy Birthday Jerrud

I was watching the news and the Wall Street bell was ringing, and I saw the date....April 8th.
Happy Happy Birthday Jerrud. Hope you had an exta special day. I'm sorry I'm not at home so I could have made a montage of you. I'll put that on the schedule for next year.

And Debbie, please tell Bones a belated happy birthday. Hope he got his card.

Let's ALL have some cake!

we did it!

Hey, we did it! Last night went off without a hitch. Jacob got his 9:00 feeding and went to bed.
He was awake at midnight for a bottle. He woke up again at 3, but a burp and a little rocking did the trick. He was up a little before 5 for another bottle. He didn't wake up again until around 7. Sherrill got up for the midnight feeding to take Bella out. He slept through the 5 am feeding, but Kurt was getting ready to leave so he carried her out.

By 7:30 it was time to get the boys up. Catherine is always up before 7. Breakfast, teeth brushed, dog walked, you know the routine. Kenneth leaves home around 8:30 and Luke leaves at 8:40. So, Sherrill has gone to take Luke to school, Christy is resting in her bed, I have gotten the baby asleep, and Catherine is running around singing " I know you....." Christy finished up her princess quilt last night, so she is one happy little girl.

Christy did some research on her disease last night and I think she understands more now what she is up against. Stress, fatigue, anything can bring on these attacks. Well, she is still having like one big attack, but the medicine she is on is slowing down the tremors. She is real tired and "drug out" taking the medicine. By the evenings though she is a little more perky and like herself.

Sherrill and I went out cruising for awhile yesterday afternoon. We ended up on the freeway and had to go 15 miles before the next exit. Fifteen miles there, 15 back, and alot of complaining in between.

Y'all look out for your families, and I will keep up with Christy. Thanks for those of you that take time to post something. It means alot. I don't always have time to talk on the phone, so please keep me informed of what is going on out there.

Love you all :)

Let the fun begin!

Kurt is going back to work at 5:00 am so as I am typing he is giving Jacob his last bottle. From now on he's my baby. One problem though, he doesn't like it when I give him a bottle, and he doesn't like for me to rock him to sleep. He WILL let me feed him food though. Go figure.
So tonight at 1:00 am and 5:00 am Jacob and I will either be bonding or fighting. Sherrill is the backup plan. Oh, another thing, every time Jacob gets up, Bella (the dog) has to go out to pee.
Now, have YOU ever carried a dog out in the middle of the night to pee? This will be an experience!

Christy is hanging in there. She tried cutting her dosage of medicine this morning so she wouldn't be so sleepy, but the jerking was so bad she had to take the regular dose. She did go to Walmart though with Sherrill, Kurt, and the kids. That was probably NOT the best idea!

I'll try to keep you posted!

Hugs and Kisses to everyone!

An Easter Surprise!

This is Kathy...

I didn't EVEN know that I had access to write on this blog...

Uncle Larry emailed me the CUTEST little people in the CUTEST video and I thought that everyone needed to see it and smile!

Enjoy!

Wednesday morning

Good morning world. Kenny has gone off to school and Kurt and Sherrill have gone to carry Luke to school. Sherrill has to sign him in and out everyday on the computer. And as most of you know, Sherrill can turn ON the computer and turn it OFF. That is about the extent of it. He has to remember Luke's number, and type it in. This should be quite an experience for him. He will be carrying Luke by himself tomorrow.

Christy was up this morning around 6:00 still trembling. She went back to bed and is still resting. I guess she will take her pill after she eats breakfast. She starts a new med on Friday.
If I keep repeating myself, I'm sorry. I don't know what I have told whom. It all gets confusing after awhile.

The kids are doing great. Kurt got up with Jacob during the night, and Sherrill got up once with "Bella", the dog. He hasn't let her get away anymore since yesterday afternoon. Bella went chasing the school kids.

I'm sitting here clipping coupons. My girls and these coupons. They have enough to start a bonfire.

Hope everyone has a good day!

