Halloween

Eli and Kaden at the Pumpkin Patch. Notice Eli's Boston Terrier Shirt, when I saw it I knew he just had to have it.

Eli in his costume, Dr. G. Since we were going to our church's event, and it said kids had to be in biblical costumes, we figured Dr. G could stand for Dr. God aka "The Great Physician" and it turned out great. He won first place for 0-3 year olds! And, it's an outfit my mom made for him. I was going to buy one of those doctor sets for kids, but when we were in the ER the other day I asked the nurse for some supplies to complete his outfit, and what she gave me worked out great.

This is Kaden's friend Cadence and her mom Alysa. They joined us at our church and then we joined them at their church across the street.

The whole family with Eli's prize.

At River of Life's event they had cotton candy. Kaden seemed to enjoy it. Let's just hope he doesn't get his mother's sweet tooth.

Update

Eli is doing pretty well. Since getting on antibiotics, he has only thrown up once and hasn't had a fever anymore. So, I figure it was probably an ear infection and early stages of pneumonia. He still is coughing quite a bit, but I guess that is a good thing and it needs to happen so he can get all the gunk out. I called the gastro doctor after giving Eli two suppositories and getting no results. He informed me that there was no blockage on the films from the hospital and doesn't know why they would have said that. Drives me nuts!! Oh, well. Eli is feeling better now and that is what matters.




Kaden is still getting into everything. When I am trying to get ready, I have been bringing him in my bedroom and I think he enjoys it. I just have a lot to clean up after I get ready.



He is a handsome fellow and is no longer afraid of the grass :)



And, here is a video of him on his way to the dog and cat's water. You can move him across the house and he turns right around and heads back. Most days, the cat and dog have to do without water until he naps. Poor animals.

"Practicing" Medicine

Before Eli was born, I thought doctors knew it all. After all, they had fancy M.D. initials after their names, lots of schooling behind them, and lots of Medical Journals to reference. That would not be my thinking anymore. After much complaining, and being emotionally distraught, someone said to me “remember they are “practicing” medicine for a reason, they don’t have all the answers.” How very true!

After a few days of Eli throwing up, spiking fevers, and having more frequent and violent seizures, I decided to call the neurologist thinking it might have something to do with his new VNS. She said “no”, but that I needed to take him to the ER. Obviously something was wrong and the ER would be able to figure it out. She, along with EVERY doctor who sees Eli when he is sick, says “It must be the shunt, I bet it is malfunctioning”. Of course it never is and never has been, but they always say that and send us for X-rays and blood work to test it. So, while at the ER yesterday, they looked for a shunt malfunction and found none, but did tell us that his bowels were backed. Since he wasn't flushing out his system, there could be a build up of bacteria which could be causing the fevers. They also said that his stomach could not empty into his intestines (because they were full) and had no where to empty but out his mouth. I thought that was logical and thought it sounded about right since he is always so constipated. They then wanted to do a CAT scan of the chest and stomach with some dye (contrast) and that would tell them more.

So, after the CAT scan, they then said the intestines must just be filled with gas and that his chest was showing some very early stages of pneumonia! I asked about an ear infection and she said “No, his ears are clear”. So, they pumped him with fluids, some anti nausea medication, and Rocephin (an antibiotic). Then they told us that our pediatrician was sending us home and to follow up with him in the morning.

Upon arriving at the pediatrician's office this morning, he informed me that Eli had a pretty bad ear infection and that the CAT scan results had never been read yet, and if Eli did have pneumonia, we would need to return to the ER. ARGH!! So, after getting nothing done and paying my co-pay, I returned to my car to cry. A few minutes later, the pediatrician called and said that there was just a little bit of possible pneumonia and that he would like to give Eli an oral antibiotic to treat that and the ear infection.

So, after three different M.D.’s looking at Eli and testing him, here are the results. Eli COULD have blocked bowels, COULD have pneumonia, COULD have an ear infection, or COULD have something else. And if you only knew how much money it cost for all those COULDS. Let’s just say I am spent!

If we can figure out a way to get Eli to take the oral antibiotics with out throwing them up, maybe we can get him back to normal. I think I will take a video of him trying to take his meds so you can enjoy and see how much "fun" it is to give him oral antibiotics :)

Random

Eli is doing really well. He has been happy and eating very well lately. I really think the tubes in his ears helped relieve some pressure. We really enjoy his random out burst of belly laughing and giggles. It is quite funny. Kaden on the other hand does not enjoy them so much when he is trying to sleep. On our last car trip Kaden was falling asleep and Eli kept laughing. Kaden would get mad look over at Eli and then start crying. Both funny and frustrating at the same time. It's not like Eli can understand when we say "shhhh your brother is trying to sleep" however, we found ourselves saying it over and over. Kaden has found a new love of being creative. He no longer enjoys toys for their original designed purpose. Instead he tips over his push toy and spins the wheels and enjoys the underside of it. He no longer likes lamps and just wants to pull the cords out and then lays on the floor and swings the cord around. He no longer thinks a dog crate should house a dog, instead it is fun for little boys to climb in and around. And, as pictured below, he thinks a walker should be crawled under and pulled around.

And, for more random information, have you noticed that both presidential candidates are left handed and are not very good listeners? I don't think they ever directly answered a single question during hte third debate. And, I think they are copy cats. They keep repeating the same phrase the person just said, "Well, Senator . . . . voted against . . . . that I voted for!" and lots of "I want to give the American people . . . ! How about asking the American people what they are going to do to make this country a better/safer place, contribute to society and help the economy. Apparently, it is the sole responsibility of the president to do it while shoveling other peoples' money into the lazy American's pocket. Reaping what you sow is NOT this government's philosophy any more! Sit back and others will sow it for you! Did you catch what Obama said at the very end? "I will expand the middle class" Expand...how exactly do you do that? Oh, wait, part of it must be that 45% of "Working Americans" he will give a tax refund to that don't pay any taxes anyways.

Here is an email I got the other day, I like how it was put:

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7.

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.'Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).

The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'

'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!'

'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'

'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill.

And that, boys and girls, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier

Birthday

Yesterday was my Birthday. Some friends had us over for lunch and we had a great time. After lunch, the Slip N Slide came out for the kids.....well it was supposed to be for the kids, but some very big kids also joined in on the fun. :) Kaden started out in the kiddie pool, but the Slip N Slide just looked like too much fun. He had a great time and it made for a great day.

Carson and Lilly allowed Kaden to join in on their fun.

Lilly was great at watching Kaden and making sure he didn't get into trouble

Here is what I mean by BIG KIDS (Carson's Dad) :) No fear, Kaden is tough and never cried! He loved every minute of it.