pics

Merry Christmas to everyone!! I hope you all are having a great holiday! Here are just a few of the pictures I have taken in the last four weeks. We have been super busy. The pic above is our Christmas dinner. It was the only pic I took on Christmas cuz I was busy fiddeling with other christmas gifts to think of taking more.

Zoey had a birthday party at McDonald's. She turned 5 and was very proud to wear her TinkerBell Party badge all day. This party of course was after the school christmas parties.


I got her an icecream cake since I forgot the icecream at Isaac's party. Not like Dairy Queen--this was vanilla icecream sandwiched between two layers of regular chocolate cake.

Four days after we came back from Colorado the kids both participated in the church christmas program. Zoey was a sheep and Isaac was a shepard.

The day after we got back from Colorado was Zoey's Birthday. We put up a christmas tree and let Zoey open some of her gifts.

I took Isaac and Zoey back to MN for Thanksgiving. We got to spend some time with my nieces and nephews.
I got to attend my class reunion.

Found out Grandpa had a twin--who freaked us out most of the night.
I ate at least three thanksgiving dinners.

But this year Dad got to sit at the kids table!

About a week or so after we came back from MN we visited Denver via Leer Jet. This is Zoey on the last day with Ronald McDonald. It was a great place to stay. Do please make sure that when you go through the drive through to let your change go into the money drop. It is worth it.

Zoey had a great vacation. She got to go to the Imax theater and to the Zoo lights. She played with all kinds of toys in all the play areas at the Ronald McDonald house and of course couldn't stop jumping on the bed.
Nothing better than giant toys

Isaac hooked up to a ventalator, heart monitor, NG tube, two IVs, a pic line and a catheter. He was sedated, paralyzed and on several medications.

This vest was put on him twice a day. It inflated with air and jiggled him around to get the crud out of his lungs.

There are most of his monitors.

This was another breathing treatment--where this thing sort of pounded the crud out of lungs.
Isaac right after he got his tube out. Still in restraints. Not sure what else to narate here. You know the story and it was crazy. But we literally went from this to nothing. He went right back to school and he has zero side effects from this whole ordeal. We were blessed to have great staff and to have only needed to be there a week.

While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.~Angela Schindt

Just wanted to give a heads up. I am soon going to be posting a lot of pictures again. Thanksgiving, class reunion, Zoey's birthday and I'll probably sneak some in of Isaac and his ordeal. I just wanted you to know before you look and there's a sick Isaac.

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. ~Burton Hillis

It is great to blog from my own computer again. Once Isaac was on his way to recovery things have moved quickly. Chris spent the night with Isaac at the hospital. I got up early to finish laundry. I figured I had until almost noon. But my little guy wanted out. He was released at 8:15 am and walked from the hospital to the Ronald McDonald House! But the four of us were back together again:) It took Ike and I an hour to get to Denver and 6 hours to drive back to Gillette. The ride went well--even with all his aches and pains Isaac still ate well and tollerated the trip. It was so good to be home and then I pretty much freaked out. I knew this was a one time thing but we were sent home with no meds, there were no doctors or nurses checking his vitals or listening to his lungs every couple of hours, no machines to beep at me if something was wrong. I suggested that I sleep in his room as Chris and I had done all week. It was difficult to go from all to nothing. I am so happy to report that Isaac is very healthy and smiling and eating well and getting stronger everyday. He is pretty much back to his normal self minus some aches and pains from not moving for a week. He had a check up today and everything was fine. He misses his friends at school and will start with a half day tomorrow. I sent Zoey to daycare today while Isaac and I had mostly a doc day. But we made time to make cookies together and it was fabulous.

Thank you to everyone who sent prayers and well wishes--we needed everyone of them. Thank you to all who called, all who offered their help, to all who reached out to us when we needed support the most. We have been very blessed with lots of fabulous friends and family:) We feel blessed that this ordeal only lasted a week and didn't have any lasting effects. Thank you again.

