A BUSY Week...

The past week has been scary, sad, funny, and ridiculous.
Let's start with last Monday....things started out pretty uneventful.
Whitney wrote her Uncle Jamey a nice email that morning:

Uncle Jamey,
I hope you're having fun in Napa! I miss you. You should come visit me next. Okay?
Thank you for my cool Red Sox shirt. I love it! Mommy wouldn't shut-up about how "cute" I am in it. So she insisted on taking MORE pictures.....


Have fun! Tell Mr. Uncle Newman and Mr. Uncle Joey I said "hi!" and "i cant wait to meet you!"
Bailey says to tell you "hi", too. That dog just won't leave me alone lately....
LOVE YOU, UNCLE JAMEY!!

Love,
Whitney

That afternoon/evening, Eric, Whitney, Bailey and I went to my parents' house.
We took a few (hundred) pics while we were there:
Whitney has all her boys RIGHT where she WANTS them :)

She ADORES her Grandpa!!

Wrapped around her teeny little finger...

My Grandpa, Whitney's Great-Grandpa

Whitney smiles at her great-grandpa, and he just melts into tears...sooo sweet :)

The most exciting thing that happened on Monday was disappointing, but still exciting. Eric, Whitney, and I have been planning to surprise Mandy, Matt, and Brooklyn by flying to Iowa to see them while they are home from Belgium for 3 weeks. We've had the tickets booked, the hotel room booked, and the rental car waiting for us for a few weeks. We were soooo excited! Whitney was auditioning outfits for the vacation, and we literally had suitcases packed and ready to get on a plane....


...and then I spilled the secret in a moment of weakness/excitement/slight fear that Mandy might hurt me if I showed up on her doorstep in Iowa without letting her in on the plan. So we were still excited, but the cat was outta the bag.
THEN....
On Tuesday we had a FUN playdate with one of my kids from the daycare. I woke up to do some last minute cleaning before they came over, and my back hurt a little. It felt like it did last year when I heard a loud "POP!" when putting on a sock. It wasnt BAD yet, but I could tell I was going to have to take it easy. Saylor, her mommy, Whitney, and I had so much fun catching up and watching our girls play. My back got progressively worse throughout the morning, and by the time Saylor and Jenna left our house, I was hunched over and couldnt straighten out my back. My mom saved the day and came over to help with Whitney since I couldnt do anything.
When Eric called around 3pm, I told him that my mom was going to bring me to our friend who is a chiropractor to see if he could help my back. This is pretty much the moment when the proverbially doo-doo hit the proverbially fan.
Eric told me that he felt weak and tired and achey all over. The man NEVER gets sick. NEVER. I have known him for 6 years, and he has NEVER taken a sick day. EVER. I told him that he was not allowed to come home until he went to the doctor. It was 5pm so he went to the walk-in clinic. I JOKINGLY told him "call me back when they tell you its the swine flu! ha. ha. ha."
More doo-doo on the fan.
Eric called back less than 30 minutes later saying he had the flu and that he had to be QUARANTINED for 2 days. Yes. QUARANTINED. He wasnt allowed near me, Whitney, or any other human being for 2 days. TWO DAYS.
So...this is where the "this will be funny when we look back on it" moments really started.
We called my dad. He came over to help me and my mom with Whitney, get us packed, and get us out of the house. Keep in mind, I could not walk. I was crawling/hunchback-of-Notre-Dame-ing it around the house, pointing to things for my dad to toss in a bag and get in the car. Pack n Play. Diapers. Wipes. Bouncer. Formula. Bottles. Gas drops. clothes. PJs. extra binkies. clothes for me. toiletries for me. cell phone chargers. pillows. etc etc.
The plan: Eric would pick up his prescription and head to our house to serve out his sentence. Mom would bring me to the chiro (who was now waiting for me at his office, staying after hours). Whitney was to head to my parents' house with my dad (who hasnt given an infant a bottle since *I* was a baby, 30 years ago.) My mom said she knew I was in a LOT of pain when I let my eyes off Whitney AND sent her packin' with my DAD. Dont get me wrong. He's a great dad. And an AMAZING Grandpa. But leaving our 3 month old ALONE with him for an unknown period of time was slightly nerve-wracking. But I couldnt take care of her and Eric was on lock-down.
So we pack Whitney up with her Gramps, and Mom and I headed downtown to the chiro. After looking me over and trying everything up his sleeves, he suggested we just head to the ER since nothing was working. So off we went to the ER where they pumped me full of pain meds and sent me home...well, not HOME...but to my parents'.
So Whitney and I spent the night at my parents' house, me in a drugged up fog. Awesome. Happy 3-month Birthday, Whitterbug. (Did I mention we were supposed to be going to my parents' for our monthly picture taking opportunity and some yummy steak dinner? yeah. no go. boooooo.hisssss.)
So Wednesday is a blur, but I know Eric laid in bed at our house while Whitney and I hung out at my parents' house. I was still in a LOT of pain and couldnt get any relief from the pain meds the ER sent me home with. (oh wait..forgot about that whole drama...The ER sent me on my way with two scripts for medications. We didnt leave the ER til about midnight, and the ONLY 24-hour pharmacy was CLOSED for the first time in history. So my mom and I went to her house and sent my dad to the sketchiest parts of the next town to pick up my prescriptions for narcotics. Sweet. A comedy of errors.)
Thursday morning, Eric broke the quarantine rules and picked me up at my parents' house. We left Whitney with my parents while we went to see my primary care doc who took one look at me and sent me back to the ER for an MRI. He said I never should have been released 2 nights earlier, and that he thought I had a spinal infection. !?! When I asked him "HOW does one contract a spinal infection?" he said "just bad luck." Yep, that's about right. Are we laughing yet?
So Eric and I head to a different ER where they give me a drug that is allegedly "10 times morphine" and it didnt even touch my pain. Still "a 10 on a scale of 1-10" every time the nurses asked me. All 100000 times.
(Oh, and while checking into the ER, the check-in clerk lady put a hospital bracelet on my wrist with THE WRONG NAME on it. I was checked-in under someone else's name, social, etc. I can NOT believe I caught the error, but somehow the drug-induced fog lifted long enough for me to realize that my middle initial is NOT "M"....but "M" DOES stand for MORON! ugh.)
So they sent me to an MRI which freaked. me. OUT. I am claustrophobic and was NOT ready to be shoved into a coffin-like machine. No thanks.
So they pumped me with anti-anxiety drugs on top of my pain meds and I was on my way into the dark tube, foggier than ever. Eric says I was in there for "almost 2 hours" and that he could NOT believe I lasted that long. But I was so doped up, I dont remember most of it. Just remember that I woke up at one point and I must have jumped/jerked my arms. My arm hit the top of the machine and it couldnt have been more than an inch from my face. I panicked and needed to get OUT. NOWWW.
I was able to stay in long enough for them to map my spine and determine that I have a torn annular. I dont remember most of the time in the hossy, and I dont remember the doc telling us what they found, so Eric had to explain this all to me repeatedly. Apparently my spine (and yours) goes down my back through discs. Inside those discs there are ligaments. In one of my lower discs, the ligament is coming out of the disc, causing pressure on my nerves and spine. (The yellow ligament is coming out of the disc, below.) And I have the added bonus of a lesion or cyst at the end of the torn ligament. It could be bleeding or it could be unrelated.

