Callie

Isn't she the cutest thing you have ever seen? I sure think so! This photo was taken pretty early in the morning on Tuesday. Monday we took Callie to the doctor for some really bad looking places on her bottom. They were very painful and looked really bad. The pediatrician said he would rather not try and do anything and that we should take her to Children's Hospital. Our first thought was that they would slightly sedate her and lance these spots. Well they thought it would be in her best interest to keep her overnight and take her to surgery on Tuesday morning. Needless to say the E.R visit was pretty traumatic. There were lots of doctors and nurses wanting to look at her bottom and Callie didn't like that idea too much at all. Also, Callie said there was a purple lady that was really mean but everybody else was nice. The "purple lady" was actually a very sweet nurse with purple scrubs on - she was the lucky one that got to start both of Callie's I.V. The first one only worked for about an hour or two and then the vein blew so they had to start another one.

Once we got into a room she calmed down drastically. She ended up having a male nurse which at first I thought would not be a good thing. I really thought she would have responded better to a female. I guess the purple lady traumatized her so much that Mr. Brian was looking pretty good to her. He was super sweet to her and made her feel very comfortable. Callie was being typical Callie after just a few minutes. When Mr. Brian asked if she needed anything, she really took that to heart. She started bossing him around from the very start. She needed movies and snacks and juice and if he was not quick enough she let him know...in a nice way...sorta.

Neither one of us slept very good on Monday night so around 3:30 or 4 we were both wide away watching t.v. and asking Mr. Brian for juice and sprite. We finally drifted back off to sleep around 5:30 and then all of the commotion started around 6 so it was really pointless. Finally around 7:00 we got up and started walking the halls. I did find one way that Callie is like her Daddy - she loved talking to the nurses at the desk. We had to walk up and down the halls several times so she could talk to them and try to scare Mr. Brian.

Finally around 9:30 or so they came and got her for surgery. She did very well during surgery but does not wake up happy at all from anesthesia. She has done pretty good since we have been home. The RX they have her on has been a challenge getting her to take. It is the capsules that you are supposed to break and put on food. The only thing we have found so far that she can tolerate to mix it with is chocolate syrup (thank you Aunt Joy!). Other than that she is doing good. I am seeing constant improvement.

Please continue to keep us all in your prayers. Johnny goes tomorrow for his pre-op testing - MRI and bloodwork. Monday is the big day. We are both starting to get nervous and scared. We are trying to keep remembering that God is in control and he is going to get us through this.

Our Day

Well first of all I want to say that Callie has not been back to school since Monday so I do not have an answer from Ms. Jen as to what they watched for my 3 year old to be saying "Little Betty Butt Kiss". She will go back one day next week (probably Monday) so maybe I will find out then.

Today turned out to be an eventful day. Around 1:30 this morning I finally finished the quilt I had been working on. Well, I say finished but really I still have to do one more thing but nothing major. It turned out to be more of a pain than I had ever imagined. I did really well at sewing the quilt top but then assembling the top, bottom, and batting proved to be difficult. I pinned and sewed and ripped things back out probably 15 times. Finally, I think I was so frustrated that I just didn't care. Now this quilt is by no means perfect but it is cute and it is special. The top is made of 3 different receiving blankets I used with Callie. Also, it is special because well, by George I made it and that in its self makes it special!

When I finally peeled myself out of the bed this morning around 9:00 we got dressed and headed to the Bessemer/McCalla area for the day. We had lunch @ Cracker Barrell with Aunt Ginny, Pepaw, & Nanny. It was very nice to be able to see everyone on a weekday and not have to try and cram it into a Saturday.

Next, Virginia, the girls, and I went to Ross. I LOVE that store! I had a friend tell me today that she really didn't like it in there because there was too much going on. I think I like it so much because it is the whole thrill of the hunt theory. Ross is really hit or miss. Today was a total Hit! The best part of the Ross experience is looking at the price tag. You see the price you are about to pay for the item and then you see the original price of the item. For instance, today I got a really cute green dress. The original price was 39.99 and the price I paid was 16.00! How cool is that?? Oh and by the way when I first put on the dress I felt like a celery stalk. Not really sure why except for the color of green but the dress really is cute. I also found the perfect graduation gift for my cousin for only 3.99. Now you may say that I am cheap but please remember I am currently jobless and besides it really was perfect so who cares!

Of course since we were with Aunt Ginny we all got prizes. Bailey's prize was a little paper/pen/calculator set from Ross with peace signs on it. Her favorite part was the calculator. She said it was the perfect size to go in her purse and she had never had one of those before. The entire way home this afternoon we played with her new calculator. She was completely amazed by her new gadget. "Mom calculators are so smart. Its like they have a brain or something. They can't talk but they sure are smart. You know what? I bet they even know what 100 + 100 is!!!" That was exactly what she said to me. I had to write it down because it was just so funny. (no Mother, I was not driving when I wrote it down!) I didn't laugh at her because she was so serious but these are truly my favorite Bailey moments.

