COVID-19

At the end of December I chose to get the Pfizer vaccine and unfortunately had a reaction and ended up being wheeled to the ER with a weird feeling throat, numb lips and mouth. They gave me an IV of meds and sent me home with Prednisone. Thank goodness I did not need Epi! 

Fast forward to the week of August 9, 2021. There’s a new mandate that all healthcare workers must be vaccinated to keep their job unless of course they have a religious or medical exemption. Of course I would probably qualify, however even with my reaction I still desired to get the second dose. After consulting my PCP he agreed if I take 50mg of Benadryl 1 hour prior and have a ride. No problem, I got this. I scheduled an appointment for Saturday, August 14th at 10:30am. 

Jes and the kids dropped me off at the front of Walgreens and I was kinda drowsy from the Benadryl and nervous, but anxious to get it over with. They called me back. Got the second dose and that was that. I got back in the truck and Jes asked how I was. It had been 3 minutes. I was good! As we drove away I cleared my throat and he was like uhhhh. I did experience the tickle in my throat and some numbness around my lips and mouth, but nothing to the magnitude as with the first dose.  I had plans of going home and sleeping because of the Benadryl, but we actually ended up going to a friends house to move a piano and the boys rode dirt bikes then we went to another friends cabin and the kids rode 4-wheelers. We played corn hole and bbq’d and then drove home at dusk. 

Sunday it hit. I felt awful! I was on the couch feeling miserable! So glad I was not working that day! I slept a bunch and did nothing!

Monday I still didn’t feel great, but still went to work knowing it was the side effects. I just felt almost like I had the flu. (Stomachache/feverish, but no throwing up). 

Tuesday I felt much better. Just the ‘normal’ grind. 

Wednesday was fun - ha. I had a sebaceous cyst removed off of my shoulder on 8/6 and it was time to get my stitches out. I went to my appointment and it was really hurting. Seemed like something was wrong. Dr mentioned it was probably infected. Ugh. He started taking the stitches out and let me tell you. That was the strangest feeling/sound ever! As he got to the 6th stitch and explaining what he was doing and how it was ‘opening up a little’ I said I need water I feel like I’m gonna puke! I thought I was going to pass out! What a weird feeling! I sat a bit and had some water, went back to my desk and then luckily my lunch was within 15 minutes. Now I’m on antibiotics. 

Thursday morning I’m getting ready for work and my 13 year old calls me, yes calls me. I’m in the kitchen down the hallway from his bedroom and he sounds terrible and tells me he has a stomachache, headache and sore throat and cannot get up for football practice. I went in to check on him and he felt feverish and I let his coach know he wouldn’t be there and went on with my day. When I came home for lunch he was still sleeping which isn’t really abnormal for a teenager, but when I got home from work at 5 he was STILL in bed and hadn’t even touched his PS4! That’s when I knew it was legit. I tried to take him in, but all urgent cares were at capacity. 

Friday he was still down, so I figured he’d take the weekend to rest up and feel better! While at work about 9am I didn’t feel good thinking its GI stuff and came home. I went right to sleep and slept for hours. I decided I better take Jackson in to be tested for COVID. I was told if the nurse calls it’s usually negative and if the doctor calls it’s usually positive. Two hours after he was swabbed my phone rings and it’s the clinic. I answer and it’s the doctor. Ugh! He makes sure he’s speaking to the parent of Jackson and informs me that he is COVID positive and we all need to quarantine. At this point I’m wondering if this is what I have too. WHAT. A. WEEK. At this point Jes and Jacob have no symptoms and start staying in our travel trailer in the driveway in hopes of staying symptom free. 

Saturday I felt worse and my jobs employee health nurse has me go in to be tested. Two hours later it comes back negative. Strange. Maybe I tested too soon? Maybe I’m lucky? 

Sunday Jes gets to go back to work because 1. He didn’t develop symptoms in the last 36 hours and 2. He’s fully vaccinated. They wear masks at work too. I wake up in the middle of the night with difficulty breathing and a very sore throat! It feels like bricks on my chest. I panic and don’t even know what to do. I called Jes and he asked if I had my inhaler. I used it and it helped quite a bit thankfully! When Jes and Jacob do come in the house they are masked up. Jacob snapped this photo while in for one of his potty breaks. I miss them!

Monday I woke up and my throat still hurts quite a bit. I didn’t sleep good the night before so I lay around as I have been the previous days. Jes is home from work, but he and Jacob are secluded to the trailer. At this point Jackson has zero symptoms anymore. Work had me come in and re test today and it’s being sent out to Incyte and will come back in 1-2 days. Last night I made some time for self care - my feet thanked me!

Tuesday I wake up. I slept in quite a bit. Like 1030. Yay! I actually felt pretty good. I did my inhaler before bed in hopes of being able to breathe while laying down. Should get my results tomorrow, but today I feel a lot better. I just have a sore throat a cough especially at night. I've been sitting out back enjoying the sunshine!

