Hawaii

February 2014
Mayo Cardiology Conference
Grand Hyatt
Kauai, Hawaii

Tanner's 4th hospital visit

Tanner seems to be attracted to the hospital.  

On January 2nd Tanner ended up in the hospital for an infection in his leg.  He woke up with a high fever which continued throughout the day.  I gave him tylenol which seemed to help a little.  His leg was bothering him just a little before his nap time.  After his nap he tried to walk on it and couldn't walk .  He was limping around the house and didn't want anyone to touch his leg.  Spencer came home shortly after he woke up and noticed his leg was acting funny.  He did the normal "Doctor" inspection to make sure his joints were okay and everything seemed fine.  He had a big round red spot that looked like an infection on his right leg and so Spencer said we should take him in to get some antibiotics.  Luckily-- I got an appointment an hour later.  Spencer took him because I was busy getting dinner ready.  Once he got to the doctors office he pulled down Tanners pants to show him the infection and it had spread all the way to his groin.  Spencer said he immediately pulled his pants up and drove to the ER.  Both him and the doctor were worried that the infection was spreading to fast and its was going to need immediate surgery.  Spence called me to inform me what had happened-- I always know when it's serious because he doesn't like to give me all the details.  I could tell something was seriously wrong so I called a babysitter to come over and watch the kids so I could meet him in the ER.  I'm pretty good at staying calm during these moments, but I was definitely scared when I saw Tanner.  He looked terrible and the infection looked twice as bad as it did an hour earlier.

When I got there they had a bunch of teams working on us.  They weren't sure if it was …. or cellulitus or something else.  Luckily the infection never spread past his groin.  That kept us out of surgery which was a big blessing.  Another blessing was our ER Pediatrician was a fellow UW alumni who is mormon and was able to help Spencer give Tanner a blessing.  Nothing calms me more than when my children receive blessings.  I remember hearing "everything is going to be okay" over and over again in my head for the remainder of the night.  There were so many possibilities to what was going on in his leg--some severe, others not as severe--but the same feeling kept coming to me and that was "everything is going to be okay".  I was grateful for that feeling, I knew it was another blessing from my Heavenly Father.  He was definitely looking over us that night.

The next day was kind of long too.  He started out with a MRI because they found a little bone break in his leg and couldn't quite figure out what it was.  We were blessed with amazing doctors (a major plus being at Mayo) and after the MRI things were still a little unclear.  Our Orthopedic doctor went to a different doctor who is a world famous Ped Radiologist to get the final reading.  Because of the severity of the infection she wanted to make sure we weren't missing anything.  The bone break ended up being a common break that most toddlers get from jumping around but don't ever need a cast for.  Usually they don't even notice it because it's so small.  They did a bunch of blood cultures and nothing grew from them with left us with no real direction except to use the most common antibiotics (which ended up working great).  We staying in the hospital for 3 days and then came home.

Tanner ended up with cellulitus which was mostly likely caused by his excema.  Earlier that week he had a major excema outbreak (one of the worst he has had) and unfortunately our timing was terrible and we were in Wisconsin Dells at an indoor watermark.  Our best guess is he got an infection in the hot tub that went through his excema and his body was never able to control it.

Last year after Tanner had been in the hospital a couple times my friends put together a hospital bag with a bunch of goodies, stationary, pens, books….etc.  I was so grateful to have it--I used almost all the food and it reminded me how wonderful our friends are here in Rochester.  We had many of them watching Reece and Benson while we were in the hospital.  We also had a nice meal when we got home.  Mayo was super nice and told Spencer he didn't have to return to work until after Tanner had been released from the hospital.  They have treated us so well--we are grateful for that.

So you have to know that for some weird reason, every time we end up in the hospital the next day or so is CRAZY.  Something weird happens.  This time it was caused by a rubber band that was put on Tanners wrist by his brothers. They were being nice and giving him a bracelet but it was to small.  He work up and his hand was literally twice as big as normal.  You couldn't see any joints and his hand looked like a big balloon.  The next day he started throwing up--due to his new medications.  Two days later I got a nasty 24 hour flu that kept me down the entire day.  Luckily it was Spencer's day off because I literally didn't leave the couch.  Unfortunately, Spencer got the 24 hour flu the following day.  After that life went back to normal!

And this year we met our Out-of-pocket maximum within the first 3 weeks of the year! Free health care for the remaining year.

Random Jan. 2014

I try and take Sunday pictures all the time--and honestly they NEVER turn out.  The boys are usually whining, being uncooperative, or being just plain crazy. And then we are running late to church and they are terrible in Sacrament meeting.  I need to just give up on pictures before church but it's a hard addiction.  And someone needs to teach my children to be reverent--because I feel like I have failed on that front. 

 COSTCO!!! The best place in the world when it's cold outside and you need a quick and cheap treat and a place to run.  Sometimes I am embarrassed at how often we visit Costco.  They are probably like, "oh no, not that lady again".  But we sure do have a GREAT time!

 Reece, Benson and I decided to go sledding.  After one run down the hill Benson said he was to cold, and then after 2 runs Reece and I decided we were frozen.  I'm pretty sure the temperature was in the single digits.  At least we tried---and got a picture to prove we did it!

Family Birthday party

We started a new tradition-- on mine and Spencer's anniversary we had a mini family birthday party because it was the start of our family.  We had a yummy cake decorated by the boys and then sang Happy Birthday to ourselves! Happy Birthday Miller family! Sure love you guys.

Wisconsin Dells

 After Christmas we went to Wisconsin Dells for a little get away.  We stayed at Mt. Olympus with our friends, the Wilcox's. Mt. Olympus has a huge indoor waterpark which was the highlight of our trip.  The boys swam their little hearts out.  Benson loved the Lazy river, and Reece and Tanner loved the Hot tub! The boys also LOVED the tube slides.  They were impressive and super fast--probably the best ones I've been on.  We also got spoiled with good weather-- 30 degrees! A first in a while here in the Mid West.  We ate at our favorite spot which delivers your food on a train and the kids were going to go tubing but ended up playing in the snow with the Dad's.  It was a great trip.  The only sad part was Tanner had a major excema breakout that we think caused him to get cellulitis 5 days later and a 3 1/2 day stay at the hospital (more to come on that one).  He was miserable the entire trip--it was definitely the worst breakout he has had.  Poor little guy.

Christmas Day 2013

Christmas was magical thanks to the kiddos! They are at the perfect age for Christmas magic.  My favorite part was they silently decided that they were going to watch everyone open their presents one at a time.  They got so excited for the other people when they opened their gifts.  They said "thanks" after each gift and weren't rushing through the morning.  It was a nice change for the Miller family.  We had our usual big breakfast and then hung around the house for the day.  It was a relaxing day--just what I wanted.  

Santa surprised the boys with a Wii and Skylanders.  Tanner got a Jeep that he loved.  The Dunkley's gave them scooters and Millers gave them umbrellas! It was an exciting morning. OH, and Mom and Dad gave them a basketball hoop!