We are right in the city of Chicago! I enjoy having lots of things to do and all sorts of people to meet. I have three children of my own ages 9, 6, and 4, and up to three other kids in emergency care in my home at any given time. If you take a field trip to Chicago, send me a message and stop by to say hello. We even have free parking to offer in our driveway right down the street from the El!

I hope Disney is a great time for you all. I think I would reschedule the appointment when you get back unless his primary is also one of his specialists that saw him in the hospital. If the doc saw him in the hospital I would call and ask the nurse when they need to see him again and if they planned to do anything at the well-child visit that hadn't been done before. My son's hematologist is his primary care provider. She usually wants to do the well-child appointments every three months even if she sees him in the hospital because she has a different focus at the clinic appointments. If I were you I would have waited until after Disney too. I have put off planning a trip to Disney specifically because I am concerned that my son would get sick. I am hoping for a delightful time for your entire family.

We are still at home, but when we are in the hospital, I cannot always post on the boards. There is a computer in his room, but there are limitations as to what I can do on it. If I cannot post here, I can post on his Care Page. If you want to see my son's journey and get the latest updates on his health, feel free to check out his Care Page. Just go to carepages.com. You will have to register, but it is free. Then you can put in his carepage name which is THELITTLEENGINETHATCOULD. Thanks for caring thoughts and prayers. Looking at him this morning, it is really hard to believe his counts are down. Hopefully that is a good sign!

I knew my 4 year old was not doing well. He doesn't have a fever or any specific complaints, but he has been so irritable and just not right. His hematologist sent him for labs today. The tech couldn't get any blood with three attempts, so they sent him up to the ER. Thankfully the nurse there knows my son well and was able to get the blood with only one more poke. His hemaglobin was low, but not too out of the norm for him. the concerning part is that his retic count is low. This indicates that his bone marrow is not producing enough red blood cells. He had this back in May. Last week the baby I was caring for had red cheeks and red hands. I thought it was just the cold wind, but now I am wondering if she had Fifth Disease. Fifth Disease is not big deal for a typical child, but for a child with sickle cell it can be very serious. I hadn't been too concerned when I saw the baby's ccheeks because I didn't think you could catch it twice. The ER doctor said it can be caught more than once. So now the plan is to return to the ER Saturday for more bloodwork. If it gets any lower, he will have to be admitted for blood transfusions. I really hope he doesn't have to go through all this again, but I don't feel too optimistic.

I want to get back down to a weight I like better. The catch is I want to do it in a healthy way, but I am not good at that because I would like to see it happen fast. I have a history of anorexia and am heavier now than I ever thought I would be. I want to stay healthy, but I also want to shed these extra pounds. I am thinking if I just don't eat at night and work out no more that 3-4 times a week, I will be able to lose gradually and not get too obsessed with the number on the scale. That sounds like a healthy goal to me.

I have two upstairs. I will look into one for the furnace. It is a really old furnace, so I wonder if that will matter. This house was built in about 1890.

I have 3 children that are forever mine - dd(9), dd(6), and ds(4). On any given day I have up to three other children. Today I have two brothers who are 1 and 3. I am a single, licensed foster mom but am currently with a program called Safe Families that helps prevent abuse and neglect by providing children with a family to live with when their own family is in a crisis situation. I have had 14 children since August when I moved to a house the agency owns. Before that I lived with my 3 in a small condo and wanted to be a part of Safe Families, but had no space. Our curriculum is eclectic but mostly follows the recommendations in WTM. I have homeschooled for 5 years now. In my "free time" I like to talk with friends, book, bake, scrapbook, hike, and listen to music.

This house is really dry, and I am guessing that is why we have a real problem with static electricity. It is so bad that I can't even hug or kiss my girls at night without giving them a shock. If the lights are out, you can actually see flashes of light when I touch my kids or when the move around under the covers. It is worst in my dd's room. I have tried humidifiers, but they don't seem to be working. Is there anything else that could cause this or anything I can do to stop it?

You mentioned that you would need to stay in a hotel. Many Children's Hospitals have a Ronald McDonald House. They are very inexpensive, cheerful, friendly places to stay.

How kind of you to encourage her that way. I will share from my experiences in the hospitals with my son. If they do not send a tray for her to the baby's room,fresh fruit and healthy food can be expensive and hard to get to in the hospital. I never like leaving the floor for as long as it takes to get to the cafeteria. If this is her first time in the hospital with the baby it is probably even harder for her to leave the baby long enough to get food. Maybe you could use Peapod or another grocery delivery service to send her something like that. Before you do it, make sure she is allowed to have food in the room. Other things that would be nice - cozy slippers, magazines, crosswords or other things to spend time quetly sitting by her baby. . . I hope that the baby gets well soon.

