Friday Night Leftovers- The Happy Birthday Edition

What a crazy-busy, stressed-out, full moon type of week, sprinkled with lots of cheer (as we celebrated my birthday on Wednesday) week.

Fudge finished pirate camp today, and based on the ship raid I was in this afternoon, I can totally see how Lord of the Flies could be a factual read.

Evidently my gallbladder, which has been a perfectly behaved organ until I awoke a 36 year old this week, decided to launch a protest. Check out what it had to say (not in the presence of little ears).

I don't have time for a misbehaving, grumpy gallbladder. Vacation is 9 days away. My doc has me going for an ultrasound on Tuesday to see what the issue is, but he says "classic gallbladder." He started jumping to the s word (surgery) and I jumped to "whoa buddy, slow that train down."

The word gallbladder is disgusting to me. The fact that this was likely brought on by me LOSING weight makes my mind spin. Who says diet and exercise are good for you? Evidently, my body didn't get the memo.

Since Fudge was in the ER last week, we did not make it to birthday date night to see The Help. Hubs and I are going tonight...or, that is the plan at least. I think our plans in general give God a great big laugh. Life is what happens when we are making other plans.

We just learned yesterday that my son's school is not ready for the kids to come back, thanks to some off track summer renovations. K-3 will be in the gym and resource wing (Lord, help us all) and grades 4-5 are being bussed 20 minutes away to another school. This is likely to last until October. Anyone see The Money Pit? "Two Weeks!" sound familiar? He will not meet his teacher until the first day of school, since we are on vacation for open house.

Dear Lord, I am formally asking You, could we PLEASE get a break from emergencies and doctor visits? Thanks.

Good weekend in store: movie night, Ducktape Regatta (come support CHKD), Fudge is having a friend over, awesome Sunday morning at church, then dinner with friends Sunday night. Somewhere in there I need to finish packing, wrap up errands, and get some cleaning done around here. Whatever your plans, enjoy!

Ready to share some FNL love? Leave a comment, link back to your own page, and don't forget to enjoy all of the leftovers at our lovely Danifred's site.

You Mean I Need a Passport for That?

We almost had widespread panic of epic proportion here this evening...

I'm usually a last minute, highly stressed, no sleep packer. You know the type- still up at 2am doing laundry and you're leaving for the airport at 4am. So I am DETERMINED to not delay on preparing for our upcoming vacation. So far, so good. It's hard work being a perfectionist, so there's still plenty of time to hit a snafu, but I am much more prepared than usual. I started prepping for this trip about 2 weeks ago and I continue to prep. I think I could make laundry an Olympic sport these days- it's neverending!

This evening I decided to make sure all of our documentation is on order...flights are scheduled, rental car is booked, resort is confirmed, excursions are being planned, and here we go...one, two passports. WAIT! There's three of us...I need THREE passports. And of course, the missing one was mine. It only took about 15 minutes to find, but the hubs was telling me he'd be sure to send me a postcard. Ha! He didn't find it too funny when I told him that it's expired (kidding!).

So Mama, if you are reading this, I know you are thinking "I told you so." All three passports are ready to go...now I just need to remember to bring them to the airport. =)

FNL: The Is It Vacation Yet? Edition

What a week...

• I read these blogs with cute names for everyone, like Danifred's, and nope, we don't have cute here. But we have wild, and smelly, and fearless, and all boy...so I'll be referring to C as Fudge from here on. Yes, as in Fudge and Super Fudge. If that doesn't mean something to you, you're probably too young to have your eyes on this blog.




• Now that I have Fudge, I need moniker suggestions for M. Ideas?




• Fudge had not one but two hospital visits this week. Stellar. I think my paycheck should just be issued to CHKD for the next few years. Seriously though, thankful for good care.




• It was around this time 20 years ago that I was returning from volunteering with some awesome folks in a very remote village in the Dominican Republic. When I say remote, I mean no filtered water, tarantulas falling on you in your sleep, riots nearby, and no basic comforts...one of the most growth-inducing, eye opening, life changing events in my little life up to that point. Go out and do some good.




• Infertility is still a dirty word around here.




• Vacation is not a dirty word. Vacation is just around the corner. And after going an entire summer seeing everyone posting their beach pics, I am in countdown mode.




