Look What We Found!

Or should I say, look what found us?! We were driving back to our Chalet, creeping up the mountain on the winding roads, when there it was...just walking along! I think Chris expected a scene from "The Great Outdoors." We stopped in the middle of the road and it just kept walking towards our car before it finally went to the driveway of another chalet.

These pictures aren't zoomed. We were THAT close!

Walking down the driveway of some poor, unsuspecting souls who had rented the chalet

Didn't find anything in their cars, so he decided to look in the garbage.

Unable to get into the garbage, he decidedto find something in the ditch.

He finally just gave it up and went back to his bear cave.

Party Time!!

In the midst of Chris' hospitalization this little boy turned 6 years old! Since Chris was in the hospital on his actual birthday, we postponed his family party until Sunday in hopes that Chris could be there. No such luck, but Luke still had a great birthday party.

On the day of his birthday, I spent the morning with Luke before going to the hospital to check on daddy. For dinner, I told Luke we could go where ever his little heart desired. His little heart desired....McDonald's, of course! (Is there anywhere else??)

On Sunday we had his party at my parent's house and he was so excited.

His cake: Iron Man

Clothes from Nana. He's grown so much, nothing fits him anymore!

Guarding his presents from Pop. Pop told him it was a "family tradition" that when a boy turns 6 years old, he has to give half of his birthday presents to his Pop. Of course Pop was just kidding, but Luke thought he was serious and tried to hide all of his presents.

And what birthday wouldn't be complete without some hunting gear. Paul got him some hunter orange and a deer call. He's ready now!

Luke has been saying some of the funniest things lately. Here are a few of the conversations between he and I:

Me: NO! (Can't remember why I was saying "No")
Luke: When I grow up, I'm gonna get me some of those babies and I'm gonna let them do whatever they want.
Me: I don't think when you "get" you some babies you will let them do what they want. They might get hurt.
Luke: Uh-huh, I'm going to the hospital and pick them out and I'm gonna let them do what they want!

Another conversation:
Me: Luke, time for bed.
(A few minutes later when he reappears from his room for the 3rd time)
Me: Luke, I said, GO. TO.BED!
Luke: Oh, I didn't hear you. I think I'm losing my hearing.

We're Outta Here!!!

Chris has NO headache this morning! Hallelujah!! We are homeward bound! Waiting on discharge papers now.

Anything Else???

So Chris' spinal headache from yesterday returned this morning so he didn't get to come home today. We waited the majority of the day for an anesthesia consult to see about getting his headache resolved.

The anesthesiologist didn't think today's headache was a spinal headache since it was never completely resolved when he was lying flat. It was, however, much improved when he was lying flat and excruciating when he was standing. This anesthesiologist thought today's headache was occipital neuritis caused by the meningitis. He decided to do an occipital block this afternoon to help with the occipital neuritis. Even if today's headache was a spinal headache, Chris can't have another blood patch for another 48 hours.

Are you bum-fuzzled yet?? Cause I sure am!

Anyway, after the occipital block, Chris can't feel his head, so if he still has a headache, he doesn't know it.

We'll see how he feels in the morning. If he's better, then he can come home. If not, then we'll discuss our options.

Chris' blood patch from yesterday worked great at the time, however this morning the spinal headache is back worse than ever. We're waiting now for an anesthesia consult to see if they can do another one so soon after the first one. Doesn't look like we're going home today unless there are some drastic changes.

I'll update again later.

What Now???

So what has been going on since my last update? Chris is STILL in the hospital, that's what! Long story short, his cultures were all negative, which we knew they would probably be negative since he was afebrile and his head and neck pain were somewhat better.

However, his head and neck pain were still pretty bad until late last night, when they were down to a dull ache and we decided he could come home this morning. When his doctor saw him this morning, Chris was in great spirits and pain-free and more than ready to come home. This discharge orders were written, his IV had been pulled and I was on my way to get him. BUT when he stood up and started moving around, his headache returned with a vengence and he started with some major vomiting. He said it felt like a vice squeezing his head. So, back to bed he went, the doctor was paged, his IV was replaced. He had a spinal headache and had to have a blood patch to give him some relief. After some, Ahem, persuasion on my part, we were able to get the blood patch today. Luckily anestesia was in-house for another surgery so they were able to get his blood patch done this afternoon.

