Staph and Timp

On Tuesday (Aug. 27th) Natalie came home from school complaining that the back of her mouth hurt.  At first we thought it must have been a tooth ache.  As the evening progressed her pain became more apparent and we realized that it was not coming from her mouth, yet her lymph node below her ear.  Her cheek became swollen and red very quickly.  The pain was acute and constant.  Soon she developed a fever.  It all came on so quickly. The following morning Tyler took her to see the pediatrician.

The doctor felt her infection was some sort of Staph and should be treated immediately with antibiotics.  Natalie was given a shot of Rocephin in her hip.  Tyler said she was very brave and counted down from 10 really fast...she wanted it to be over with quickly.

She is also taking a 10 day course of Clindamycin.  She missed school on Wednesday and Thursday because of the immense pain.  She went a half day on Friday.

Since then she has improved greatly.  She is scheduled to have tubes placed in her ear on Wednesday.  This is a minor surgery and should go smoothly.  Possibly the fluid built up in her ears and nasal cavity contributed to the infection in her cheek and neck.  We hope that ear tubes prevent further infections and fevers.

Her cheek was so tender...the swelling was just beginning.

Alice has clinic tomorrow, we assume there will be some more information given to us regarding dates and details of Alice's upcoming transplant.

Alice loves Kipper Snacks!  She drinks the juice too.  All of our children except Matthew like Kipper Snacks (sardines).  I absolutely did not like fish when I was little.  I think Grandpa Schellenberg introduced my girls to kipper snacks...and they love it.  I love that they eat it because it is healthy, however, Tyler can't stand the smell and usually makes them eat it outside...obviously he wasn't home and Alice enjoyed eating inside. :)

Little girls....little girls, oh how they love to find Mom's lipstick.

On Saturday Aug. 31st Tyler and I hiked to the top of Mt. Timpanogos.  It was beautiful and the perfect day for a hike.  We started hiking at 4:00 a.m. and arrived at the top by 8:00 a.m.  It was just as breath taking as I remembered it.  The last time I did this hike was over 13 years ago with Tyler...at the time we were just friends, occasionally dating.  To think of all that we have been through together between the two hikes is outstanding.

A week ago I was driving Tyler up the canyon for a long run...he asked me what I wanted for my upcoming birthday.  I looked up at the mountain and said, "I want to be at the top of that mountain again."  For some reason the idea of being at the top of the world sounded so good to me.  I wanted to see the valley below from the top....maybe I wanted to obtain a new perspective of things from the top.

I was surprised how easy the hike seemed to me.  I remembered it being more difficult.  Is it possible that as we climb huge mountains in our lives figuratively, that other things like actually climbing a mountain become more easy.  It must be.

About 2 1/2 hours into the hike....the sun is just coming up.  

Beautiful Morning.

Almost to the saddle.

getting closer.

View from the saddle of Utah Valley.

At the top...perfect conditions.

The golden spike at the summit was placed in 1937 ( I think) and the shack must have been constructed around the same time.

Trying to do a little Geocaching.

On top of the world.

You can see Deer Creek and Jordanelle behind us.

That is Emerald Lake...it's tiny this year.  We wanted to slide down the glacier to the lake, as it is a shortcut down, however, the glacier wasn't much this year and it would have been a very dirty ride.  We even packed garbage bags for the slide.

Coming down.

Beautiful.

Upon arriving home I was feeling a little tired so I read some stories to Alice and both she and I fell asleep together for a tiny nap....thankfully her nap was longer than mine. ;)



And Many thanks to Amberly for watching the children while we hiked.

Lisy