BUZZ

Justin was Buzz Lightyear for Halloween.  He still wears his costume everyday.  The costume requires a washing at least once a day.  The minutes in the washer just can't go by fast enough for Buzz.

More Anesthesia

On June 22 Megan was scheduled to have anesthesia to have some dental work done.  Apparantly Jake and Annie's experiences reflected well on Meg, because she was SO excited.  No nerves from this girl.  Before taking her back they gave her some medicine that made our funny little girl even funnier!

As it turned out, the only decay she had was between her front two teeth.  While she was under the Doc examined her jaw and she is no longer cross bit!  The only explanation is a blessing straight from heaven, because that does not usually happen.  There is also improvement in her jaw asymmetry and with a little orthodontic work when she is older there will be no trouble at all.

Megan woke up pretty well from the anesthesia, but was very frustrated that she couldn't remember anything.  In fact, she was certain that they didn't do a thing to her.  It's unfortnuate that she can't remember waving good bye to all the other patients in pre-op, because it was like her very own Miss America parade moment.  They wheeled her away in her little crib and at each curtain she would give a wave to the patient inside.

Home at Last!

The deal with a ruptured appendix is that it requires a lot of antibiotics to rid the body of infection.  Jake had a fever of 103 for four days.  The antibiotics must continue for another two days after the fever is gone.

On day five, the doctor gave Jake permission to unhook form his IV for a while and go for a walk.  Poor Jake was desperate for warm summer air.  He rarely comes inside, and six days of hospital air was like being in prison.  Travis and I took him outside.  The first little patch of grass we came to, he looked up at me with the sweetest most longing look in his eye and asked if he could please sit in it.

Saturday morning all the medicine had been given, Jake was eating like a horse and was ready to come home!!

We are so thankful to a loving Heavenly Father who watched over our sweet Jacob and allowed him to come home so quickly.  The nurses were telling us how "lucky" we were.  Many kids with the same problem have a two week hospital stay and require drains and wound vacs.  The entire six days were filled with many tender mercies.  We are so thankful to all of you for your concern and your prayers.  They worked!

RUPTURED APPENDIX

Annie surgery was June 11th.  On June 10th, I woke Jake up for church and he informed me his stomach hurt. This isn't uncommon on a morning when Jake doesn't want to get out of bed and I didn't think much of it until we got to church and the poor little guy was green.  Annie's fear of vomit is debilitating and I really didn't want to upset her the day before surgery, so I tried to sneak Jake out of church to go home and stay with Heather.  Annie totally busted us as we tried to quitely make the escape from church.

Once home from church Jake did fairly well, but around 11:30 he started to throw up.  All of Sunday was spent throwing up.  It was about every twenty minutes, and Jake's only complaint was that he could not get comfortable. 

Mid afternoonTravis took Annie to Grandma and Grandpas so she could be away from the vomit.  Grandma brought her back just before bedtime and stayed the night so she could be with the other kids while Travis and I took Annie in for her operation.

Jake threw up until about 12:30 in the morning, and then once again in the night.  Around 8:00 Monday morning he was awake and Travis and I tried to give him some breakfast.  He wasn't interested and complained of his stomach being sore.  I explained that he had thrown up so much that his stomach muscles would probably be sore for a couple of days.  He had a sip of gatorade and a bite or two of chicken noodle soup.  With that, Travis and I were off to the surgery center with Annie.

From the surgery center I called to check in on Jake.  Thinking that he had the 24 hour flu, I was waiting for the report that our little guy was on the mend.  The report never came.  He seemed to be throwing up less, but was still very uncomfortable.  He compained that his right hip hurt, and asked Grandma if she thought he had cancer.

At 12:20 Travis, Annie, and I were in the car done with surgery and headed for home.  I called Grandma and the report on Jake was the same.  I hung up the phone with Grandma and Travis and I had a moment where we both knew Jake needed to get to the doctor.  We felt the urgency and our thankful to a loving Heavenly Father who was guiding us.

I called our pediatrician and of course he was in Chicago.  I called the doctor was was filling in and he saw the receptionist taking my message and instructed us to go immediately to the ER. 

Grandma sent the twins to Garretts.  Emma was already playing at her best friend Emma's house.  She loaded up Jake and we met halfway between Boise and our house at the movie theatre parking lot.  We switched cars and kids.  Poor Annie was still in a groggy post anesthesia state and was so confused as to what was going on.

