How Ella got her arm back

Today was a great day for the Kokoska family. After over 15 weeks, Ella finally got her arm back. The doc said that the bone had fully healed and looked great. So, after an interesting encounter with the bone saw, we got to finally take her home without a cast. Yeah!!!

Back to normal

Life resumed to a 'normal' state this week. Ella and Jack are both healthy again. Ella has also started to understand and react to her environment much more. She's become quite the helper around the house. She loves to help unload the dishwasher, get diapers for mommy, and let Jackie know when he's doing a 'no-no'. Below are a few pics from the past couple weeks:

Ella's winter hat


Ella under the weather


Ella's new hot pink cast


Ella helping daddy make chili


Jackie under the weather


Classic Jack pose


Grandma Will's version of holding Jack (no comment in case I get in trouble...)


Great-grandma Kokoska's version of holding Jack (seems a bit more educational, but once again, no comment)


Daddy's favorite trio

Febrile Seizures, a New ER, and Pin Pulling

Another week of ups and downs. We started the week off well with promising news for Ella from the hand doc. The gap between the break had decreased from .6mm to .3mm. The doc was very excited and said that it 'made his day'. We go back next Mon to hopefully pull the pins and 2-3 weeks later, Ella could finally be cast-free.

I headed out to Seattle on Tue, which usually means that things are going to go south. And, of course, they did. After a couple calm days, Kristy got a call at work on Thu that Jack had a seizure and he was headed to the ER (Riverview, this time). I'll let Kristy fill in the details, but apparently, he had a fever spike and a seizure can be a toddler's way of trying to reduce it. In most cases, the seizure just occurs once, but Jack had another early Fri morning. I wasn't coming back until Fri night, so Kristy called her mom and then went back to the ER (St. V's, where they recognized her from Ella...). They put him on a Tylenol/Motrin fever reducer plan and also Tamiflu (even though he tested negative for flu, they said it wouldn't hurt). Last night, he had several fever spikes, but fortunately no seizures and today he just seems like a sick kid. We're hoping that the worst is over.

Anyone got a padded room in a remote location on a farm for sale?

Another Couple Weeks

We had our weekly visit to the doc and Ella's finger is getting better, but it's growing very slowly. It's been over 11 weeks since the break and 6 weeks since the last surgery. Best case scenario now would be to pull the pins next Monday and the cast the following week. The doc seems to think that since the break was so severe it took longer than expected for the bone to repair. We're taking the 'better safe than sorry' attitude and are happy that we haven't breached the bone graft conversation...

On a Jack note, I'd heard people talk about how their kids are always sick from daycare. Now, I'm a believer. It seems like Jack has been up and down for the past month after only being sick once the year before. And it's not even flu season. Argh.

2 More Weeks

Good news, bad news. Ella's finger is actually starting to heal, however, the doc advised leaving her pins in for another couple weeks. Since we're already on week 9+ since the break and we don't want to go back to step 1, we agreed. She still is in good spirits and loves to dance and laugh...