What's scarier than Halloween?

The hospital.
What started as a basic office visit ended in a trip to the ER. Elsa had been having an assortment mild ailments that lasted for too long, including a fever. None of them were alarming on their own, but all of them together was puzzling. We brought her to the doctor after the first five days - while she had a rash - but none of the doctors could figure out what kind of rash it looked like. It was most similar to a strep rash, but the test came back negative. We also had a Lymes test taken, which was also negative. Their diagnosis was, "virus of the week". Two weeks later, she still had an on/off fever and some other symptoms. The nurses at the Fairview nurse line told me it sounded like a virus and not to worry. In the meantime, she felt good enough to go to school, dance class, and every other normal activity. These photos were taken just 3 days before we went to the hospital. She doesn't look too sick, does she?




But we went back a second time, anyway. I figured we'd get some medicine to finally kick whatever it was and get outta there. But instead the doctor very seriously told us that we needed to go to the ER at U of M Children's in Minneapolis right away. They thought she had Kawasaki's disease, which can lead to permanent heart damage and is deadly if not treated. When we got to Mpls, the doctors all agreed that must be it... but then suddenly changed their minds. They still couldn't figure out what was going on, so we had to stay there for two nights and poor Elsa had to go through a ton of tests. Chest x-ray, CT scan, echocardiogram, eye exam, an IV, and the dreaded lab work... they took 10 tubes of blood. All the tests were negative. I didn't take any photos, I purposely left my camera at home when we left. Now I wish I would have brought it - the hospital was really impressive! I took some photos from off their website and the rest are from Tim's phone.





Elsa was relaxing while watching the HUGE flat screen TV.


After a full day of tests, finally some fun - playing cards with dad!


We still have to go back to Children's and she needs another echocardiogram just to be sure, and then we'll be 100% in the clear and hopefully we'll be done with doctors for awhile. She seems fine now. Just a virus after all!!

The house is done and basically move-in ready. Just some picky little things to get done for our inspections, and we'll have the occupancy permit this week or next. It's very exciting, but these last little things seem to be taking so long. I'm ready to move in!

Home Sweet Home.




Lila is the first to use the toilet in the girls' new bathroom!


Now that we have carpet upstairs, the kids finally seem to see the new house as a house. They run all around the rooms in their socks and have a blast.


Last night at dance, the kids got to dress up in their costume and we got to watch them do their thing. Lila and Violet had the same exact costume!


Today I went to Ikea with Lila while Elsa was in school. On our way home we stopped by Cousin Avery's house for a play date. Her first birthday is next Monday already!