Oh and did I mention it’s Jackson’s 14th birthday on Saturday 8/28 and he’s quarantined until 8/29?! Thankfully he's free that day because he has FRESHMAN orientation on 08/30! I'll keep you all posted with my test results, but at this point I feel like I'm on the mend either way and Jes and Jacob have steered clear!

Jacob's Sweets experience...

Walla Walla Sweets Opening Game

June 5, 2014

On Thursday June 5^th we; (Jes, Jackson, Jacob, Grandma Sharon & I ) went to opening day for the WW Sweets. Within the first 30 minutes of the game a foul ball was hit and came right to us slamming directly into Jacob’s head. He was reaching down in front of him for his foam finger that had fallen and of course immediately starting crying. Jes scooped him up to check him out and quickly after a firefighter brought him the ball and said “I think this belongs to you, buddy!” I called Grandpa Dale and Grandma Bobi who were also on their way to join us at the game and requested for them to bring him his special blankie. I was walking around the stands with Jacob waiting for them to get there. I was holding him and he kept doing long blinks and looking sleepy, so I took him back up to where Jes was so he could watch him some more. Grandma Bobi and Grandpa Dale bought him some popcorn, his favorite and he barely touched it. After eating a few pieces he started dozing off, then woke up soon after and started throwing up. At that point, we knew it was time to take him to the ER. Jes and I left Jackson with the rest of the family and took Jacob in. He was taken back immediately and then quickly taken back for a CT scan. Right before they took him back Aunt Shari walked in the room, which was perfect timing so I, Janessa didn’t have to sit in the room alone waiting while Jes went back with him. The CT scan didn’t take long. Jes said he fell asleep. They got back to the room and soon after Grandma Bobi, Grandpa Dale, Great Grandma Sharon and Jackson came early from the game because they were worried about Jacob. Great Grandma Sharon, Aunt Shari and Jackson came home while the rest of us waited to hear the results of the CT scan. Dr came in pretty soon after and let us know that he did suffer a minor skull fracture and also had a concussion. The doctor offered for us to stay overnight so Jacob could be watched, but we felt comfortable having him released and bringing him home to sleep more comfortably. We got home and we realized that he hadn’t gone potty in a couple hours and since the plan was for him to sleep between us we had to try to wake him up enough to go. This was finally successful after telling him he was at the toilet and he could go. We laid down and he slept great!! I feel like if I wasn’t awake checking on him, Jes was. He woke up the next morning giving us both hugs and kisses and we were asking him if he remembered and he said, “I got hit right here (pointing to his head) by a baseball at the sweets game… with a hard ball. They should play with a soft ball.” (words often said by Jes or I when the boys are playing baseball together.) He remembers everything and is acting appropriately. I still went ahead and followed direction of the doctor to have him seen the following day and he was seen at 1pm. Doctor was very impressed with how well he was acting for it not even being 24 hours after the incident and off we went. He's been doing so good and we've been babying that noggin!! Tonight we are sitting in the box seats with the team owner for super hero night and hoping we can watch the whole game!!

Here's the ball.

In the ER trying to play Angry Birds on Daddy's phone... I'm assuming it was too much for him with a horrible headache, so he quit and i took this next photo.

Too much excitement for one day!!

 

Extra sleep?!

On the one night where you get an extra hour naturally something has to happen to change that...

First... Jackson had growing pains and came upstairs to our room crying. We rubbed his feet and he fell asleep on MY pillow not leaving me much room, but when you're tired you just deal with it. Finally an hour later I woke him up and helped him get back in bed.

Second... I had just gotten into a deep sleep and I hear a small chirp every 20 seconds or so... We all know what that means.. Dead battery on the smoke detector! My response was "nnnnoooo!!" Jes heard me and went and changed it quickly. (Yay!)

Third... Jacob has been pretty sick lately, first croup mid-October, then pneumonia the next week. He's still got a pretty nasty cough, so he's been sleeping at the end of our bed in the playpen. He went to sleep in his own bed last night and climbed up all the stairs to us and snuck in our bed. Luckily he wasn't sad or anything just COLD!!!

Forth... Brrrrrr!! Yesterday was a fairly nice day. I took down all the Halloween decorations inside and out while the boys played in the yard. Because it was nice we opened the doors and I turned the heater off.. Oops!! It was 65° in our house when we woke up this morning. No wonder both boys snuck up to our bed.

Love my boys so much, but not wanting another night like that anytime soon. Must be how my sister in laws feel with their new baby girls!

Now for an update on us...
Jes' operation in Colorado Springs is shutting down therefore leaving him without work or to commute 80 miles to Denver, then 80 miles back.. He chose to commute. We bought a Mazda 2 that gets awesome gas mileage for him to commute. We will be moving to the Denver area by the end of the school year.

Hope I didn't bore you all!

Our 'baby' is 2!!

It's hard to believe Jacob has only been alive for 2 years. I can't even imagine life without him!! On Saturday we had a little birthday party for him here at our house. He loves Mickey Mouse, so that was the theme. It was a cute party and we had a decent turn out. He had fun and that's all that matters.

 I took these when he woke up from his nap. He was so happy when he saw all the decorations!!

