Croup bronchitis

Wednesday night Jackson woke up crying and unable to take in a deep breath. Right away I knew that he had croup, but this was the worse that I had ever seen him breathing and was actually debating if I needed to call 911. We gave him his nebulizer right away which helped enough that I knew I could drive him to the ER. He got another breathing treatment once we reached the ER and started to sound a lot better. By 2:30 AM the ER doctor told us that we could probably go home. However 30 minutes later Jackson started to have strior again and the ER doctor walked by and heard him. He just peeked him head into our room and said "I am admitting you." We got to our room at 3:30 and went through the whole admitting process. Finally Jackson and I got to turn off our light and get some sleep at 5:00. Jackson was also awake almost the entire night. He never can sleep well when a light is turned on. At 6:00 the nurse woke us up again because she got orders from the doctor and they drew labs and started an IV on Jackson. They also set up a cool mist tent for Jackson to sleep in. Needless to say Jackson and I then tried to sleep the rest of the morning and Jackson actually slept off and on for most of the day. By Thursday evening Jackson no longer sounded croupy, but instead he had a harsh cough and was little wheezy. The doctor said that Jackson had croup bronchitis. We ended up staying in the hospital unitl Friday evening. Jackson is now doing much better. He is on an antibiotic, steroid and gets a nebulizer treatment twice a day. Annika was excited that she got to have a sleepover with Grandma while we were in the hospital and now she wants me to sleep with her at night because Grandma does. Keep praying that Jackson will remain healthy and that we will be able to stay out of the hospital.

Loads of fun!

Who ever knew that a laundry basket could be so much fun

Andrews visit

Jackson made a guest apperance at Andrews University for a physical therapy class. Jackson's physical therapist is also a professor here and so she asked for Jackson to do a therapy session with her for her students to watch. Jackson must of liked the audience because he did GREAT! He actually even did some things that he hardly ever does. I was so impressed and proud of him. It was really fun for me to once again see how much he has progressed in the past few months. When I tell people that I have a 14 month old who cannot even sit on his own yet it would seem that he has progressed very little, but when I look back even just a few months and he could not even hold up his head well or wouldn't reach for an object I realize how far we have come. Over the past year we have made so many trips for tests, therapies, and doctors appointments. I did not realize how busy we were until Eric and I were doing taxes and figuring out our medical expenses. I have made 77 trips with Jackson and put over 4,000 miles on our car in the past year. Looking at Jackson I can say that it has all been worth it, but I am hoping for a year with a little less stress. I do not think that we can ever thank everyone for all of the help and support that we have received. An especially big thank you to our parents for all of their hours spent watching Annika and all of their support.

Hi Grandpa and Grandma

Jackson loves the postcard that Grandpa and Grandma sent!

Ice Festival

Okay, so I am a little behind on blogging lately. Life has been good and we have had very few doctors appointments (very unusual for us). So now we are finally getting to have some time to just do some fun things. Last weekend St. Joseph had its annual ice festival and we took the kids first to a magic show, which Annika loved while Jackson cried every time the audience cheered or clapped. Then we hit downtown and checked out all of the cool (literally) ice sculptures. Once again Annika thought this was great while Jackson hated the cold. Here are a few of Annika's favorite sculptures.

neurosurgeon

Last week Thursday we had an appointment with Dr. Skarli, our neurosurgeon. Dr. Skarli was amazed at how well Jackson is doing. He feared that because of the large patch he had to place in the Dura there was going to be a lump at the base of Jackson's head. Dr Skarli could hardly believe that it is completely flat and looks great. Jackson decided to impress him even more by waving goodbye to him when we left. Jackson does not seems to have any pain from the surgery anymore, but he is currently cutting 4 teeth so he is still a little fussy at times. We are scheduled to have another MRI in April to see how everything looks and hopefully we will not need to repeat this surgery again.

Since I always write about Jackson I thought that I should also give an update on Annika. She is our very strong willed girl who know exactly what she wants. She is becoming more independant all the time and has now decided that she can dress herself. Today when I heard that she was up I came into her room and she was already dressed. Not matching at all, but dressed. Thankfully, we did not have any appointments today and so I let her wear whatever she wanted to. When I took her to the bathroom later that morning I discovered that she was wearing 3 pairs of underwear. When I asked her why she had on three pairs she just said that she wanted to wear Dora, Tinkerbell, and Hello Kitty. I am so thankful that Annika can give me a good laugh everyday!