You Shady Rooster, You

Sunday morning, after getting Horse Shot #5, we began decorating our tree.
Then Thomas took the girls out to the Christmas village (you know, Trampoline and all that, you've seen this place before and before each year at Xmas). Here's Estelle running thru the bouncy house with some other girl behind...
Our friend Ludovic was also there with Eva and Louise. Louise and Léna had fun climbing around:
Thomas' vertigo prevented him from going up on "La Grande Roue" = the big wheel - ferris wheel. So Lud went up with Estelle and Louise - whilst Eva and Léna stayed on firm ground with Thomas.
Above: Lud looking over from his ferris wheel cabin. below: fun photos in the holiday village:
Léna and Eva (and Rudolph)? You can't tell in this shot but Eva is even a bit older than Estelle!
This whole village thing is a 10 minute walk from our apartment.
Later that afternoon: Léna having fun with me.And we finished decorating our little tree!Some serious sketching by Thomas so Estelle could explain some of the rides to me.
About 30 minutes after I took this photo above, the nurse came to give me Horse Shot #6 and it proved to be: "the straw that broke the camel's back". All I can say is the whole experience was ugly, haunting, and it's gonna be awhile before I shake some of the images and sounds from my memory. Now I am home, healing, praying that a fever doesn't return. Follow ups tomorrow with my GP and next week at the hospital. Ludovic didn't know when he was up on that ferris wheel that he'd be seeing us again, sitting in our apartment from 9 p.m. until 3:30 a.m.
Meanwhile: CALL IN THE CALVARY:
Andrée and Guy got the phone call Monday a.m. that I was hospitalized and arrived the next day by train. Thank God.
After all, there was playdough to examine. Games to be played.
Is that a plane or a whale?
Books to be read.
Yesterday Papy & Manou got Estelle to dance, piano and the pool while I coughed my way around the apartment, leaning against the wall sometimes after a particularly bad episode of coughing, packing the girls suitcases, making arrangements. This morning, before leaving for work, Daddy said goodbye over breakfast as the girls who then got ready to hit the train with Andrée & Guy.
Look at that cutie.
And so here we are, Thomas and I, childless in the days before Christmas, me too weak to do a damn thing and praying I don't pull a fever and get dragged back into the infections ward.
For those who care to read the details of "what the heck do you HAVE, Julie?", read on, otherwise, click out of the blog!
The specialists in the hospital think maybe it has been a variation or a strain of whooping cough underneath ("coqueluche" in French, which, amongst many etymologies, could be loosely translated as disreputable or drifty rooster, cause you sound like a rooster gone wrong. Or it has something to do with oyster shells - coquille - or something to do with ladies white hats from 3 centuries ago, no one agrees).
This whooping cough variation may have been masked by the pleurisy and "misdiagnosed" as pneumonia. If they had "caught" as whooping cough in time, the antibiotics would have been different. Now it is "too late" to prescribe anything because if it is truly whooping cough, the worst is over and treatment would be superfluous. Or, it's not that at all, and was always viral, never bacterial, which explains the fact that 6 weeks and 4 treatments of antibiotics did nothing. Despite multiple blood work and urine analysis, plus samples of all the crap I cough up, the results are skewed because I have had so many meds in me, most notably Horse Shots # 1-6, the last of which made me so sick that Thomas had to call the ambulance. The hospital doctors all think that the girls having both been sick quite a bit since late September indicate it is something they gave me which nestled into me as I was weakened from working a lot more in Oct & Nov then I have in many years. The doctors also question the judgement of the pulmonologist who prescribed 20 Horse Shots because they stated that medicine should never be administered for so long, and certainly not to someone not under hospital surveillance, nor someone who had already had so many antibiotics with no success. I don't know what to think.
One great thing: the Chief of Infection complemented me and said "you must be one tough cookie to have held out until 6 shots, you've got one tough robust system". They could not believe that with the endless antibiotic treatments i had had I never had an upset stomach until Horse #6!
When they let me out, they had just drawn blood one last time to test for whooping cough, which takes 3 days. I will have more blood drawn but must wait until Monday, as the Dr. wants a full week to go by to let the meds get out of my system. Back to the hospital Weds for probably more CAT scans and God willing will be given the green light to get on the train Friday with Thomas to join our children, and celebrate Christmas, and put this ALL BEHIND ME.
I can't believe when I see this post from Nov 2 when I jokingly wrote:
"Things seemed shaky yesterday - too much to just attribute to too much Halloween fun the night before. This morning I called the Doc and went in - fever and all. He listened to my lungs and slapped me on antibiotics for whatever's going on there."
6+ weeks later, we're all still wondering, just what is going on in there. If someone had told me then...
A hard part of all this, especially during my hospital stay which I can only describe as temporarily traumatizing, was that I frequently found myself thinking of my father, and his suffering, and him probably secretly always wondering when, or if, he would get better. I know I WILL get better, it's just a matter of how long it will take. When I think of what my father faced, it gives me pause.

My new look

A Horse is a Horse

Remember I said we have 6 Advent Calendars?
Here's the great PopUp Eric Carle one from his book "Dream Snow". The farmer and his 5 animals, etc. It's darling, so cleverly made, so original. My girls love love love it.
Thanks Darlene!
Léna with the book she doesn't let out of her sight, my family's recording of Frosty, last year's Xmas gift....
Another Advent Calendar: Oui Oui (known as "Noddy" in the anglophone world, I just found out!)
Enjoying Aunt Mary's Christmas gift from last year - A Peanut's Nativity Scene. So much fun to play with. And if Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, Madeline, Dora and a Playmobile lady would like to join Snoopy and CharlieBrown, well, the more the merrier.

