December 23, 2014 at 10:50AM

Our Christmas just got even more exciting: Michael has been admitted to the hospital and will be having surgery this afternoon. Hopefully he will be able to come home tomorrow morning. He has had a lot of problems with his shoulder in the last year. It finally got bad enough he had it checked out a few months ago with an EMG (nerve conduction study) that showed he had something really screwed up in his neck. Then followed the MRI that showed that sure enough, his neck was not happy. Last night the pain became unbearable so he went in to the ER. Thankfully pain meds there have helped him be comfortable. He has two bulging discs in his neck. The surgery will include fusing the vertebrae together and hopefully remove the problem (and the pain!) while not making any significant difference in range of motion. In the mean time, Kate (who we thought had gotten by with only a 24 hour fever and a bit of vomiting), started in on the same fever and coughing as the other girls. Thanks to new federal regulations, even though both sisters saw the doctor less than 24 hours ago with identical symptoms, they cannot prescribe the same medication for her unless we schedule and pay for a third appointment. Lizzie's and Sabrina's fevers are continuing, and Sabrina threw up at least half-dozen times through the night because she was coughing so hard. Now she can't keep anything down. She was up so much of the night she has just passed out on my bed again. BUT: we're ready for Christmas! The girls were hoping to shop for one another, but we'll be fine without. I was able to do the last grocery shopping yesterday, and everything else is already stockpiled around the house. So if they have energy today maybe the girls can spend time making presents for each other. Otherwise, it's all fine and good anyway. No worry there. Phew! AND: we're so incredibly blessed. I've already talked to both of our parents who are ready to do whatever they can, some other family, and even the ladies from M's work who are bringing dinner tonight. Bless their hearts! We're so grateful for some help! Yeah, we CAN do it all ourselves, but it's nice knowing we don't HAVE to :) *sigh* now one of the cats just threw up. Please let it be a hairball!!! via Facebook