Hannah Surgery

Hannah has now had four, yes four, surgeries on her neck. You can read about the first one here and second one here. And apparently, I didn't blog about the third one. Bad mom.

Long story short: The cyst keeps coming back. While we loved Dr. Mintz (Hannah's ENT at Good Samaritan) she said this was something that needed to be referred to Children's Hospital. 

My favorite place. 

(Sarcasm is coming through, right?)

So we met with Dr. Lin (great doctor if you ever need an ENT--and he has an office in Glendale so you don't have to suffer through the CHLA experience) and he requested a CT scan to see where the cyst was originating. Apparently, it starts in her ear and the tract goes down to her neck.

It's been a PITA trying to do all this from Vegas, and while there are specialists here that could also do it, our HMO is strictly SoCal only....and so we drive back and forth and back and forth....more times than I can even count between Sammy and Hannah's doctor visits. Ugh.

Regardless, we got all the pre-op tests done and were scheduled for surgery at CHLA on December 28th. Samuel had Sammy and Helene for a few days while I stayed with Hannah at the hospital. 

Our experience at CHLA was a nightmare. Was there any doubt?  I tried to have a good attitude...I really did. But after making her fast (from both food and liquid) since 8pm the night before, and surgery was scheduled for 9am....and we sat in pre-op for 6 hours--and then she didn't ever get into the OR until about 4pm, it would be an understatement to say I was livid.

Pre-op

She was so bored and so hungry and so thirsty and kept begging for something to drink...it made me so sad. And I didn't want to eat or drink in front of her, so I was suffering right along with her. A big thank you to Krista for hanging out with us in pre-op and keeping us company!

Apparently, they were waiting for a machine that is supposed to monitor her facial nerve in case they had to cut into her jawline and ear area (like a standard facelift cut) to remove the cyst. Turns out, no one ordered the machine in advance (of course), so it had to be ordered and they also had to call for technician to run the machine. I still have no idea why that takes 7 hours to do all that. Ugh.

She finally went in. Surgery went well--better than expected. They were able get everything they needed by going in through her neck area only and they didn't need to mess with her facial nerve after all. Recovery was smooth and they took her upstairs to keep her under observation for a few days.

Post-op

When Sammy was here for his surgeries, they were building a new hospital wing. It was finally open and Hannah was lucky enough to stay in one of the rooms.  

They were a m a z i n g.

Touch screen TVs to watch on-demand movies, internet access, and you could even order your meals (apparently as many times as you wanted, whenever you wanted from 7am-8pm). 

It was awesome. I only wish wish they had all this when he was here.

Krista and Ally came for a visit and the girls did crafts and played in one of the play rooms.

Yay for friends! <3

She was released 3 days later and was doing great until about a month ago, when I noticed her neck swelling up.

Again. 

Ugh. 

I called Dr. Lin, who was incredulous that it had returned--especially so quickly after removing it. We're going to wait until school gets out in June before we start up all the driving to Los Angeles and back for doctor appointments and what is sure to be another surgery. 

Remind me again why I don't have my own plane?

Yeah....we're still here. Kind of.

I promised myself I wouldn't let the blog go a year without a post, but it's getting pretty close to it (1 week), so I guess I should give an update.

I stopped blogging for a number of reasons, but mostly because life got in the way. It happens to everyone at some point in their life, I suppose.

I am so far behind, I don't really want to play catch up so I won't try--but I will give a few highlights. And do a little backtracking for big events like birthdays and such.

• The kids and I moved to Las Vegas
• Hannah started Kindergarten and Sammy is in 2nd grade
• We moved to Utah for 72 hours....and then moved back to Vegas
• Helene is potty trained and off the bink
• Hannah became a Girl Scout (well, at this age it's called Daisies)
• All the kids sleep in their own beds now and I FINALLY have the bed to myself
• I have discovered that the combination of diet coke (or diet dr pepper) along with chocolate and TV, really IS the answer to pretty much everything

 I guess we're officially back.

Sanity restored!

i.e. Hannah is back in preschool.

I won't lie to you. It's been a looooooong 5 weeks and 1 day.

Since we were out of town for most of summer and I wasn't sure what our plans for fall were, I made the mistake of not re-enrolling Hannah in her Pre-K class from last year over the summer. We never had a problem getting in at the last minute before with Sammy and I guess I kind of just took it for granted that somehow it would work out that way again.