I think I am ready for bed. The girls and I may head out to the pool for a few hours then Mom and I are going to my church tomorrow night for Paint & Praise. I will get to add another piece of art to my collection. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Little Betty Butt Kiss

It has been a while since I posted anything. I really don't have any earth shattering news but just thought I would let you know what we have been up to.

For the first order of business, I did find out Friday afternoon that Johnny's surgery time has been changed. The surgery will still be on Monday July 26 but will now be @ 7:00 a.m. instead of 12:00 p.m. We are pretty glad about that. Now there won't be quite as much time for Johnny to sit around and wait and not be able to eat or drink. (mostly drink since I am sure he won't feel like eating anyway) So, now Friday 7/23 @ 9:30 Johnny will have to be at the surgeon's office to have markers glued to his head and then have an MRI. After the MRI he will have normal pre-op blood work.

I told you last week that he had another CT scan on Thursday. We have still not heard anything about this so I am assuming no news is good news. Monday Bailey and I drove all over Birmingham hospital hopping. We went to St. Vincents to pick up the original MRI and CT films and then took them to Trinity to be compared to the most recent CT.

Lately, we have actually done things that had nothing to do with doctors or hospitals. Saturday afternoon I decided that I wanted to sew something. I have been making crayon rolls but I really didn't want to make another one of those. I decided I wanted to make a quilt. I went down to our storage building and found three different receiving blankets that I used with Callie. I cut them up into squares and then sewed them all together. I have not quite finished this project but that is what I plan on doing tomorrow. So far it has turned out pretty good and it has also been pretty fun.

Sunday we were very busy. The day did not end any way that I thought it would. We got up and went to church. After church we went to Jeff & Brandy's for lunch. We left their house around 2:00 and then came home to do what we do best on Sunday afternoons...took a nap! Around 3:00 Bailey come running into our room and says that Nana and Paw Paw are here. I knew nothing about them coming over. They generally do not show up unannounced but they did then! So needless to say I was just a touch aggravated. Well, I was aggravated until he told me he was here to pressure wash the house. After a while I asked him how hard it would be to take the shutters down to paint - Little did I know it was just a matter of 2 screws each! So he took them all down while I went to Walmart and bought paint. We have lived in this house 4 years now with faded green shutters, so now - those faded green shutters are brown. I still have to put another coat of paint on them and we are trying to decide what color to paint the door.

Now, I am sure you are all trying to figure out why in the world I would put a title on this blog of Little Betty Butt Kiss. Well Monday Callie went to daycare for the day while Bailey & I did our errands. When Callie got in the car she was cracking herself up saying this. When I asked her where this came from she said they had watched a movie at school and it said this. So, me being the nosy person I am, sent her teacher a message on facebook asking what in the world my 3 year old was watching at school today. Now I must also add that I was not at all upset about this, I really thought it was kinda funny. Ms. Jen was not really sure what Callie could have been talking about since all they had watched in her class that morning was Bob the Builder but she was going to find out and let me know.

Today I am pooped. We got up this morning and made it to Trussville movie theater by 10 a.m. to watch a movie. I had been told that at this theater you could watch Toy Story for free at 10 on Tuesdays. Once we raced to get there I found out that this was not entirely true. In my mind when I was given this information I automatically thought they were talking about Toy Story 3...not so much. Two weeks ago they played one of the old Toy Story movies. Today we could choose from Rugrats the Movie or Back at the Barnyard. We chose Rugrats because I knew they had seen the Barnyard movie before. Bad choice. That had to be one of the dumbest movies every. I am not saying this because I just didn't like it...no sir...the girls didn't really like it either. We ended up leaving after it had been on about 40 minutes. We left there and I decided to take them to the splash pad in Gardendale. We went and stayed there for about 45 mins. or so and then went to Chick-fil-A for lunch and then the thrift store. (I am not sure if I have ever blogged about the thrift store or not but I am sure its coming again even if I have)

Lastly, tonight we had our niece and nephew for a few hours. I was once again reminded why we decided it was a good idea for Johnny to have a little procedure about 3 years ago. All of the kids were pretty good they just all have their ideas of how things should go and the others don't always agree. I cooked dinner and then we made chocolate chip cookies so I managed to stay busy most of the evening.

The house is now quiet so I think I am going to go to bed.

Dr. appt update

Johnny went today to the new neurologist - Dr. James Strong @ Trinity. We really did like the new doctor. He seemed very thorough and listened to everything we had to say. One of the best things was that we could actually understand everything he was saying. The previous neuro had some type of middle eastern accent.

Johnny had been having some problems with his medicine so he adjusted that today and then sent him for some blood work and a CT scan. The CT was to check and see if the "spot" is doing anything any different. If the spot happen to be getting larger then surgery would need to be moved up. We will not hear anything from that until probably Monday unless it is something urgent which we do not think it will be. Also, I really don't know what the blood work was for - they didn't say but, once again, if it is bad I am sure they will let us know.

