Blog makeover, Mackenzie update, and FOLLOW ME.

As you can tell, I gave the blog a little makeover. Let me know what you think. I really wish there were more choices for fonts. I love blogging. I know it's mostly about Mackenzie but I might just started putting other random thoughts on here. We'll see. Not sure how many people actually read this. Speaking of that, if you read this blog click on the "follow this blog" link!!!

And on to the more important things. Mackenzie is doing great!!!!! She slept better last night and in her crib for the majority of the night. She drank some pediasure last night also. Did I blog about that already? I can't remember. I have the urinary system on my mind from lecture today. Anyway, this morning after waking up Mackenzie asked for some cereal. After making sure my ears weren't full of wax I asked her if she wanted cereal and got the reply of YES. I decided I'd give her some when I dropped her off with Mimi and Papa for the day. She continued to ask for cereal up until the moment she had it sitting in front of her. Mind you, only about 15 minutes had gone by. She ate a few bites of it but was rather distracted by the playdough. (One of her new favorite things) Key point being she did not cry with the first bite or any of the 3 she took. I went off to school. Papa told me she had a couple of bottles of pediasure and some cookies. COOKIES! How awesome is that? Tonight she ate some pasta, cheese, and even a few bites of chicken! I can't believe it. Her mouth is looking sooo much better. Most of the scabs have come off and she is able to suck on her pacifier again. I was secretly hoping that since she wasn't able to suck on it that she would forget all about it, not the case though. She is now sleeping. The doctor's office called to check on her and see if we were giving her the antiviral. Did I mention that we only gave her a few doses? It really gave her some GI distress, worse than the motrin. And, it's likely not going to be effective since it was started so late. Had we started it Tues or Wed it may be a different story. I let them know how frustrated I was that we were not told of the results until Friday and that had they let us know that the herpes rapid test was positive on Wed rather than making us wait this outbreak could have been less painful and horrible for her. What I am trying to say is that today I found out that they had the results when they told me they didn't. Should we find a new pediatrician?

With all of that going on I haven't really been able to update you on the new things Mackenzie is doing. She loves to twirl and dance. She loves the slide at the park and will climb it by herself. When we drive by the park on our way to Mimi and Papa's she yells "SLIDE!!!!!" I think I already told you about her learning shapes. Tonight she distinguished pink from yellow when I asked her to point at the pink playdough. Miss Smartypants I tell you. She has an obsession with Bob from Veggie Tales and will ask to watch "Ba" just about every second she gets. Her favorite place to be is outside. She doesn't like to share her toys which is something we are trying to work on.

Sorry this was a long post! Thanks again for keeping her in your thoughts and prayers, we appreciate it. Again, if you follow our blog, click on the FOLLOW THIS BLOG link to the right!!!!!

Back to playing

Well it seems as though little miss monkey is feeling a little better. She slept more last night but still had some tummy issues from the medicine. We stopped giving it to her as it just wasn't worth it and it wouldn't be effective since it was started so late in the eruption of the virus. I was worried last night that I was going to have to take her to the ER to get rehydrated. She wasn't drinking very much and her diaper had extremely concentrated urine in it. Today is a different story. She still won't eat but she has had almost 2 bottles of the yogurt and milk stuff. Then I decided to buy some pediasure, she loves it. Now she is actually playing like herself! Her sores are healing and peeling off and of course still bleeding. We're keeping vasaline on her lips and that seems to make a HUGE difference. Right now she is hugging her baby and saying "nigh nigh" as she is giving her daddy a blanket. Then she lays on the floor waiting for him to put it over her and pat her back. It's so cute. Did I ever mention that she is obsessed with Bob from Veggie Tales?

The updated picture

Here are two pictures, the first one she just wanted to sit on my lap and put stickers on herself. That is what we did for Halloween this year. Fun huh. The second one you can obviously tell that she in uncomfortable. You can see that the break out has spread to around her mouth. Her lips are now cracking and bleeding and the medicine is giving her diarrhea so we really have to make sure she gets enough fluids. She still doesn't want to eat or drink much but hopefully as the weekend goes on that will change.

Update

Well we went back to the doctor today as it is just ridiculous that we have not been called with test results. We saw a different provider who was on top of phoning the lab to figure out where the results were. As it turns out, Mackenzie does have herpes simplex 1. Apparently the first time a child has an occurrence of this it doesn't involve just a cold sore. It involves multiple on the lips, tongue, and roof of the mouth. She now has some blisters on her face, they are small but actually resemble a blister. I feel so bad for her. Last night she ended up eating about half of her cup of diced peaches. YAY! Today I got her some drinkable yogurt and mixed it with milk for her bottle. She drank it up! Finally a little nutrition! She was started on Acyclovir today so hopefully we are on the road to recovery. Although in order for acyclovir to be effective, it needs to be started within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms. We are onto day 4. But it should help with some of the pain. Thanks for keeping her in your thoughts and prayers. I'll post another picture tomorrow. Oh, I passed my exam today with an 84%. Better than I anticipated!

18 months and miserable.

Today we hit the year and a half mark!! Mackenzie has been very sick this week. Monday I picked her up from Mimi and Papa's to find that she had a 102.2 fever. Tuesday she woke up with ulcer type things all over her tongue and on both top and bottom lips, right where the two touch if you have your mouth closed, all the way across. She refuses to eat but does drink milk or water in small portions throughout the day. She is miserable! I took her to the doctor Tuesday who said that she suspects it's the herpes virus (at this point I start to feel like a bad parent as I just got rid of a cold sore over a week ago). They cultured it and said we would know in 24 hours. It has now been 48 hours and we still don't know if its herpes. I phoned yesterday and was told the test takes 3 days! 3 days people!!!! What happened to the rapid 24 hour test?? In the meantime, Mackenzie is not sleeping which means we aren't either. She is crying in pain not only from her mouth but I believe the infant motrin is tearing up her empty stomach. She refuses to let us put anything on her mouth to try and numb it up. I did manage to shove a q-tip soaked in benzocaine in there this afternoon. It made a little difference. I asked her if her mouth felt any better and she said "yeah." She still did not want to eat. She is still running a fever and taking cat naps throughout the day. It is so hard to watch her be in so much pain and not be able to do anything about it. And to add more to the pot, I have an exam tomorrow. She was screaming all night last night, she wouldn't let me hold her, she just wanted to lay on the floor or on the couch. Here is a picture of her, poor thing. The sores do not resemble cold sores at all, they are not fluid filled whatsoever. It doesn't even resemble hand, foot, and mouth disease. I am baffled. She won't even eat ice cream. I also tried the stage 1 baby food. She won't touch it. She can't even brush her teeth! Worst of all, we can't go to the Halloween Party tomorrow night. We were going to dress up as a family- Matt a devil, myself an angel, and Mac was going to be half devil and half angel. Maybe we'll take her trick or treating. I just want her to get better. I hate seeing her in pain, it's breaking my heart. I don't know what else to do! On a better note, she knows 3 shapes and 1 color and she is is growing fast! Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

More pics from the pumpkin patch

Fun in the fall

Today Mackenzie and I went with Grammy and Papa to visit a couple of farms. We fed alpacas and walked through the pumpkin patch. It was so much fun. Mackenzie loved having the freedom of walking around the farms. There were these goats behind a fence at the pumpkin patch that Mackenzie loved playing with. I got video of that but it's too big to put on here. We had such a fun day today. Too bad daddy couldn't be with us. We didn't pick out a pumpkin today since he wasn't there. We'll go back though! Mackenzie did find her own size pumpkin that we did get. We had some apple cider too. I love this season!!!