Havin' Fun at the Beach

One of the first things we did when they got here was go down to the Edmonds beach and play in the water. It was cold, but it didn't stop us from getting our feet wet.

No trip to the beach is complete without digging in the sand.

or trying on Momma's beach shoes.

And here are all four of us cousins taking in the wildlife at low tide.

My Cousins are in Town

We had a blast, me and my cousins. They live a long way away and I don't get to see them very often, but we sure had fun the few short days they were here.

Even Logan had fun dressing up as a prince in the Disney clothes from the dress up trunk they gave to me for an early birthday gift.

Hugs all around on the last evening before they had to say goodbye. This is me and Aedreena.

And me and Giaseena.

We even visited the Mall and of course it's raining. It IS March, ya know.

Saying goodbye as they head out on the last leg of their two week vacation. Sure was good to see everyone.

Portland Trip

Chillin' in our hotel room the night we got to Portland.

We got visit with our good friend Rod. He was Daddy's best man at Mommy and Daddy's wedding. He lives in Portland with his wife Mineca. She is studying to be a physical therapist, and was on an internship while we were there so we didn't get to see her.

The weather was really nice, which in March is kinda rare for the Pacific Northwest, but we've been lucky this year with some spring sunshine. You can barely see it in the picture, but behind us is Mount Hood.

Here I am in the sand again. This girl was nice and let me help her build a sand castle. We were waiting to meet up with some friends of ours that traveled to Portland from Boulder, CO. We met them at this huge park that had a big sandpit. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of my two new friends and their mommy and daddy, but we sure had fun chasing each other around and terrorizing a pet turtle.

Maggie and Me.

Maggie is one of Rod and Mineca's doggies. Maggie is part Jack Russell Terrier and is full of energy just like me. She and I took turns walking each other. Mommy, can I have a dog? Daddy says it's okay...

Happy to be Going Home

I stayed in the Giraffe wing of Children's Hospital. That is the surgical wing because they weren't sure if they would have to do surgery on my shoulder or not. Luckily, NOT. After 5 nights in the hospital, we finally got to go home! Instead of being wheeled out in a wheelchair like big people, I got to ride in a little red wagon, cushioned by my new fuzzy blanket that I got from the nice nursing staff. On our way out, we saw a giant giraffe in the hallway. It was pretty neat, but I was just happy to be going home.

On Furlough

Family picture at Home-Sweet-Home during our 6-hour furlough from the hospital.

So, on the fourth full day in the hospital, the doctors were finally able to get my infection markers stabilized enough to take me off of the high levels of continuous intravenous antibiotics. They felt I was in good enough shape to switch over to oral medication (taken every six hours and they stressed that it was every six hours... NOT four times a day, but every six hours on the dot) and they let us leave the hospital for a 6-hour furlough. We had to be back in time for them to give me my next dose of yummy tasting medicine.

It was really nice outside today. On our way home to shower and pick up clean clothes (just in case we had to stay at the hospital a few more days), we stopped at Magnuson Park to enjoy the sun. If you look really closely at my left arm, you will see the bright red sock covering the pick line that is still in my hand. Of course there was a huge pile of gravel near the play ground and this is where I chose to spend my time playing with the boys and the Tonka trucks. My shoulder still hurts a little, so daddy didn't get very far from me just in case I lost my balance. Whew! Sure was nice to get out of that room for a few hours!

Viral Sternal Osteomyelitis, what's that!?

Well, here I am in my hospital bed. Just a little behind on my blogs, but I hope to be able to catch up now that I am isolated to my little room. So after a couple of days in the hospital, they finally know what is wrong with my shoulder. I have Viral Sternal Osteomyelitis. What is that you ask? It's an infection in my clavicle bone and in the tiny little joint where it connects to my sternum. And how did I get it? Don't know. I've seen several doctors and the best explanation as of yet: BAD LUCK.

It all started Tuesday morning when I woke up. Mommy picked me up out of bed and I started to cry because my left shoulder was hurting. Maybe I slept on it wrong... So I went to school and I cried all day. Finally I convinced Miss Bobby to call Mommy and let her know. Daddy picked me up and we went straight to the doctor's office. They sent us off for some x-rays to make sure nothing was broken. Mommy met us at the Doctor's office and just as they were about to send us home, mommy asked them to take my temperature. It had spiked up to 101.7 so my doctor sent us off to the emergency room at Children's Hospital. By this time it was 7:30 pm, way past dinner time and just into my bedtime. The waiting room was packed. We didn't get to go back into an examining room until three hours later. I was sent for more x-rays, an ultrasound, and vitals galore. They poked me to draw blood and inserted an IV for fluids. Hungry and thirsty, they wouldn't let me eat anything just in case they found they would have to sedate me for some sort of procedure. My blood tests came back and my white blood count was fine, but something they call CRP was way above normal and this told them that I had some sort of infection. Now they just had to figure out what was causing it. I got to lay on a stretcher and Mommy and Daddy took turns sleeping with me.

Finally around 3:00 am, I was checked into the hospital and moved from room to room until they found us one that had a pull-out bed for mommy and daddy to sleep on. I think in total, we occupied 5 different rooms. This last one is comfortable. There is room to move around. We have a private bathroom with a shower and a window so we can tell if it is 10:00 pm or 10:00 am.

Since none of the other tests revealed anything wrong with my shoulder, I was scheduled for an MRI. I was allowed to eat breakfast Wednesday morning and then at 5:00 that evening I went in for the exam. Because I am little and squirmy, they gave me something to help me sleep through it. It knocked me out right away. They said I would be back with mommy and daddy in about an hour, but I was so sleepy that I wanted to sleep longer. They let me wake up on my own and I was back with mommy and daddy soon after I opened my eyes.

It didn't take long for them to see the preliminary signs of an infection on my clavicle. They started me on IV antibiotics at midnight and they are testing oral antibiotics too. If the orals seem to be doing their job, then I can go home sooner rather than later. If not, I might have to stay in the hospital for a while longer.

To top it all off, Daddy and I are sharing nasty coughs and I have a runny nose. During my exam this morning, they detected yet another ear infection in one ear and I might have caught pink eye from Daddy, who probably contracted it here in the hospital. He woke up this morning with the classic signs of pink eye. I should know... I had it just a few weeks ago myself. Luckily the extraordinary amounts of antibiotics I am on for my shoulder should knock all of these other infections out. Turns out, the sniffles and coughs that we came in with work to our advantage. We have been ''isolated" in order to keep from spreading our germs. This also means that we don't have to share a room with anyone else and the nurses bring us almost anything we want.