The love of my life...my kids!!: September 2010

Thursday, September 23, 2010

When we got home from the hospital on friday Jacob started complaining of a headache. It was more of a "mom my head hurts" and then I would say something like ok go lay down and off he would go and play and act normal. So I didnt think anything of it. And then Tuesday night him and Tyler were laying down in the front room watching tv and I hear him scream and start to cry. I look over and his head is on the ground. So I tell him to walk to me. He did and I asked him what was wrong. he told me that his head hurt so bad. Tom and I thought he was getting a migraine so I told him to go lay down in bed. He went right to bed and layed there for about an hour. Then he was fine after that. An hour later I noticed Tyler was already asleep on the couch and Jacob was on the chair with a blanket covering his body and the pillow over his head. I figure he got another migraine and he was trying to keep the light and sound away. So we woke him up and when we did I asked him if his head still hurt. It did so I gave him some tylenol. He went to bed and didnt wake up all night. In the morning I asked him if his head hurt and he said it did. But then he said "I cant go to school...but I can go to scouts." So I figured he was faking and I sent him off to school. About 9 am I get a phone call from the lady in the front office and she said that Mrs Bergman said that he started to get a headache and he just was not acting like himself. He started to get really pale so she was going to take him across the hall to lay down on the couch. When she was walking him over there he passed out in her arms. So they had to call the fire department to come look him over. I arrived after the fire dept was there and so they were already doing their checks on him and trying to get him to be responsive. Jacob's blood pressure was very low so they had to check his blood pressure standing up. When they had him stand up he passed out again. So they decided that they needed to call the ambulance to take him to the hospital.

So off we went to PCH again. The first doc came in and checked him over. It was just a resident doctor. I have never had good luck with those. Usually they have no idea what they are talking about and is always completely wrong with what they say! He said that since they reported that there was some tenderness in his tummy he would check it out himself. Jacob started laughing and the doc was like oh hes ticklish. I had to tell him no...that's how he says it hurts. Since Jacob doesn't feel pain like we do its hard for him to know whats pain and whats not. And ive seen that when Jacob laughs like that it usually means its painful. Because of our recent history of just being admitted he wanted to get an xray done of his belly and just see whats going on in there. So we went to xray and a few min after we were done he came back and said that from the looks of the xray he has MORE poop in his system than his first xray showed BEFORE we did the clean out. I was actually mad because I had thought they released us without having him all cleaned out. And if they did that, then they were going to have momma bear attack! But he said that he looked at the xray that they took when we left and it showed there was nothing but air in his system. So from Friday until Wednesday some how it all came back! Now im not a doc but that just doesn't seem right. So he wanted to give Jacob an enema but I said NO! He wont tolerate that and if there is poop still in his system he needs to get it out again. So I told him to please call GI and talk to them. So he called and talked to another doc in the practice and they said to admit him. But they have no beds. SO they sent us home and said they would call us when a bed is available. Last time they did this they called us within a few hours. But so far we have waited over 12 hours so far and nothing yet. So hopefully they will call us soon! I assume they are going to have to do another clean out with him. But not only do we need to get that taken care of but now his headaches and what caused him to pass out. And then we have to figure out how and why so much poop came back so fast. I actually got a call from the GI last night around 5 as we were driving home from the ER and they said that we never saw a nutritionist when we were there last time and they were upset over that. We need to see one before we leave the hospital this time. The nurses should of made sure we saw one but they told me that it was not in the hospital orders...when it clearly was. So this time we will also see one of those. Hopefully this hospital visit wont be longer than the last. I was about to claw my way out of there by the 2nd day!

In July we decided to go see a GI doctor. Jacob had always had some stomach aches and we just wanted to figure out what they were from. We thought it was from an allergy but we went to the allergist and all their tests came back fine. So next step was the GI. They asked his history and after feeling around his stomach they told me its just constipation. So they gave us an order to up his fiber intake to 16 g a day and he should be fine. So we did that and nothing happened. So they told us just in case lets do some work. They sent us for a xray and some blood work. I guess I forgot to send them my new phone number when we moved because when the tests were done they were trying to call me but could never get a hold of me. So they called Tom at work and Tom gave them my new number. So they called me and said there is a significant amount of poop in his colon and he needs to do a clean out. So for 4 days give him 2 caps full of miralax 3 times a day and 2 chocolate xlax bars 2 times a day. So we got all prepared for this massive clean out and started it on a Thursday. That day...nothing happened. No poop...nothing. The 2nd day he only went 2 times. The 3rd day he went 3 times and the 4th day he went once. So I called them after the weekend and told them what had happened and that I didn't think it worked. They told me to try it again the next weekend. So I did. This time, the whole weekend, he only went 3 times! I had an appt with the doc on that Monday. When we talked to him I told him what had happened and he said well this obviously is not working. He started to write something down and then said to me "Go take this paper next door. Get an xray right now. If it shows poop still in there then we will have to admit Jacob and do a clean out in the hospital." So right away we went and took it over there and got the xray. The next day I got a phone call that said there was more poop in there than before and that the hospital would call me with a time to come in to do the clean out. A few hours later we were in the hospital!

