Pregnant Women, People with HIV and Cancer BEWARE:

My wonderfully sweet child, Austyn has contracted HUMAN PARVO-VIRUS B19: FIFTHS DISEASE. I know some of you are probably thinking, "PARVO-VIRUS? HOW THE HELL DID YOUR KID GET THAT? DON'T DOGS GET THAT?!?" Well, first let me put your minds to ease that my children aren't sharing bowls with the dog. haha. Secondly, feline, canine and human parvo-viruses are non transferable. Meaning, if Roscoe has parvo, none of us can get it. If we have parvo (which by the way is common) he (the dog) can't get it. So now that you know my kid(s) aren't swapping spit with any ones dog, I'll explain the disease a little to you.
Actually many of you have probably heard of "Fifths Disease." I first learned of this disease while I was pregnant with Taylor. I wanted to learn as much as I could about things to avoid and things to not do during pregnancy. Fifths Disease/Parvo, whatever you want to call it can be very harmful to pregnant women, people with HIV and people with cancer. Fifths Disease is most commonly spotted by the "slapped appearance" on one's cheek. The rash usually accompanies this slapped look. The rash is described as a 'lacy pattern' on the skin. The rash isn't typically itchy, and can be widespread to the trunk and limbs. You are most contagious before the rash even appears. Once the rash appears you are said to not be contagious anymore, however our pediatrician advised us that he would still be considered contagious for the next two weeks! Children presenting the rash are not prohibited from attending school since they have most likely already spread the disease since it is most contagious before the rash appears. There is no treatment for the disease because it is a virus. DUH. Austyn will stop taking his Claritin since it isn't doing anything for him except drugging him up. We were prescribed Motrin in case he develops a fever. The very first symptoms of the disease are very misleading. You think your kid just has a cough or a cold, and then here comes the rash. Cold symptoms are the first symptoms to appear. That isn't to say that you should be paranoid every time your child catches a cold, but in case they start getting a rash, at least now you will know what they have. Possibly, anyway.
There isn't anything you can do to prevent yourself or anyone else from getting this disease, except get it and become immune to it. Most adults are immune to it as we have most likely had it at one point in time or another. It is fairly common in young children. We were told that there was an outbreak of fifths disease at the CDC (daycare) on base. So, someone somewhere caught this disease, and has spread it around quite effectively. The rash will go away soon, hopefully, and he will be okay through it all. The rash however could resurface in 4 months time. Its not a guarantee that it will or won't, but a possibility. So, we'll be on the lookout for slapped cheeks!
I am so relieved that I know what is wrong with him, however, I still wish there was something I could do to help. I think as a mother I feel helpless and awful when there is literally nothing I can do to help the situation. Its just that natural mothering instinct in me, I guess.
So, yep that's that. Austyn has this 'disease,' and he didn't get it from sharing bowls or swapping spit with the dog, he just simply caught it from breathing the air outdoors.

Seriously....What is Wrong with My Kid?

Last Tuesday, when Roscoe had an appointment for his assortment of issues, Ryleigh and Austyn were at our friend's house. Our friends watched them for us, and I was thankful for that. Well, we ended up staying at their house for dinner. They didn't have anything out of the ordinary, just spaghetti and salad. We have had spaghetti numerous times. As we are eating, I start to notice that the side of his face is bright red and it looks like he has bumps on his face. I take a closer look, and think, well maybe its from playing outside today. Its possible. Well a couple of days go by and over the days his rash on his face seems to come and go when he eats. He isn't eating anything different or new. So, I think okay, well if it does it again, we are going straight to the Dr. It didn't do it again, until yesterday. We were all outside enjoying the day. He was riding his big wheel up and down the driveway while I cleaned the truck. I looked up and noticed that his legs looked awfully red. So, I call him over and I take a closer look. He has this red splotchy spotty looking rash all over his legs and arms. That was the last straw! We packed up the kids and went straight to the hospital. We were there for about an hour and a half or so and the Dr. walks in. She looks at him. And then she begins to ask me all the usual questions that you would typically ask when dealing with a sick child or a child who has a rash.

