Bad Ending to a Bad Week

Yesterday was a sad day for us, and a very bad ending to our already bad week. Our cute little dog Harley that we have had for 8 years passed away yesterday early morning. He has been very sick for a while, but this past week with us being gone I think just pushed him over the edge. I don't think you ever realize how attached you are to your animals until you see them go. TJ and I both broke down, he has been a part of our family since just after we were married. The hardest part of it all was trying to explain to Taylor what had happened. She is old enough to know kind of what is going on, and with Addie being in the hospital all week she was already a little traumatized from that. It was a conversation we did not want to have with her right now. She seems okay, but she was attached to him since she has had 5 years to spend with him. Here are some pics of our cute little pup Harley. We will miss him so much being part of our family, but know that he is in a much better place now. Love ya Har!!

This is how he always used to sleep. So cute and funny!

Harley LOVED going to the cabin with us. Especially during the winter when he could go sledding down the hills with us. It was one of his favorite things.

Harley with baby Taylor. They have been best buddies since she was born.

Harley also LOVED Christmas. He always new it was coming when he saw his stocking. I am not sure if he really loved this hat, but he always had a smile on his face like he did.

Har with his Christmas Toys. Got to love this cute little dog.

Going Home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We couldn't be more excited to take our little girl home. Yesterday she was in a bad mood and really tired for the first half of the day still from all the meds from surgery. She was still running a really low temp, which nobody can really explain except from the meds from the prior day. However, as soon as Taylor got here and finally decided that Addie was okay to be around everything made a turn. Addie was so excited to be back playing with her Tay Tay. She perked up and went to the play room. The doctor came into check her around 5PM and took the large gauze patch off her neck and put just a band aid over the wound so she would be more comfortable. We later had to change that to a bit bigger of a patch, since the bandaid just didn't hold up quite enough. She was in such a good mood. she wanted to take pictures with every statue we could find (see below). She has been such a trooper through it all, and we are so proud of how big she has been with all the bugging and poking from the nurses and doctors. Even though she HATES them all.

Last night she was so tired that she just looked over at her mom and told me herself that she was "SO TIRED". She ran a low temp all night again along with her body being very cold all night. They just think that this could be her still trying to get the meds out of her system, and as long as she is acting okay then she should be fine. The night nurse gave us a bunch of things that we can do on her to check her when she is cold like that to make sure she is doing okay for when we go home.

Today (January 29th), they came in at 5AM to take her blood labs. (Which by the way she calls out for her Tay Tay to save her every day during). The doctor came in at 6:30AM to tell us that she looked great, and that her numbers had gone down drastically. She is at a 3.1 infection level down from yesterday's 6. They thought there was no reason to keep us at the hospital any longer. We have one more doctor we are waiting to see, but the other doctor thought that we would be out of here early this morning.

After all is said and done, and we are home we have to be so careful that she doesn't get this re-infected. We will not be doing ANYTHING or taking her ANYWHERE for the next month until after her next surgery to get the cyst taken out. We don't want to make anyone feel bad, but we just want to be over careful that she doesn't get sick within this time period. So that being said. I think we are good to go home.

Thanks to everyone for all of your help with coming up to the hospital to support us and having us in your thoughts and prayers. We also want to make sure to thank everyone that helped us out with Taylor during this time. She has been a little worried about Addie and everything going on, but having sleepover's with cousin's and grandma has kept her mind off of it.

Addie with one of the statue's she found in the hall.

Giving me a cute cheese with her new bandage.

She is just so cute. I used to take this little smile for granted sometimes. I am so glad to see it back.

She thought Spiderman was the coolest!

Addie and her Tay Tay taking a wagon ride to the play room. She was excited to be with Taylor.

Update on Addie!

Pre Surgery Pic!

Well, Addie got her surgery done yesterday (1/27/11) around 4PM. We had a really hard time letting them take her back, even though we know it is the only way to get her better. The surgery only took about 20 minutes. The doctor basically did a small 1/2 inch incision in the left side of her neck so they could drain all the excess puss out that was reforming. They left a small drain in her neck to keep draining the puss while the antibiotics are working on killing the infection. The doc said he got about 4 teaspoons worth of nasty green puss out which would have taken months to kill with antibiotics.

Pre Surgery Pic!

Pre Surgery Pic! FYI: She will not take off her Christmas socks, but whatever makes that little girl happy!

She was SUPER grumpy after waking up from the meds they used to put her out. At about midnight TJ and I finally got her to sleep. She ran a very low pulse and low temp all night which is common in young kids from the anesthesia even though it made me a wreck all night. She is very tired and exhausted from everything.