New Report

These are the facts as I know them........Christy and Kurt left this morning to go to Vegas to the neurologist. While on the road Christy got a call saying that her blood came back showing that she has strep. Evidently the strep has gone through her entire body, then ended up in her brain which caused all the havoc. She has decided NOT to go to Vegas and to turn around to come home. The neurologist is putting her on some new medication . It may take 6 months up to 2 years for this work its way out, clear up, or whatever. The doctor that diagnosed it has seen only 2 other cases in his lifetime, and he was pretty sure all along that this is what it was. Christy will be heading down a long road, so it's time to be nice to Christy.........Ma said!
We will get her back once she recuperates.

She is not doing well getting alot of phone calls, so if she doesn't talk, don't take it personally.
If you call her, call the house phone, 867-2470. (I'll find the area code later) That way Kurt or I will answer the phone. She has been getting so many calls she can't get any rest.

That's all I know for now. If I said something wrong, I will correct it later.

Later gater.

POLLEN

Judy and Sherrill,
You two ran away from the pollen just in time! It is horrible, and no rain due till friday :( You look around and everything is YELLOW/GREEN! It is getting the best of us............

Meghans boo boo

Meghan fell on the play ground at school today and cut her chin in two places.

FOR SALE BY NEIGHBOR

Our owner has left us, and we have taken their house under OUR control! We eat what we want, we stay up ALL night and party, and we annoy and harass OUR neighbors :)

The neighbors are now beginning to threaten us, and put us up for sale! Can you believe that?! We are 2 cute mutts, who loves kids, bacon and pupperoni sticks, short walks, birds, other friendly dogs, lawn mowers, and last but not least OUR HUMAN NEIGHBORS.

So, we took matters into our own paws and decided that we would put ourselves up for sale, before our OWNER returns! If you like what you see in the above pics, please respond to our ad by posting your bids!

HURRY, we can smell him :)

Today's events

Today started out great with a little 2 year old crawling in bed with me. That was good for about 30 minutes, then by 7:10 she was up and ready to eat. Luke was out of pre school today, but Kenny had to truck out in the cold to go to school.

Christy started out with a really bad morning. If you take the person that you have seen with Parkinson's disease, this is how she begins her day. She was able to sit in the recliner for awhile, but was shaking so bad she had to go back to bed because she was so nauseated. She rested for awhile, and was a little better when she got up. She had to go out today to get a copy of her medical records for tomorrow. She had to go because she had to sign I don't know how she was able to do that. The Dr called in another muscle relaxer, but he said she can't stay on this. It's just for right now. Still no blood results to confirm the previous diagnosis. Two calls were made to the Dr today, with no results. They will call tomorrow to check.

I'll let you all know if we hear anything.

grandma in the west and graduation

so grandma, since you are out here then i guess you are forced to stay here till my graduation :)

We're here !

We finally made it. Our last 1 hour was driving up a mountain. We got up to 10,000 feet elevation. There was snow everywhere. It was beautiful. For some of the time we had to go 25 to 30 MPH.

Christy is really hanging in there. I don't think any of you other kids could cope any better with this. I can sit beside her with her right arm propped on a pillow, and then rest my arm beside the pillow, and my arm will shake up and down along with hers. Her head stays in continuous motion. Baby Jacob has to be taken care of by someone else. Grandma Debbie (Kurt's mom) has had that job since Thursday when all of this happened. Christy informed us that he gets up twice during the night, and the dog has to go out twice during the night. At least everyone is on a schedule.

I'll post pictures tomorrow. It's been a long three days. Have a good night everyone.

Grant, New Mexico

Well, here we are, Grant New Mexico. We are probably about an hour to the Arizona boarder.
We stopped early, 50 miles shy of our 1,000 mile mark for the day. Sherrill was driving and the sun was shining in his eyes. Today has been quite the experience. One thing.....why do men think they can set cruise control on 75 while going around a mountain and through the rocks?

Second thing, how can an RV pass you over 20 times while climbing a mountain......and by the way, it was pulling a pick up truck with a golf cart in the back. Oh well, that's life.

I am kind of confused about tomorrow's trip. Mapquest said it will take 9 hours, and Tom Tom and Daniel say it will take 11 1/2 hours. So, tomorrow will be another long day! At least I might be able to see Christy before she goes to bed.

Christy is tiring easily and has had a rough day trying to talk. I just can't seem to get there fast enough.