My little guy has had general anasthesia 6 or 7 times already. He had his spleen removed, a tonsillectomy, and several MRIs. The Children's hospitals are really good at this. They do it all the time and are used to nervous parents and scared kids. I found them all very reassuring and competent. The hardest part for my son was not eating or drinking before it. A Children's hospital should have Child Life specialists who will be there during the sedation helping to calm your child. They can let him pick a favorite smell to put on the sedation mask to make it a little less threatening. You could bring a teddy bear or stuffed toy and let a mask be put on the toy too. I stay with my son until he falls asleep. All but one time it happened so fast that it wasn't at all traumatic. The last time it took longer for him to fall asleep, and he became very agitated first. I think it may have been because they tried to just give him a small dose of oral sedation meds before they used the mask. They were trying to help him get groggy first because he was scared of the mask. I don't like the oral Chloryl Hydrate because he doesn't respond as peacefully to it. He has never had a hard time coming out of sedation. Once it took longer than we expected, but it was his usual naptime and his vitals were good the entire time. Kids bounce back really well after surgery. The day after my son had his spleen removed, he looked horrible. By the third day he was running around the floor with his IV pump! HTH

I am in Chicago, so we get cold. I keep it set at 72. I don't like keeping it that hot. It costs too much, but I have a son with sickle cell disease. Sickle cell gets worse when it is too cold. It seems we have a lot less time in the hospital if I keep it at 70 or 72. I would rather have the heating bills than hospital stays.

Crock Pot Chicken Wild Rice Soup 1 Cup uncooked wild rice 3 Cups diced, cooked chicken 2T. chicken bouillon granules 1 onion chopped 5 Cups water 4 potatoes, cubed 1 1/2 Cups milk 2T flour Boil ric, Chicken, bouillon, onion, and water in saucepan. Remove from heat and put in slow cooker. Add potatoes. Combine milk and flour until smooth. Add to soup mixture. Cook 6 to 8 hours until rice and potatoes are tender and flavors are blended. Corn Chowder 6-8 potatoes 1 Quart Corn 1 onion 1 carrot 2 garlic cloves 1 quart chicken broth salt and pepper 1 quart milk chopped spicach Boil diced potatoes. Drain. Saute onion, carrot, and garlic in butter. Add chicken broth. Heat all together. Autumn Soup 1 lb. ground beef 1 cup chopped onion 4 cups hot water 1 cup each cut up carrots, celery, corn, and potatoes 2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. pepper 1 bay leaf crumpled pinch of basil 1 can tomatoes (or 6 fresh) Brown beef in saucepan. Add onions and cook 5 minutes. Add everything else. Mix well and boil. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or a little longer.

MY 9 year old had a very loose tooth that fell out today. My 6 year old and the 7 year old I have temporarily, just couldn't stand being left out. They started wiggling their barely loose teeth with determination. My 6 year old managed to get hers wiggled right on out. Not an hour later, the third child also yanked her tooth out. Of course it was all on a day that the tooth fairy had no cash on hand. I just spent the last half hour digging through pockets and couches scrounging up change to redeem the teeth. I knew they were competitive, but this is ridiculous!

I voted for the one near the city, but I bet my opinion is colored by the fact that I live right in Chicago. A population of 40,000 actually sounds small to me. I like having different kinds of people and a variety of activities easily accessible.

You have a lot happening at once. I will pray that you feel God's peace and wisdom in the midst of it all.

I work with lots of teen moms. It is such an overwhelming thing. Some of them have taken excellent care of their babies, but they face so many challenges. I will be praying for this young lady. I am glad she felt safe enough to share with you and the class.

My children and I just finished watching. How lucky you are to have that family in your life! They sound like great people. How fun to actually see the house and barn in real life.

Thank you for the update. I had been praying about your son and your family. I hope this helps him get the help he needs.

Thanks for all the encouragement and the words/phrases. The boys are doing okay. Today was a little hard because we had a surprise visit from their parents. The little one ran and got his coat. They thought they were leaving. They both cried a lot through the day and had a rough time settling down for bed. They are starting to use some English words. I just wish I new enough Spanish to comfort them more when they cry. Andie, you asked about the little one who had a MRSA infection on her leg. She responded well to the meds and went home to her mom Christmas Eve. It was a beautiful reunion! Since they left I have had a 5 month old, then a 10 months old, and now the two boys and a 7 year old girl. It has been active around here! I must admit we did not get our full school schedule completed Friday. We got to the basics, but science fell by the wayside. I am hoping this week goes smoothly. The 3 year old enjoys sitting and coloring and listening to the stories, but the toddler just wants to be on the move. He usually takes a nice long nap, so that will be helpful! At least there is never a dull moment around here!

This is a sure sign that I need to go to sleep. I just misread your post "my dd's 5 arms." I have never heard of anything like this, but I would think it warrants a call to your doctor.

I put 3, but that number changes. Because I am allowed to homeschool the children I do emergency care, there are times I homeschool up to 6 children. Today I had five. Three are my own children, so I know I will at least have them!

I knew it was time to start teaching the kids Spanish and thus learn it myself. I didn't start soon enough. Yesterday I got two little boys who only speak Spanish. They are 1 and 3 years old. I am so tired tonight because just communicating the most basic things is really hard! Trying to comfort them when they are scared is incredibly challenging. Then the baby had an asthma attack. The inhalers he came with are empty, so the doctor said I could use my childrens' nebulizer, but the little guy was scared of it. I had to call the children's hospital and get one of the lab techs who speaks Spanish to talk to him. He was able to calm him enough for me to give him the breathing treatment. I also got a seven year old girl from another family yesterday. She has fit in with my children quite well. She will only be here until Monday. Her teacher sent schoolwork for her, so she had plenty to do during school today. She just thought it odd that my children go to school in a room right off the living room and playroom! I had to remind her often that she couldn't just wander off and get a doll or toy because we really were doing school. Toys are still scattered around the room, but at least everyone is fed and happy and in bed!