Once in the Meridian ER, Jake was tested for all kinds of problems, but appendicitis was the most likely suspect.  He was so sick.  In the ER he had two episodes of intense pain.  Shortly after the episodes Jake's temperature started to rise.  It seemed to take hours to get an IV going for him so he could have some morphine and some relief.  The bloodwork showed Jake's white blood cell count to be more than double what it should have been.  All the tests ruled out other problems, and he was diagnosed with appendicitis.

The pediatric surgical group prefers to do all there surgeries at the St. Lukes downtown Boise.  An ambulance was called and we were moved from Meridian to Boise.

Jake perked up a little when he got to ride in the ambulance.  He was thrilled it was a Chevy, but very unlike himself he had no questions about how everything worked and did't carry on a lengthy conversation with the paramedic.

Once we were in Boise, we met with the surgeon who indicated his opinion was that Jake's appendix had ruptures.  He told us they would be going in laproscopically and that the surgery would take about 45 minutes.  As it turned out the surgery took about 20 minutes and the doctor was correct, the appendix had ruptured.  They cleaned and washed Jake's abdomen in surgery to rid it of the poison that had been introduced because of the rupture.  The appendix was taken out through a small incision in the belly button.  By 10:00, we were back in the room with Jake. 

Travis really struggled through the process.  It is hard to see any of our children sick, but when Jake is sick it is especially alarming.  He has so much wind in his sails, and when that wind is gone, there really are no words to describe it.  Poor Travis cried quietly for hours, and there was no question he would be the parent to stay by Jake's side through the night after surgery.

Jake was severly dehydrated and full of infection.  Bless Annie's heart she was up early Tuesday morning so she could be with me.  We had our two surdical patients side by side.

I know how important it is to get up and walk after surgery.  However, it was sure hard to insist Jake go for his allotted 6 to 8 walks every day.  The grimace of pain on his face was almost unbarable.

After about 10 feet of a slow and hunched over walk, Jake had earned a wagon ride back to his room.  This was the case for four days.  The infection took its toll on Jake's right leg.  It would not cooperate with his mind.  He often had to pick up that darn leg with his hands in order to get it to move.

Keeping Jake's oxygen saturation at normal levels proved to be difficult and he would have to where oxygen in his nose.  Thankfully he didn't mind at all and after we were back from our walks he woudl ask to put it back on.

By day four, Jake was walking much better and could hold on to the wheelchair and keep his body straight up.

We were so thankful for the play room at St. Lukes.  Jake didn't have the energy to play, but he had the desire to play.

Travis and Annie trying to recover.

Jake loved visits.  He was eager for anyone and everyone to come see him.  He never had much to say, but would sure perk up with company.  On Tuesday night St. Lukes has volunteer dogs that come in to visit the patients.  I think it was the visit from this sweet dog that made Jake begin to feel homesick.  He missed the dogs, he missed home, and he missed being healthy.  It was heartbreaking each night to leave and have him tell me he just wanted to come home.

Another difficulty was getting Jake to eat.  About day 3 he was having cravings and the first craving was mustard!  I quickly ordered him up a corn dog.  I have never been more excited to see Jake eat half a corn dog!

The toy room was amazing.  One corner is set up so that the patients can reinact the medical care they are being given.  It was visably theraputic.

While Jake was doctoring Annie in the toy room, a staff member came in to see if Jake and Annie would like some stuffed bears that had been donated.  Of course!  Then, she asked me if they could film Jake and Annie being given the bears.  Um...sure?  In walked channel 2 and channel 6 news!  We were all filmed and photogrpahed and Jake and I were interviewed and on the news.  Oh dear!

Surgery for Annie

Annie's ears have been giving her trouble all her life.  She was born with a cholesteatoma in her right ear that wasn't discovered until she was in kindergarten.  Because it was discovered so late, it had grown large enough to break her hearing bones on that side.  This required surgery to replace the bones with prosthetic ones.  The doctor told us as she grew that the bones would become too small and would need to be replaced with teenage size bones.  The best indicator on when this would need done would be her hearing.  Over the past few months, we noticed a large decrease in Annie's ability to hear.  Last month I took her to the audiologist and the ear specialist.


Early into the audiology test, it became very clear that something was not as it should be, and that it was not what anyone had anticipated.  The left ear was showing moderate to severe hearing loss.  The right ear was also showing compromised hearing.

