What a week!!!!

We ended up back in the hospital over the weekend when Nick devloped a fever and started having pain in his lower abdomen again. After a couple of hours in the ER, blood work, and a CT scan later they confirmed he had developed an infection in his abodominal area--three internal abscesses --as a result of his appendectomy the week prior.

Thankfully we caught it early enough so they had not progressed to the point where another surgery was necessary. The course of treatment was hardcore antibiotics by IV every six hours. Once the fever was gone for at least 48 hours and his white blood cell count was back in the normal range we could go go home. After three nights at Emanuel Hospital, we were released to go home on Tuesday afternoon!!

Once he was up and mobile, this was him dragging around the IV contraption that he was hooked up to for over half of time he was there.

And this was Nick just a short time after we got home this afternoon.

Thanks to the miracles of modern medicine and the tasty hospital food, you can see he was able to break one of his records on the Wii Outdoor Challenge shortly after we got home! What you can't see in the video is just how covered with sweat his head is!!

And yes, he is SO going to school tomorrow!!

Franken-belly

Recovery, Day 3.

Today was the first official missed day of school while Nick continues to recover. He is still pretty sore, although has seemed to survive ok on over the counter meds today. He will probably get at least one more day at home, and then we'll give school a try on Thursday. I brought his homework and some extra class work home for him today (which he was really thrilled about!!) and had him lead me through "what would you be doing at school now". So we did a little morning work, some journal writing, lunch and "lunch recess", teacher read aloud time, a little tinker toy "science" project that I had to grade for him, and finished the day with "wrap-up/clean-up" promptly at 2:15, at which point the TV got to come back on for a while. I am not sure if this whole scheme to make him work while he was home didn't backfire though, as he told me this afternoon he thought "home school" was really fun. I obviously didn't work him hard enough. Maybe tomorrow I'll make him get out of his jammies ;-)

Appenda-what???

So there we were, a Friday before a 3-day weekend, the sun is shining for the first time in weeks, we have a busy weekend planned: family plans Friday night, grown-up plans Saturday night, and a long list of to-do's to accomplish around the house while it is dry outside. And then.......



Nick came home from school Friday afternoon throwing up. No fever, just couldn't keep any food down. Early Saturday morning the complaints about a tummy ache started, and so did the fever. The tummy ache got progressively worse, to the point where he could not walk and did not want to be touched. Suddenly not seeming so much like the run-of-the-mill stomach virus! Thank goodness for weekend sick call at the pediatrician's office....off we went around 10am. A brief exam by the doc, a look at his white blood cell count, and it was pretty obvious to the doc: Appendicitis!! She scooted us off to the ER at Emanuel where we underwent another few hours of test, ultrasounds, CT scans....most definitely appendicitis! They started an IV (pretty dehydrated), some antibiotics, and some morphine to ease his pain. It was all quite a blur!! The most frightening part was the unknown as to whether or not it had already ruptured. The radiologist and the surgeon did not agree on this at all.

So this is what a kid with appendicitis in the ER after a little morphine looks like. Finally, a little rest while we wait, and wait.....





The decision was made around 2:15 to go in for surgery that afternoon. At about 3:30 he was wheeled into the OR, and about an hour later (the longest hour of our life) the surgeon came out to say all had went very well, and to our relief it had NOT ruptured (Radiologist = 1, Surgeon = 0!!).

By 6:00pm we were settled upstairs in our room for the night and dad had gone to get big sisters to come back for a visit. After they headed home for the night, Nick and I hunkered in for our sleep over in room #3537. And THIS is what a kid looks like after he gets an infected body part removed:

Really, what this look says is:

1. I have a TV hanging at the foot of my bed and a ginormous remote ALL to myself.
2. I have an automatic adjustable bed that I can tinker with every five minutes to get it "just right".
3. I get unlimted chicken noodle soup, saltines, and red Gatorade.
4. And, the best part of all, I get to lay in bed and pee into a bottle that my mom holds without missing a second of my Pokemon movies (IV fluids, Gatorade...come one people--enough!!!!)

Between the nurse checking in throughout the night and my responding to "mom, I gotta go!" every couple of hours, it was not the most restful night of sleep. When the nurse told him at 7am that if, after he ate breakfast, he could get up and walk around the halls without a problem, it would be ok for him to go home today. Gotta love a kid with a mission....we were on the road by 10:45!! Unfortunately, I think the ride home in a bumpy car and maneuvering in an environment not built to convalesce in was a little more than we bargained for. He had a couple of pretty rough patches this afternoon--lots and lots of pain and tears. Suddenly getting up to walk to the bathroom was not quite as appealing. And since they didn't send us home with our own supply of morphine, he had to settle for Tylenol with codeine. Once that hit his system he settled in for a nice nap and a little more Pokemon.

So now we take it day to day as he gets back to his full-speed ahead self at his own pace. I have to think that even HE will tire of watching back to back to back to back episodes of Pokemon movies. (yeah, right!!).

On the lighter side, one quote from the weekend:

Surgeon: "Nick, we are going to have a do a little operation and take out your appendix."

Nick: "Well, but then are you going to put it back?"

All in all, he was a total trooper!! He has such a great spirit and sense of humor--it really helped all of us get through. We will keep you posted on his progress!!

They Boys

I found Nick and Buddy doing a little snuggling when I went in to wake Nick up for school this morning. Pretty cute!!

You have GOT to be kidding me!!

Here we are.....it is Sunday night after an extended winter break. We were off an entire extra week because of all of the snow. So, I just looked outside and here is what I saw on the front deck:

I know for a fact that I could rally at least a dozen other families to storm the steps of the school in total protest if they even THINK of closing another day!!! This is not funny anymore!! And yes, the kids are all too happy--lots of wishful thinking going on.

One reason to stay in the Pacific Northwest

Seems we have all done a lot of complaining about the weather lately. Ok, maybe just me, and that isn't likely to change soon....it was 28 degrees and icy this morning!! But, when you have a sunrise like this it tends to make it all worth it!!

Happy 2009!

We spent the last few days out at the beach.....very cold, very wet!! Lots of time inside watching movies, reading, and playing video games (well, the kids that is!)

Our good friends the Iversons came out and stayed with us and we rang in the new year over fondue dinner. Lots of fun (too much food!!).

The three girls spent as much time as possible with Rupert and Bailey, two golden retrievers who live down at the opposite end of the street. The owners are a super nice couple (empty nesters) who let the girls take the dogs for hours at a time and bring them home to "play", take them on walks, and on occassion they go hang at their house and watch movies and eat popcorn.