When we got to the hospital there was a lot of waiting around. We got to the actual hospital at about 445 and finally got to our room at about 6. Well at 7 is when the nurses do their shift changes so no nurses really wanted to get started on anything because it was about time for them to go home. Then the night nurses came on board and they had to finish with all their patients first before they came to get us started. So finally at about 8pm they get to us. They tell us whats going to be happening with him and what they are going to do. About 845 they came back and took him away. What they did is they put in a feeding tube that goes from his nose all the way to his stomach. And then they put in an IV. I actually had to convince them to put in the IV because I didn't want him to get dehydrated. They gave him some relaxers to relax him and so that he wouldn't flip out when they put in the feeding tube. But he just started crying and wouldn't stop. Finally I convinced him to stop crying at about 10 pm because he wanted to go for a walk. I told him that there were too many sleeping kids and he had to be quiet because he would wake them all up. We actually had a roommate too. And I was worried he was going to wake up the other kid. They started his meds also. So it was pumping into him a stronger version of miralax. He couldn't swallow or close his mouth with the feeding tube in. It was so sad to see him like that.

We finally went to bed at midnight only to be woken up at 4 am by Jacob throwing up. I figured it was just because he was not used to the tube and it probably gagged him or something. Well then he threw up again...and again...and again...until 6 am. They gave him some zofran and then decreased the amount of meds being pumped into him and that was the end of his throwing up.

The next day (Thursday) we said good bye to our roommate...who's name was also Jacob. And we were roommate free the rest of our stay there. That day was also full of lots of pooping and diaper changes and stomach cramps and LOTS of tv and disney movies. My wonderful friend Erin came and brought Jacob some fun toys to play with and that kept him entertained.

Friday came and was all the same as Thursday. Lots of bed changes and diaper changes. However this time the poop started to become less and less. They told us we could go if his poop was clear...which meant there was no "rocks" or specs it was just basically pooping out the meds that they were giving us. Finally about noon he started doing that. They told us he had to have 3 poops that were clear. We did that around 2pm and then they took him at about 3pm to get an xray. If it came back that there was nothing in his system we could go! So at 4 we were released to go because everything had come back fine.

It was such a scary experience for him...and me. I do not enjoy seeing my kid in the hospital that's for sure. But we have a great support system and I am so thankful for everyone who prayed for us and who called and visited.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

So im about to tell a story about what happened like our first month in our house. The only reason im blogging about this is so that I remember it. Just because it was a lot of madness.

So we were getting ready to send Tom off to scouts and I was getting the boys ready for bed. I heard a sound of a helicopter that was pretty loud and it sounded like it was close. So as Tom was leaving to scouts I decided to go outside and look and see what was going on. I saw the police helicopter and it was flying over our neighborhood. So I decided to call Jackie and see if she knew of anything since she lives a few neighborhoods over. She told me...oh its probably just the police nothing big. And so I took it as that and went on with our night. A little bit longer I hear MORE helicopters. So I go outside and look around and I see 6!! They are news helicopters. So I knew something had to be going on. I turned on the tv to see if there was any news about it and there was. It happened to be a drug bust gone wrong in the neighborhood next to me. And an undercover cop got shot!! So I decided to turn on my police scanner. I think that was the worst thing to do because I knew EVERYTHING that was going on there. So I went outside to see what I could see and I hear from up in the sky "GO BACK INSIDE...IT IS VERY DANGEROUS" So I go back inside and call my mom freaking out. I kept telling her...I dont know what I got myself into moving here. I had no husband and there was some shooting going on!!! So then a little bit later there is a knock and I Hear...ITS THE POLICE. So I go and answer the door and there are 5 police officers with their big guns drawn and they had to go search my house. From what I understand the suspect was running on MY STREET and they had to check all the houses. Once they saw that I was not hiding the suspect they left. But only to return a half hour later just to check up on me because they saw how scared I was. While all of this was happening Tom was at scouts and I had no way to get a hold of him. He told me that after scouts he went to go home and they had the whole area blocked off and no one could get into their houses. So he had to wait at QT until 1:30 in the morning. It was a scary night and I hope to never experience that again.

Jacob just had his 8th birthday a few weeks ago. I know I am SO behind on my posting here. So I thought I would post a few memories from the day.

It was a special day for him. Not only did we have all of our arizona family there but Stacy and her kids all came from Texas. So I knew that I had to have a good party for him. It was a lot of fun. I decided that the party theme was going to be "rainbows." A lot of my family members thought that it was not a good theme. But they were thinking of what rainbows represent. And well I was just thinking of the colors of the rainbow. My silly family!! But it was such a fun party and theme. Jackie helped me with a few ideas and getting things started and I just took off from there. I had a lot of fun getting things ready for the party and all the crafts I had to do. When the party was getting close to being done we looked outside and it started to rain!! And what do you know, a rainbow showed up. I thought it was a perfect way to end the party. Here are a few pictures of the day.