Has he eaten anything new? NO.
Have you changed laundry detergents? NO.
Does he have a history of allergies? NO.
Does he have any food allergies? NO.
Has he had a fever? NO.
Has he had diarrhea? NO.
Has he been vomiting? NO.
Has he been itchy? NO.
Does he appear to be in pain?
NO. NO, NO, NO! The answers to every single question were NO! So then she says, well I think its an allergy, we'll get him started on some Claritin, and hope it clears up! WHAT?!?! Are you kidding me? You didn't even get a good look at his 'rash'. And you 'hope' that the claritin clears it up. GEE Thanks! Next time I have a big gaping wound, remind me to not come see you, because you might just put a band aid on it and say, Oh, that should take care of it! The doctors that work in our urgent care clinic really seem to have a lack of interest. They have that "who cares" attitude and act like they are so bothered when they have to come in and see us. They don't do a good job at all and they surely don't seem like they take pride in the work that they do! The nurse came in to discharge us and she stated, well we don't have any paperwork for you....because we don't know what it is!! THEN FIND OUT WHAT THE HELL IT IS! I just want to grab these people by their fat little heads and shake them until they scream, and say, "THIS IS MY CHILD! PLEASE HELP HIM!" It's their job, their skill, their duty, and supposed to be their passion. They didn't just skim through medical school and think that they hated it the entire time. It takes dedication, passion and hard work to become a doctor in this world today. Forgive me for ranting and raving like a mad woman, but when it comes to my children, mediocrity and laziness is not accepted!
Now it seems as though the rash is here to stay. The intensity of the color seems to vary. Sometimes it is light pink, and other times it is very bright pinkish red. I've noticed that when we spend time outdoors it seems to "flare" up. I'll make sure to bring this to the Dr's attention tomorrow. I'm also taking all of the pictures along with us in case the rash decides to go into hiding or light pink mode!

Here is a picture of Austyn's face (LEFT side) that I took on Friday:
I took these pictures of him yesterday when we got home from the Urgent Care Clinic. These pictures were taken around 6PM:

This is his LEFT arm:
This is his RIGHT arm:
This is the FRONT of his legs. Doesn't look too bad here:
This is a closeup of the FRONT of his legs:
This is a closeup of the BACK of his LEFT leg:
This is his RIGHT cheek, yesterday:
This is his FACE today after we were outside for about 1 hour. It was early this morning, so it wasn't hot yet.These pictures were taken around 11:30AM:
This is his LEFT arm, today:
This is his RIGHT arm, today:
The FRONT of his LEGS, today:
His LEFT leg, Today:
His RIGHT leg today:
This is the back of his LEFT leg:

Silly Faces

Again, there really isn't anything to report. Our days are sailing by! We are almost to the halfway mark for Mark's return! Its exciting, and amazing that so much time has gone by already. Time flies when you are having fun. Speaking of fun, our paper chain had a fun task for us to do on Friday. Every day that Mark is gone we either read a message from him or we do something that he tells us to do. Some days he might say he loves us, or hopes we have a wonderful day. Other days he tells us to have a game night, or to have a movie night. Friday night his message told us to take lots of silly pictures and then email them to him. So, that's what we did. Here are the results from those pictures. The kids had so much fun! We hope you can laugh or at least smile at our silliness!

My Fourth Child....

