The beginning of the tonsil story...

The first week in December I took Kassi to the doctor for a fever that was staying around 103 and would not go away, no matter what I tried.  I asked everyone I knew for advice on how to get her temperature down and nothing worked.  On day three I took her to the doctor.  The doctor's response..."I don't see anything wrong with her, unless her symptoms change she is fine."  So I take her home, mad that she didn't really seem to care that my baby was running a high fever that would not go away.  To me that says something is wrong.

A week or so later Kassi says she has a sore throat.  It was on a day after she had spent the night at my parents house and she tends to have some drainage after being there.  I think it is from their wood stove.  We run a large area air purifier in our house so she the air is really clean.  Anyway the next morning my step mom calls and says Kassi says her throat still hurts, but she has no fever.  I let her go ahead and go to preschool.  I pick her up from preschool and look in her throat and take her straight to the doctor.  Again we get the doctor that told us to go home when she had her fever.  She tests her for strep which comes back positive.  We go pick up the prescription for Amoxicillin and head home. 

After eight days of this there is no change in Kassi's throat.  Her tonsils are still covered in white and are so swollen they touch in the back of her throat.  Still no fever or any other symptoms.  I call the doctors office and talk to the nurse.  The nurse tells me that it is common for them to remain swollen after being infected.  I argue that something is wrong.  She talks to the doctor and the doctor prescribes antibiotic number two, Omnicef.  We start on this.

After four days there is no change.  Actually at this point I think they look worse. 
I decide it is time to make sure we get in to Kassi's normal doctor instead of his partner.  So off we go.  He looks in her throat, backs away and shakes his head.  He reads her chart and asks questions about everything that happened since the fever we were told was nothing.  After some discussion he checks her spleen and a few other things.  He says yes she had tested positive for strep, but he thinks there is an underlying condition naming either mono or staph.  He says that it is really rare for mono to be in children Kassi's age and after checking a few other things he does not believe that is what it is.  He starts her on antibiotic number three, Clindamiacin, and a small burst of Prednisone to get the inflammation down enough that the antibiotic can get into the tonsils and work.  He did not test her for staph so we do not know if that is really what is causing all of this.  He says her tonsils have to come out or this will continue to happen every time she catches any viral or bacterial infection.  The big concern at this time is to make sure they do not get any bigger and keep her from eating or breathing.  He says to call back on Tuesday and if there is any change over Christmas to take her to the ER and page him.  He also says that the worst case scenario would be for the ENT to be three weeks out and Kassi be out where she can get infected again.  (Hence the going nowhere rule in effect.)

Tuesday gets here and the tonsils really don't look a lot different than they had.  He says to continue on with the antibiotic for five more days.  (This really scares me, because this is antibiotic is very hard on the system.)  I ask about the ENT referral.  The nurse says it is common for them to be two to three weeks out for the consult and with the holidays...  I remind her that the doctor said she needed to get in as soon as possible.  Later in the day I get a call back.  Kassi has her consult with the ENT on January 4th.  I guess this is acceptable with the holidays as I am sure they are closed for several days.

How do her tonsils look now with only one day of antibiotic number three left?  Well...one looks better some of the inflammation has gone down and most of the white is gone.  The other one not so much.  Most of the white is gone, but now, to me, it appears to be abscessed.  She is eating well, and says she is breathing okay.  I have caught her choking on her saliva when she is asleep, but she wakes up, gets re situated, swallows it down and goes back to sleep.  She is also terrified of having her tonsils out.  I try to reassure her and be strong.  (Truth be told, Mommy is terrified right now too and just really wants to know what the ENT is going to say.)

Now we wait.  Wednesday seems like such a long time away and I want to scream at the ENT scheduling office "Get her in sooner!", but I know that will not help.  I am not sure what to expect when we go.  Kassi's pediatrician said they cannot take them out when they are this swollen, but the worst thing would be to have to wait for the surgery.  What will they do then with the one that will not go down?  How long out will her surgery be?  Do I dare let her go back to school before then?  There are just so many things I do not know right now.

Christmas

Starting off Kassi was pretty upset with me about Christmas.  You see she has been fighting some kind of infection for several weeks and our third visit to the doctor was on the Friday before Christmas.  It was at that time when the doctor said her tonsils were going to need to come out, but before we could do that we had to get the inflammation and infection out of them.  Sounds easy except she had already been on two rounds of antibiotics.  So we started on antibiotic number three and Kassi was banned from leaving the house and we asked that anyone that was or thought they might be sick stay away.

This really saddened Kassi as it meant she was not going to get to see her cousin, she was not going to get to see all of her uncles and she was not going to get to see her aunt.

