Tonsil Time

It's been a crazy few weeks at our house. It all started with a week of rain and a sore throat. The entire week of January 18 it rained and rained and rained. It felt so Portlandish that I bought a few tulips I saw on sale when I went grocery shopping. Wednesday of that week Alex started having a sore throat which we thought was just a cold. By Friday it was obvious it was strep. Despite antibiotics it continued to grow making every swallow extremely painful and by Sunday evening his right tonsil was pretty swollen -- abcessed. Bros. Klein & Thomas were kind enough to come and administer to him. By Tuesday afternoon we knew it needed to come out. The ENT's we were referred to up here were all full, so luckily Dad K was working in Tucson that day and knew a guy -- Dr. LaMear. Everyone was so kind. Our friends the Allen's took the kids until the Mulleneaux's were able to pick them up. Then the Mulleneaux's made Bradley's first Pinewood Derby race that night extra special by fixing up his car so he came in 4th place -- way to go Brad! Alex and I drove down to Tucson and pretty much walked straight into his surgery. Dad was able to be his anethesiologist which was a comfort for Alex. All the nurses were extra nice because they claim to think Dr. Kartchner is great. Lincoln came and kept me company in the waiting room -- it was nice to have someone to talk to. Everything went great with the surgery (Dad said it was one of the biggest tonsils he'd ever seen). Alex was funny to watch coming out of anesthesia -- he was very friendly, waving at everyone and searching for the nurse named Helen so he could thank her. I was teasing him about it as we left and he said, "Well, you'll notice I did get two popsicles out of it." He was dehydrated enough from all his difficulties swallowing that they wanted him to be on IV fluids all night. Luckily they let us go home with Dad so we spent the night in St. David with his IV bag handing from the antler gun rack in Devon's room. Mom & Karina gave us good eats and took good care of us until it was time to head back home. The kids spent the night with the Mulleneaux's in Anthem and had a royally good time -- sleepover with the cousins, got to miss school the next day, etc. They're probably wishing for more tonsilectomies. Anna was kind enough to drive them down to Queen Creek for us. It's taken over a week but Alex can finally eat without pain meds. All in all, including the fact that Alex was able to both lecture and operate at his long-planned implant CE class the Friday after surgery, we were so very blessed. Just when I thought life was getting back to normal (is there truly such a thing) I got to take care of the girls through a week of fevers and nasty colds culminating this week with a doctor's visit where Lydia had an ear infection and Eve is anemic and they found a small heart murmur. I guess I didn't have enough to do. Oh well. On the more fun side, Brad and Carter have had a good time climbing the big cotton wood tree and checking out an old birds nest half way up. The Stephensons had a sleepover at our house last week and it was fun to spend time with them. Brad and Alex got to go to Cub Scout day camp and we enjoyed visits with cousins James & Jon Brimhall and Uncle Alan. Life really is good -- especially when you have an entire minute all to yourself to reflect on it. Brad

Carter

A classic Carter face -- and very appropriate in anticipation of the next picture.

Alex really wanted to see when his tonsil looked like so here's the view -- feel free to skip this one.