BIG MISTAKE.

When I finally went to enroll her the week before school started, we were #7 on the waiting list.

Uh oh. Not a good sign.

I gave it a few weeks figuring people would drop out like they do every year, so I would occasionally call to get a status, but it was never good news.

Meanwhile, I began to panic.

What if she didn't get in?

Where else am I going to send her at this late in game?

Most importantly, how am I going to not go absolutely insane having her around all day with the endless amounts of energy and need for structure (so not my thing, as you know) and socializing.

She was so disappointed that Sammy got to go to school and she didn't. We tried to fill in the time doing fun things and hanging out with friends, but she really missed school.

I will spare you all the details of the bureaucratic crap...I mean red tape...that I had to deal with to get her back in. Especially considering the open spot she finally got had been available since the first day of school! But long story short--she started on Wednesday.

And everyone is thrilled.

(Picture is blurry because she wouldn't stand still.)
Her teachers were so happy to have her back in class and her friends from last year who are also in the class were jumping with joy. It was really really sweet.

Hannah and her friend Jasmine, who was in class with her last year
I'm just happy to (finally) have three hours of peace and quiet...and a little one-on-one time with Helene.

More excuses as to why we are MIA on the blog...

So after a fun evening being crafty with Lexi...I was awoken at 2am to the sound of Helene vomiting.

And it all went downhill from there.

I will spare you the details. And while this is also a journal for me to remember...I don't think I could ever forget how terrible the next five days were.

Full of more vomiting, diarrhea, changing clothing, laundry, cleaning, whining, complaining, and yelling than I could have ever thought possible.

So the kids did a lot of this.

I love how he is the one smiling--and he was the absolute worst patient of them all.

Poor poor Helene.
This was a day she was actually feeling better and was over the vomiting and diarrhea. I got her dressed and left the room to get something, came back and she was just lying on the floor.

The older kids were complaining of body aches so I'm sure Helene had them too.
That face is so sad.

Remarkably, NONE of Valerie's kids caught it, nor any of the adults. Although Valerie and I did have a day or two of queasy stomachs, but mentally talked our way out of it by telling ourselves we weren't really sick. I did have one night where I had a slight fever and my entire body ached...but it was apparently nothing 10 hours of sleep couldn't cure.

It's not a good thing...

...when your computer stops recognizing your scan disk in the H:\ drive (so I can't update the blog with birthday party pictures), AND the next day when you turn it on...you get just a blue screen with the hp logo.

Yeah. Not good.

So you go into panic mode, right? Because N O T H I N G is backed up.

6 years of pictures

6 years of tax returns

emails

resumes

recipes

NOTHING.

So you try again.

Shut off.

Wait.

Turn back on.

Blue screen again.

You silently have a heart attack and all you can do is pray that it will just turn on one more time.

And the third time's a charm.

And so you immediately sign up for this.

I'm not being paid to endorse them. I'm just trying to not have another freak out the next time my computer won't load and it's officially dead.

So, not sure when I'll be posting about the birthday party...or anything else in the near future, for that matter.

Because really, let's be honest. Who wants to just sit and listen to me ramble without looking at pictures of adorable kids?

That's what I thought.

Post Thanksgiving sickies

WARNING: do not read if you can't handle vomit stories

So it all began Saturday afternoon when Sammy complained that his stomach hurt...and it's all been downhill from there. The stomach flu bug has officially hit us.

He started to feel better around 2am, so I decided that he and I could (finally) go to bed--we took a bowl with us, just in case. I was awoken at 3am by Helene vomiting all over me and the bed. By this time everyone is awake, so all we all head downstairs so I can strip the sheets off my bed.

I begin doing laundry and brace myself for a long night. As expected, Hannah begins vomiting at 4am. At this point, it's all I can do to keep the vomit bowls coming. Everyone seems to quiet down and stop vomiting around 6am, so we all head back to bed--with bowls in hand. We slept until 9am and went downstairs. Sammy felt okay enough to have some cereal and I gave Helene some Joe's O's (same as Cheerios, but better). Hannah ate some goldfish crackers and seemed okay. I was so tired and Helene seemed like she needed a nap, so Helene and I went upstairs to bed. No sooner did I lie down, then Hannah starts yelling/crying from the top of the stairs. She had thrown up from the top of the stairs, vomit was all over her and literally cascading down the stairs. Awesome.

