Your Prayers Please!

Jacob, Grandma Kay, Peyton, Benjamin and Micah April 5, 2010

The last few days have been emotionally exhausting. All last week I kept calling my grandma because the kids and I were going to go spend the day with her and I kept getting no answer. I began to worry. I knew that she is often outside and that she ocassional goes out, but I just thought there was no way that I just kept missing her. I finallt called my Aunt and she told me my grandma had gotten a bad flu and she brought her to her house. Well, the following day she took her to the dr because she was gettting worse and the dr sent her to the er. I went to see her in the er yesterday and she was unresponsive. Her flu had turned into pneumonia, then her white count sky rocketed and she has some kind of infection that spread throughout her body. They put her on iv antibiotics and her kidneys started to shut down. The moved her to the ICU last night. I was the only one there and had to give the ok to intubate her, ventilator and feeding tube. I didn't want to prolong the inevitable, but the dr told me that it could help her recover, I definately want that. I was an emotional wreck all day yesterday. I tried not to think about it today, I weeded the garden, exercised, went to lunch with my friend Donna, played the wii with Ben, made dinner, even Garlic bread for everyone else. Tyler got home right when dinner was ready and I headed out the door to go see my grandma at the hospital. I avoided calling my Aunt all day afraid of what I might hear I guess. I spend 45 minutes talking with my grandma. I decided that no matter her condition I was going to sit there and hold her hand and tell her all about everything going on. The snake loose in our house, me on level 3 of the 30 day shred, Peyton's "say Neigh louder mommy" antics, the denim quilt I'm working on, everything. I asked her to please squeeze my hand, she didn't, but she did move her hand higher up on my arm. I told her that I was a mess yesterday and that today I did my hair and wore makeup in case she could open her eyes and look at me. I said it would be nice if she could look at me since I went through all that trouble to get ready. She didn't open her eyes, but she did raise her eyebrows 3 times like she was trying to open her eyes. I told her it was ok, she could look at me later. They keep her lightly sedated while she is on life support, the tubes in her throat are very uncomfortable, but they occasionally let up on the sedation to see if she is at all responsive. When I first got there my Aunt, my cousins daughter and My Uncle Brent were there and told me her kidneys were working again! I left there feeling good, more optimistic than yesterday. I saw Sam Seamons as I was leaving and we walked out together and I told her about my grandma and she told me about her sis in law and the baby she just had. I cried a little when I got in my car, she's still most certainly not out of the woods yet, but I think I cried because for the first time I feel hopeful. My grandmother is a strong and fiesty woman, she can pull through this. Please send some prayers up on her behalf, I know that works too! I have a great pic of her from a few weeks ago when she took us all out to breakfast. I'm going to go upload it from my camera so you can see who you're praying for. If you're still reading, thanks so much for taking the time to help me out!

This was the highlight of the week

I know, I'm a slacker. I just have not felt like blogging. Spring break seems so long ago now. This was a very fun day though, so I felt obligated to document.
We got started late, Tyler needed to check the tires and found a nail in one and ended up getting all new tires on the van. It was nice though, a relaxing morning with some lego building. When we got to the beach our first stop was some shopping in Pismo, Micah got a sword and Jacob, Ben and Peyton each got a webkin (50% off, SCORE!) I got this picture walking behind them, I thought it was too cute.
We were all starving so we got some $5 subway sandwiches and headed to the park in shell beach. It was pretty cold and very windy but fun, and beautiful!

We all flew kites, all of us with the exception of Miss P. She wanted to, but every time I put it in her hands she freaked out when it pulled her and she let it go. I wish the wind would get as good here, we loved flying our kites.

When we had enough of the kites we played.

After the park we headed down to the water and sand at Avila, another favorite spot. I left the camera in the car. The kids were disappointed that I didn't pack suits or towels, but I did that on purpose. I didn't want to deal with the mess. Little did I know that the freezing water, wind and lack of swimming attire or towels would deter the boys from going in the ocean. I guess I occassionally forget what it's like to be a kid! Peyton had fun sitting on the sand with me and collecting some rocks. Everytime the water would wash up too close she would scream and run, she really didn't want the water to touch her at all. I love that girl.

We will definately be making more trips to the beach this summer with our kites in tow, and maybe or suits too!

Are we only on day 3?

Wednesday morning Nana Paula and Aunt Mo and Dustin met us all at Build-a-Bear where Nana let the kids pick out new clothes for their build a bear's (or monkey or puppy) and spent WAY too much money. Thank you though Mom, they love getting new stuff for their build a bear's. I wish I would have gotten a picture of them with Nana before they left, oh well.
We got to enjoy the crazy weather outside and finally sent off Micah's rocket that the Linford's got him for his birthday at least over a year ago.

Peyton with Maddie Monkey dressed in the new clothes, ready for spring.

Here they are, the whole gang with their new clothes, and yes, guitars for the military attired bears.

Wednesday also brought us Ben's first dentist appt. Yes, his first, my bad. With so many of us I just assumed he was in the mix at some point, I was wrong. He has been very excited to get his teeth cleaned and did a fantastic job. They only had double films left and they let us take home his duplicate x-rays for the scrapbook. I love our dentist's and their entire staff, awesome office, seriously.

He really was more excited than he looks.

