Anywho, in the mean time, right after the party, I had a big WHEW! moment where I felt my body kind of start coming down off of the adrenaline high I had been running on for the last half of a week and I knew I was in trouble. I had trouble sleeping the couple of nights before the party because I was mulling over all of it in my mind. Yeah. That tendency needs to depart this here person. God is in progress on that and it may not happen in a way that makes me feel good during the process, but the outcome is absolutely desired, so...Please put the pressure on Lord!!! Ok, so I knew I was going to have some issues because I always do when I have prolonged adrenaline/stress/anxiety. My back had started to hurt a little that Saturday and then a bit on Sunday, but I thought I had possibly pulled a muscle and didn't give it more thought than that. Well, I wasn't able to rest like I had planned because Brea didn't feel good and I had to get the house back into some semblance of order. Like I've said before, if I concentrate on getting a particular thing done like cleaning the house, prepping for a party, any sort of craft thing, etc., something else always has to give.
Well, we were running out of snacks and stuff that I usually make from scratch, so I had to play catch up on that. Plus, my dad was flying in on Tuesday, staying the night and then flying out the next day on Wednesday. After that, my mom was scheduled to come in on Friday and stay until Sunday. So, my week was already looking pretty crazy.
My dad was supposed to get in at noon on Tuesday, so I packed all the kids up and took us all to the airport to pick him up. We sat there and waited for about 30 minutes and then I heard something about weather issues in Dallas and thought he might have gotten grounded there, so we headed back home. After several hours of waiting and texting and calling back and forth, it ended up that Dad would not be getting a flight out that day because of the tornados and all the planes had sustained hail damage and would need to be inspected before they were cleared for flight. He would have to wait until the morning. Okay. Then around 5 ish pm, I think, Dad says he's getting a ride with a lady going to Copperas Cove. Okay. I told him he was looking at about a 3 hr ride, so I was expecting him around 9 ish. Well, at around 8 ish, I call and they are stopping in Waco to stretch their legs. No prob, totally understand that. At a little after nine, I find that they are still in Waco because they stopped to eat. (It is about 45 mins - 1 hr away depending on route and traffic.)
Now, I'm going to tell on myself here. I was getting a wee bit agitated. I was tired. Really tired and super sleepy. I was grateful that someone had compassion on my dad and had given him a ride, but my dad has a tendency to not communicate well at all and so my agitation wasn't with the people he was riding with so much as my dad not keeping me apprised of the situation, plus other factors I won't go into. Trust me, I could write a book about that subject, but I'm totally not going there. :)
Anyway, it ended up that they dropped him off where I met them down the road a bit at 11:15 pm. Tiiiiiiired! So we came back to the house and basically it was a straight shot to bed for me....except, that I couldn't go to sleep. My back started hurting pretty bad and I couldn't find a comfortable position. Sam woke up around 4:30 and I was still awake and he prayed over me. I think I must have slept for a few hours until a little after 8. I got up and I was hurting even more by then. :( At that point, I thought I was dealing with a kidney stone and was waiting for it to pass.
It never did and a bit before noon, I decided a doctor visit was needed. I was able to get an appointment for 1:45 and Sam came home to hang with the kids and Dad was to take me to the doctor. I was in a huge amount of pain by then and couldn't hold back from crying. On a high note, the kids were loving their visit with their grandpa! I was really grateful for that. He was also such a distraction for them, that I was able to rest in bed that day without any sort of interruption by the older three! That's pretty amazing, I must say. :)
Sam sent out an SOS to our prayer warriors and off we went to the doctor and by then I could hardly walk. They got a wheel chair for me and wheeled me around. I was ushered in more quickly than I would have been, I think, because they were very concerned with the amount of distress I was in. I was so touched by everyone's compassion and gentleness!
I peed in a cup for the usual testing...I have to pause right here and follow a tangent. I know, shocking... The cup I was given had a handle attached to a ring that screwed onto the top of the cup. The package also contained the little wipies and had the lid that screws on for after the filling up. The handle was far enough away from the cup that there was no messy hand situation. Fantastic! In all the years I was in the Air Force and got "randomly" chosen to go pee in a cup for drug testing purposes and the peeing in a cup while preggers with Braden and then afterward with Zekey, never once did I get handed this fabulous cup with handle. I mean, if you have to go pee in a cup, it should at least have the handle to keep you from peeing on yourself! Potty training was supposed to encourage that whole idea and all...just saying.
Okay, so after the urine was tested, the PA said it could be a kidney stone or it could be a kidney infection. I hadn't even considered that because the last time I had a kidney infection, it started out as a UTI, worked its way into a bladder infection and then to my kidneys. I didn't experience any of that, but it made more sense the way it felt after she mentioned that possibility. Okay. At one point, she asked me if I had ever had Strep B. For any who do not know, you are usually tested for that near your due date or when you go into labor to make sure you don't pass it on to your baby in delivery. I was tested for it with Braden and Zekes because I had them in the hospital, but not with Ailey and Brea. As far as I was aware, I'd never had it. Right. So, she prescribed an antibiotic that was not in the penicillin family (the culture that was taken wasn't going to be ready until a few days later, so it was a guessing game at this point) as well as Tylenol 3 and then ordered a steroid shot for the pain. The shot did help a bit, but just kinda took the edge off. I also asked for a prescription for Flonase while I was at it. ;p Every little bit helps, right?! Anyway, there was a lovely mix up at the pharmacy. I called them to make sure they had received the prescriptions and to check on a time so that Sam could go and pick them up. First of all, it was going to take them 3 hours to fill them. Yeah. We aren't talking Walgreen's or the like. I won't say which pharmacy, but I will say this particular one needs a major system overhaul! I had instructed that the flonase not be filled just yet and to just fill the antibiotics and the tylenol. I was hoping it would speed things up a bit. So Sam goes and picks them up and gets back home and I open them up and find the tylenol and the flonase...no antibiotics. This particular pharmacy closes at 6 and it was 5:15. I was trying to keep a good attitude, but I knew that I wouldn't actually start healing until the antibiotics got in there and got a hold of the infection, so I was a wee bit in desperation mode. I called the pharmacy and asked if the prescription could be transferred to walgreen's or somewhere like that because I was thinking that if it took them 3 hrs to fill just those other two then it would more than likely take longer the the time left before they closed. Yeah. The lady on the phone told me that she could do that, but that the prescription could be filled in 15 mins. REALLY?! Does this make absolutely no sense to anyone else? They filled the prescription, Sam went and got it and I took it as soon as I got it out of the bag.
