Bub 'n Sis: Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!! Yes, I know, a day late, but who has time to blog when they have candy to ~~make~~ eat, cookies to ~~bake~~ eat, presents to wrap and CRAZY KIDS to ~~holler at~~ enjoy!?!?! Because of our recent stay at the Ritz, aka Children's Mercy, we didn't venture up to good ol' Kirksville this weekend. We had Christmas with Eric's parents promptly from returning home from the Ritz last Saturday and his aunt and uncle came down last Sunday. We had festivities at Mom and Dad's on Friday, then headed to the big city of Paola for Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Crossland's. We had a great time everywhere, but boy am I tired!!

The kids got MORE than their fair share of toys and not too many clothes:) ~~We are~~ Eric is in the process of "cleaning" Cale's room, which really looks more like an episode of Clean Sweep, complete with a SALE pile (Cale doesn't "sell" things, he "sales" things) and a TRASH pile. Neurotic hoarder that I am, I have been digging out of the TRASH pile, and Clean Sweep host that Eric is, he keeps putting things back and kicking me out. I am thinking if we were friends with an anesthesiologist, Eric would have me knocked out for this episode! I am afraid Jenna's room is next.

Speaking of Jenna, it is back up to CMH we go tomorrow. We have a 10:15 appointment with infectious disease. They will evaluate her head size (the swelling is minimal at this point) and they will be all sorts of concerned over her antibiotic. They will ask... how is she taking it?? Is she fighting us? What have we tried putting it in to mask the taste and get it down her?!?!?!?!?!?!? And I will say that Super Sister has been taking it like a CHAMP!! (They think it tastes terrible, to the point they almost gave us a different medication just because kids don't take it well.) But Jenna is doing great at taking it!!
Our next appointment is at......wait, we don't HAVE a next appointment. Our surgeon, Dr. Singhal, is back from Boston, FINALLY, but he has no open appointments this week. He also has surgeries all day Monday and Tuesday. So, his nurse's plan for him, which hopefully agrees with, is for us to wait around for him and hopefully he can see us during a surgery break. This situation makes it sound like it is an urgent medial condition, so I don't want to alarm anyone. I don't know that her condition is urgent, but our situation is one that needs attention quickly. First, we have been waiting two weeks for this lovely man to get back from vacation. Second, he is the only one in the land that can decide if she needs a second invasive surgery and the one to perform said surgery. Third, if he wants to do this surgery soon, we want him to do it this week. YES, I said THIS week. This is because of how our ~~extremely high deductible~~ insurance works. Do it this week, I pay zero, zilch, nothing, notta, NO MONEY for her to get fixed. If we do it next week, I pay..... a whole heck of a lot more!
So, to recap, if you want to specifically pray, these are my thoughts right now. Pray for no surgery needed! We do not want to put her through another surgery. I do not want to hand my fully awake baby over to a stranger nurse and then have to walk away. I do not want to explain another surgery to Cale. However, I am fully prepared to hear him say he needs to take out the pocket that was holding the infection (think empty orange peel in her head, wanting to be filled with another infection). So, if surgery is imperative, I pray he can get us in this week, for ~~stupid~~ insurance purposes.

I will post again Monday evening to give you the latest on our Clean Sweep episode, but more importantly to let you know how things went for Jenna.

Oh, almost forgot....here are some pictures from Friday!!