No nap for me. I start the bath for Hannah and begin cleaning up the stairs. Note to self: never let Hannah eat Parmesean Goldfish if she has the stomach flu--the smell coming back up is positively putrid. Samuel has been at work pretty much the entire time this has been going on (he works double shifts on the weekends and is really only home for a few hours to sleep). I call him just for a little sympathy and then go back to cleaning.

I do the best I can with the stairs, but they are carpet after all, so the smell isn't entirely gone. And I then go upstairs to nap with Hannah in tow--and a bowl. Helene and I woke up around 3:30, but Hannah was still passed out--poor thing.

Samuel got home around 5pm and went straight to bed since he has to get up for work at 10pm and had been there since 11pm the night before. Everyone seemed vomit free and doing okay with food and drink, so we all went to bed at 8pm. I woke up at 10pm to get Samuel up for work and fix him lunch to take with him. Hannah also woke up and we hung out and watched TV for a bit and then went back to bed around 11:30pm. Fortunately, it was a quiet night with no one getting sick.

This morning, everyone was doing great. No complaints of stomach pain, no vomiting. I was still a bit cautious and only allowed the kids toast to eat. Next thing I know, Hannah is vomiting all over the couch and the floor and herself. **sigh** Back to the tub she goes and I do my best to clean up the couch.

Samuel came home from work early so I could go over to Danielle's and borrow her steam cleaner (I didn't dare take the kids anywhere in the van) to use on the carpet and the couch (thank you Danielle!) and to get a diet coke. When I got back, Hannah wasn't downstairs. I asked Sammy where she went and he told me that she went upstairs to nap. Sure enough, there she was passed out next to Samuel. Anyone who knows Hannah, knows that just isn't like her at all.


Here's hoping she's over it soon since it looks like everyone else is better now. I'm just glad that Samuel and I survived this unscathed. Or am I speaking too soon?

another fun week

Nope--this week wasn't any better.

Been dealing with our ceiling and walls being torn apart due to plumbing issues.

Good times.

We had to be out of the house all day today--got home at 7pm and they STILL weren't done.

Sigh.

Here's hoping next week doesn't entail:
* finding 6 apples in the trash, each with three-year-old teeth marks nibbled into them.
* Hannah coloring all over her stomach, pants, and the bathroom door with marker. (THIS is why I buy the Crayola washable markers and crayons!!).
* finding old sippy cups full of curdled milk.
* having the first three things listed above happen all in the same day, in less than one hour.
* spending over an hour making dinner and plenty of leftovers and packing them up to freeze for meals later in the week--only to find out the next morning that you didn't actually put them IN the freezer, they are still sitting on the counter.
* having to pick up Sammy early from school because the fire alarm went off (maintenance guys working on the system) and it freaked him out and he refused to go back to class.
* going to the General Relief Society Meeting Broadcast only to find out that the satellite isn't working at church, so we're all sent back home.
* being told that my ceiling and walls won't be patched up until Monday. And today is Thursday.
* taking Sammy into the lab for blood work and having him cry hysterically enough to dislodge the needle and make the vein enlarge and puff up. (Not sure what that's called, but it looked terrible).
* staying up until 2:30am because Helene has a 102.7 degree fever--and still having to get up at 7:30am to get kids off to school.
* having to write another post about my crappy week.

Yep. Next week had better be better than the past two, but I won't jinx myself by saying that it can't get any worse...because I'm sure it can. And it sure is nice to have a blog all to myself where I can whine and complain all I want! Yay me!

10 Reasons I haven't blogged lately

10. Discovered that all I do is drop off/pick up kids from school, with a 2.5 hour break to myself when they are both at school.

9. Been too busy writing numerous emails and letters, and having parent/teacher/principal conferences in an effort to get Sammy into a different Kindergarten class. So far, no luck.

8. Had to fix a flat tire on the van.

7. Almost had to take Samuel to the ER in the middle of the night because he had a his intestine tangled up in some scar tissue, again. He decided to just tough it out at home and wait for it to work itself out.

6. Spent over 2 hours with Hannah at the doctors office because of a UTI. Ever tried to get a urine sample from a newly potty trained 3 year-old, who peed just before the appointment? Good times.

5. Being depressed about losing out on $250K due to a decision made 4 years ago. (I actually found this out last month, but I am still lamenting the loss.) Yeah...don't even get me started.

