Sickness and Losses for our Anniversary

Well, I guess after the 10 year mark, the rest of anniversaries start to not look as shiny even if you dress them up! Good thing we aren't supposed to "judge a book by it's cover" and "it's what's on the inside that counts"!

We travelled to Vegas for the BYUvs.Arizona match up in the Las Vegas Bowl. I will have to check my camera when I have time later (it' just after 4:30am). My camera battery died Friday Night at the Fremont Experience and I forgot my charger. Oh well.

Kaeleigh was in the half time show for her fourth consecutive year. She absolutely loves doing this. I tried to protest celebrating my (our) anniversary at the football game, but it was Kaeleigh and Carson's vote of going, along with Ryan of course, that outnumbered me. So, our 11 year mark will go down in history as an embarrassing loss to the Wild Cats. Good thing it's "just a game".

Before we left, Carson missed a day of school because he had a fever and a cough (Wed pm into Thurs am). Thurs he never moved off the couch, but come Friday morning he had no more fever for about 24 hours but the cough was still there. He seemed more back to normal, other than the cough, so we decided it was just one of his yucky asthma sounding coughs. Carson just wasn't himself this whole trip. He is usually the one running out in front of cars in parking lots (ok, he and Deegan both...someone has to lead the way) and we are always telling him to slow down, settle down, etc. He was always 10 ft behind anywhere we went and we had a hard time getting him to move anywhere.

After Kaeleigh's on-field practice Saturday morning, Ryan took Carson down on the field, girls included, to play a little football. Sadly, Carson didn't show any excitement. He didn't try very hard to catch the football and would kind of wander to the ball.

Saturday night came and Carson seemed a bit more himself. He nominated himself to be the rescuer of any dropped items in the bleachers. He climbed up and down underneath the bleachers and that was the most alive he seemed the whole trip. He was still coughing, but I had noted the night before that he didn't cough all night. By now, I had decided he was forcing his coughs to add a little drama, the way little kids do. Well, maybe it was the cold that did him in. We decided not to travel home through the night because we just didn't feel right about it. By Sunday morning, Carson was really lagging. His fever came back on the road home. His coughing was really bad and he kept sounding like he was going to throw up. He gets really carsick, so I gave him a Dramamine thinking that he wouldn't cough in his sleep and it would keep the car clean! That was sometime around noon, maybe a little before.

Carson slept about 90% of the rest of the day. We got home and he still had a fever so immediately, I checked his temperature. 104.7!!! (Mother disclaimer: I knew he was hot and I did try to be the good mom that brought the thermometer on vacation, but Carson "shot" the plastic cover off and we never found it. It doesn't work without it.)

I took him straight to the Dr.'s office. When the nurse checked him, he was fiery hot and she read 99.9 on the thermometer that was exactly like mine...just prettier! I said "NO WAY!". I made her check the other ear and it read 105! She tried to defend herself and said that ears always read differently (duh!). The stupid lady marked him with the 99.9 temp on his stats because she was convinced that if he was really 105 then he would be having febrile seizures. His oxygen levels were only 92, so they called the Dr. immediately. She came in and looked at him and the first thing she said was, "he's really hot. What's his temp?" I perked right up and told her that her wonderful nurse said he didn't have a fever (never mind the bright red cheeks and the fact I had to carry a lifeless, 50lb. child into her little room) and that temps are always different in each ear and that her fantastic nurse said there is no way that the 105 could be right when it was that far off from 99.9. She glared at the nurse and said, "What was his temperature when you took it?" The nurse started guessing..."it said 100." The Dr. grabbed her paper and confronted her as to why it said 99.9 and said, "take it again!" Guess what...104 in the 99.9 ear, and still 105 in the other. PRIDE!!!

Anyway, they took him straight to get a breathing treatment. All in all, Carson got 2 treatments of Albuterol, one including oxygen. He got a steroid shot in the arm, an antibiotic in the hiney and they did a blood draw on him to look for bacteria in his blood. My DRAMA CHILD never made a peep. Usually it would have taken 2 nurses and myself to restrain him, but he just laid there like he was dead! When they did the blood draw, the nurse warned me that she had only done it 2 times before and needed this 3rd to be passed off and another nurse would be right beside her to "take over" if needed. Well, she failed in my book! The lady took over only after the other nurse dug around in his arm, pulling out and pushing in several times. Carson didn't make a sound. The hand I held started shaking really bad at one point and I nearly started to cry, but didn't want to scare him. I couldn't believe that just because a kid is too sick to complain that they would KEEP GOING like he was a dead body!