His head feels much better, but he still has some pressure when he stands up and is now having a lot of pressure in his lower back. Most likely the back pain is from the blood that was infused there but they wanted to keep him again for the night to make sure.

He is SO ready to get home, but would rather stay put until they know sure what is going on with his back. We sure don't want to have to come home only to turn around and go back.

Hopefully he will be home tomorrow.

Update and How we got here

Chris is feeling some better tonight. No fever since last night and his headache and neck pain are a little more tolerable. Hopefully he will get to come home on Sunday.

Now...how did we get here? It started Monday afternoon when he had some cramps in his calf muscles and just felt really tired. I decided was probably mild dehydration from working in the sweltering heat and not drinking enough liquids while do so. He drank lots of Gatorade and rested for the night and felt better. Tuesday he still had calf pain but had more energy, we thought his calves were just sore from the major cramp the night before.

Moving on to Wednesday afternoon. He worked all day Wednesday, still with the calf pain. He called me on his way home from work and told me he had a really bad headache and his arms and legs were cramping. I decided it was time to drag him to the doctor for some IV fluids. We went to the Urgent Care here in Jasper, we waited about and hour before he was triaged, his headache was getting worse during our wait. Once he was in a room, I needed to go get the kids settled and dropped off at my parents. I was gone for about 45 minutes and when I returned he was much worse, he spiked a fever to 102, and he had some major neck stiffness, which he didn't have when we checked in. I knew he probably had meningitis.

I found his nurse and told her about the neck stiffness, the doctor came in and told us to go straight to the ER; he was very concerned about Chris having bacterial meningitis because of how fast the symptoms were progressing. They threw a mask on him and off we went. When we got to the ER they put him in a room immediately (thank goodness because the place was PACKED!) and did his spinal tap and started his antibiotics within about 20 minutes of us being there. Luckily his spinal fluid was clear, indicating viral meningitis. The ER doctor decided to admit him until his cultures came back negative and until he was fever-free and his pain was tolerable.

It was at this point things came to a sudden halt. As I said the ER was packed and they were very busy. They also had to shuffle some other admitted patients around because Chris had to have an isolation room. We deal with this issue at work every winter, and I know the process can take several hours. I told Chris to get comfy, we would be there a while. I went to the nearest Red Box and rented us...well ME some movies to watch on my laptop while we waited....we ended up watching all 3, yes, T-H-R-E-E of the movies I rented. We were there for 11 hours and were finally moved to his room at around 6:00 Thursday morning. Apparently there was a lot of shuffling to do.

As of now, we are still waiting on the cultures to come back, it still looks like viral meningitis. Hopefully he can remain fever-free and his pain will continue to improve so he can come home.

P.S. I still have lots of pictures to post from our Gatlinburg trip. I'll get them posted as soon as things get settled down around here.

Happy Birthday Luke!!!

My baby boy is 6 years old today!!!

Update

Chris still doesn't feel much better. Still with a lot of neck and back pain and headache. His fever returned last night, but no fever so far today.

His labs still look viral and his white blood count is down, only slightly elevated now. The ultrasound on his leg was normal, but he's still having a lot of pain in his left calf. No one can explain this pain, but it doesn't appear to be anything bad.

They changed his antibiotics and his pain meds last night and so far no more allergic reactions.

We're still waiting on the final results of his cultures, which should be back tomorrow to give him the definite diagnosis of viral meningitis versus bacterial meningitis. At this point, it's very unlikely the cultures would grow bacteria, but he still has to be on isolation until the final results are in.

He's just hanging out waiting on the headache, fever, and neck pain to play themselves out so he can go home.

Prayers Needed

I'm exhausted, so I'll get right to the point of this post.

Chris is in the hospital. He has meningitis, most likely it's viral meningitis, but we're waiting on cultures to come back.

He feels rotten, having lots of neck and back pain and a killer headache. He's on strong antibiotics, so in the event the cultures were to come back as bacterial meningitis, we're ahead on treating it.

He's also on some strong pain meds for his headache and neck/back pain, which only dull the pain. He had an allergic reaction to one of his medications tonight, most likely the pain med, so they changed it. Hopefully, the itching will stop now.