4. Spent 2 hours at the car dealership while I had the brakes replaced on my van.

3. Watching the season premieres of Heroes and How I Met Your Mother (although Heroes was pretty uneventful and almost boring)...and watching Project Runway and Mad Men. I've actually got 4 shows that I am watching every week instead of my usual 2.

2. Spent 2 hours at CHLA for a post-op appointment for Sammy. (Why does every appointment this week take 2 hours?!)

1. Goofing off watching random stuff on You Tube.


Here's hoping next week is a little better than this one.

First Day of Kindergarten!

Sammy had his first day of Kindergarten today. We stopped by his classroom yesterday to meet his teacher--and figure out where to go before the totally hectic and crazy first day. So we met her...and let's just say I wasn't impressed.

I was hoping that my opinion of her would change when I went back for his actual first day, but no, she was still just as bad.

I made sure not to let Sammy hear what I thought of her so he wouldn't be influenced by my opinion, but as soon as he got into his classroom, Samuel and I both talked to the principal (who happened to be roaming around the Kindergarten area at that moment) about our concerns. The principal actually agreed with my assessment and told me that "last year was not a good year personally or professionally for Mrs. ****" and that she "had a difficult time bonding with her students the first few months."

Are you kidding me with this? This is a group of 5 year olds, not troublesome 13 year olds. How hard is it to "bond" with a bunch of Kindergartners? If you don't like kids, then don't teach. It's that simple. I looked around at the other teachers when they were meeting their students this morning and I saw them getting down at eye level and saying hello and telling them how excited they were to have them in their class, etc. Sammy's teacher never made one comment or even a hello to any of the kids, she just got basic info regarding emergency numbers and lunch and then went on to the next parent.

There was no "hi, so nice to meet you"or "I'm so excited to have **** in my class" or even acknowledging the child, etc. I mean, would it kill her to act excited about Kindergarten? I have such fond memories of Kindergarten and my teacher, Mrs. Rosell, and I just hate to have Sammy miss out on that because of a lame burned-out teacher.

The principal asked me to bring her a letter explaining our situation, but said that nothing would be done until next week when they know what their numbers are for each class. And even then, they may not be able to move him.

Anyway, I was debating whether to walk or drive to school this morning since it's only a few blocks. I figured that there would be no parking since everyone would be driving their kids on the first day, so we walked. Of course, just as we are walking out front, Hannah pees in her underwear. (That pretty much sums up our potty training experience right there in case you were wondering). Luckily, she was wearing a dress and not pants AND we were outside, so I just ran back inside, put her in a diaper and off we went. Two kids in the stroller and Helene in the Moby Wrap and 15 minutes to walk 9 blocks. Did I mention it was 78 degrees out? I was so sweaty and gross by the time I got there.

My annual "first day of school" shot

Big smile for the first day

Hannah wasted no time checking out the playgroundHanging out in front of the classroom doorOne last picture with mom before heading into class
(this is what my hair looks like curly,
for those of you who had asked about it) On his way into classWaiting for class to begin

It's an all-day Kindergarten, so at 3:10 I picked him up from school in the van as there was no way I was walking since it was 100 degrees this afternoon. I arrived 20 minutes early so I would be sure to get parking--and I had to load Hannah and Helene into the stroller. It was total chaos picking him up as the teacher didn't have a good system and was trying to coordinate with the YMCA people who were there to pick up kids, as well as the district after-school program people AND the parents. She asked me three times who I was there to pick up. Whatever.

He said he was hungry so we went to Taco Bell for a quesadilla as a treat. When I asked about his day, he said it was fun, and when I asked what he did he said "played outside". So typical, right?

I checked his lunch box and he had eaten barely anything--I guess that explains why he was so hungry. When I asked why he didn't eat his lunch, he told me that they only had 10 minutes for lunch and it wasn't enough time to eat. Not sure what that was all about, but hopefully he'll eat more tomorrow.

And I've written my letter and just need to give it to the principal tomorrow morning. Let's hope something changes next week.

Update on Sammy plus a few woes of motherhood

I thought I would give an update on Sammy for my own records, if nothing else.

He had a fever of 102.5 the day after we took the casts off. If the casts were still on, I would have been concerned about possible infection, but everything looked good on his legs. I have no idea where he picked up whatever he had, but I was just relieved that no one else came down with it--especially Helene.