• I am going to Aruba. No it does not "freak me out" as one person asked me. Crime happens everywhere. Being escorted by armed military officers in the DR freaked me out a little, being burgled in Jamaica freaked me out a little, seeing corruption up close in Mexico freaked me out a little, navigating the streets of Nassau after dark freaked me out a lot. Aruba? Playing it smart and sensible and looking forward to our exploration of "one happy island."




• Looking forward to a rescheduled date night with the hubs to see The Help.

Ok, here are the FNL rules:

Post all those little items rambling in your head and don't forget to join the party and leave some love on the original FNL at Danifred's site.

Children's Hospital: Take 2

Apologies in advance that our friends/family are learning about this via our blog- we're exhausted and have not had a chance to call anyone besides my parents.

So, when I said in my previous post that we are so thankful for this hospital, it did not mean I wanted to require their services anytime soon! C, of course, had other plans...or at least his little body did. He woke up at 3:30am screaming in pain, completely inconsolable. All we could get out of him was his neck hurt, his head hurt, and we saw that he could not move his head. When he wasn't making any improvement and could not be calmed, I knew we were in trouble. Of course, it didn't help that I just read a parenting article on menningitis the other day either.

We decided since C was still vocal (screaming) and there wasn't any blood involved, we'd head back to CHKD since we've not been impressed with our local ERs and our "doc-in-the-box" office we love for after hours care is not open in the middle of the night. Off to CHKD we went, thankful for no traffic due to the time of night and that we knew the drill...where to park, where to go, etc. C was immediately triaged and admitted in the emergency department.

I'll save you all of the details (I'm too tired to go through them), but we got to see lots of docs and they systematically ruled out some pretty scary things (menningitis, tumor, aneurysm, migraine, etc.) and figured out that the poor child sprained his neck. Who knew? Evidently, "active kids" can sustain a muscle injury, shake it off/not mention it, go to bed where they are immobile for hours and then the muscle contractions set in and spasm (torticollis). So think of the worse "crick" in your neck, or throwing your back out, and that is what this is like. In C's case, it's keeping him from being able to turn his head or lift his chin from his chest and left shoulder.

The good news is we went from screaming and being inconsolable, with pain all over his head, neck, and shoulders, to getting some relief with pain meds and muscle relaxers.

About five hours after all of this started- no longer screaming

Totally high on Valium- there's a smile

C has been released and we are back home; he is resting. He is still having pain, but we are seeing improvement. He is on the pain meds and Valium for the next 48 hours, no activity, and we are to see his pediatrician tomorrow for follow-up. For our prayer warriors out there, please pray for continued pain management/control and healing of those little muscles/regaining a range of motion in his head and neck.

He must be feeling a little better- he finally wants something to eat and has asked if we'd make an exception for McDonald's...I think that can be arranged. :)

Children's Hospital

My child was EXCITED to learn he was going to the hospital this week. Not just happy or giddy, but slap-your-mama excited. His sweet little face peered over my bedcovers around 7am, already bright-eyed awake and dressed. How disappointed he was to be reminded that his appointment was not for another 7 hours. It has been a couple of weeks since our last ENT visit and this visit was a 2 month follow-up from our last plastics visit. If you're now lost, the back story is here.

C was thrilled when I picked him up from school and we set out on our adventure. From taking a bridge-tunnel (really, people, the tunnel will not swallow you whole; enough with the brakes!) to navigating in the city, parking in the garage, figuring out how to get from the garage to the hospital, checking in, pushing the elevator buttons, getting our parking validated (once a city girl, always...), and having his run of the place. Here are our highlights...

Being sweet in the waiting room

C took this photo of one of the wall murals

Practicing our states and capitals

Having fun

Making faces for the surgeon

Love that toothless grin!

You can't see them, but this man has angel wings!

Looking out of the 5th floor "crown" and enjoying a sucker

Playing in the lighthouse

King of the castle

Not quite ready to head home

Playing on the lawn before leaving, after cafeteria pudding of course

The FANTASTIC news is that C is healing beautifully. The scar from 70+ sutures is fading and looks even remarkably better than 2 months ago. We continue to hear, and know, how blessed we are that C is coming through this unscathed: no impact to his vision and full facial muscle control is regained. His surgeon kept remarking how pleased he was, especially considering all that could have gone wrong, a hair one way or the other...feeling abundantly blessed and thankful for such talented medical care and the healing C has experienced. And I cannot talk about this place without saying please, support your local Children's Hospital. You know it's one special place when kids get excited to go to the hospital!