Another concern is some pretty significant pain to his left calf, which he's had since Monday. No one is sure why he has this pain, but it hurts with even the lightest touch. They did an ultrasound this evening to rule out a DVT.

That is where we stand now...waiting on result of cultures, waiting on his neck/back pain and headache to resolve, waiting on ultrasound results, and a change in his pain meds.

Please pray for the cultures to be negative, for his pain to be resolved, and for the ultrasound to be negative so he can come home, hopefully Saturday.

Also, please remember Kaylyn and Luke. They just don't understand why they can't go see him. He's on isolation precautions and they should not be around him until we know for sure he's not contagious. Luckily, they did not see him at all yesterday. Also, Luke's birthday is tomorrow and he's pretty bummed about not getting to see his daddy on his birthday. I know, it's a "small" issue in the grand scheme of things, but to a 6 year old little boy, it's a huge deal.

I'll keep you posted and give a more detailed account of the events of yesterday after I've had some sleep....the non-consecutive 2 hours of sleep I've had since 4:30 yesterday just aren't enough for my brain to function right now!

Pool Time!!

Of course we had to have some pool time. I think if we just took our kids somewhere with a pool for vacation they would be perfectly content! It was the first thing they asked about when they woke up every morning and the last thing they wanted to do before they went to bed every night. We were at the pool every night.

Day 2

After the eventful day from the first day of our vacation, we were ready for a calm day on day 2. We ate breakfast at one of the 300 pancake houses in Gatlinburg and spent the morning and after noon around town and at Ober Gatlinburg.
Still amazed by all those rocks!

Trying to catch one of the baby trout...with their hands. For some reason they were not able to catch a fish on this morning...but they sure did try hard.

Riding the ski lift to the top of the mountain at Ober Gatlinburg to ride the alpine slides down the mountain, which totally rocked! Loved the alpine slides, not so fond of the ski lift.

Kaylyn was not so sure of the ski lift either. We were all a little nervous about being carried up the mountain on a small chair attached to a thin cable with the only thing holding us in the chair being a bar across our laps. I could just see one of us slipping between the chair and the bar and falling out of the sky.

Riding the alpine slide.

Riding the rapids

The kids loved these rides.

Stay tuned for more pics....

Gatlinburg 2010

So our family vacation has come and gone. We left a day early on Wednesday night with plans on stopping in Chattanooga for the night and spending Thursday morning seeing the sights around the city. However, THIS was our first stop of the trip.....Yes, it wouldn't be a Chilton Family vacation without a little drama/trauma. The trip was off to a great start. We left at 5:45 on Wednesday evening, then returned home at 6:00 because I had forgotten something. When we were finally on the road, we drove to Chatanooga, checked in a hotel and slept for the night. We were up bright and early with plans to stop by Lookout Mountain, Rock City, and Ruby Falls, then drive on to Gatlinburg. With everyone in great spirits, we ate breakfast and were about to go to the car when IT happened. Chris was walking out a door and Luke was walking in the same door...do you see where I'm going with this?? COLLISION...metal door to Luke's big toe...ripping half of his toe nail off. OUCH!!! So, instead of taking a detour to Lookout Mountain, Ruby Falls, and Rock City, we took a little detour by T.C. Thompson Children's ER with a screaming Luke who was certain they were going to amputate his toe, begging us to "just put a band-aid on it."
Here he is in the ER. Luckily Chatanooga has more than one pediatric hospital, and we were just about the only one's there. We were in and out of there in about an hour minus 1/2 big toe nail and plus one bulky bandage(which he promptly removed about an hour down the road). Luke was very relieved to leave with all of his toes.

We finally made it to Gatlinburg. I haven't been there in about 10 years, literally. Kaylyn was a fetus the last time we went to Gatlinburg. Anyway, I had forgotten about the traffic going into and out of Sevierville and Pigeon Forge. After the trip to the ER and creeping along for nearly two hours in traffic, finding the office to pick up the key to our chalet, we FINALLY made it there around 4:00 Thursday afternoon. Kaylyn was so excited to be in the mountains, since she's never been north of the Alabama state line. I know, I know, she's a deprived child. What can I say, we're normally beach people in the summer. Anyway, we decided we would drive up to the highest point of the Smokey's and let her check out the view. She loved it.

