Still sick...

Well, Olivia still has the fever (not near as high, but still present). So for the drive back from Texas, we had the concern of her fever and then the added bonus of the bloody stools. The stools progressively got worse throughout the drive, so we decided that we would drive straight through the night (again) and get her to Children's Hospital ASAP. Again, she was a great baby and didn't cry or fuss unless we were changing her diaper. We got her to the hospital and they took 4 x-rays, blood, a stool sample from a dirty diaper, urine via a catheter (ouch), and mucous sample from her nose. After all that, they found nothing! Don't get me wrong. I'm glad they were able to rule out a lot of the possible causes (intussusception was a big concern), but I hate not knowing what made my daughter so sick. Her stools seem to have fixed themselves, but her fever is lingering at 100.6. The stool cultures will be complete tomorrow, so her pediatrician will call us and let us know if anything grew. I will keep you posted.

Christmas pictures are coming.

Big Christmas for Olivia!!!

Chris and I decided to give my mom and brothers the best Christmas present EVER! We agreed that if Olivia, Chris and myself were all feeling well, we would drive from Knoxville to Houston and surprise them on Christmas Eve (day). Olivia got over her illness and then I got over the flu so the plan was on! My wonderful in-laws kept our dog, Orion, for us and the secret of our visit. We left our home at 5:38 pm, dropped Orion off and drove all through the night. After rain, wind, nausea and extreme exhaustion, we pulled into my mom's driveway at 10:30 am (one hour difference from Knoxville). I must say, Olivia was wonderful on the drive there-granted she slept most of the way. Anyway, we were like a S.W.A.T. team getting Olivia out of her carseat and running for the door before mom could see us. We rang the doorbell and she was so confused when she saw us (and then proceeded to scream and cry). Olivia got to meet her uncle, Erin and they got along smashingly well (she had already met Ian)! Of course, we brought most of Olivia's presents so that we could all enjoy her first Christmas. It was great! I have a video of my mom opening the door, but she has forbid me to post it (I might listen-haven't decided yet)...

The only bad part is now Olivia is running a 104.1 fever. She gets sick everytime we take her anywhere so we are in the tiring process of getting her home. She has a doctor's appointment on Monday already, but hopefully she'll be over this by then.

I will post pictures when we get home.

I hope everyone had a magical Christmas!!

Playing with Tylenol...

Olivia's cough is gone and has been since the very end of last week, but she keeps running a fever off and on. Her fever was 100.4, so it was time for Children's Tylenol. Here she is playing with the bottle.

Let me out!!!

Sometimes Olivia REALLY doesn't like being put in her Pack 'N' Play!!

Sorry that it's been so long since I've posted, but I had the flu and had myself on lockdown so I wouldn't contaminate the rest of the house.

Purely Coincidental?

I have 6 pictures by Cicely Barker hanging over Olivia's crib and I noticed that the "Apple Blossom Fairy" bears a striking resemblance to my little Tooters!

Playing with mommy on Monday

Indiana Tooters

This is from Thanksgiving and I'm finally posting it...

Grumble grumble...

Olivia had a fever all weekend along with the cough that she's had over a week now. She's been on Bactrim since clinic on Wednesday, so I must say I'm a little suprised that she developed a fever (it got to 102.4). One of her doctors told us to call if the cough was still here after a few days so I called yesterday. The doctor said that if she still has the cough by next Monday, I'm to call them again and they will most likely admit her back into the hospital. It's not exactly how I want to spend my daughter's first Christmas so I'm a little....BLAH right now! I will post some cute videos when I get home from work. Please keep her in your thoughts, wishes, hopes or prayers so that she gets all better!

Greetings from Daddy Daycare...

Mommy time!

Getting a picture of me is like trying to photograph Bigfoot. I am usually the one taking the pictures or I look atrocious and don't want to be photographed. Maybe that's why Bigfoot hides...bad hair day?

I love this one!!

I just love her!!!!

Superstar!

Olivia's favorite toy is this Fisher-Price Superstar Singing Stage. She has loved it since she could sit up and now it's something to hold onto while standing.

I swear she "dances" a little in this one....

This one's for you, Janis!!

Look how your favorite curl has grown!!!

The Official Santa Photo

Ho Ho Ho!!!!

Guess who Olivia met today??? SANTA CLAUS!!!!!

