Worried about Dennis .... Family Sickness...

Life has been .......... interesting lately.  Now that I have a little break, I hope to update in here a little more regular.

Let me back up a little and say that Dennis isn't in good shape at all.  I'm terribly worried, and sad, not to mention scared.  On November 14th, Dennis think he had a seizure.  He had a lot of trouble waking up that morning.  I went in to wake him up after awhile (he had a migraine and took some of his migraine meds, usually he sleeps for awhile after taking them.) ... and he woke up.  However, he must have fallen back to sleep.  I yelled to wake him up again, and I got a response.  About fifteen minutes later he comes stumbling out of the room with this odd look.  He sits down at his laptop and is looking something up.  Then he says "I have to call the DR because I think I just has a seizure."  He says he remembers being alert enough to feel his body shaking uncontrollably  his body was up off the bed, and then he woke up feeling really stiff, and sore, and the rest of the day he was very confused.  He was still confused into the next day.  He went into the clinic the same day (not into the ER, we realize now we should have gone straight into the ER) ... and the DR he saw said he agreed that it sounded like he had a seizure.  The following day, Tuesday - he was still some what confused, still had some slurred speech... and his vision got really bad.   I ended up leaving class early because he asked me to.  Wednesday his legs started to feel a little numb like they did in 2007/2008/2009.  We thought it was odd.  By Thursday night, he was so bad he asked me to come home early again.  I don't remember if we went in Thursday night too, but I know he managed to get an appointment with our reg. doctor  (Friday, the 18th).  I had to put him in a wheelchair because his legs were that bad.  He was falling and losing balance because he couldn't feel them well.

Our DR took one look at him and knew something serious was going on.  She sent us into the ER.  He had a battery of tests done.  CT scan on Tuesday during the first trip to the ER.   On Friday he had MRI done on his spine and head w/ contrast ... and had a spinal tap done.  Once they got the results back for the spinal tap the DR came in saying he thought that Dennis may have Guillain-Barre Syndrome.  This is scary because it causes you to be paralysed - slowly - from the feet spreading up.  This fit ...  so off to the hospital he went in Seattle where they had a plasma machine that could help him....  Before leaving the hospital at home, they gave him this....

 We read it takes over 1,000 donors for that one little bag!!

We spent a total of 12 hours in the ER that night.

After Dennis left for Seattle, and I went home....  had a good cry, crawled into my PJs and bed and got all comfy ....  Kaedyn woke up sounding like this ....

and Nathan had a temp ....  so I ended up getting dressed and taking BOTH of them into the ER.

after sitting in the waiting room for 2 hours, and deciding I didn't really want to be there until 5am, I took them home - treated them for the night .... and took them back into the ER the following morning.

 We colored a lot - while waiting for DR...

Kaedyn of course had the Croup and Nathan an upper resp. infection....   Poor Kaedyn was so sick :(

Sunday we went to my Mom's to celebrate Thanksgiving before they left for a visit to my step-dad's family.  It was sad though, going without Dennis.  Note: I couldn't warm up at all Sunday, I was cold all day and this is just a sign to me that I'm getting sick.  Figured, I'm catching the cold virus the babies started out their crud with.

Monday - Dennis was told he could come home.  The hospital wasn't doing anything for him, he wasn't getting worse or better.  So they basically just sent him home with a walker.  There was some talk of him possibly going to a nursing home/rehabilitation center.... but they just decided to send him home.  So Monday night, my mom took us over to Seattle to get him! YAY!

 (above) the ferry pulled in for all of us to get one.  Nathan had been so excited to go on the "Big Boat" ... and we were going on a way we never went on before, on the car.  (below) ... after Nathan woke up sitting below in the van after the ferry started to move, we went up top to sit.

 Nathan not wanting his picture taken.

 Kaedyn found something to do!

 Seattle from the car area - pulling up - on the ferry.

Monday & Tuesday I was coughing some, Tuesday I was just worried about making sure Dennis was supported with getting around the apartment.  By the time we got home Tuesday night ... I was so sick.  I started running a temp, I was so cold I was shivering and shaking...  sick I was.

Wednesday morning, I couldn't function.  My temp was 102, I couldn't warm up.  Dennis had an appointment with PT that morning, and Cal had an appt with our Dr. I called and cancelled both...  but Dennis called the nurses, to ask them what I could take for the fever since I'm not allowed to take over the counter pain meds thanks to my liver.  They wanted me in right away though, between my cough and my fever, they thought I needed to get seen ASAP.  So I drove myself (because no one else could) ... into the Dr.

So I went in.  After some time with the DR... her jokes about seeing one of us every day that week, and a chest x-ray - she sent me home with antibiotics, steroid inhaler, and nebulizer albuteral because I had full-blown pneumonia!!  I had gone from a random cough Monday & Tuesday to full blown pneumonia Tuesday night!

I'm so sick right now I just want to cry!  However, Dennis is doing better... he's been pushing himself A LOT has been able to get up and walk around the apartment on his own.

Cal is coughing a ton and Noah (surprise surprise) seems to have escaped this non-sense...