Like I said, the hills may be alive with the sound of music, and my apartment on the weekends and in the evenings is filled with the recordings from my family and these amazing recordable Hallmark books - "The Night Before Christmas" and "Frosty". It's like my whole family is floating all around the apartment.
She's so sweet. When she's not destroying something.
Now here's the kid that never destroys anything and has the patience of a Samaritan with her sibling:
Below: Estelle has these recorded books memorized, every syllable, every intonation. She likes to place her finger on the photo of each person as they are speaking. Or singing.
Below: Our other advent calendar (not pictured yet) is 24 little boxes that we have filled. I used whatever I could find around sometimes (like post-it notes that Doug gave me after cleaning out). This is a lot of fun when you are 5.
Again, have I mentioned the obsession with the family recorded books? Thomas now can imitate everybody, even Danny who sounds like he's 93.
Here's Estelle drawing Santa a picture.
Getting the finer points down.
Love:

Last Sunday Thomas made me this: pear and almond powder. Heaven.
Mommy, Cindy Lou Who says stop taking pictures of me.
Things to write, places to be, people to see. Outta my way.

Note that after everyone's name, there's a # to show their age. Estelle has just had the epiphany that Mommy's age is 4-1, and Daddy's is 3-4, and doesn't that mean Mommy is bigger? Why yes, dear, that's what that means.
Richard Scary's The Smells of Christmas. Scratch N' Sniff, reproduction of the 1970 favorite. One year Estelle got 2, one from Mary, one from Martha. That was the same year they each gave her a Dressy Bessy. Twins, what can you do?

And lastly, a recent photo of me:
Some of you may know that Thursday I visited my pulmonologist only to be told that nothing had improved on the pneumonia front, despite the pleurisy hurting a bit less. I spent the entire day having tests, blood work, Xrays and Cat scans. It began at 9 a.m. and ended at 7:30 p.m. The verdict: 4th and different (and hopefully final) antibiotic treatment including a visiting nurse coming 2x/day to administer a shot to me. When I picked up the vials at the pharmacy, my pharmacist Eric (who has been following my sad tale of coughing woe since Nov 1st) said 'Wow, they're not messing around any more. That's strong stuff". I needed 20 vials and they only keep 2 in stock, which kind of tells you something. Anyways so far I've had 4. Today the nurse told me that these shots are for horses. I laughed. She peered at me over her bifocals and said something like "No joke, I have almost never given this to people because anyone who gets this is usually hospitalized by the time they need this." And then she basically said something to the effect of it really IS for horses. Neigh. Snort. Neigh. Giddyap....of course of course no one CAN talk to a talking horse - she coughs too much!

In Sickness and In Health

Last Tuesday as soon as my pleurisy was diagnosed, Thomas came right home and did not leave my side for almost 6 days. Doctor's appts, blood lab, getting girls hither and thither, cleaning, cooking, shopping, laundry, playing with kids, he did it all with nobody asking.
He's not here so I can't take his picture to put on this blog, but here's a few old shots to remind us both where this crazy ride all began.






The photo below is surely the reason I was struck down with pleurisy after a 6-yr incubation period: this shot is certainly an effrontery to God and the Church - what were we thinking posing like this is the House of the Lord?
Last week on Thursday and Friday we spent 2 days holed up with no kids, no work, no activity and nobody else. Something we haven't done in a long, long time.
Now he's gone back to work, and now that I'm healing at home alone, I miss him.
Thanks Thomas.

Advent Calendar Bonanza!

I always say, nothing like 6 advent calendars in an apartment less than 1000 sq feet to get your holiday season off with a BANG! Below: Advent Calendar #1, and certainly the most coveted: The Kinder Surprise = every day is Kinder chocolate. Thanks Papy & Manou!
Below: Advent Calendar #2: from Estelle's "Pom d'Api" magazine, the little donkey goes from window to window each night. You tear off the window and on the other side is a picture of something he is bringing to Jesus. Today (Dec. 1st) item was clover. You put it in his basket on his back. The magazine has a story, one page per day, to accompany each window and explain what happens. There's even a Star of Bethlehem that moves along with him, to guide him. Great!
Below: #3 - Vermont Christmas Company's version of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" - each window has a different verse on the inside cover and a charming little image to go along with the verse. Thanks Martha & Chris!
A little Jingle Bells to get things rockin'..... Funny, Estelle burst out into singing "Rudolph" tonight, which surprised all of us that she would remember so many of the words since last year. So I plucked it out by ear and then we wrote out the music for her. She is practicing the first two lines - stayed tuned for a video of THAT!
Below: Calendar #5's book component: Eric Carle's "Dream Snow". Thanks Darlene/Wes/Wayne/Cole & Heather! Such a great story to go with a VERY cleverly made Pop-Up Advent calendar which you'll be seeing in our next installment, along with #6, both of which escaped the photo shoot today. They're not in the Advent Calender Union.
Meanwhile, a few videos from yesterday which showcase our new favorite buddy:
CB, or as Léna calls him "Le Bonhomme de Niege".