You Sound Like a Robot

The ear is a marvelous thing. It not only is responsible for hearing, it also affects balance. When something goes wrong with your ear, it sure can throw the rest of you out of whack; I know this firsthand.

Yesterday I awoke not to small children getting up too early, but to a terrible pain in my ear. (Of course the kids slept in on a day I could not!) The boys went to work with Chase & Charlotte went to prompt care with me. The doc said I had either a herniated or hemorrhaging ear drum probably from coughing hard. He called the pharmacy to get me some pain drops & I headed to the store to do some grocery shopping and was going to stop at the pharmacy on the way home.

While I was at the store, I had some pain so bad I doubled over and almost threw up. This happened three times. Then I heard a crackling & felt wet in my ear. It was bleeding. I used one of Charlotte's burp cloths to keep from making a mess and finished the shopping as quickly as I could. Chase met me at home & took care of the kids and groceries while I headed back to prompt care.

It had only been an hour since the doc saw me, and in that time my eardrum had turned into a "bulging S.OB." (doc's words). I was sent to an ENT (ear nose throat doc) who said I had a blister on my ear. She prescribed me some antibiotic pills & drops because even if it's viral, the oozing means it can get infected.

So now I have a ringing in my ear, it's hard to hear, loud noises are painful, I get dizzy after standing for more than a few minutes, and I'm just kind of lethargic. I am feeling much better than I was last night, though. There's one more weird thing, every sound has this odd electronic-sounding echo that makes especially people's voices sound like robots.

Quite the Eventful Easter

Easter started out quite uneventful. I dressed the boys a little bit nicer than usual and even brushed their hair (which makes it super fluffy).

My fluffy boys

Jonas or Frances from Pee Wee's Big Adventure?

And I just took a couple pictures of them since we're getting our family portraits done on Friday.

Jonas is making almost the same expression as last year's Easter pic of the boys

Simon's learned to smile a little better, though!

We had our church gathering and Easter dinner here and then the boys played with Daddy a bit.


And then right before we were about to start clean-up time and the bedtime routine, Jonas tripped over a cushion on the floor and busted his eye on the rocking chair!

We debated taking him to the ER and consulted a nurse friend. We didn't want to put him through the trauma of the ER if it wasn't necessary. She suggested we take him in case it needs some help healing (he wouldn't stop rubbing it which made it bleed more). After calling around, our neighbor ended up coming over to stay with Simon. Chase took Jonas in while I got Simon ready and in bed, and then I met them at the ER.

Seriously, Jonas was a bloody mess since face injuries bleed so much. Chase had asked if we should clean him up before going in, but I said no because a bloody baby will get treated much faster! You can click here to see the wound and here to see the shirt (which has been trashed). We were only there for a little over an hour. Jonas was so sweet and chatty except when he was being cleaned, restrained and glued (three people held him down while one glued the wound). He got to eat half a popcicle and then we came home.

Jonas is doing just fine now and the glue should just come off when it's ready. This is what he looks like now:


I guess it's only fair that Jonas makes an ER trip the week of Simon's birthday since Simon had one (complete with ambulance ride) the week of Jonas' birthday... Hopefully this won't be a trend!

The Tick

So this morning I got out of the shower and found a tick on my thigh!  I never had a tick before, and if you haven't had one, I don't recommend it.  It didn't hurt (well, it hurt slightly when Chase was killing it), but it was gross.  I had to have Chase remove it for me because (a) I couldn't really get to it myself, (b) I don't know how to remove ticks, and (c) it grossed me out too much.  Thankfully, my husband saved me from Lyme disease.

In other news, I had my 6 week post baby checkup this morning.  It'll be nice not to have any doctors up in my business for a year, that is unless another R2 comes along before then...  (Hopefully we'll have a bit of a break before that happens, but if it does, it does.)

Never Underestimate...

No, Chase's finger did not get cut off...

Friday, as we were getting ready to leave for the All Campus Praise Gathering, Chase sliced an apple to take with us. A piece of apple was still caught in the apple slicer and Chase, underestimating the sharpness of the Pampered Chef apple slicer, decided he would just flick the piece of apple into the trash. Because it makes me sick, I won't go into any more detail than that.

So, needless to say, because there were no appointments available at the local clinic, we spent Friday evening at the emergency room. After about a two hour wait, we got in and the doctor and nurses cleaned and dressed his wound.

Chase talked to a few people on the phone while we were on our way to and waiting at the ER. Word got out pretty fast about what happened and friends were apparently saying anything from Chase cutting his finger to needing stitches to him cutting his finger off.

No, Chase's finger did not get cut off, and he was still able to rock the bass this morning at church with the aid of a pick. As I type, he's back at the hospital for a quick follow up.