So Eric's flu and my back prevented us from heading to Iowa. :( And now I have to see a neurosurgeon and do physical therapy to get my back fixed. Boooo. AND I wasnt able to feed, dress, change, or cuddle my princess for days and days. Not sure which hurt worse: my back pain or not being able to carry my little girl. :(
So that was Friday.
Friday night, the 4 of us headed back to our own house to rest over the weekend. I dont remember this picture being taken, but I think its cute that Bailey missed me. :)

And I couldnt put Whitney to bed or get up with her at night or in the morning, so Eric was nice enough to snap a pic of Whitney in her crib so I could at least SEE her sleeping.

Clearly, Whitney was having fun hangin' with her Daddy-O, and he even remembered to put a bow in her hair for me :)


Saturday, Juliet came over to give Eric a break from taking care of me AND Whitney, since, ya know, he had the flu and all.
It was a comedy show watching the two of them taking pics of Whitney for her 3-month pics in her chair.
Once again, Bailey wanted in on the action.

Wrong outfit, good pose.

Who's having more fun, here??

They let Bailey KISS her!!!?

She was yelling at them to get their act together! :)

Getting her in the right outfit:

Whitney's hair and make-up team....guess who was in charge of HAIR. :)

Photographers gone WILD!

I vaguely remember this taking place. Sorta.
On Sunday, I was well enough to head back to my parents' to take our 3 month family pics (who needs professional pics?! not us!) Since Tuesday, when all the illnesses started, Whitney has learned to reach for/grab stuff. SOOO cute!
Who loves her "Bear Blanket"!??
"I DO!!!"

"I'm gonne get it!!"

Almost...

Got 'em!

That was hard work!!


So now Eric has the next 3 days off. My goal is to carry Whitney into her finalization on my own this coming Wednesday morning. I also want to hold her on the altar this Sunday at her dedication at church. We are waiting for a neurosurgeon and physical therapist to call me back with appointment times/plan of attack based on my MRI. Fun times.
We have a lot to look forward to this week (finalization, dedication, baby Allison and her fun parents are visiting from Texas, and Daddy has vacation days), so we are choosing to LAUGH instead of CRY our eyes out. :) After all, the tough times make us stronger. :)