On Saturday, he was pretty out of it and vegged on the couch most of the day, but did make some walking attempts, albeit only very timidly and with the assistance of the furniture. His fever was still pretty high that day and he was so sad about it. I felt so badly for him...he finally gets his boots off and then he gets sick.

His fever was gone by Sunday morning, but I still kept him home from church because it had been less than 24 hours since his fever had gone away and I didn't want him getting anyone else sick.

He's been walking more and more this week, but he still can't keep his balance very well and prefers to hold someone's hand or hold onto something. The other issue that has come up is that he is drastically turning in his left foot while he walks. REALLY turning it in...it reminds me of how Kevin Spacey walked in The Usual Suspects (great movie, BTW). I'm not sure if he is doing that to help his balance issue, but the turn in problem is pretty much the reason why we did this last surgery and it needs to be addressed ASAP.

As of today, in addition to turning in his left foot, he is still very unsteady on his feet, cannot do stairs or even maneuver a small curb without holding onto something, and walks extremely slow. He was so frustrated today while we played at the park and asked me "why am I so slow?" It just breaks my heart time and time again.

So, it's back to CHLA on Thursday for an evaluation and I already have a physical therapy appointment scheduled for Friday if needed. School starts in a month and I don't want him still having walking/balance issues when starting out at a brand new school. And don't even get me started on my school woes--they are a plenty these days, but I just can't deal with them right now.

And I've been passive-agressively potty training Hannah. It needs to be done before preschool starts, but it has been such a game and never-ending power struggle with her that I am just done with it--without ever "officially" starting. I think I just need to take the plunge and put her in underwear and tough it out for a day or two...or a week. I know she can DO it...she just would rather see me tear out my hair. That girl can dish out some serious sassiness.

Helene, while still my sweet and serene baby, has become so grouchy at night. It all starts around 8pm and nothing makes her happy. She'll fall asleep and then wake up 45 minutes later screaming. She never wakes up screaming during the day or in the middle of the night...only between the hours that the older kids are in bed until I finally go to bed. Maybe she's just trying to get me to go to bed before 1am.

I went to movies with my friend Jean last Thursday night, and was gone from 9:15pm-12:30am (Harry Potter...long movie!) and Samuel said Helene screamed and cried the entire time. I fed her before I left and left a little bit of breastmilk for Samuel to feed her if he needed it. When I finally got home, she was literally shaking from being so upset and had a scratchy voice from crying so hard. No clue what that was all about, and yet she STILL wouldn't go to sleep until after 1am. I thought for sure she would have passed out from exhaustion from all the crying the minute I took her to bed and nursed her, but nope. It was so unlike her. I felt so badly for Samuel--nothing worse than a crying screaming baby. I'm sure that's the last I get to go out without her for a long time.

Anyway, here's hoping that this coming week is better and that Sammy can make some progress with his walking.

Status on Sammy

In the pre-op area

So, it's been a really long 24 hours. REALLY long.

I only have a few minutes to post before I have to get back to the hospital, but I wanted to give an update.

It didn't start out too well with Sammy refusing to take the oral medication that they give before they take the kids to the OR. He's taken it twice before with no problem, but absolutely refused this time. After trying and failing with three doses and lots of crying, kicking and spitting it out. Samuel had to put on a protective suit and cap and go with Sammy to the OR to help them administer a face mask of gas to knock him out. I wanted to take a picture of Sam in the "bunny suit", but didn't think Samuel would be very happy about it.

The operation itself went well and there were no complications. They gave Sammy a spinal block for the pain that was supposed to block the pain for 18 hours, as well as, a general anesthetic. He did really well in the recovery room and when they took him up to his room for the night. I felt like he was okay to leave with Samuel while I went home to feed Helene and say goodnight to Hannah.

Unfortunately, about an hour later, Samuel called and needed to me to come back ASAP as Sammy was in excruciating pain and was writhing in pain, screaming and basically losing control. It was totally surprising as we thought the block wouldn't wear off until sometime around 2am. By the time I was able to get back, it had taken morphine, valium and another pain medication that I can't remember the name of, to calm him down.

And it's been that miserable since then.

He is getting the morphine every 2 hours and that is barely containing the pain. I ended up spending the night (it was orginially planned for Samuel to spend the night) since Sammy wanted only Mommy at this point. He slept about 10 minutes of every hour last night and we both finally fell asleep around 4am this morning. We were not happy to be woken up at 6:30am by the street cleaning type machine that they use to wash the floors. It was so freaking loud and totally unacceptable to have them using at 6:30 in the morning on a post-surgery floor where there were kids who were up all night moaning or screaming in pain--and not just Sammy. I was so mad--I am definitely writing a letter about how unnecessary that is.

