Fever, Trauma, and Drama........

I'm not one to get into the drama of it all but our lives have been quite a saga for the last month. We are slowly regaining normalcy in our lives....whatever that is!

My fever which started around July 6th and lasted thru a hospitalization 3 weeks later has basically been a fever of unknown origin. We tested for just about everything. My liver enzymes were elevated which was the confusing factor. They were stuck on Hepatitis B for several weeks which delayed other tests but we have now moved on to checking for auto immune hepatitis. Now, that I am feeling better, my guess is that we will never know what caused either problem. I see a GI/liver focused doctor today and I am expecting a "well, we just don't know" answer but at this point, I can accept that answer. I did find out that I may be seeing a doctor that I worked with alot during my research dietitian days. He was a very nice guy but it will be weird...hopefully, helpful too since I know him, but we shall see.....

In the midst of all my fever/fatigue and generally feeling like a truck ran over me issues, Pat had his own medical saga. He came home from work complaining of chest pain and pain under his arm. Now, neither of us are alarmists by nature, especially Pat, but we were alarmed! He has a strong family history for heart events and well, we just didn't want to risk anything! So he headed to the ER. I was feeling really bad at this point and really didn't want to go to the hospital and get more germs so my dear friend Laurie delayed her vacation and came over to sit with me until we found out if he was having a heart attack or not. If yes, then she would stay with Nick, if No, then she would head out. We did not hear anything for a long time so she finally drove me to the ER so I could check on him (yes, we could have called but we only live 3 miles from the hospital). I went in to check on him and found out that he did not seem to have had an event but during the check out stage, they had given him nitro and then stood him up which caused him to black out and fall and hit his head and tush. Luckily, he did not hit his head too hard or maybe his head was too hard! ;) The bad luck involved his rear....he took all of his weight directly on his coccyx apparently and STILL 3 weeks later has trouble sitting for long periods of time. He could barely walk around for the first few days. They did an incident report but no xrays. There is not much you can do for a coccyx (tailbone) injury so he has just grinned (not so much) and bore it! Bless his heart (which thankfully checked out healthy). We had to just laugh but it was not fun....we are blaming his heart ailment on added stress of the sick mamma!

And, last but not least, Drama....of course that involves Nick! hee,hee!

He has definitely been a trooper thru this whole saga but we have had lots of "drama". He has no problems getting his feelings out when things are unsure around him. The day I went into the hospital was on the Friday of the first week of spanish camp. I came home from the dr. and told Pat that they wanted to admit me. Nick was just getting ready to get in his blow up pool. He was a little upset to stop what he was doing and Pat tried to explain that we were going to take me to the hospital so I could get better. While we were getting stuff together, he was just walking around and I heard him say from upstairs, "I'm a little worried about my mommy" and then in the car, he said, "I'm just really confused". I'm telling you, I just wanted to BOO HOO for traumatizing my sweet boy. He sounded so worried and so innocently concerned. He was understandably overstimulated at the hospital with all the bells and whistles so they did not stay long after I got to my room. He just got the biggest crocodile tears in his eyes and held onto me and said, "I'm going to miss you so much"....It absolutely was torture! Our friends swooped in to help and keep him distracted so I don't think the mental torture will be long-lasting, at least for him! ;) He did awesome at spanish camp although my hospitalization messed with his ability to be dropped off easily. He did NOT want me to leave him after I got home from the little stay in the hospital. He would cry big tears and hang on to me. Broke my heart!!! His teachers allowed him to call me at home and "check" on me that second week. He learned so much in those short two weeks that I can't imagine how much he is going to learn in Kindergarten and he really picks up the spanish quickly! Being young is such an advantage to learning a language! I am a little worried how he will use his second language to annoy us after our dramatic doctor visit yesterday. He had his 5 year old check up and because we had earlier that morning visited his new classroom, he had a bit of an overstimulated attitude going. He did not want to leave his fun classroom to go to the doctor so he decided to "take control". He was "hands on" everything from the time we walked in the clinic. I was literally trying to wrangle the Kazmanian devil. I think that it appears to those who don't "know" Nick that I am a docile mom but really when he gets like this, you just have to survive. He did lots of impromptu timeouts in whatever chair I could find but short of Duct taping his mouth, I cannot control what comes out at the moment....I ignore alot! I am sure it is shocking to most, heck, it is shocking to me. A Dr. Jekyll/Mr Hyde transformation is never fun for anyone. I just happen to know it will be fine when I get him home in a "known" environment with "known" parameters and "known" consequences. So, the funny story comes when he is being a "brat" and not answering any of the doctors questions. He was not being cooperative AT ALL. She was asking him his colors. He would not answer her. I told him that he needed to stop this behavior and answer her so in his most timid but hiding all out rebellion voice, I hear him start answering her in SPANISH! Yes, my little 5 year old decided that he would not come under the control of these two adults and still do it HIS WAY. So I hear Amarillo come out of his mouth for yellow and then Rojo for red and it took everything in me not to laugh as I explained to the Dr. that he was answering correctly but in spanish. We are sooo in trouble as he gets older...this boy is strong-willed and extremely smart!! :) Lucky for him, he is the cutest boy ever! He had so many consequences to serve once he got home that I had to list them! He paid his dues and then was fine the rest of the day....just like I figured he would be...... parenting is an adventure. Now, if I can just get over worrying about what others think of my parenting skills....ugh!


So, I can't end the long boring up-to-date post without a brief happy side-note about our visit from Cincy Karen and Max. Boy, we love those peeps! I love my Karens.....whenever I am with them,it is like being with a friend you have known forever. Maybe God arranged it so we would all be named Karen thus creating an immediate weird kinship but the rest is just pure fun. Not only do we have our Kazboys in common but we really enjoy each others company. Cincy brought me the best donuts and besides way too much sugar, I really did feel better at the end of the day. The boys are so cute together. Nick called Max his "brother" several times and I will steal a few pics from Cincy because they are so darn cute and sweet!






Kindergarten starts tomorrow.....stay tuned!!!!!