The Spencer Girls

I haven't posted much lately because I have been just a little to overwhelmed. I figured that once the twins habit of not breathing on occasion was behind us the stress level would go down. But it hasn't. All these girls that I live with are keeping me on my toes. Here is the latest.

Rylee, who has been having fevers up to 105 degrees for almost two months, has been to see a infectious disease specialist. He isn't sure what it is either. She just finished her second round of antibiotics and has been well for about a week and a half. The only thing that the doctor said that seems to make sense is a cyclical fever or "periodic fever syndrome." If this is the case we should expect her next fever to start about July 3rd. If that is the case, they can help her by giving her steroids. I hope that whatever it is that we would just be done with it. There is no more helpless feeling than holding your first born child while her shivering is bordering on convulsions and listening to her moan.

Reagan is still waiting for her appointment with the speech pathologist. Meanwhile her potty training, which I had considered nearly complete, has totally derailed. I don't know if she is frustrated with not being understood, or looking for more attention, or what... But I have given thought to putting her back in diapers.

Except for the teeth cutting, which seems to be lasting forever, the twins are doing great. They are talking much more and that is exciting to watch. I can't speak for Kari, but I still can't imagine them growing up. We still have not gotten over the whole emotional roller coaster that brought them into this world and I'm not sure that we ever will.

Kari gave us a scare the other day. I had just gotten home from a trip, called Kari to see if I needed to pick anything up on the way home. She told me that she had a bad headache. Those kids will do that to you, but I didn't think it was going to be that bad. She was pretty much incapacitated.

When I got home it was almost 8 p.m. and Rylee and Rea met me at the door with the dogs right behind them. We did the hugs and kisses and then I went to find my wife. I found her laying on the couch, covering her eyes. We didn't have much of a conversation. She was obviously in serious pain and she went to lay down in bed.

After I got the big girls fed and put to bed I went to check on Kari again. She was still covering her head, very sensitive to light and noise, and speaking seemed to be excruciating. I debated at that point whether to take her to the hospital. I had never seen her like this, but it sounded just like a migraine. I asked her if she wanted to go to the ER and I think she replied that she didn't care. I figured that some peace and quite and a good night sleep would have her cured by morning. So I kissed her on the head, closed the door, and hoped that she would be able to get to sleep soon.

The scary part was the next morning. I got up with the kids and was fixing them breakfast when Kari got up about 20 minutes later. I got her a cup of coffee and TRIED to talk to her. She couldn't get more than a word or two out at a time. Like she was trying to remember how to pronounce a really large word. We settled on broken English and hand signals, just like a trip to Europe, Right?

We got Kari to the Doctor that day. She was back to normal by the time we got to his office. He ordered up an MRI to check for strokes or an aneurysm. It didn't show anything, thank God. I am very relieved, however, the doctor did let us sweat all weekend before giving us the results, which really stunk.

So we don't know what was wrong with her.

On a more positive note, her hernia surgery went well. She had been putting it off and putting it off. I think once she is back on her feet she will be really glad that she had it done, but right now she is pretty miserable.

I did learn one very important lesson. If you are taking the kids upstairs to make sure that your wife has a quiet, peaceful environment to recover in, you should arrange some way for her to contact you if, for example, she was unable to get out of bed and had to urgently go to the bathroom.