The doctor came in today to check her and her drain had fallen out. He said that they usually take the drain out after the second day anyway so it wasn't a big deal. They will leave the incision open to drain anything else, and will have her go home that way. I guess instead of stitches they let it heal on it's own. He said everything looked good and her voice and cough sounded so much better now that they released all the pressure from the cyst since it was also entering into her voice box. She should be perking up more today then she has, which will show them signs that she is doing better. If everything goes well and starts healing correctly she will get to come home Saturday, but most likely Sunday. She has been complaining about her neck a bit, but hopefully after she rests for a while she will be happier and forget about it. Her Grandpa Carlson has been in California all week for work and will be able to come see her tonight when he gets off the plane. She can't wait to see her POPPY!!

Post Surgery!

We are excited to take her home soon. She is sick of nurses, and so are we. She got a new big girl bed a couple days before we came here and never really got a chance to sleep in it, so it will be fun to take her home to it. She wants her own bed. TJ and I want our own bed as well.

Post Surgery Pic!

Thanks for all the love, support & prayers. We wouldn't have been able to get through all of this without all of you. Addie loves all of you as well and when she feels better she will be giving out lots of hugs and kisses.

Heart Break!

On Monday, January 24th we decided to take Addie to the doctor because she had been running a high fever all weekend long. When I got to the doctor we noticed a large bump on the left side of her neck. The doc thought that it was odd and wanted to go make a call to Primary Children's hospital to talk to some doctors up there. After he got off the phone he immediately sent us up to the Primary Children's ER to go get it checked out. The doctors at PC took a CT scan of her neck and found out that there was a large mass cyst in there. The cyst was something she was born with. Basically some babies are born with this small pocket cyst on their necks and when they get sick it can infect this pocket to balloon up and get larger. They have seen these before, and said that they are uncommon but common at Primary's since this is where all the kids come. The ENT doctors took a large syringe and tried to drain out as much puss as possible from her neck. After that they admitted her into the hospital to work on her fever and infection that she had in the cyst.

On Tuesday, January 25th they came and took Addie's blood for labs to check where her infection levels were. They came back to tell us that the level's were the same and her fever had not gone away at all. The ENT doctors told us that it usually takes 48 to 72 hours for the antibiotics to start working with the body, and that we had to stay and wait it out.

On Wednesday, January 26th the lab levels came back higher than they were. They told us she should be close to a level .8, she was a level 8.1 after the first night, and now she was up to a level 12. Her fever however was getting a little better which was showing signs that something is working with her body.

On Thursday, January 27th the lab levels were down to a level 7 and she had not had a fever within 24 hours. The doctors and us were glad to see this happening, and thought it might since we hit the 48 hours mark the night before. However, the cyst in her neck is still growing and they think that puss is reforming back in there. They are going to take her into the operating room at 3:30PM to make a small cut in her neck to drain out the puss. They think they will help finish off the problem that she is having so we can get home.

We will most likely be at Primary Children's for at least 2 more days, even though none of us want to be. However, we know that this is the place we need to be to get our little girl better. We will stay at least until the doctors , TJ and I feel comfortable to take her home. After everything is settled down with the cyst and the irritation and infection are gone (in about a month after) they will operate on her and take the cyst completely out. They can't do that now due to how inflamed it is and how close it is to nerves, veins, and her air way.

Addie hates every nurse and every doctor here, but who can blame her. She has been up and walking around and playing the last couple of days. We are in good spirits and are determined to get her back to her cute, healthy, energetic self.

We are so thankful for all the support we have received through our family and friends. We are very lucky to have all of you in our lives to help us through these tough times. Keep praying for our little girl in hopes that she can get better quicker.

Happy New Year!

This year we decided it would be fun to have New Year's up at the Carlson Cabin in Bear Lake. It was a ton of fun. We did a lot of sledding, relaxing, and playing. We had a great time, and might start making this a tradition.

Addie and her Dad in the Rhino going to pick up the kids up at the bottom of the sledding hill.


Addie thinking she is going out sledding like this. She is so funny sometimes and full of so much personality.

All the kids banging their pots and pans at 10PM instead of midnight. This way the parents could actually enjoy our New Year's as well.

All the kids loved climbing this big snow hill. There was a ton of snow up there.

Addie giving me a cheese in the sun. Funny Girl!!

Taylor getting ready to go down the hill.

TJ and the girls going down the hill. What a Blast!