Mono

I woke up bright and early at 4:00 in the morning. I don't know why I wake up so early, I definitely don't want to. It just happens. I had been awake for about fifteen minutes when I heard the guest room door open. Jorja came into our room. She was in so much pain. I looked into her throat and her five white dots were three times as big as when she went to bed. Holy cow! I tried to give her some sore throat medicine, but it didn't go too well. I finally gave her a sleeping pill. I was pretty sure she had strep. The second the clock hit eight I called the doctor to make an appointment. They weren't able to see her until 2:30. Jorja slept until 10:30. Once she woke up she was completely miserable while she was waiting for her appointment. She wouldn't eat or drink anything. She finally asked for a cookies and cream Chick-Fil-A milkshake extra thin. Mike came home around lunch time and brought her one. That didn't go well. I think she had two sips and couldn't handle anymore. Mike came home so we could take Jorja's car to the shop. He was really worried that it wouldn't make it down there without overheating. He didn't want to leave it stranded on the side of the road. It did make it to the shop, but just barely. It started overheating a couple of blocks before the shop, but he still made it there.

2:30 couldn't come soon enough for us. We were convinced Jorja had strep. Jorja wouldn't let me look in her throat once she woke up. I asked the nurse when she was taking the swabs if it was still white back there. The nurse laughed, "Oh yeah, I got some good samples." Well, the quick strep test came back negative. We will find out on Monday if she has strep once the longer, more accurate test results get back. They then wanted to test her for mono. They gave her a finger prick to take her blood. They said this test has a lot of false negatives and they might have to send it out for a test that takes two weeks. Well, we didn't need to worry about that. Her test came back positive. The doctor seemed to indicate that she had mono for awhile, at least a week or two. It takes that long for the test to show up positive, if I understand correctly.

Stephanie and Jorja

One of the problems with mono is there is no cure. You just have to wait to get better, and that takes a long time. The doctor said she would be sick off and on for at least a month. She will also be super tired, which explains why she has been falling asleep in class. She can't play any physical sport for at least two weeks after her symptoms stop, or something like that. I guess you have an enlarged spleen and they don't want that to rupture. All they told Jorja to take for this intense pain is 600 mg Advil and 1000 mg Tylenol. I can't wait until this sore throat is gone. This poor girl is absolutely miserable.

The doctor gave me two notes. One for school and one for work. The doctor doesn't want her at work for at least a week. The note for school said, "Jorja Smith was seen today for medical appointment. She has mononucleosis infection. This can cause significant fatigue and illness for up to several weeks. Commonly can have improvement for days at a time (energy-level wise) and could return to school as early as Monday, December 3, 2018, but will not attend school if having fever or significant fatigue. May miss school off and on for the next month, will attend as able." So....this is going to be fun.

I stopped at Smith's on the way home to pick up medicine, then we stopped by Chick-Fil-A. Jorja wanted me to drop off the note. She told me to go inside and ask for Zoe. Madison was at the cashier, which was great, so she got Zoe for me. I gave her the note and told her Jorja would try and get her shifts for next week covered. (That is what Jorja wanted me to tell her.) Zoe said that she hoped Jorja felt better, strep throat is awful. Nope, not strep. I forgot that is what Jorja had told people because we were convinced this morning that is what she had. I told Zoe that Jorja had mono. Zoe's eyes got big and she said, "Oh no. My brother had that and it is just awful." That is good that her manager understands how horrible this disease is.

The doctor told me to try children's Advil and Tylenol because Jorja was having a hard time swallowing anything. She thought this might be easier. It wasn't. Jorja had to take a lot of it and she had a hard time not gagging it up. I don't know how to help her. We tried to take some pictures the one time Jorja was willing to open her mouth. The crazy thing is her throat looks so much worse in real life than it does in the pictures. Jorja said that yesterday she hurt so bad she wanted to cry. Today she just wishes she felt as good as she did yesterday. Today she hurts so bad she wants to die. She can't believe she thought her throat hurt yesterday. Hopefully this medicine will help her a lot.