Is Roscoe. He just has never ending issues. Or so it seems. He has battled chronic ear infections, won the war against fleas and endured several 3AM bouts of diarrhea! Now, you know why I call him the fourth child. It's always something with this boy! None-the-less he is an awesome dog! He's so mellow, loving, loyal, playful and huge. He is about twice the size of our old neighbor's Labrador Retriever! Of course they had a female. lol.
never had fleas before. These cats are constantly in my backyard and I am very tempted to take my mom's advice. Her advice was to throw catnip in the neighbor's yard. It isn't the nicest, or even the right thing to do, but at least it would be funny, right? Well just recently Roscoe contracted fleas from the neighbors' wandering cats, I'm assuming. I think I am going to plant some lavender. I read somewhere that cats don't like lavender and it is a natural feline repellent.
Okay, so back to the Rosc as I like to affectionately call him. :o) After we won the war against the fleas, our poor Roscoe started Alopecia or hair loss in layman's terms. At first I thought, oh, its just from where he was itching when he had fleas. Well, then the hair loss spread. The backs of his hind legs are almost bare and he has a few spots on his back and one big bald spot on his tail. His bald spot on his tale is most likely due to an allergic reaction to fleas. I started to get really concerned once his hair loss seemed more widespread. He also got another ear infection. This time only in one ear. And then over the last week I've started noticing chunks, not flakes, but chunks of dandruff all over his back. He is in awful shape. We've never had such a problematic dog before! If it isn't one thing it's another. He's lucky I love him!
So, off to the vet we went. Our appointment was at 2:30 yesterday afternoon. We didn't leave until 4! I think that was our longest visit in history. lol. He had an impression done of his dandruff chunks, an impression of his belly where he had red bumps, a skin scrape of his tail, a smear from his ear and blood drawn from both front legs. He got the works to say the least. All of the impressions, scrape and smears were ready on the spot. He has a yeast infection in his ear. No surprise there. That's the story of his life. We treat and we treat until we are out of meds, but yet the yeast always seems to come right back again. He has some yeast spots on his belly along with a little fungal matter. The dandruff showed no fungus or yeast. His scrape showed no mites and mange was ruled out. We have to wait until next week for his blood test results.
The vet says one of two things is causing all of his problems. Its either allergies or it is hyperthyroidism. His symptoms all fit the hormone disorder, except for his itching. He has begun to consume large quantities of water and has had a very small increase in appetite. Enough to make him gain about 6 pounds since his last visit. He urinates frequently and he literally takes about a minute to finish peeing! If the tests come back positive he will be give hormones. If they come back negative, we start from scratch and we go on an allergy hunt!
In the meantime Roscoe is on antibiotics, anti-inflammatory medication, and he has spray for his belly and feet. Wish us luck with this whole process and hope that our Roscoe gets better!!

She LOVES her "Daw-Daw" LOL

Hot or Cold? It can't be both!

So, really, we don't have a whole lot to write about. lol. The weather has been awesome for the most part. Its been beautiful lately, and we are spending more and more time outdoors. Taylor had his Little League Tryouts on Saturday. Everything went okay, except for the weather! After having spent the entire week outside and enjoying the sunshine, this was the day that we needed optimal weather. No such luck. It was freezing and the wind was blowing so hard! So, it can't be hot one day and cold the next! The tryouts lasted almost two whole hours which was just ridiculous because it could have been over with in like 15-30 minutes! Poor Ryleigh was shivering the whole time and Austyn was bored. Taylor did okay. He didn't give his all for some reason. He was just out there being silly, and because of that they said they would put him (along with the other kids) on the tee ball team. I was livid, and I spoke up, because that's what I do. lol. I said, I DO NOT think so! My son has played tee ball for two years and coach's pitch for two years! There is NO way you are putting him on the dang tee ball team! That's for baby's! My three year old is on the tee ball team! Taylor is far too advanced for coach's pitch! So, we had to stay for an extra hour to sit and watch all of the 8-9 year old kids swing and miss. Taylor was the absolute dead last kid to hit! He got up there and hit 3 balls out of 5 off of the pitching machine! He did AWESOME! AND, he hit lefty which isn't even his strongest! The coach's were impressed and said, if he hits that good lefty, we we don't even want to know how good he does when he hits right!! So, I said, yeah, that's what I thought. Although, he is my child, I don't think I am biased. The kid has skills! Austyn does too! Austyn has a crazy arm, and he hits pretty good too! What can I say, my kids are talented. lolTaylor at tryouts on Saturday.Taylor being silly.

Austyn got a hair cut this weekend. Not really a big to-do or anything exciting. He was excited about it because it was my friend "Smeather" as he calls her who cut his hair for him. She has a cosmetology license and she does everyone's hair, except that's not her job. I'm not sure why she doesn't work at a salon.Austyn after his haircut and bath.How nice it is to not have to leave your house for a haircut. lol

Afterwards she trimmed up Ryleigh's hair. When she was a baby, she had her little bald spot on the back of her head, like most babies do. So, as she has gotten older the spot where she was bald is shorter than the rest of her hair. Heather just trimmed up the sides. She only cut 1/2 an inch off. You can't tell until you wash her hair because then it is all even.She never budged because she loves having her hair brushed/fixed and played with. Afterall, she IS a girl! Just hanging around on the swing.

So, that's about it for now. Just wasting time, trying to find silly things to blog about! lol. Here are some pictures of the kids...ENJOY!

I love close-ups of the kids in black and white!