Time for another tangent. During all of this, I kept wondering how on earth I managed to get a kidney infection first and it not start out as a UTI. It didn't hurt to go to the bathroom at all, just my kidney was hurting.....still a head scratcher. Plus, I only drink water except for the occasional lemonade every two weeks or so when we go to Chic-fil-a. Hmmmmmm.....
Okay, all that occurred on Wednesday. Now, I did start feeling better after a couple of doses of the antibiotic, but not like I thought I should. Usually two doses and its waaaaaay better! Not so this time and I had to take more T3 than I thought I would. I was grateful for it the first day and part of the second, but I shouldn't have had to take it after that and I did. Thursday, I actually felt pretty good by the afternoon, but still really tired and I could still feel discomfort in my kidney. I just thought it was sore from being inflamed for such a long time.
Sam and the kids took my dad to the airport and I stayed home and rested. There is another story there, but I won't go there. :)
By Friday, I was still doing about the same as Thursday until a couple of hours after I woke up. I could now feel pain in my bladder and it was starting to burn when I went #1. I was thinking to myself that this didn't seem normal, so I gave the PA a little ringy ding and had to leave a message. I hadn't heard from her at 1-ish, so I called again because by this time the pain had come back in full force and if not for the T3, I would have been having a Wednesday all over again. It was still very painful even with the T3. I was told that she probably wouldn't be able to return my call until Monday. Well, I certainly didn't relish going through the weekend getting worse, so I planned to go to the urgent clinic the next day, but she did end up calling me and had gotten my messages and the results of the culture. Guess what grew. Strep B. Yeah. The irony was not lost upon me, I assure you. In addition to that, the antibiotics I was on wasn't the kind that kills Strep B. That would explain why it felt like it was spreading. So, she prescribed the antibiotic I needed and somehow in our conversation, I made a comment about THE pharmacy and she recommended we go with Walmart. So we did. She sent it in, they filled it in under 10 mins and I got a text about it and we went to go and pick it up. I think we'll stick with Walmart. :) Two doses later and I was a new person. Amazing, right? God is that way, though. :)
Okay, let's recap for just a moment before moving on....yep, there's more! First, we had crazy party mania, then Brea's fever, then my dad's visit, then my kidney infection, then my dad's departure.
Friday evening, my mom came in for a visit. Poor mom. :) She had already arranged to stay at a hotel, so it wasn't a big deal trying to get anything ready. She got in and I was feeling a little better and was able to hand out in the living room for a while. She left for the night and came back the next morning and she was sitting out on the front porch when a police woman came up to her and asked if I lived here. She said that she had received a phone call from my dad asking for someone to come and make sure I was alright. I was still trying to recoup in bed when she walked in to my room. Yeah. She explained that he had tried to call me, got my voicemail and then all of a sudden heard a very disturbing conversation between two men and a woman and not nice things happening. After the policewoman left, I checked my phone and he did call and he did get my voicemail. I listened to the message and heard him say hi and then he paused and then he hung up. Now, normal procedure by most people would have been to try and call the person back or perhaps text them to make sure that it wasn't a weird mix up, but my dad decided to call the police. yeah. Whatever. I called him and we had a difference of opinion on whether that was appropriate and I had to cut the call short and text him the rest of what I was trying to say. Let's just say that it took a full week for me to want to speak with him again and the Lord had lots to work on in my heart during that time. :)
Saturday went along after that and then that night the older kiddos were to go and stay with my mom at the hotel. They were super excited. (Afterwards, Zekey got it into his head that my mom had moved to the hotel ;) Braden started saying that his throat was a little sore, but I didn't think too much about it because we all had drainage and I thought it was allergy related. Mom ended up having to give him motrin during the night and his throat was worse the next morning. :( She brought them all back to the house and by then, I was pretty sure we were dealing with strep throat....again.
I called for an urgent care appointment and we got one and headed on over to the clinic. Sure enough, that's exactly what he had. The time before that a few weeks ago, I had him get the shot. He was absolutely adamant that he did NOT want the shot! We got the liquid, but because it was a Sunday and Easter Sunday at that, only CVS was open and they were extremely busy. I had intended to use the Walmart pharmacy, but it was actually closed. Craziness! I got Braden a shake at Whataburger to help soothe his throat while we waited. We got his meds and then headed home. My mom had stayed with the kids so that Sam could go to church. It was a good break for him. ;p
Mom left that afternoon for her house. Braden was feeling a bit better by that evening and then much better by the next day. Yay!
We were good until Tuesday when Ailey started having a fever and then the next day Zekey had one. Yep. They were right as rain a couple of days later, though and never showed any other symptoms. The funny thing is that aside from Ailey and Zekey, no one's sickness was related to anyone else's. Well, it really and truly never is boring in this house.
If you were able to read through this whole thing without a potty, coffee, meal or sanity break, I congratulate you. Well done. I'm done now, so you can go take a jog around the block or just stand up for a minute or two to allow the feeling to return to your legs and head. :) Here are pics from my dad's visit:
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