We are trying to get him off the morphine and switch to Tylenol with codeine so he can come home, but he is still refusing to take any oral medications, so we are staying another night. There is no way I'm taking him off morphine and bringing him home with just codeine...that he may or may not take.

Anyway, I am home for an hour to eat, put Hannah to bed, and nurse Helene, but I also wanted to give a quick update because I know people are wondering how we are doing. We are exhausted--physically, mentally, emotionally, but thanks to wonderful friends and family we are hanging in there.

My mom and dad got here Sunday night to help out and stay here with Hannah and Helene. It's so great to have family nearby.

This is just the basics of what is going on---I could SERIOUSLY write a novel about all the drama with nurses, Sammy, Sammy's roomate, etc., but I've GOT to go!! Hope we get some sleep tonight.

Thanks for all the prayers on our behalf--we sure do need them!

About an hour after surgery, before the pain meltdown

In limbo...

I am so not a Type A personality. But even I like to have some bit of control over when things are going to happen and what the plan is.

Sammy had his 6 month surgery follow-up appointment on Thursday. Everything went well and he is now at 10 degrees which means he's improved another 5 degrees in 6 months!

The doctor was saying how pleased she was with his progress--and then dropped the bombshell on me. She wants to do surgery next week, if possible, to remove the plates. Huh?? I was pretty much in shock since I've been planning on July to have them removed.

Apparently, his knees are where they should be and so the curving won't be corrected any further at this point. Also, leaving the plates in will over-correct his knees while continuing to stunt his growth, so she doesn't want to wait any longer than necessary to have them removed.

Her only concern about timing was did I want to do this before or after the baby arrived. What a loaded question. I was still in shock at the time--and Samuel was in a meeting so there was no way for me to call and ask him, so I booked it for March 2. Then I thought about it.

How am I going to leave a 2 or 3 week old baby, who is breastfeeding, and who may or may not take a bottle, to be at the hospital with Sammy for at least 6-8 hours. Then have Sammy need my attention 100% of the time. I remember how hard it was last time. He didn't walk for two weeks, he couldn't sleep through the night because of the pain, he wouldn't eat, he cried so much. I can't do that again with a newborn baby (and Hannah) as well. Even with Samuel's help. It literally took two of us trading off who got to sleep and who took care of Sammy because it was a 24 hour job at the time. I've been told the recovery will be much better this time since they are taking the plates OUT and not drilling through the bone and putting them IN like before, but I still know it's not going to be an easy recovery for him.

So after considering all this. I called Children's Hospital to see if we could reschedule for January 26th. Unfortunately, his surgeon is booked, but they are working on fitting us in. I am just waiting to hear back.

Which leads to my next uncertainty. Sammy's birthday party. His birthday is Febraury 15th and he's been wanting to have a party at Chuck E. Cheese (again). I knew we couldn't have it close to his actual birthday because who knows when the baby will arrive, so I set it for January 30th--thinking that was a pretty safe date.

Now with a possible January 26th surgery date looming over our heads, there is no way he will be able to have his party on the 30th, as he most likely won't be able to walk yet. So, yet another thing I have no idea when it's going to happen. And of course, invitations have already been sent, so I will have to let everyone know last minute that we are changing it. And there is no way I can cancel it, he's been looking forward to this for 5 months now.

Then there is question of when will the baby arrive. I'm not due until February 18th and I don't have a history of going into labor early, so I am just praying at this point that the baby stays put until then. As long as the stress of all this doesn't put me into labor, right?

I hope to hear back from CHLA sometime this afternoon, so we'll see what happens.

sickness and pregnancy are NOT a good combination

I've been sick on and off since Thanksgiving. It all started with a fairly harmless sore throat and dry cough. The runny/stuffy nose I had already been dealing with due to being pregnant, so I wasn't sure if that was actual sickness or just the norm.

Every time I keep thinking I am better, the cough flares up or the runny/stuffy nose gets worse for a few days. This past week, I was hoping that I was getting better. I missed being able to sing Christmas carols and our church choir was doing the music for the entire service the Sunday before Christmas and I wanted to be sure to be there.