Clinic Update - December

Clinic went well over all. Olivia's weight was a little less than they wanted (Her BMI has dropped from 36% last month to 27%) so they made a very small change to her feeding. One feeding used to have Pedialyte instead of formula and we changed it back to formula. I was curious about the cough she's had since Saturday night and thankfully she coughed for everyone who came into the room. The doctor put her back onto her antibiotic Bactrim (third time now) for 10 days. If her cough isn't gone or getting much better, we're to call and get a prescription for a steroid. We had stopped using the Nasacort everyday and were only using it when the green snot was present and they told us to go back to using it everyday. The last change was to her breathing treatments. When she was in the hospital, they didn't use a mask when giving her Pulmozyme or Saline so we assumed that was okay. The Respiratory Therapist was a little disgruntled to find out they administered it that way and told we had to be using a mask every time.

In the waiting area, they had this really pretty Christmas tree, so we helped ourselves to taking pictures.

Daddy's home!!

I don't know who's more excited: Olivia or Orion...

Just crawling around

I don't know why the videos from our living room are so orange....

Wakey Wakey

Here is another (bad quality) video of Olivia waking up. I love it when she smiles in her sleep, it's probably one of my favorite things. I don't think you can hear her breathing in the beginning and a bit of a snore, but it's there and gloriously adorable.

Great Strides Video

This video is from www.cff.org about the Great Strides Walk. I don't know where this walk took place, but it sure looked like fun! I can't wait until May!!!

http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/view_video/

Quick update

Starting yesterday, Olivia has been coughing quite a bit more. It didn't seem like it was bothering her, she was usually smiling at the end of each coughing spell like it was tickling her. This morning when I woke her up, she started to cough and it sounded different than it has sounded before. I don't really know how to explain it other than her cough sounds how you sound when you're losing your voice (raspy, hoarse and throaty) with mucous added it and this cough seems to hurt her a little. I lost my voice about a week ago (when Olivia was sick last she got me a little sick) and I don't know if she got something from me. Her voice sounds fine when she babbles, but her cough definitely sounds different. We have clinic on Wednesday, we'll see what they say. I told daycare to add another Xopenex/CPT treatment in each day this week.

Two super quick notes:
-Olivia has FINALLY moved up to tolerating 1.5 Creon 5 capsules with each meal! She was starting to have.....ummm....icky diapers.
-Olivia will be seeing Santa Claus on Wednesday after clinic so look forward to cutie pie pictures!

Jump Around

Jump up, Jump up and get down!

Playtime, sippy cup and sleepiness

This video is kind of long (3 min 30secs), but chalk full of cuteness.

Twas the night before Christmas...

Poor bear. He's just trying to tell a story....

Then don't put your finger in his mouth!!

http://

One more diversion

I always find Olivia to be my favorite diversion. Sorry the quality is kind of crappy, I took it with my cell phone this morning whe she was waking up. For those of you wondering...Yes, she is ALWAYS in a good mood. If she's not, she's about to get sick.

A little diversion never hurt anyone.

Even though Olivia is doing good right now, I was a little depressed yesterday. A good number of my blogging friends were having bad days yesterday so I thought I would put a few non Olivia or CF related videos on the blog that I liked to make people laugh or give them warm fuzzies. I don't think you can ever have enough warm fuzzies!

**This is my FAVORITE Christmas video from last year! I love it so much, I usually watch it and then catch myself staring with my mouth wide open (always an attractive look)!

http://

**This link will take you to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Carol of the Bells (my absolute favorite Christmas song). The way they sing is exactly what I imagine angels sound like in Heaven. They have it set so I couldn't embed the video itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLWYPwswKvU


**I just love this video! This guy cracks me up. Good luck not having the song stuck in your head or doing the arm dance everytime you hear ANY song!
http://

Do your part - whatever that may be!

I thought this video was really great! We all need to do everything we can to beat CF!

http://

It's almost too much cuteness!

In case pictures weren't enough to satisfy you, feast your eyes upon this...

Whatever she is doing with her tongue was cracking us up!! Oh and her laugh was too adorable!

My little girl is growing up so fast...

She just needs a little help and she just pops right up!

But, she will always take a moment to chill in her "Daddy Lounger".

Great Strides Walk!!

Please check out our Great Strides Walk page. Please donate what you can, nearly $0.90 of every dollar donated goes towards finding a cure! If you live in the area or having the burning desire to visit Knoxville, you can sign up to join the team.

http://www.cff.org/great_strides/dsp_donationPage.cfm?registeringwalkid=5839&idUser=281046

What's your name? NUM YUMMY!!

"Did I say I was done? Bring me more food!"

