BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

OK, OK, OK. I'm still wiping the tears from my eyes from laughing so hard.

Nicholas is making HUGE strides with using the toilet. All of a sudden it has just clicked for him. He's asking to use the toilet to pee but he hasn't pooped yet. Sure, he's farted and a turd has plopped out but no full dump yet.

Just now, he said that he had to poop in the toilet. So I ran to the can with him to help him take off his Cars undies and put him on the toilet. He sat for a short time and only squeezed out a tiny bit of pee. As he hopped down, I asked if he needed a diaper to go poop. He insisted that no, he was fine in his underwear. I told him that I didn't want to see poop in his underwear either. No pee and no poop in the underwear!

I asked again if he needed a diaper on in case he had to poop and he said, "No diaper Momma. I no poop!"

Then he turned his back, pulled up his t-shirt, bent over and pulled his butt cheeks apart saying, "See. No poops!"

Oh man! My belly hurts from laughing so hard.

Here you go, you vultures!

Well, I'm here. Not entirely of my own desire, but hey. LOL

I've been busy. I'm not exactly sure what I've been busy doing, but I haven't seemed to have much time.

Stephen was just home for a week. We took the boys to Galaxyland in West Edmonton Mall and rode the new coaster with Nathan. Between Stephen and me, Nathan rode it 6 times. He LOVED it. Stephen and I are getting old so we could only ride it once each then we needed a rest. Our stomachs were turning just a little.

I finally got my memorial tattoo done. It's still pretty raw so I'll take photos after it's all healed up. Curt only took about 2.5 hours to do it and charged me less than $300. I'm very happy with it.

I finally got a letter letting me know the when and where for my MRI. November 24th Hopefully this means I'll have an idea of what is wrong with me by Christmas. I know that the MRI isn't going to tell me everything...being a few sandwiches short of a picnic isn't going to show up on the MRI. Neither is the Bitch gene. I have high hopes though.

The boys are both sick. Nathan caught something on his first bloody day at school and now Nicholas is infected too. Nathan had a massive asthma attack one night that finally subsided a little when he finally let me give him his Ventolin. Nicholas woke up this morning with a similar attack. He at least lets me give him his meds. Of course I'm that much bigger than he is and he doesn't have much of a choice. LOL

If this is the way we're starting out the fall season, I dread what winter will bring. I hope because the boys have asthma diagnoses and they're on a treatment action plan, we'll have a less illness infused winter than the last one. Having said that, I'm sure I've jinxed myself and the boys will find some rare malady to come down with. It just keeps me on my toes I guess. Ha Ha!

Yes, I've been slacking

I've taken a bit of a break from blogging lately because I've just been feeling really negative lately. I don't want this to become a boring bitching blog so I'm avoiding it until I'm feeling more happy.

I do continue to read everyone else's blogs and comment sometimes. I'm still around but I'm just not up to spilling my guts right now. It could be NASTY!

Health Update for Nic and Me

Nicholas went to see the GI specialist on Thursday. As I figured, the doctor said that it was most likely a virus and it has run its course. One liver enzyme is back to normal and the other is coming down nicely. When he was in the ER, the one was at over 500 when it should be less than 50. The following day, the result was in the 400s and fours days after that, it was down to 133. It is still too high, but it's heading in the right direction. Nic will be fine.

I mentioned that he's still having a little black blood in his poops so the doctor sent us home with a couple of sample jars to get samples for the lab. Nic also needs to have another blood test on Monday to make sure that last liver enzyme is back to normal.

As follow-up, because of the blood still in the poops, the doctor prescribed Zantac. He THINKS that the blood may be because of the vomiting. Nic may have made a little tear in his esophagus and it is still oozing a little. The Zantac will cut down on the stomach acids so that it can heal. If Nic continues with black blood in his poops, then the doctor may need to put in a scope and see what's happening. I doubt that will be necessary though.

As for me, I saw the neurologist on Friday. I showed her my journal of symptoms for August and described how this all came about. She had a tech come in and do some nerve shock tests on my right arm and leg. The results there looked good. "No myelin degeneration detected." Basically, the nerve sheaths are not showing any problems.

However, because of the way the symptoms came on, peaked and have come down, the doctor thinks it would be a good idea to send me for an MRI. She sounded like this was more to rule out MS rather than to diagnose it.

Sounds encouraging, doesn't it? It is, but it also isn't. I'm happy that the neurologist thinks it probably isn't MS (a life long and life altering degenerative disease) but I'm also frustrated about what it could be instead. She admitted that often this type of stuff isn't diagnosed as anything specific. Basically, "Suck it up and deal" or "You're a total head case".

I'll have to see what happens when I finally get the MRI and see what the results are.

Nic's at it again

Nicholas gave me another health scare and we're not entirely out of it yet.

He has been complaining for about 3 weeks that his belly hurts. Every night he'd lay in my arms, writhing in pain, moaning, groaning and crying. On top of this, he'd have isolated vomiting spells. Out of the blue, he'd throw up then be fine again until that night when he was in belly agony.

On Aug 30th, he was acting normally; playing, fighting with Nathan, etc. He didn't eat or drink much but he seemed fine. Around supper time, I did a diaper change and there were black "fibres" in his poop. It looked like he'd eaten a handful of fine sawdust. I tossed him into the tub to clean him up and I realized that his skin was yellow. I was in denial and thought maybe it was his tan fading. I had Nathan get into the tub too and it was then that I realized that yes, Nic was yellow and it WASN'T a faded tan. He looked up at me and I could see that the whites of his eyes were yellowed too.

I got the boys out of the tub, dressed and started to take him to the hospital but just as I was about to put his shoes on, he threw up. Quick clean up again.

I got him to the hospital and had about a 45 minute wait. The resident examined him as soon as we got in there and I showed the poop sample. (Yes, I brought some so that the doctor would understand what I was talking about! LOL) The resident confirmed my fears that this was blood. It was probably from higher up in the digestive tract so that the stomach and intestines had broken it down a bit.

The Doctor came in and between the blood in the poop, the jaundice and a palpable liver, he decided to run several tests. Nic was poked, prodded and ultimately found to have elevated liver enzymes as well as the enlarged liver.

They started the process of admitting him so that he could undergo an ultrasound and maybe other tests the following morning. We were taken up to our room and as they were bringing the bed in for him, the GI residents came back and said that the had conferred with each other and their supervisor and another doctor in on Nic's case and they collectively agreed that Nic was safe to go home and undergo the tests as an outpatient. They did one more blood test before they let us leave.

Nic had to have another blood test run on Friday the 31st and again today, Sept 4th. He has an appointment with the GI specialist on Sept 6th. I have a mountain of questions that I want answers to.

Nic appears to be doing better since the ER visit (and almost admission). He hasn't vomited since then and he hasn't been complaining about his belly. He is not yellowed anymore (maybe a tiny bit in his eyes) but he still has the blood in his poop.

I want to know what happened, why did it happen, and do I need to be watching for this again.