Unfortunately, it all hit me like a truck on Friday. I positively could not stop coughing all day Friday and Saturday, and my poor nose went through an entire "family sized" box of Puffs with Lotion tissues in less than 2 days--and it is still red and raw. Saturday night I was up most of the night and Sunday was the absolute worst day for coughing, plus my ears were now hurting.

After my doctor appointment today, I apparently have either cracked or broken a rib from all my coughing on Sunday (they can't tell for sure without doing an x-ray, which they obviously can't do). It now hurts to breath most of the time, so coughing/sneezing/blowing my nose is pretty much agony. I also have bronchitis (obviously, with all the coughing and crap that I am coughing up!).

I will be 32 weeks pregnant on Wednesday and it takes 2-3 months for the rib to heal, so this should make for an interesting delivery. I can't even IMAGINE having to deliver a baby when I can't even sit down in a chair or lie down in bed comfortably.

We are off to my parents house tomorrow, so they can help me out since I can't do much--and can't get a ton of rest with two kids demanding my attention. Not to mention, how guilty I feel for parking them in front of the TV basically everyday since Friday because I've been so sick. I'm sure they will be much happier to have cousins and Grandma and Grandpa to play with.

So, there is my update. I'm sure I won't post again until after Christmas, so I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!

Update on Samuel

I was going to give an update last night, but was so tired I went to bed instead.

Thanks to Dana for watching the kids for me yesterday afternoon, so I could go visit Sam. I was lucky enough to have timed my visit for when the doctor was coming by to give Samuel and update on his most recent CT scan. This CT scan was the one where they make you drink a yucky liquid dye and as it goes through your intestines it allows you to see what is going on in there.

The doctor was right in his assumption--somehow part of his intestine got tangled up with some scar tissue in the abdominal cavity and it has caused a "kink", if you will, in the system and won't allow anything to pass. The normal procedure is to wait it out 3-5 days to see if untangles itself without any interventions. After that, they will have to do surgery to cut off the scar tissue and free the intestine.

Since today is day 3 and Saturday is day 5, we are going to meet with a surgeon today to talk about options (laparoscopically vs. opening him up) and time frames and most likely do the surgery on Friday if it hasn't worked itself out by then.

Samuel is doing better--he has stopped vomiting so THAT'S a good thing, and they've been managing his pain pretty well. He is starving of course, since he hasn't eaten since early Tuesday morning (and it's just going to worse since we are just waiting it out), but he is hanging in there. Poor guy! We don't really know when he will be coming home, but no sooner than Saturday for sure. I'm guessing Sunday or Monday.

Thanks to April for watching the kids for me today and to Megan for watching them tomorrow. I appreciate all your help!

No Trader Joe's Tuesday today...

No TJs post today. I've spent the day at the ER with Samuel due to complications from his colonectomy in 2001. After blood work, an x-ray and three CT scans, they finally admitted him to the hospital late this afternoon.

Without being too graphic, his entire colon was removed back in 2001 due to severe ulcerative colitis. That used to mean that you had an external colostomy bag for the rest of your life, but thanks to medical advances, they now can form an internal "pouch" from the small intestine and hook that up to your rectum so everything works pretty much normally. Sorry if TMI--it could have been worse as I could have gone into much more detail.

Anyway, he was in a lot of pain and his stomach, especially the pouch area, was distended and he couldn't even walk. He was already at work (he works at a hospital for those who don't know), so he just walked down to the ER and checked himself in and then called to let me know.

Fortunately, my parents had to come into town today as my dad needed some emergency dental work done, so my mom came over as soon they arrived to stay with the kids and ended up staying for the rest of the day.

His doctor has concluded that there is some scar tissue causing blockage of any food or liquid passing though his system. They have put him on IV only--no food or liquid for 24 hours and then will observe hims as they introduce liquids the next day and possibly solid food the day after. So we are looking at most likely a 3 day stay. If they can't get any liquids to pass through, then they will go in laparoscopically to remove the scar tissue.

I didn't want to upset the kids (who wouldn't understand anyway), so I just told them that Daddy was at work, which is true--he IS at work...he just isn't technically working.

I got home around 6:30 tonight, just in time to feed the kids and put them to bed. I'm just glad that this happened on a day when my parents were around to help out and I didn't the added stress of wondering how the kids were doing at someone else's house for the entire day.

And Shannon, I appreciated the timing of your comment today--I have definitely had my fair share of hospital visits lately!