So...as for right now everything is still the same. Johnny will start working 8 hour days tomorrow and will do this until surgery. I think we will all be excited about this because it will be a glimpse of normal.

The girls stayed with Brandy today during his appointment so after we got back we took all of the kids swimming for the afternoon. So - needless to say I am pooped! So, unless something interesting happens between now and the time we get CT results you won't hear from me until then! Have a great weekend everybody!!!

Weekend in Review and now the weekdays

Well - it has been a couple of days since my last post so I thought I would give everyone an update of what we have been up to. My last post was on Friday. After my post Mom and Dad were so nice to take the girls and let them spend the night to give Johnny and I a much needed break. We really didn't do anything exciting but it was nice. Habaneros and a movie at home.



Saturday was the annual July 4th Cox Family Extravaganza. 41 people attended this event - all but maybe 5 or 6 were family members. This even is one of 2 per year that the entire Cox family has. The other one is Christmas. We have these gatherings @ Johnny's Aunt Donna's house. She really has the perfect place. For the Summer event she has a very nice pool so everyone can stay cool and entertained. Also, for both of these events they have made their garage very nice to use. They keep it very clean and have heat and air. There is plenty of room for the kids to run wild!

Sunday we decided to lay low. Johnny wasn't really feeling well so we didn't go to church. Later that evening we went to his parents house and ate left over BBQ. My mother-in-law had her sewing machine out so I decided to make crayon rolls. I made 2 different ones and and ended up giving them to my niece and nephew. Oh - just in case you didn't know - Walmart now has their school supplies on sale - Crayola Crayons are .30 per box.

Monday - I took the girls swimming for a couple of hours while Johnny went with his dad for a much needed fishing break. They just went down to the river but had a good time. Later that afternoon we loaded up and went to mom and dads for dinner. We had boston butt (which Callie loves to say), grilled chicken, corn, baked beans, creamed potatoes, and something else but I forgot. OHHH home-made ice cream! Yummy! The girls spent the night since I needed to have Johnny @ a doctor appt on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday (today) - Johnny had his 1st neuro-psych test today. He had to be there @ 9:00am and did not finish until 5pm. The first hour I was in there with him and we just discussed everything that had been going on. After that I left while he stayed and took lots of tests. These were to test his short-term memory, problem solving, and overall brain functions. From the sounds of it he did pretty good. I know from what he told me that I would have failed miserably! While he was testing I did some running around. I had lunch with a friend and went by my old office to pick up some things that I had left behind. I went to Lifeway, Target, and Oak Hill for lunch.

Well so no earth shattering news to give, just thought everyone would like to know what has been going on and that we are surviving. Tomorrow, Callie is going to daycare and I am going to take Johnny back downtown to complete paperwork so that he can return to work on 8 hr days starting this Friday. Thursday, he has a neurologist appt. We have decided to change his neurologist to a doctor that was recommended by they psych dr. today. This new guy from what she says truly has the patient's best interest in mind when diagnosing and putting together a treatment plan. We were told that this doctor is currently treating on of her other patients with basically this same problems has Johnny - this patient is also a firefighter. The new dr. really tries to do what is best for the patient medically and also takes into account your job and what it takes to do your job.

Anyway, I will update again sometime Thursday after the next appt.

I know nothing

UPDATE:

Well this morning I knew nothing - now I know something! Surgery is now scheduled for July 26 @ 12:00 p.m. This is a Monday. The Friday before he will have blood work and a MRI.

Oh yeah I almost forgot, the dog died. Bailey went out to feed her this morning and said that Fiona was sleeping late today because she didn't even wake up to eat and she didn't want to wake up yesterday either. There was our first clue. I had one child crying that she missed Fiona (even though she never even looked at the dog) and the other child cracking jokes! So, Fiona is now in doggie heaven running through green pastures chasing rabbits and eating steak everyday. Johnny dug her grave today and has burried her. Callie wanted to wear a dress to Gran's house today so Bailey said that was for the funeral. Bailey was convinced that we wanted them to go to Gran & Grandaddy's house today so they wouldn't have to think about Fiona. Whatever makes her happy!


ORIGINAL POST:
Hi everybody. It has now been 10 days (including weekends) since we sat in the surgeon's office and tried to schedule surgery for Johnny. At that time we were told they would call us the next day with a date. Well as you can see that has NOT happened. I have called literally every day - sometime twice a day asking about a surgery day and EVERY day I am told that she (the surgery scheduler) is hounding the doctor for him to look at his schedule and see where Johnny would fit in and he has not done that. So...I know nothing. But when I do...I will let you know.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch we are just hanging out. I have made lots of calls this week trying to find a job. I have worked on my resume trying to get it just perfect. I don't want to sound too smart but I also don't want to sound like I am full of crap! But...I do want to sound like I am a hot item to be had and they better hurry up and hire me before somebody else snatches me up! I am in the final review stages so hopefully next week I can email it to as many people as possible.