A couple of medical emergencies................

Well I am happy to report that after a very eventful 48 hrs the entire Stites family is home safe and sound in good health. The last 2 days have contained some very stressful moments as our little Addi Grace took a spill off the couch that landed her is some respiratory distress with a mysterious bump on her chest. Poor Mark was home with all the kids early Tues evening while I was stuck at work. While he was trying to prepare the dinner I had set out that morning the kids were playing in the living room on the couch as they always do. Suddenly there was a crash followed by screaming and a very nervous dad. Unable to reach me for backup Mark felt strongly enough about the situation to call 911 and thus started the chain of events that would culminate with a trip to the ER for a chest xray. Long story shortened the Piedmont police and fire dept were on the scene is what Mark said felt like seconds. They proceeded to bring in lots of equipment and went to work on Addi who was still very upset at this point. This is about the time I realized Mark had been trying to call me as my cell phone was vibrating in the floorboard of my car. Expecting nothing out of the ordinary I called home to let them know I was on my way, only to hear "Addi fell off the couch, wasn't breathing right, and I called 911, so get here!!" As a mother who is a good 10-12 min away these are traumatizing words. Fortunately I could hear Addi screaming in the background so I knew she was at least breathing at that moment. Upon my arrival about 6-7 min later she was still sobbing but seemed more scared of all the people and activity. I beat the ambulance to the house and by the time EMSA arrived she was peaceful and content in my arms, making her poor daddy feel terrible. No if you've ever been around a 2 yr old with two older brothers you know how much of a daredevil and carouser that kind of a kid can be so it is safe to say that Addi falls at least 20 times a day with no repercussions. Having said that, I don't know what protuberance Mark saw on Addi's chest but I can only imagine how frightening it must have been to get him to call 911.

Well after everyone was gone and the neighbors had returned their lawn chairs to the garage and gone in for dinner, we felt like Addi's chest 'bump' was continuing to grow, so after a phone call to my trusted doctor, we took her to the ER for a chest xray to rule out any real problems. After what I am sure will be a few thousand dollars and a long wait, we were relieved to hear that she was perfectly normal, or at least her chest xray was!! So we made it home around midnight and Addi proceeded to promtly wake her daddy up to play with her. We knew she was fine, attitude and all.........

And then came Wed...................
Now the 1st incident happened right around 6:15 Tues evening and oddly enough our drama started all over again Wed evening at approximately 6:15. After a very pleasant meal at church Addi was playing in the church gym with her brothers and several of the church kiddos. She was running and having the time of her life being big. Mark and I had been watching her closely as some of the kids who kept coming in and out of the play area were significantly larger than Addi and we were concerned she might get hurt. Well we were rightly concerned b/c out of seemingly nowhere came a group of older boys playing football and running full-speed toward Addi with their eyes in the air to catch the ball rather than looking where they were going. You guessed it, the pummeled Addi head-on and she went flying backwards and landed flat on her back the the back of her head hitting hard on the concrete gym floor. Once again, long story short, withing minutes I knew she wasn't right as she was excessively sleep and then began vomiting, all symptoms of a closed head injury. So much to my dismay and anxiety we jumped in the van and headed for the ER. This time we got right in and the doctor was waiting for us. They just watched her for about 30 min and decided that she wasn't getting better so we needed a cat scan. Now Addi was very much out of it until we tried to put her in the scanner, so we ended up getting an IV and some sedation medicine to get a good study. The news was good that the scan was normal but we ended up spending th night on the pediatric floor for neurologic observation. Addi remained out of it with intermittent vomiting, irritability, etc, until between 4-6am this morning. We had been waking her every 2 hrs to check on her and when we woke her at 6:00 she was back to her old self, what a relief!! So we got home around 11:00 this morning and she hasn't stopped since. I am completely spent but glad to be home with my healthy baby girl. So please pray for us around 6:15 tonight!!!

April showers bring May flowers...............

My oldest son reminded me of this today as we were running in the pouring rain as I picked him up from after school. I really haven't minded the rain except for the challenges it adds to our everyday routine. I know we need the moisture but it's starting to get a little scary as it started raining in Piedmont about 11:30 this morning and unless I've missed it, it has not ever stopped completely. It's either been pouring or a very steady downfall. It sure has made me sleepy but unfortunately I've had too much to do to rest. Things cont to be busy and hectic around here b/w work, school, and extracurricular goodies. We've had a few add-ins such as some minor oral surgery I underwent last evening. I had a damaged salivary gland in my lower lip from where I accidentally bit my lip. Unfortunately the gland became clogged and I was informed by my oral surgery friends that it would not go away on it's own. So after work yesterday my sweet and caring doctor friends removed it for me. It went great but boy oh boy is it tender and sore today. I haven't really been able to eat and talking is painful which is really painful for me as I love to talk. Hopefully a few days from now I'll be all fixed up. I am glad to have it out as it was making me crazy but my mouth is still really swollen so right now it's like I traded on problem for another. Mark has been working late trying to get his employees trained on their new computer system. The kids are status quo just counting down the days to summer vacation.
Last week we had parent-teacher conferences and both boys are doing well in school. Although I don't want to wish their lives away I am looking forward to having Garrett in all day school next fall which will make scheduling and daycare much easier for me. Addi and I will have some fun mother-daughter time while the bubbas are at school. I do worry though as Addi already misses her bubbas while they are at school and she loves it when Garrett comes home at 11:00 even though he's only been gone 3 hrs. Today due to the rain our satellite wasn't working and the boys couldn't watch the tv show they wanted so the 4 of us had some quality art time together at the table. How nice it is to be home once in a while.
Despite Mark's ongoing efforts he still hasn't been able to get my camera to download so I am still unable to post pics but rest assured we are cont to work on it. I of course want a new camera as I'm tired of waiting but that's just not in the budget this month. So until then you'll just have to hear it as best as I can describe it.