Inevitably Keely

We found out this morning that Finnegan has pneumonia. An hour later, Daniel was at the doc. He has bronchitis. Less than an hour later I was on the phone with the pediatrician requesting Zoe get a chest xray too. Call it mothers intuition or just common sense, but it seemed like Z had more than a common cold. An hour later I was at the Pulmonologist. THREE hours, 2 breathing tests, and 2 chest xrays later, we know that my pneumonia is improving but likely to turn into bronchitis. The bad news is my lungs are at 50% capacity. The good news is... that's better than 0. The doc is trying to figure out why this is happening to me. Pneumonia should only affect me by 15%... 50 is bad. The other news is that he wants to check me for Valley Fever again next week. He says despite last weeks results, it's just too early to know I don't have it. He also says he'd rather I have VF because he knows how to treat that. Look at me! I'm so *mysterious*. As soon as we finished there,...

Zoe woke up last night crying, coughing, wheezing and gasping for breath. When we'd gotten her to calm down and felt confident that we did not need to rush her to the ER, she and I settled into the guest room. I held her as she tossed and turned. She slept, I did not. Daniel took Finnegan to Cheryl's this morning, as planned and left Z with me. She and I stayed huddled in the bed feeling miserable together. She's running a fever now and goes to her doctor in a half hour. My husband was supposed to be able to work this week, but now he's home again to help take care of Z and take her to her appointment since I still feel like hell. Walking across the room takes my breath away. I STILL don't have any of my blood test results or info on my CT Scan. What I do know, is that I'm not pregnant... not that I thought I was - and that the site of my TB test looks normal so far. I called my doctor's office at 10am and they said they'd call me right back. Um. I haven...

Last Monday night, we loaded up the family and went to Urgent Care. I wasn't feeling right and knew it would only get worse if I didn't get any meds in my system as soon as possible. Finn was being especially cranky, not eating as much and coughing. We were seen fairly quickly. The doctor said I had a bacterial infection and prescribed antibiotics. Finn was sick, but not that bad off, so we'd wait to give him any meds - just continue monitoring him. I thought we were on the road to recovery. Monday night I started running a fever. I felt even worse the next day and by Wednesday, I was trying to get a hold of my doctor's office to get in as soon as they'd take me. They made room and saw me just before 10am, I was in x-rays ten minutes later. Turned out, I had pneumonia. Four days later, I'm still as sick as I was that morning. I'm taking strong antibiotics, doing breathing treatments 4 times a day, and I keep my rescue inhaler close at hand. Daniel had to tak...

As much as I love being a mom, I think I may have found my least favorite thing about being a mother: sick baby. Seeing your little one feeling bad is torture. Last night we ended up taking Zoe to the ER because her temperature was so high - one reading was 104, but for most of the night she was 103.6. The sweet little one had Daniel and I on alert, worrying and stressing and willing to deal with the ER on a Friday night. Despite her fever, she was alert and looking around at everyone. She was yelling and talking and flirting and laughing like she usually does. Frankly, I think she enjoyed all the attention. Three hours later, we were on our way home after ruling out pneumonia (chest X-rays) and a bladder infection (urinalysis via catheter). We're told to just ride this fever out, give her Tylenol and Motrin every three hours and to keep her hydrated. Last night the whole family slept horribly and this morning we're all feeling kind of crappy. Even Bailey is having issues with...

I am entertaining the idea of committing to Blog 365 . Entertaining. The concept interests me and I'm thinking I enjoyed NaBloPoMo so much, why the heck not? But I dunno. It's just a thought. I'm still not feeling up to par. Daniel is feeling much better. Yesterday was horrible - his mom and my parents got the stomach flu and they were all feeling miserable. Daniel and I left his dad with the baby (at his urging) to go see the new National Treasure movie. It was so-so, but we enjoyed it. My parents left with their parrot (an African Grey) and their dog, Buffy today. We spent today giving Daniel's parents an exciting tour of Bakersfield and now we're resting back at the house. If all goes well, we're making a day trip over to Ojai just to get some fresh air and get the heck out of here. Our good friends got married in Ojai and Daniel and I fell in love with the small community when we were there the weekend of the wedding. I think it will look like paradise to Da...

Rant: I'm still sick. And that sucks. Zoe has been at Cheryl's all week so I can try to get better. I've missed a full weeks of rehearsal, for which I feel very guilty about. I'm thinking this is the last time I will do a show because my immune system sucks ass and it's just not fair for me to even try anymore. Goodbye, passion for acting. I feel miserable and am lacking in the holiday spirit. And I look like crap: grey hair, roots, etc. I had to cancel a hair appointment because I was too sick to drive myself and in no condition to sit at a salon for two hours. And really, if I can't go to rehearsal - I can't get my hair done. I called and made a doctor's appointment, and realized later that I didn't know where my car keys were. So I tore the living room apart looking for them. And I called Daniel but he was busy at work in meetings. And I called Cheryl but she didn't answer her phone because she accidentally dropped it in the toilet this mornin...