In the mean time my daughter turned 5!! We told her that Sunday was her birthday and that Friday will be her party day. We did eat out that night and I have to say (again) that it was a great day to celebrate:)

So Isaac is finally out of the PICU and it is fabulous!!! His face is pretty chapped from all the tape but everything is off. He only has his pic line and pulse ox. Not several IVs and several monitors just one small monitor for his heart rate, bloodpressure and O2. It is so wierd. Everything is so quiet and he won't have respiratory every few hours--they are done with the treatments. He does not have a restricted diet so he is eating food as his tummy tolerates. You can tell by looking at him that he has not eaten or moved for five days. Unfortunatey, they gave him quite a bit of strong narcotics for five days and now he has none. His body is freaking out and he says he doesn't feel like himself. Its strange to see him go from all to nothing. If things go well we are hoping to go home in a day or two.

He's on his way back!

Time to blog once again. I spent the night with Isaac last night and for the most part it was pretty uneventful. His stats continued to get better. They had taken him off the paralytic so he was moving more often. At one point he even thought he might want to watch Spongebob. Today was anticipated to be the same. We were hoping and praying that with one more day of sleep then may be we could get the breathing tube out.

We had the operating room scheduled for 6pm. Chris was hanging out with Ike while my stomache was doing flips waiting with Zoey. The Doc was looking to see if everything was structurally sound, how much inflammation was still in there and if it was appropriate to take the breathing tube out. Isaac did not need surgery to correct any structural problems. He still has some inflammation which his meds will take care of and they took out the breathing tube. So things went really well. With the seditives he has been on and the annesthesia I really didn't anticipate him being alert so soon. I am now at the hospital with him and things are entirely different. Not easier at all what so ever but different. The very first thing he asked for was a snack. Well he has to wait so long after annesthesia to have ice chips. His first bummer. So he asked if we could go home. He really wants to leave but you can't just go from ICU to home so bummer number 2. And with the amnesia meds we gave him he doesn't even know why he is in the hospital. He's mad at me for not feeding him and not bringing him home so he cried and wouldn't be nice to the nurses. The respiratory therapist came in to give him a breathing treatment and he rolled away from her tucked his face away and plugged his nose. We all explained that if he wants to go home he needs tx to get better to go home. He thinks we are still just a few blocks from home:(

Currently he has fallen back asleep. You can hear him breath outside him room. He is only using a nasal canula for O2. He still has his heart monitors hooked up, his bloodpressure cuff and pulse ox. He still has his feeding tube in (but never actually used it cuz it takes forever to properly put in.GGRRRR). They took out the IV in his hand but left the one in his left elbow. He sill has his pic line and that will probably be one of the last things to go. He is still cathed but he can get that out as soon as we can get him standing. He is still on antibiotics and IV nutrition. He is still getting the vest thingy and the pounder thingy every couple of hours to shake out mucus from his lungs. Stats on his own so far seem great. So he looks beeter. Its nice to see his face again even though it will be marked up for a while. I am so glad they readjusted his feeding tube cuz even though his nurse Ben, was a great nurse--the tube pulled his nose to the side and the tape pulled down his bottom eyelid. OH and another super good thing is he is no longer restrained. He is free to move and get himself comfy in bed. He looks much better but is sad and mad so it still makes me want to cry just as much as when he was immobilized. I am just so thankful his doing better and we are looking at getting out of the intensive care unit(hopefully tomorrow) and onto the pediatric floor. Without setbacks we should be looking at going home soon. Guess I shouldn't jump so far ahead but we want to be home just as much as Ike does. He sure is going to be surprized at how long it will take to get home!

Sorry about the typos. Possibly I'll fix them when I get to a computer.

Happy Unbirthday Zoey

It sucks that Zoey's birthday is in the middle of all this. We were not planning to celebrate her birthday on her birthday anyway cuz Chris works Sundays. But I have rescheduled the cake for Friday after we get back to Gillette so that she won't feel that she missed out or that something else was more important. But I thank god that she is still young so she won't know her birthday is getting postponed 5 days. She will be pissed if you tell her her party is being moved. So please don't. Chris and I both have told her that she needs to act big to get a birthday party and I don't want her to feel like she did anything wrong. But with her presents and cake still in Gillette it will have to be next Friday. Thanks

could it get any colder?????