After the tests with the audiologist we met with the doctor who clearly saw the panic in my face, and quickly and calmly explained Annie had developed a hole in her left ear drum which would easily be fixed with a short surgery.  He also anticipated that this hole had caused fluid to flow freely through the ear and that the hearing bones in the left side would be broken and need replaced with the prosthetic bones just as the right side.

The doctor wanted surgery as soon as possible, but Annie had no more available absences at school.  We took the first appointment after school.  June 11th.

The morning of June 11th we took Annie into the Southwest Idaho Ear Nose and Throat surgery center.  She is a pro at surgery.  It doesn't upset her at all to be hooked up to her IV and be hauled away into the surgery suite.  She wakes up well and recovers well.

After surgery the doctor came to deliver some good news.  By miracle alone, Annie's hearing bones had not broken.  50% of her eardrum was a hole and the fluid flowing back and forth had not broken her hearing bones.  In 4 to 6 weeks her hearing in the left ear will be nearly perfect.  What a blessing!

One last smile before going to surgery



Princess Leia



A few bites of food to get some much needed pain medication.

All of Annie's surgeries up to this point have been done through the ear canal.  We were so surprised when she came back with all these stitches!  This large of an incision has made her recovery a little more painful, but as usual she has been one tough girl.

San Diego

Travis turned 38 on May 26th!  On June2nd we took a birthday trip to San Diego--just the two of us!!  It was so fun to take some time to remember how much we enjoy each other.  We laughed and talked, we drove around San Diego and ate really well, we visited SEA WORLD and the retired naval ship the USS Midway.  We came home June 5th already planning to go again next year.

Trav relaxing on our hotel balcony.  He needed some rest after all the energy it must have taken to drive our rental car like an absolute MAD MAN!

One of the many (maybe not many?) things Travis and I have in common is our love for Sea World.  We love it!  We did feel guilty being there without the kids, and Jake was very sweet to call and remind us Sea World is for FAMILIES.  I believe his exact words were "What are you doing there without me?!"  I'll tell you what we did: we flew through Sea World three times faster because there were three times fewer people!

Another thing Travis and I love--Diners Drive Ins and Dives.  There were quite a few options in San Diego for places Guy has eaten, but we settled on this fish joint.  Here is where we differ: Travis loves fish.  Jamie hates fish.  It took some stern coercing, but I had a halibut taco.  I see why Guy loved the place, but will not admit to liking fish.

Travis got to go to his first major league game.  It was so fun, but way too short!  The Padres are no bueno this year--the home team fand boo them.  Yikes!  Our seats were amazing and we had hot dogs and cracker jacks, and root root rooted for the home team.

The USS Midway was a fasciniating visit.  The kids would have been bored out of their minds, but we could have stayed there all day.

ZACH

I absolutely love my calling in church.  I am the teacher for the eleven year old class.  One of my kids is Zachery.  Zach is a special spirit and in an instant had a special place in the hearts of the Kraupp family.  When his parents needed somewhere for him to stay one night and hang out for the next day, we were thrilled to have him!  He wasn't a fan of my french toast, next time I will stick to frying him eggs. 

After a breakfast of fried eggs (six of them!), I needed to go to the school for Emma's field day.  Jake really did NOT want to go and could not understand why Zach couldn't just babysit him.  I love Jake's tender outlook on life, never judging anyone or even realizing they might be a little different. 

Wedding Bells in St. George

Oh how we love a trip to St. George!  In early May we headed down for our nephew Brandon's wedding and neice Brittney's baby blessing.  The drive down is long, but we stopped in Salt Lake on the way to stay the night.  Of all the hotels in the Salt Lake Valley, we happened to stay at the same one as Travis' sister and her family. 

Travis and his brother are hilarious together, and Jake has somehow become convinced that Mike is a king.  Not sure how that happened, but Mike is on board!  I think he looks like a king, you?  We LOVE getting together with Travis' family, and wish it happened more often.

Proud Great-Grandparents with sweet baby Bronson.

All the Kraupp cousins (minus Blake who was feeling a little camera shy)

Jake is over the moon for his cousin Janessa.  He calls her Bethany because she reminds him of the actress in Soul Surfer.  Bethany was very kind to play along.

The day after the blessing and the wedding, we went swimming at King Mike's.  The kids swam for six hours! Oh, and I walked in on Uncle BJ while he was changing from his swimsuit to his clothes.  He "was in the pool" I still die laughing everytime I think about it! Nice to get to know you a little better Bruce.

Two peas in a pod, 12 years apart