“Where are they now?” I’m sure you’ve been wondering because we haven’t posted any new post since mid-August.  Life has definitely been a test for us these last few months or so.  First, our son LJ severed a major artery in his middle finger while taking a food processor blade out of the dish washer.  That required 6 stitches to close up and a plastic surgeon referral.  That was back in the later part of August and we’re told he should fully heal within a years’ time because there’s still numbness in the finger.

Next there was Raven our oldest daughter who for a few days in the early part of September was complaining that she thought her bottom lip was swollen which by looking at it you couldn’t see what she was physically feeling.  A few days goes by and she brings it to our attention again, but this time the symptoms are visible and it looked like she had a stroke because the bottom right side of her lip was slanted downwards and she couldn’t blink her eye on that side normally.  So of course thinking that our child has had a stroke while she was sleeping sent us racing out the door to her doctor.  With all the testing that her doctor preformed that day it was determined that she had what they call “bell’s palsy”.

“Bell’s Palsy” basically paralyzes the facial nerves in the face causing temporary or sometimes long term paralysis.  What a shock to say the least.  She was put on a 2-week antibiotic regiment and 3-weeks after completing her treatment her face returned to normal.  This was the scariest thing we’d gone through with one of our kids since our first daughter Brianna past away from Meningitis 15 years ago, so we thought until you hear about our latest saga with our youngest Tyanna.

On the 22nd of September after everything we’d gone through the other two, our youngest Tyanna was walking to the outside trash with her brother and sister and low and behold stepped on a dirty, rusty nail.  It bleed for a few minutes and we cleaned it up and put a band-aid on it thinking that’s all she needed since she’d already had a tetanus shot.  The next morning her foot was swollen and she was limping slightly so we took her in to the ER and they did xrays which revealed no infection to the bone and put her on oral antibiotics for 3-weeks.  After she finished up with her meds the foot was still swollen and she still couldn’t walk on it so we took her in the see her doctor and she ordered another xray because the first xray wouldn’t have shown any infection in the bone because it turns out it takes two-weeks for any infection to set in.  That was on a Monday, the xray was scheduled for that Wednesday and sure enough the bone was infected and she needed antibiotics administered through an IV so up to the ER we went.

While at the ER and Infectious Diseased specialist was called in and soon an Orthopedic Surgeon because now they’re talking MRI’s, and surgery…wow…that still gets me!  So the MRI results came back that the infection was deep in her big toe bone and they would have to go in and scrape, and collect cultures to make sure the infection was paired up with the right IV antibiotics. (the right one that would kill it)  We spent a week in the hospital and oh yeah I almost forgot the scariest part, as if all that wasn’t scary enough.  While in surgery they also put in a central IV catheter so her meds could be administered at home…yeah!

So here we are in November and she gets 11.2 cc of antibiotics every 8 hours for a totally of 6-weeks, and a home health nurse comes to visit every Tuesday to change out her IV dressings and draw blood.  Today was an especially scary day because now we’re dealing with an out of control fever and had to visit the ER again.  She’s doing better, we’re waiting to see if the central line is causing an infection which would explain the fever because all her other test came back normal.  Pray for us, and just as soon as things get back to normal around here Raising Chefs will be back in full swing!  Happy cooking!

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