BBRRRRRR.....It is so cold outside. I think the weather guy said only negative one but it feels more like Gillette's current -17. And the thing is its cold everywhere. Its cold at the Ronald McDonald House and its freezing in Isaac's room. Chris sleeps with three blankets on and he is still cold. Isaac on the other hand doesn't like to be covered up so therefore he is not.

I was nervous to leave him last night. He had such a rough morning and even though he had started out well on his way to recovery-yesterday was a bad day. But Chris and I needed some time to talk to eachother so we ate supper together at the Ronald McDonald house with supper provided by DeVry University. Afterward Chris went to stay with Isaac while I took Zoey duty. This morning was laundry day so Zoey and I found some breakfast and did a couple loads of laundry. We spent some time in the different playrooms. She does not miss her brother or so she says. Really its a lot like living in the dorms except that I brought a lot less stuff with me. I am not used to preparing breakfast with three other families in the kitchen but Zoey plays in the playroom with the other kids while I try and figure out where everything is. McDonalds provided lunch today so I had Chris swap out with me then so we could each eat.

It felt wierd being away from Isaac for so long but things went well last night. Yesterday they took him off the paralytic so even though he is still sleeping he can hear us and sometimes respond a little. Because of this they make sure that his restraints are on tight enough that he can't mess with all the tubes. They started him on some IV nutrition through his pic line. They changed out the NG tube which is a nasal gastric tube that kept yucky things out of his stomach and traded it for a TP tube which goes from his nose to the intestine so they can start feeding him that way instead. He has an infection that is secondary to the the croup and he is on good antibiotics for that. His stats are back up today. He is on 40% O2 instead of 100% like yesterday. His heart rate, breathing and blood pressure are back to normal limits. I am still praying for the tube to come out tomorrow night but the doc thinks it will take til thursday or friday before his lungs are clear enough and he doesn't require as much oxygen.

So I bundled up today to walk the three blocks to the hospital and it was so cold out that my fingers wouldn't move by the time I got here. I answered three or four phone calls and as I am hanging up my cell phone and answering the room phone Isaac wakes up and sits straight up in the bed. AAHHH what do I do? He shouldn't be moving and really you would think that with all the stuff he's tied to he wouldn't be able to. FREAK. ME. OUT. I yelled for a nurse --my hands were full putting down the phones and holding down Ike at the same time so I didn't even think to push the call button. Thankfully nothing was undone and he is sedated again.

When Isaac and I first arrived in Denver we were still a ways from the hospital. So we split up. Isaac got a fabulous helicopter ride while I took a cab. The air crew had called ahead for me and the cab was right there waiting for me. The cab driver was a man from India wearing a blue turbin. He was a chatty fellow telling me not only how my insurance works but how in India only the rich get treated. He was so impressed with how there is no discrimination in regards to who gets treated. He also let me know that I should pray for my children and husband. I was very unware that men are not allowed to pray for their families and that was a job reserved only for women. He noted that I should have prayed in the plane cuz the air was clear up there without dirty souls (plus I would have been closer to God).

This is day three of Isaac being in the picu (pediatric intensive care unit). Yesterday was a really good day. Isaac seemed very healthy and even the nurses were amazed at how good he was for being in the picu. Chris and Zoey drove down through some snowy weather and it was great to see them. The social worker stopped in right away and gave me a few vouchers for the cafeteria and set us up at the Ronald McDonald house. I was really surprised at how wonderful it is. Our room is very similar to a hotel room but the house itself has a very large kitchen where we can keep our food and they also have some community items which was helpful since we have not been anywhere other than the hospital yet. Zoey is having so much fun there she doesn't even want to leave. They have TV, movies, books, toys, games, a Wii, an X Box. And I think Zoey is a little upset there is no swimming pool but for $15 a night I have no complaints. Once they got here Chris and I were able to swap out. He stayed with Ike overnight while I took a shower and changed out of the clothes I had been wearing for 2 days. Sleeping in a bed didn't hurt anything either.