Jorja

I emailed all of Jorja's teachers. I didn't know if they would see the note that the attendance office will get. I checked Jorja out of chemistry on Monday because she was feeling sick, so she missed that class two days this week already. They had a test today. The chemistry teacher wrote back immediately saying she would work with Jorja and Jorja could do a take home test. This teacher had mono when she was a junior in high school and had to be hospitalized for it. Thank heavens she understands! I also heard back from her Chinese teacher who had mono in high school and her theater teacher. All of them let me know they would work with Jorja. Thank goodness Jorja performed her final monologue last week! She had to sign up for a day, and they are still doing them. I'm glad she picked the first day. Her theater teacher said they aren't doing anything big until after Christmas. Hopefully she won't get marked down on attendance in that class. I emailed Mr. Packer because student government is doing a huge service activity tomorrow. Jorja has been pretty excited about it too. I let him know there was no way she could be there. We started worrying that he wouldn't see the email. Jorja texted him and told him she had mono and wouldn't be able to come. He texted back, "The kissing disease? What about your AP classes?" So.....some teachers are more sympathetic than others.

I spent the rest of the day in my bed with Jorja. Mike and Preston had a sleep over in the basement and Jorja and I slept in my bed. (When I told Preston that Jorja had mono he started giggling and said, "That's ironic." I asked him what he knew about mono. He giggled and giggled and said that you get it from kissing. I asked him how he knew that. He said, "Studio C. The monologues." For the record, we are pretty sure Jorja didn't get it from kissing. Most likely she got it from sharing someone's drink. Like drinking through someone else's straw. She does that all the time. The doctor said you can get it through using the same utensils, sharing food, chapstick, toothbrush. Okay, that's gross, she did not share a toothbrush. She shares drinks with people all the time, so that is why we think that is the most likely culprit. She is not looking forward to being roasted for having mono though. Today was not a fun day. The only fun thing that happened was I got to talk to Rachel for a bit. I took a picture to show her how far I was on Grace's stocking. I feel bad that I didn't get it finished for Christmas. I'm so close! But with Jorja and gingerbread factory coming, I don't see how I will get it done.

Grace's stocking

Mermaid Wishes

Hailey sent me this picture of how she answered Drew.

I love it! I love socks. Plus, now he has five new pairs of socks!

I spent most of my morning at the Festival of Trees. I love it. Our ward did a tree this year. Camee was in charge of it. And another super cute girl that I don't know very well. They did an awesome job. The lady that was standing by the tree said that people were just blown away with it, especially when they realized it was decorated with coffee filters, q-tips and straws. I dyed a lot of the coffee filters and even made one mermaid. The tree was beautiful. I'm glad I was able to see it in person.

 Close up look at the coffee filter coral

 You can see the q-tips pretty good here.

 Straws

 The lady asked if I wanted pictures of the back of the tree. She took them for me.

 Stephanie and random person looking at Emery's tree

 Blue straws

 Emery before her brain surgery

 This tree reminded me of my friend Rae in Georgia. I sent her pictures.

 I took a picture of this tree for Jorja

 The vanity next to it is exactly the same as Jorja's, just painted silver.

 Jorja loves llamas too.

 What a cool Utah State tree! I sent these pictures to Maysen and Stockton.

 I thought the lego head at the top was funny.

 Now this is a Maysen tree. I texted it to her. She immediately texted me back to go get divinity!

Maysen was in a chocolate competition in college for one of her marketing classes. The first competition they had to come up with chocolates and market them. Maysen's group worked with this divinity lady and created different versions of her divinity. They ended up winning the competition. The next competition she was in, with a different group, was to market the new chocolate lab that will be at Blue Square. Maysen's group won that competition as well. They even got to split a lot of money. I can't remember how much, but after it was split seven ways Maysen ended up with several hundred dollars in her scholarship account. That was awesome. Maysen was the only one in the class who ended up winning both competitions. Anyway, this is the booth of the person Maysen worked with for the first competition.