Here is the view from the top of the mountain.

The North Carolina - Tennessee State Line: Elevation 5046. It was about 20 degrees cooler up there making it a cool 80 degrees. We've grown so accustomed to this sweltering hot weather, I thought we may need to break out the winter coats with the 20 degree drop in temperature. Ha Ha!

Of course we had to stop and play in the river. Yes, with Luke's newly injured toe, which was missing half of it's toenail. He was very careful to guard it and would scream if anyone or anything even thought of coming near it.

Luke was amazed by the big rocks in the river and that the river was so small. He talked about it the ENTIRE trip. Yes, he is easily amused.

Stay tuned, more to come...

SO Not Fair!!!

It's just not fair that my offspring got to take a trip to the beach a couple of weeks ago...while I stayed home to work! They went with Nana and Pop and Paul, Candace, and Chloe. So, yes, my ENTIRE family was at the beach having fun....while I stayed home to work! They had a blast and got to play on the beach for two of their three days. On the third day a storm came and blew all the tar balls on the beach. Here are a few pics Candace sent me.
Enjoying some time in the ocean, pre-tar balls

Chloe's getting to be such a big girl! They said she really had a fun time playing on the beach.

And then there's this picture...Oh, what do I say about this one??? I died laughing when I saw this one. It is quiet hilarious! You have Chloe looking like Aunt Jemima in...I'm not exactly sure what kind of hat that is, Luke who's built like a string bean, and Miss Thang who looks like she's got a future as the cover girl for the Sport's Illustrated Swim Suit Edition! What a crew!

Back on Track

So... it's been a while. This time I actually have a legitimate excuse! June 8, 2010 will now be known as the day The Big Crash of 2010 occurred. Look for it in history books of the future. Yes, my computer crashed and burned. The devastating crash of 2010 may or may not be related to the number of pictures stored on the computer/victim of The Big Crash of 2010.

In any event, we're up and running again AND they were able to recover ALL the pictures and important documents which may or may not have contributed to The Big Crash of 2010.

Tee Ball Party

A couple of weeks ago we had Luke's Tee Ball party. The party was a skating party and all the kids had a fun time. Personally, I am not a fan of skating parties....placing 5 and 6 year old kids in shoes with wheels and telling them to go around in circles on cement flooring is just not a good idea to me. Add to the fact that most said kids have never worn a pair of skates and there are many kids who are much older flying around the skating rink, trying to show off for whomever may be watching...it's a nerve-racking experience! But that's just the ER nurse/mama bear in me talking. The kids had a great time and everyone made out with all their teeth and extremities in tact!

A little concerned about these rolling accessories
Required a little help from Daddy

A little more confident

Kaylyn and BFF Shalyn.

Just one of many encounters with the cement flooring
Taking a break from skating to take in a little air hockey
After skating/colliding with cement, it was time for pizza, cake, and ice cream. The team also received their trophies. Luke promptly dropped his and it ended up in about 3 pieces. Another one has been ordered and will be here by the end of the week.

Another Year Of Dance Is In The Books...

This past weekend we had Kaylyn's dance recital, ending her 6th year of dance. It's hard to believe it's been 6 years since I sent my 3 year old little pig-tailed girl bouncing in to her first dance class. She's come a long way from the days of "I'm A Little Teapot" and "Three Little Fishies!"Backstage, ready to dance!

Showing off the trophies from this year's competition season

Kaylyn and Chaney striking a pose. These two have been together since the begining.

Now for the videos. This is what they've been working so hard on all year.


The quality of these videos is not great. I had to put the video shot with my digital camera on here because my video camera does not save the video in a format I can upload (or maybe I just haven't figured out how to change the format of the video). I think it may be time to upgrade our technology around the Chilton house. HINT, HINT!

"You Know You Want Me..." This song had all four competition teams dancing together and won second overall at the Alabama Theater competition. They move so much in this dance making it hard to point out which dancer is Kaylyn. Here's a hint: She's the smallest one!


"Freakazoid" This is the girls' hip-hop dance.

"Proud Mary" This one is Kaylyn's favorite dance.