First off, thank you for the proposal-versary wishes! I've never heard that term before and I'm liking it. Daniel and I had the makings for a wonderful night. We picked up some Chipotle (my favorite fast food) and brought it home. We watched Terry Prachett's: The Hogfather on DVD while we ate and cuddled on the couch. The living room was illuminated by the television and the Christmas lights on our tree so it was nice and comfy and romantic. When we got chilly, Daniel grabbed a big blanket and the cuddlefest continued until we took a brief intermission to run to the store to buy cinnamon rolls to heat up and eat with coffee (for him) and chai (for me). It was all lovely and I was glad to be cozy in our home instead of sitting at Mama Tosca's spending a lot of money on a meal. And then my stomach started burning... and cramping; I was feeling jabbing pain and nausea. I don't know if it was food poisoning or the 12 hour stomach flu, or what but it sucked. The pain w...

My parents are going to be here in about ten hours. It's the first time they will see the house with our stuff in it (we showed it to them before everything was official). It's the first trip they've gotten to take since my dad started radiation (now we're in the waiting period, we'll know how it worked in about three months). It's the first time we've had guests in the new house. The house is a mess right now. Pictures still not hung. Things not organized or put in their places yet. We've been in a messy state ever since I got sick, and then Daniel was sick and then Zoe. Now we're all sick: Partaay! It's been one big sickie party over here. It's a good excuse, but it still drives me crazy. Looking around makes me feel anxious and panicky. If you were to see it, you'd probably think it doesn't look bad... but you’re not me. I get obsessed with the details. Daniel often has to tell me to make sure I relax and not do all the things I fe...

After years of retail there are a few things that drive me absolutely bonkers: 1. Rudeness, ignorance and projecting. I'm putting them all together because, from my experience if a customer has an issue with one they have all of them. Yesterday we were at Target (the best store in the world) waiting in line at the Returns desk. I needed to return a shirt that fit funky (in a bad way). I was cheery about the entire thing. I had my receipt and it wasn't anyone's fault the shirt looked ridiculous on me - I just had to return it. Well, before I could do so I had to wait for this woman to freak out. And she really freaked; in front of her toddler. She was cussing and yelling and demanding corporate numbers. The woman did not have a receipt and was returning something that looked really used, like "Hey, my kid used this all last winter and now it doesn't fit him so I'm returning it." used. The sales people gave her the number and did it without stooping to her l...

My little monkey is sick. Last night we could hear little coughs through the baby monitor and this morning we heard her coughing in a series of bursts. When I went into her room, she was coughing but happily playing with the mirror in her crib. My baby LOVES the mirror, being sick isn't going to screw that up. I took this smiling, happy baby out of her crib and layed her on her changing table. The plan was to take her temperature, but she started coughing so much that she was choking just a little and yellow mucous came out of her mouth.* The weird thing is, that as I'm freaking out about the mucous and feeling guilty that I've passed on my creeping crud to her (and Daniel, poor thing is sniffling right next to me) she squirming around and smiling and being a morning person in spite of it all. Where's the wallowing in misery? I wallow and her dad? He's looking pretty miserable too. Zoe? She a happy (sick) camper. But we called her pediatrician anyway. "My daugh...

The other day, Daniel had to call Apple about our damaged power cords. We purchased the Apple Care plan for both Mac's so the whole process was relatively painless. Well, it was completely painless for me as I played the sick card and requested Daniel make the call. I usually am the one who takes care of things like this because of my experience in retail and customer service. After years of dealing with horrible customers, I do not hesitate to voice my opinions and concerns politely but with conviction. And if someone is rude to me or doesn't do what is within their power to do? Well, I can get a little frustrated and I will ask for a supervisor. Don't make me ask for a supervisor! Daniel had a nice rep from Ghana. I know this because I overheard him making chit chat with the guy and the guy asked Daniel to guess where his accent was from. This was funny to me. What was even funnier? When Daniel was giving one of the Mac serial numbers to the rep, he did so by naming some...

Long time readers (or heck, people who have just been reading for a couple months) will not be surprised to read that I am sick. I know, play that violin... give me some cheese with my whine. But for reals. I've got the creeping crud that won't stop creeping. This time I'm sort of ticked off about it. I should not be sick! I don't drink and I don't smoke. I don't stay up late and I get eight hours of sleep (even with a baby and THAT is awesome). I eat somewhat healthy and at least three times a day, if not five. So what's the deal? I dress appropriately for the weather conditions and I'm a happy human. What the hell!? The only thing I can come up with is that this is my lot in life. I just get sick; it's what I do. And every year around this time I will get very sick for the rest of my life. There is nothing I can do except just give in to the damn thing and ride it out complain on my blog until I feel better a couple times. So there you have it. R...

I always say “You're never really at home in a new house until you've stayed up all night praying to the porcelain god, O'Rourke.” Yeah. I've never actually said that, but in a way it's sort of true. I woke up at 12:30 this morning feeling less than spectacular and spent a lot of time feeling like hell. Daniel was there with me every step of the way, holding hair back that did not want to be controlled and covering me with blankets on the bathroom floor. I had the chills. I was burning up. It sucked ass. I wish I could say it's a brand new day and that I'm feeling SOOOO much better, but technically it's the same damn day and feeling better... not so much. Except! I've got an amazing husband and the most adorable daughter watching me as I type my post here. And really, they make my worst day seem pretty fabulous. Excuse me while I go get some hugs and kisses.