I ordered a tray of four. I expected that they would just give it to me then. Nope. They took down my name as 'Setphen' and my cell phone number. The girl said she would text me when my order was ready. I walked around the festival for another hour and was ready to go. I went back to ask how much longer it would be. My order was just sitting there in the 'preorder' section. So weird. The divinity was delicious though. I usually hate divinity, but this was super good.

 Jorja's been singing this song lately.

 Hot chocolate tree! I loved the top.

 Brazil! I took this picture for Mike.

 Of course I couldn't pass up the Gingerbread Village.

 There is a BYU Milbourn House every year.

Too bad they spell Millburn wrong. Milbourn just looks weird!

 Kalani's Surf Shack was pretty cool.

 So was Cosmo's Cottage

 I sent this picture to Jorja and told her I got a new bedspread for her.

I didn't, but I miss the days when frogs were her world.

Hailey and I were sending messages on Snapchat back and forth. At the bottom of one I wrote, "Sorry for using periods. Jorja says using periods makes me sound angry. I just can't help it." Hailey sent this back. I had to save it because my Porge is with her!

Jorja & Hailey

I brought these divinity pieces home. Preston loved them the most. I also brought home Preston a chocolate covered strawberry kabob and Jorja a chocolate covered cinnamon bears kabob.

 Preston

Jorja's throat was hurting worse after school than when she went to school. I had her gargle with a sore throat concoction hoping it would help the pain. She had five white spots on the back of her throat. I'm worried she has strep. Preston has had a sore throat for about a week. I made him let me look in his throat. He has at least one white spot. We decided he shouldn't go to diving. We didn't want to get any of the divers sick before the state championship on Saturday. Jorja drove her bug to Target to get some Christmas lights for it. She came back pretty happy with her purchase. We sat on the couch together and she kept sending me pictures in Snapchat. I got some cute ones. I didn't save the weird ones she sent.

Jorja

 Jorja with her Christmas lights bug

Jorja and I decided to go to Zupas to get soup. That sounded good to her. Madison wanted to come over. Jorja told her how sick she was, but Madison said she didn't mind. We picked up Madison and took her to Zupas with us. Jorja drove the entire way and did great. Once we walked into Zupas Jorja started feeling awful. She felt dizzy and like she was going to throw up. I had her go find a booth. She was able to eat her soup, but her throat was getting worse. I drove home for Jorja. When we got to the gate I smelled something weird. Like something was burning. As we pulled up into our driveway there was a ton of smoke coming out of Jorja's hood. What the heck? I ran to get Mike and told the girls to get out of the car! Her car definitely overheated. Hopefully this will be an easy fix. Jorja loves that car and has just started feeling comfortable driving it.

Jorja and Madison went downstairs for about an hour. Jorja was just miserable. After Madison left Jorja wanted to cuddle with Kiki. Too bad Kiki was not cooperative. Jorja was so sad!

Jorja & Kiki

 Kiki does not want to stay.

 We put Quacky Chan next to Kiki to see if that would calm her down.

 Quacky Chan kept nibbling at Jorja's neck.

 Kiki just kept climbing, wanting to be anywhere but with Jorja.

Jorja was feeling absolutely awful by the time she finally got to bed. She asked me if I would sleep with her. She was miserable. Mike tried scheduling a doctor appointment online, but the website wouldn't let him log in. We are going to have to call as soon as they open in the morning. We are pretty sure she has strep. I'm not sure if any of my kids have ever had strep before. I'm planning on just letting Jorja sleep until it is time to go to the doctor's tomorrow. Hopefully she can recover quickly. She has a huge student government service project thing on Saturday. They are supposed to go to houses to do small tasks. I think they are supposed to work for about five hours. Jorja really wants to do that! Then she is planning on going to Jonas' concert with Hailey. Fingers crossed her body recovers quickly. I stayed with Jorja until I was sure she was asleep, then I snuck out into my own bed. Jorja's been sleeping in the guest room lately, which is just across the hall from me. At least I'll be able to get to her fast if I need to.