ER with Oakley

On November 30th Oakley woke me up at about 6:30 am with extreme pain in her stomach. We knew it was related to her period and knew that this same thing happened once a year ago last summer. After it happened last time someone told us they thought it was an ovarian cyst so we decided this time to go get it checked out. I decided to take her straight to the ER so they could do an ultrasound right there without having to send us somewhere else for one. When we first got there they gave her some pretty heavy narcotics for the pain. For some reason they put her into a laughing fit (picture #2) she was laughing til she was crying. Poor girl. They then took her in for an ultrasound where they did find a cyst. They said your ovary is about 2 cm, the size of an almond. Oakley's cyst was 6+cm, the size of a golfball. No wonder she was in pain! They told us what to do to help her be comfortable until it ruptured. We were so glad to know what was going on and how to help her. So crazy! 

The blue circle is her normal ovary, the red circle is the cyst. HUGE difference!

Best Day of Rhett's Life!

When Rhett was young he always wanted to be a pilot so he could "fly over volcano's mom!" hahaha. My sweet little niece Sophia wanted to go on a plane ride for her birthday, and my sister-in-law Diane, knowing Rhett's love for flying asked him if he'd like to take the empty seat on the plane. He was SO EXCITED!! My cousin Sabra's husband Travis is the one who took them on a ride and Travis is seriously the friendliest, funniest guy so it made it even better for Rhett. They met Travis in St. Anthony at the airport and about 30 mins after they got their I got a text from Diane telling me to go outside because they were going to do a fly over and Rhett WAS FLYING THE PLANE! Oh my heck!!! IT WAS AWESOME! Travis had him fly right over our house, circle back and fly over again. They girls and I went out and waved and recorded it. Rhett really did have the best day thanks to sweet Sophia for inviting him and Travis for making it awesome! 

 

Thanksgiving 2020

Thanksgiving was a little tricky with covid this year....just like everything else has been tricky this year. Throw cancer into the mix and it makes it even more complicated. We REALLY wanted to be together with mom though so we took precautions and tried our best to keep her safe. My family and all my brothers families, plus my niece Camille's little family were all able to be together here with mom and dad. We had everyone keep their distance and mom and dad wore their masks faithfully except for the few minutes I had them take it off for the picture. We made the kids hold their breath for the picture too so no one was breathing on her. Hahaha. She debated back and forth as to whether or not to hold the baby, but in the end she just couldn't resist and held baby Matthew (Camille's 1st) for just a few mins. It was so good to be together. We don't take gathering together for granted anymore after this crazy year of covid and mom's cancer. We enjoy every minute of our gatherings. 

 

Mom is weak now, so even something like going up and down the stair wears her out. I love this picture of Shane helping his sweet mama down the stairs. Cancer sucks! But it has given us all a new out look on life and helped us to appreciate the little things. 

Preg Check

Staying warm in my car while we wait to preg check the heifers. I sure love these two! 

 

Blast from the Past

Over Thanksgiving the Prophet, President Nelson asked us to do a 7 day give thanks challenge. One of the days I decided to give thanks for my siblings. Thomas Jefferson said, "I find as I grow older, I love those most, whom I loved first." He is so right! I don't know what I did in heaven that allowed Heavenly Father to send me to the home he sent me to, but I will be eternally grateful I got to grow up along side these kids. What an incredible blessing. 

 

Rhett & Raeg

I got the cutest text from Rhett's best friend Raegan's mom one evening with these pictures attached. She had been going through pictures for their son's upcoming wedding and found these little treasures. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that Rhett and Raeg were best friends all the way through elementary. They continue to be great friends all these years later in high school. They were each others comfort zone and relied on each other to get through all the challenges and adventures school threw at them. So fun to remember them as these little tinies. 

 

Poor Mono Girl

 On Sunday, November 15th, Laiklie woke up with a fever. She had complained the day before about a sore throat so I thought maybe we had strep. It didn't look like strep to me, but I decided we better get it checked anyway. So right after sacrament meeting I left and ran her to Urgent Care. The doctor agreed that it didn't look like strep and suggested a mono test. I hadn't even thought about mono. After they did the blood work to test for mono Laiklie tells me that every morning at school her and her friends share a pop. ugh! The test came back positive and he sent us home with an oral steroid. He told us to watch for strep on top of it because that sometimes happens. 

By Wednesday Laiklie was getting worse, not better so I ran her into our regular doctor to check for strep. That test was negative, thank goodness, but he could see the mono was bad, bad so he decided to do a steroid treatment through IV. They decided after the first IV treatment to leave the port in her arm and have her come back in the morning to possibly do a 2nd round. The next morning we headed back in and they were hoping for a major change, but actually saw no improvement what so ever. The fever had even spiked again. :( They ended up doing the 2nd round and leaving the port in AGAIN to have us come back the next day for a 3rd round. Friday morning (the last day of finals for the trimester of course!) we headed back in. This time they could see some improvement but went ahead and did the 3rd round of steroids'. It took FOREVER because the port had been in her arm for 3 days by now and didn't take the fluid very quickly. She missed her last final for the tri, but we were able to figure it out with the teacher. We were just glad to see some improvement. They finally took the port out and sent her home on another oral steroid to continue fighting it. After a very long week she was finally feeling better.

This picture of her throat was taken the very first day right after we found out she had mono. That was the best her throat looked. It got so swollen and tight that she couldn't even swallow her own spit and would have to carry around a garbage can to spit in. She couldn't eat anything either. One blessing with the IV is that each morning they would give her some pain meds along with the steroids and as soon as they would kick in she'd eat as much as she could while it didn't hurt. It was such a blessing that she was able to eat some each day without pain for just a little while. 

Laiklie was a trooper. She is so tough and even through she was slightly dehydrated and her veins were not cooperative she didn't even flinch getting the IV. I'm so glad to have her feeling better!