Even though I rained on her parade I think she still had a good Christmas.  We spent Christmas Eve with Wes' dad and step mom like we do every year.  Kassi made sure Grandma Becky read her some of her new stories.  Then on Christmas morning my parents came in and enjoyed watching Kassi opening some of her gifts.  After everything was open we hung out and played with all the new goodies.  Just the three of us.  It was really enjoyable.  Later that evening Wes' brother and mom came by and we opened some more gifts. 

In years past Kassi has been very overwhelmed with gifts.  So much so that some times she was not even getting everything open.  She would open a few and just want to play with them.  This year we decided to have a talk with Santa and limited him to the five main things Kassi wanted and a couple of little things.  We also scaled back.  Instead of several smaller things we decided to buy a Wii and some games to go with it.  When we did this we weren't sure if Kassi was really going to like it yet or not being so young.  She opened it and asked "Does this mean I get to play video games?"  I answered yes and she responded with "You are the best Mommy and Daddy ever."  She really enjoys playing the hunting games.  I think her other favorite Christmas present was actually one of mine.  Wes bought me a Kindle Fire (which is soooooo awesome) and the kid spends more time on it than I do. 

Dogs

I am sitting here with two very wet and stinky dogs!

It has been over a year since we made the extremely hard decision to put our Daisey dog to rest.  Even with as long as it has been I still have a hard time with this.  I miss my pup she was along side me through so much.  I always tell Wes and Kassi that these two mutts we have now are theirs and I don't have a dog anymore because I don't want one.  Truth be told I just don't want to get attached to them, but I think I have.  Even with all their little quirks.

Nina (aka Bug and Bugaboo) 20 months old

This is a dog that lives to hunt.  She does not have an off switch when we go out.  All she wants to do is find birds.  Most days Wes takes her hunting he has to drag her back to the truck.  She eats very little and runs constantly, unless she is in the house.  We found out this summer that she has some stomach issues and has to be on a special diet and take belly pills.  It scares me how thin she is.  It does not matter that we feed her wet food she still does not gain weight.  Once she comes in the house she calms down and lays right down.  She loves to cuddle up close and be held.  She really does think she is a lap dog.  As she gets older she gets more protective of Kassi and I.  So much so that she has to be kept in her kennel at night in case Wes comes in late from a fire call or his shift.  I do really think she would eat someone.  She loves people, but if she thinks they are intruding on us especially when she is close she gets very angry.  Nina has always been a digger and chewer and it does not matter what you do.  She has outgrown some of her chewing as long as she is alone.  When her and Minnie are together they tend to terrorize each other and tend to tear things up, more by one trying to take it away from the other.

Minnie Mouse (aka Monster and Squeakers) 6 months old

When we went to get Minnie she was the calmest, sweetest puppy in the litter.  She picked Kassi and there was no turning back.  Minnie gets car sick and it does not matter how far you go you can generally guarantee she is going to get sick (so she must always ride in her kennel).  She is a ball of fire and a little thick headed.  She gets so excited when she sees you that she squeaks like a mouse.  Once she calms down though she is very sweet and always has to see where Kassi is.  She gets very upset if Kassi is not here and loves to snuggle with Kassi in the mornings.  She is only six months old and weighs as much as Nina does.  She does not have the hunting drive that Nina does, but she tries.  She does stay a lot closer to us than Nina does which is a good thing because she just does not have the stamina to keep up with Nina.

So that's our girls.  They are honory, hyper and can drive me nuts, but they can also be the calmest, sweetest girls.

Almost 2012

I am not sure where 2011 has gone.  How is it possible that our little family can be so busy that the year goes by so fast?

A quick recap of 2011...
-Kassi had her first dance recital.
-We tried to find a new dog at a shelter or rescue and found out you really cannot trust what people tell you. 
-We found out Nina has stomach problems and we have to keep her on a chicken and salmon diet, fortunately the dog food we feed is mostly meat and she does okay with it, but very few treats for the skinny puppy. 
-We brought home Minnie Mouse.  While they say she is a Brittany Spaniel I am pretty sure she is a Monster.
-Kassi started preschool!
-Kassi started her second year of dance, this time doing tap and ballet.
-My asthma kept me down for a long time and I had some other things going on that had me kind of scared.
-Wes was offered, and accepted, a new job at Yellowstone Regional Airport.
-Kassi was the first in her preschool class to meet all of her assessments!  (I'm such a proud mama.)
-Kassi has strep throat and is on her second antibiotic with tonsils that almost touch.  We will see what happens next on Friday.

...and what's to come in 2012.  Well I am not sure what the new year will bring for us.