Bye for now.

Arkansas

Well, here we are........1,000 miles down the road . I drove 14 hours and Sherrill drove two. We actually had a great trip with only one ugly word coming from Sherrill's mouth. He never tried to jump out of the car either.

Now we are in a suite, with a door we can close between us. Isn't life grand?

I talked with Christy and she is still hanging in there. Kat is at her house now. We are making our way there as fast as we can.

Abby, thanks for taking of little "baby brother Jack". I told Sherrill it's about time he broke the apron strings!

Love to all.

Mom

I talked to mom around 4:30 pm PST and they were in Little Rock. They were gonna drive some more for the day. Oh, they are taking I-40 to get there.

When she checks in for the night, I'll be sure to post it.

Time for a SMILE

In the middle of all the worry and concern there is a bright spot. Lauren and Carter came over today styling in their sun glasses. They were out working in the yard with Abby and Sherrill.

Abby was raking leaves in her yard, and Sherrill was cutting grass in ours, probably blowing more leaves to her.

When the kids came in to get something to drink, I snapped a quick picture.

All packed and ready to go

We plan to leave in the morning at 5:00 AM. That is if I can get Sherrill up that early. We have the chicken cooked for Jack, now Sherrill needs to fix him up some bacon. He just has to have his bacon every morning!

Plans are to go to Atlanta, then we will decide if we are heading toward Dallas or Oklahoma. I want to try to avoid the Colorado route. So many decisions! There are roads closed on 40 in NC mountains, and roads closed in Colorado. Then there is the blasting at the Hoover dam. I need a tour guide just to get across country!

Wish us well. We need all the help we can get. Sherrill HATES riding.The last cross country trip we took he jumped out in Louisianna!

Bye for now. I will update when I can.

Love you all!

Possible diagnosis - sydenham chorea

Christy's doctor called and said the neurologist has diagnosed her with sydenham chorea. You can google it for more info. They are still waiting for blood test though to confirm the diagnosis.
It could take months for this to clear up. Christy wasn't able to talk mush early this morning, but could talk a little better a little while ago.

Sherrill and I will be heading west tonight or tomorrow. Any takers for Jack?

Here's what I found about the disease.

Sydenham chorea

Sydenham chorea is a movement disorder that occurs with rheumatic fever.
Symptoms
Changes in handwriting
Jerky, uncontrollable, and purposeless movements in different muscle groups (looks like twitching)
Loss of fine motor control, especially of the fingers and hands
Loss of emotional control, with bouts of inappropriate crying or laughing
Symptoms of rheumatic fever
Treatment
Supportive care is given as necessary to control symptoms of Sydenham chorea, especially the constant movements. Sedation may be advised in severe cases.
Causes
Sydenham chorea is one of the major signs of acute rheumatic fever. It is discussed here separately because it may be the only sign of rheumatic fever in some patients.
Sydenham chorea occurs most often in girls before puberty, but may be seen in boys.
Tests & diagnosis
There may be a history of sore throat for several weeks before Sydenham chorea.
Blood tests that may show signs of rheumatic fever include erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR).
Different blood tests may be done to identify whether the child may have a strep infection..
Prognosis
Sydenham chorea usually clears up in a few months. In rare cases, an unusual form of Sydenham chorea may begin later in life.
Prevention
Pay careful attention to children's complaints of sore throats and get early treatment to prevent acute rheumatic fever. If there is a strong family history of rheumatic fever, be especially watchful, because your children may be more likely to develop this infection.
Complications
No complications are expected.
When to contact a doctor
Call your health care provider if your child develops uncontrollable or jerky movements, especially if the child has recently had a sore throat.

Good Morning World

I talked with Debbie, Kurt's mom yesterday. She helped me to understand what is going on. I asked her if Christy looked like someone that had a stroke, and she said NO. She said the best way to describe Christy is "Michael J Fox". She talks like him, and her body twitches out of control. So, that's all I know for now. Kurt's mom is going home today to take care of thigs, then she IS going back to Christy's for the weekend. I still don't know how Chrsity is getting to
Vegas on Tuesday for her Dr. appt.

That's all for now folks!