They had taken a chest x-ray that showed he has slight pneumonia. I will take him back tonight. They considered admitting him to the hospital, but because his breathing improved to 94-95 and his fever lowered to 102.5, they let me take him home to do breathing treatments every 4 hours and rotate the Tylenol and Motrin...that's why I am awake!

We are grateful to have him home where he is comfortable. I sure hope his oxygen levels are good when I take him back today so that he can stay home. It would break my heart if he was in a hospital for Christmas! The Dr. thinks his pneumonia was just starting on our trip home and that's why he got the fever.

In all this, Carson was a champ! He is so adorable and who wouldn't want to be that kids nurse? He of course had a couple Carsonisms in all of it...He could barely keep his eyes open, but I could tell something was stressing him from giving in and told him it was ok if he wanted to shut his eyes, I would be there and I would keep him safe. He just said, very seriously, "ok Mom, just let me know when my Popsicle gets here", and instantly he was back asleep!

The other one was after his shot in the rear, I was worried he had had enough, and I asked, "Carson, are you ok?" and he said, "yeah Mom, I just need someone to pull up my pants." He was still on his tummy, which he didn't budge until 20 minutes later when they made him, but fact is, his pants were already up! They had given him Lidacain (I think that is what it was) mixed in the anti-biotic to numb him since it would be thicker.

Anyway, sorry for the long post! It was a crazy weekend, but still to my sweetheart...I love you, and thank you for this crazy life we live together! Here's to MANY MORE. There isn't anyone I would rather do it with. And thanks for taking a shift with Carson so I could sleep!!!

(By the way...in a couple hours, I will be off with Deegan to the PHX Children's Hospital to do his trial DDAVP (IV) and more blood work. I will only be there about 2-3 hours! I am going to be able to draw my children's blood myself if we keep this up. Love to you all, and Merry Christmas!)

Deegan

Monday, January 5th at 2pm. That is Deegan's scheduled time for surgery. I will let you know if something changes.

I met with the hemotologist yesterday and they want to do further testing and an IV challenge of DDAVP. They can do both at the same time. The first thing they said when we started talking was NO CONTACT SPORTS! No football or wrestling especially...poor Ryan. I asked the DR. if he could be the kicker and she just laughed at me. We will have to worry about that later.

Deegan update

I got a call from Deegan's pediatrician yesterday confirming he indeed has VonWillabrand's. This is just a bleeding disorder that is a cousin to hemophilia. That, of course, sounds very scary, but really it is not that bad. In simple English, it means that he is a bleeder and a bruiser. Since he will be having surgery, they will most likely just want to give him a drug called Desmopresin(DDAVP). At least that is what they give me when I have babies to just make sure that I will clot faster and it reduces the risk of hemorrhaging. All will go well, I am sure. Please just pray that I will be able to stomach all this. I am hoping he won't have some gross incision that I have to clean and get all grossed out as it heals. Ask my mom, I can barely handle circumcisions and umbilical cords!

Deegan's big "HURT"

We discovered last night that our sweet boy has a hernia in his groin. Last night it made its first appearance that we ever noticed, about the size of a walnut, but smaller than a golf ball. My first thought was that it was a tumor or a HUGE cyst. I have never seen a hernia before and I don't ever want to again. Our pediatrics office had the "on-call nurse" party until midnight, so luckily, I got a phone call back directly from a Dr.

We got Deegan in today and his Dr. said most definitely it is a hernia and recommends surgery. So, being the queasy mom I am...just her describing how to "maneuver" it back in -if it were to show itself again- I was gasping and covering my mouth, totally shaking my head so I could block out what she was saying. I had to make her stop describing the maneuver and told her RYAN would figure it out! Luckily right then, Deegan told me he had to go potty, so thanks to him, we avoided the rest of that conversation!

I did decide that if Deegan is going to have surgery, then it is time we finally figure out if he does/doesn't have my blood disorder (VonWillabrand's). We drove straight to the lab from the Dr. office for his blood draw...I even watched this time, but it was more the "Mama protecting her cub" kind of thing. No one was going to hurt my baby! How I wished I could have just offered my arm, instead of having to do that to him-that's saying a lot, considering I hate needles. I felt like such a bad mom restraining and lying to him. Of course Mommy's have to tell them that things like that are OK...THEY SO AREN'T! I am just glad that we will get this excitement done and over. Thankfully, they have already talked about checking his other side while in there to avoid another episode.