Milk, It Does a Body Good....Or Maybe Not

We managed to sneak in a family photo of all the Feyes' together before Aaron and Christy headed back south to warm Georgia.

Well, now that the holidays have come and gone life has resumed some what back to normal.  Most of the Christmas decorations are tucked away until next year, school has been back in full swing, and sickness has continued to ensue in our home.  Mia battled high fevers for a week straight with diarrhea for ten days over Christmas break.  Olivia had a couple days as well with a fever, headache, and sore throat.  I am never happy to see my girls sick, but thought that at least we got it all out of the way over our two week break from school.  Boy was I wrong.  That happened to be Mia's second time sick in a matter of a couple of weeks.  Well, a week ago today Mia had this rash that looked like hives all over her torso.  She seemed fine and it didn't bother her.  I wrote it off as to her skin reacting to her having used an entire bottle of body wash in the tub the day before.  Well, then came the phone call at work Monday saying she had a fever. So, I decided we better get her checked out.  The Dr. said the fever and rash were related.  He said it was a common childhood ailment when immune systems are down.  I expressed my concern with her constantly getting sick, and he thankfully shared my concerns.  He recommended blood work the next day if her fever remained.  Of course it did, so we had blood work, which she was not happy about.  My caring, brave, wants to be a pediatric surgeon, Olivia wanted to go with her sister to support her having her blood drawn.  Well, Olivia was turned around in a chair sobbing her eyes out before the nurses even had the needles out.  I will support her in whatever profession she chooses, but I'm not so sure she's cut out for the medical field. 

After the initial tests were back, the Dr. ordered additional tests after seeing some concerns in the initial results.  We went back Saturday morning to hear his conclusion.  After discussing her diet, he believes she has Milk Anemia.  She drinks a lot of milk, but sometimes milk can block the body's absorption of iron.  Her levels of iron were drastically low.  I can't remember all the levels and what they were for, but on one test she should be in the 80-90 range and she was a 5.  So now my milk lover can no longer have milk and has to take these disgusting iron supplements twice daily.  It is pretty bad tasting and I can smell it on her breath the rest of the day.  It's liquid so I put a drop on my finger to try.  It was like sucking on a mouthful of coins, and the taste lingered for quite some time.  There's no way to mask it.  In a couple months we will have more blood tests and hope to see some improvement.  Her glucose level was also low, but he's hoping that was because of her being sick and not eating much during that time, so we are watching that as well. 

The day before we heard Mia's official diagnosis I took the afternoon off work and my Aunt Joan picked me up and we headed to Ann Arbor.  My Aunt Ruth has been battling rectal cancer and had to have surgery earlier in the week.  The prognosis is positive and she seems to be quite the trooper.  My Uncle Mike was there by her side singing her praises about how amazing his wife was.  We all knew that before, but she is taking this all with such strength.  It was great to see her and know that she is getting such good care.  She has a long road of recovery ahead of her, so my prayers will continue, but I am sure she can conquer this.

Joan then came home with me and stayed the night.  The girls loved getting to see her for a bit.  Joan decided to stay because she wanted to see Olivia's swim meet Saturday morning.  She stayed home with Olivia while I ran Mia to the Dr. and shortly after she dropped Olivia off at the pool for her warm ups.  We got to the pool around 10:15 eager to watch her swim.  When I got there a shivering, crying, Olivia climbed up into my lap.  She complained of her head and tummy hurting.  She felt very warm to the touch.  We had her scratched from the swim meet and headed home.  She's had a fever since.  She says she feels fine today, but her fever keeps lingering in the 100 - 101.5 range.  She desperately wants to go to school tomorrow (it's art day after all), so we will see what the morning brings.  Andy is finally busy at work again, so he really needs to work, because when he doesn't, he doesn't get paid.  At school we are doing all our standardized tests and I have to personally administer most of them to the students I service so it's hard to miss.  Plus I just started last week with a student teacher in the afternoons.  She had to sub for me her first day when Mia got her fever.  I am more than ready for all this sickness to leave our house and be gone for good.

Sorry I don't have more pictures.  My camera battery died a couple weeks ago, and I just finally charged it.  So there you have our January thus far.  Sickness, but smiles through it all. 

Feverish Olivia with Joan and Mia.