 Living room is ready for company!!

 CAKE!! 

 Enjoying a piece of his cake with friends

 It's party time!!

 We gave him a skateboard.. he loves it!!

He already had the smallest Mickey, but got a medium one and a large one!!

 

 Birthday breakfast

Ready to take Jackson to his first day back to school after Spring Break

 

 

Speaking of Spring Break... it was a good one!! I watched 2 extra kids for part of it and then Jes' sister Shari flew in on Wednesday. We had a great week and a great visit!! I think Jackson enjoyed his break and we all got spoiled with no alarm clocks some days!! 

Jackson is 5 1/2 today!!

A couple weeks ago I saw this cute idea on Pinterest and quickly realized that Jackson's 1/2 birthday was coming up!!

 

 

To be honest, until this morning I had forgotten about this idea. I was talking to Jackson and realized today is the last day of February, so I was telling him that tomorrow is the first day of March and I quickly remembered my 1/2 birthday cake idea!!! I told him it was his 1/2 birthday today and he was excited!!! I didn't tell him we were going to make 1/2 a cake and I can't wait to see his excitement!!!

 

This is Jackson all ready for school!! Jes' mom & I found this cool shirt on sale at "Crazy 8" in January. He's growing up so fast!!

 

 

 

After I dropped him off at school, I ran to the grocery store for a cake mix, so that it could cool while I was at MOPs (Mom's of Preschoolers). When I got home, I cut it in half and used chocolate icing as a "glue" and filling.

 

Here's the finished product!! I cannot take all the credit... Jes is very good at this stuff and helped me a lot!! I think it turned out pretty good!! Green & yellow are his two favorite colors too, so that's a bonus. :)

P.S. This is two days in a row of blogging... maybe I will do it more often again.

Jacob got his tubes!! We went in at 6:30 this morning... Below is us in the waiting room...

 They took us back to a room to both get in gowns and talk to the anesthesiologist and doctor before surgery. Jacob flirted with all the nurses and they all loved him!!

Mommy and Jacob all "gowned up"

He liked his gown with Bug's Bunny on it!! 

 Our feet... I had to put booty's on since I went back to the Operating Room until he was asleep. He did so good!! The anesthesiologist warned me that he would probably fight us holding him down, and that it's normal cause it's just the age they're at. Well... we went back and I held one hand and the nurse held the other. He looked up at the anesthesiologist and just stared for a few seconds and he was out without a fight. They were all amazed at how well he did.

This was right after surgery... the doctor came out and told me that everything went great and "Good luck getting him back from the nurses, they love him!!" I'm glad he did so good!! They said when he woke up he just started sucking his thumb :)

 

Not even an hour later and we were off!! So proud of my brave boy!!! We both took nice long naps when we got home and Jacob is still asleep after over 3 hours!!

 

Thanks for all the love and prayers!! Here's to a healthier year!!

Here we go again...

As most of you already know Jacob has been sick on and off (more on) since October. It's been a rough and stressful winter at our house.... He has had it all....

Double Ear Infection
Bronchitis
Croup
Pnemonia
More Ear Infections
And More Ear Infections...

He has pretty much been on antibiotics since October and is finally seemingly better at this point in time, but considering his past couple months it was decided at the appointment he had today with the Ear Nose & Throat doctor, that it's time for tubes in his ears.

We went through pretty much the same thing with Jackson and he got them put in at 9 months old. I'm ready for our household to be healthy and happy... it's been a wild ride!!

The office is going to call and schedule the surgery sometime this week and we will go from there, and hopefully by his 2nd birthday (April 1st) he will be HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY!!

Family Pictures 11/2012

We had our family pictures taken a couple weeks ago at the Garden of the Gods which is about 2 miles from our house!! We are happy with the pictures and thought we'd share. :)

 

 Love the background.

 cold little boys!!

 My honey & I

 Love this one

 Jake & Mom

 Me & Jackson

 Jackson & Daddy

 Jes & Jake

 Jes & the boys

 Me & my boys

 Holding up the balance rock.

Re-creating a picture from last years Christmas pictures.

I have a 5 year old today!!!

Yikes!! How can Jackson be 5 already?! Time seriously needs to slooooow down!!

5 things about Jackson:

He's helpful
He's happy
He's cute
He's smart
He's loving

Of course I'm his Mom, so I'm a little biased, but he's a pretty good kid!! Our family wouldn't be the same without him!! Now that he's in school it's even more fun to see him and Jacob both excited to see each other and play. They play so well lately and I love hearing them laugh at each other.

Me holding Jackson for the 1st time

 

Daddy & Jackson bonding

 

Chubby baby when we got home from the hospital

 

Jackson's 1st bath at home!!

 

Our family!! Jackson was only a couple days old!!

 

Love from all the Grandparents and Parents

My baby starts Kindergarten Monday!!

We just got home from Howbert Elementary's Open House... Boy was that hard!! It really hit me and I found myself holding back tears!! His teacher is Mrs. Starkey. Small world.. Her daughter is attending college in Spokane!!