They got us back right away and were very quick, as we had a show to catch at the $3 theater, The Spy Next Door with Jackie Chan. It was alright, I almost fell asleep once or twice, but more importantly, the kids really liked it and there was only one part that was slightly inappropriate. The kids had a late lunch of candy at the theater and we picked up 89 cent 5 layer burritos or nachos at Taco Bell for dinner. Aren't I a good mom? When we were eating one of the kids pointed out that we never had lunch..."AHEM?! What did you think all that candy was at the movies? A snack? We never eat that much just for a snack!"

Day 2, bowling, 99 cent, Hometown

I figured bowling would be an acceptable outing after my trauma of the day before and I was determined not to let my kidney stone ruin our vacation.
Ben only used this thing for the first few frames.

Micah's form

I thought I'd actually allow a photo of myself this time, I really was there.

Micah, waiting his turn.

I'm trying to get more creative with my picture taking and trying new angles.

Peyton really loved bowling and was very cute, she got the 2nd highest score next to Tyler.

Jacob I'm sure this is exactly like the pros do it.

All 4 in one picture, all looking, I love it.

Don't think you're getting a nap today P, too much left to do...we went to the 99 cent store and then to Hometown Buffet, yep. Ty actually took us to his least favorite restaurant. I think it was the only meal I kept down all week, ironically.

My day in the hospital and more fun stuff

Well, to say I'm a bit behind in blogging is an understatment! I lost access to my external hard drive. The connection was broken (I think Miss P knocked it off my bed while I was uploading pics to Costco). Anyhow, I am back in business thanks to my wonderful husband who took apart the hard drive and held the connection long enough to retrieve all of our photos, literally held by his own two fingers while being slightly electrocuted. He later put on a rubber glove that lessened the pain and then he found a c-clamp that Santa gave him last Christmas. So, I'm back in business.

Tyler took all of this week off while the kids are out of school for Spring Break. We had high hopes and dreams of taking them all to Disneyland, but it just wasn't in the stars, or in the budget. So we planned on just doing something fun and inexpensive each day. I had been having some pretty bad low back paing for the last few weeks and then I thought I had a bladder infection, no pain, it just felt like I had to pee ALL the time. I put a call into my Dr a week ago yesterday, Friday. I never heard back. Monday morning I took my sister and her baby to his Dr's appt at 9am. Right after that we were going to kick off our week with something fun. Well, by 9:30 my back pain had gotten so bad I was crying and it quickly escalated to the point where I knew we had to leave Dustin's (my nephew) appt and get me into urgent care. My Dr. said they had nothing until 1pm. I asked my sister if she could drive, that's how bad it hurt, my sister has no license. She declined and I somehow managed to drive us to urgent care. By this point I feel like I am literally dying, a slow painful death. The lady at the window hands me some forms and tells me to fill them out and bring them back to the window with my insurance card. HA HA HA, I don't know exactly what I said, but I handed them to my sister and told her to fill them out, she did what she could and I set them back on the desk. By the hords of people I could tell it was going to be a VERY long wait. I was pretty sure I would be dead by then. Morgan called Tyler to come pick us up, drop her and the kids back at home and get me to the ER. NOTE: if you are in severe pain or need to be seen immediately, don't bother with urgent care.
Ok, so we go wait in the van, I climb into the backseat amid several mismatched shoes, dirty socks, trash, wrappers, a sandwich bag (this is fortunate, I'll be needing that in just a few minutes). I make a mental note that if I live through this we will be cleaning out the van. The pain has actually gotten worse by now and I feel the need to vomit, remember the sandwich bag I saw and use it. You see, although the bag is small, the day before had been fast Sunday, and I wasn't feeling well, so I had hardly any dinner and I hadn't eaten yet this day, so it was plenty big enough to hold the contents of my stomach. After what seems like hours Tyler arrives and we're headed for home. Peyton held my hand all the way home and it really did help, I no longer wanted to just die.
We arrive home and I deposit my baggie in the laundry room sink on my way to my room before escaping inside myself to become one with the pain. Somewhere along the line it was decided that we would call an ambulance and I waited again for what felt like hours. 4 men arrived and questions were asked and answered and I was put onto a gurney and wheeled out right before my kids shocked faces. Peyton was crying a little but I later discovered that the boys were merely entertained. The 2 men that rode in the back with me were very nice and tried to calm me down. They said it sounded like it could be a kidney stone or my appendix. My sister mentioned it could be a kidney stone earlier, so that's what I was leaning towards. I got to the hospital and went straight into emergency (benefit of taking an ambulance). They pretty quickly got me hooked up to an IV after some minor difficulties, asked more questions and then decided it was probably a kidney stone. They gave me morphine to help a little immediately, and then an anti inflammatory to help more but not for another 20-30 minutes, and they gave me something for the nausea. 20 minutes later I was feeling good and feeling a bit embarassed about my dramatics. I must say though, that was way worse than labor pains because it was constant, absolutely no relief. They made me give a urine sample (which I had to go into the ER restroom for BAREFOOT, twice, because they lost the first one) found blood in my urine and determined that I was not pregnant so they could do the CT scan. They did the CT scan and found a stone 4mm around. Any bigger and they woulkd have had to operate. I was a little scared to be sent home, scared that the pain meds would wear off and I would be in severe pain again. They sent me home with Zofran for nausea and Norco for pain and a "hat" to pee in and strainers for my urine. I passed my stone late that night and I definately did not need to starin my urine to see that there was a stone in it! I was going to post more about the rest of our week, but that was pretty long so the rest can wait.

Have any of you passed a kidney stone before?