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Olivia got to eat her first Thanksgiving meal (it was all baby food, but it was still Thanksgiving). Her meal consisted of Gerber turkey with turkey gravy, sweet peas and Betty's cousin's homemade applesauce - which was Olivia's favorite part of the meal, by far!! We have never seen her open her mouth so wide before.

Sweet peas are tasty...

Mmmmmm, turkey is good!!

Yummy, yummy applesauce!!!

And now it's sleepy time...

One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians...

As you can see, the rash is still there but she's still happy.

New Hope For Cystic Fibrosis - CBS News

This was on CBS on November 18. Don't forget to look into your local Great Strides Walk for 2009 (http://www.cff.org/great_strides/).

http://

Education is essential!

Ok, I know that this video is sad, but it's life. Don't watch it if you don't want to cry. It is incredibly important that the world gets educated about CF in order to get a cure found!!

http://

Almost all better.

Olivia finally got rid of her fever yesterday (it was 102.4 until Saturday evening). She seems like she feels better, but her nose is still really stuffed up and she doesn't like us touching it at all. My sister-in-law, Lauren, wonderfully suggested putting chapstick on her nose to cut down on the chapped/raw skin and it seems to be working. Thanks Lauren!! She still has the rash all over and her little face it all broken out with it, but it doesn't seem to hurt her. I just can't wait for her to be all better again...for more than three days!!!

Still sick

The fever that Olivia had Wednesday evening is still hanging around (darn unwanted guests). It's not as high as it was, but it isn't going away. It was 101.4 last night and 101.2 thirty minutes ago. She is still REALLY congested and has a lovely rash from head to toe (the photo doesn't do it justice). Her nose is raw/ chapped from us wipiing it so often. She saw her pediatrician again yesterday, but the fever was gone for the moment so we figured the virus was going away. He put her Omnicef for 10 days (she had a shot of Rocephin the day before). He said it's all just a virus, but we have a feeling we'll be stopping by the ER before the weekend is over.

Sick AGAIN!

Well, Olivia has been running a fever off and on all since 6 pm. We have been giving her Tylenol and Motrin trying to keep it down. It seems like it goes away and then it spikes again. Her snot is back with a vengeance and her lips and hands are little purple. She had a doctor's appointment this morning at 8:30 and they checked her out and said it was a sinus infection. She is getting a shot of Rocephin (the antibiotic she was just on for almost 3 weeks) and they want to see her again tomorrow.


On a side note...HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS/DADDY!!!

Only because I said I would.

Just a quick video of Olivia. She was running a fever (102.8) tonight so I tried to let her sleep it off instead of making her perform. Sorry.

I know, I know... Clinic Update - November

I haven't posted in a while! I'm sorry! I throw myself to the mercy of the court.

Nothing new has really been going on since the hospitalization. She had Clinic last week. No new meds added. Her BMI is now 36% (YAHOO!!). They removed the PICC line while we were there. Chris was keeping her stationary and I was making faces at her and acting goofy trying to keep her happy (she didn't like the tape getting peeled off her arm). I shouldn't have watched when they started to pull the PICC because I started to get a little dizzy and felt myself falling toward the ground. Chris and the nurse caught me and I proceeded to cry while the nurse got me a Sprite I can't explain why I was crying - just some weird reaction. Quite the pillar of strength I turned out to be.

I will take pictures or videos this evening and post them. I know everyone needs their Olivia fix!

Back FROM the hospital

Ok, they did a chest x-ray and found no kinks in her line. Her doctor didn't want to remove the line until its original removal date of next Wednesday. They injected something to hopefully unclog the line and it worked. Everything is working again like it should. Yay!

Back to the Hospital

We weren't able to get a blood return this morning. We called Home Health and had already tried all of their recommendations to no avail. They came out to look at it and now we are taking Olivia back to the hospital.

I will post any updates that I get.

We have liftoff!!

No news is good news

I thought I'd post a reqlly quick update...We've just been hanging out at home, catching up on rest and doing her meds in the morning. Everything has been going smoothly since arriving back at the house. Olivia will be hanging out with Nana/Grandma/Whatever-she-decides-to-be-called this week since she can't go to daycare while she has the PICC. I will update with pictures or videos later (take by my mom).

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!!

These pictures were taken on the 21st...

Home Sweet Home

Olivia is chillin' in her crib...

Bronchoscopy images

For those of you interested to see what Olivia's larynx, trachea and bronchial trees look like, feast your eyes upon these...

Click on the pictures to make them larger.