Today is a different day. Early this morning they were able to change out his tube for one that is much more appropriate for his 7 year old size. He quickly gained an infection in his lungs which caused his lungs (especially on the left) to fully fill with a thick white mucus. This caused all of his stats to decline and was very difficult to maintain. We had a pulmonologist come in and clean out his lungs. The junk plugged her scope. But his chest is clear again and his stats have returned. After that we gave him a pic line so that we don't have to poke at him so much. The 2 IVs he already has will stay for now. So now I am sitting in a cool dark room trying to just let him relax from his big day. He will now need to keep the tube in longer due to the lung infection. Honestly I can't wait for respiratory to come in and beat the snot out of him. Litteraly. This is good massage and I want to see it work first hand.

My phone is charged now so I take calls on my cell phone if you have any questions. Ike isn't all that talkative so I don't mind the calls.

Isaac

So Here's the Scoop. Isaac got a cough about Friday when we were in MN no other symptoms. On wed after we came back he was not doing so great. His breathing became labored, he lost his voice and he threw up. He was in the hospital for almost 24 hours, but was sent home feeling great. No school Thrusday/Friday and icecream often. Friday night he didn't sleep much. Some due to coughing, a lot cuz he said his teeth hurt (another absess). By morning his breathing sometimes was good sometimes not. I wanted to just get more steroids but can't on the weekend. So I kept asking him how he felt and by noon he had quite a bit of strider (seeing those muscles work for breath). We went back to the ER but this time the medicaions did not work. I suppose they did work, but not nearly as effectively and he had two breathing treatments and a couple kinds of intravenous steroids and his breathing was still terrible. So we called in the specialist. We all were very concerned that he was getting enough O2 but not pushing out enough carbon dioxide which was making him sleepy and do wierd things also because we were not opening up his airway we were concerned that we should protect the airway with a tube. If we waited we might not be able to get one in at all concidering how swollen he already was. Putting in the tube was a surgical procedure and went well but they did have to use more of an infant tube due to the lack of diameter in his throat. Yes I want to protect his airway. But what they don't tell you is what being on an airway really means. Such as 7 year olds should not be intebated for croup therefor we have to be life flighted to denver so they can A)find out exactly what is causing this inflammation B)give him better drugs to reduce inflammation in his throat and C)remove the tube without complicaions. Gillette does not really have a pulmonary program of any kind which is why not only are we here but one of my personal training clients had bilateral blood clots in his lungs and he wants me to get him back to work by the 20th. Crazy huh? So we waited for the Leer Jet to come pick us up. It is the smallest vehicle I have ever seen and was a little nervous. Honestly I was surprised we got all six of us in there, but it was a good ride. I even got snacks and better yet they gave Isaac the best care he's had yet. He was doted on every minute. So now that we are here I now realize that protecting his airway means a lot of scary yucky things and all are done to create a perfectly controlled situation. He is sedated and paralized and restrained so that he won't mess up or pull out the tube. He has a machine breathing for him to help him rest and make sure that the carbon dioxide is not building up in him. He has an NG (sorry I'm not too medical at 1am) down his nose to prevent bad things from going into his stomache. He is cathed. He has an IV in his Left arm and his right hand and has been pricked more times than I can count today. It took three nurses and three different pokes to get his first IV started and it was difficult to get him poked just right for his blood gasses. He dislikes that part so much that even after they sedated him they had to give him extra meds before poking cuz he would wiggle and squirm when they just used the alcohol wipe. So really things look tons and tons worse than they are. Oh yeah and he had a c collar on to restrict head movement (so not to mess up the tube) and now they are mostly just using towl rolls. We are hoping to get the tube out in the next day or two. But I have no idea when we get to go home. I really think it should fit into my schedule but have a feeling it will take a lot longer. Like when they told me Wed that he would just be there overnight and I'm thinking oh he'll leave right away in the am but he was there til 4:30pm. He has been fabulous throughout the whole thing. He is tough and as long as you don't stick him with a needle or put a tube down his nose while he is napping he will be his fabulous self. Its tough to watch. He has been through so much and I just want him better and smiling again.

Happy Thaksgiving!

So as it turns out I don't really like to blog from my phone. Don't really know why--I do everything else from my phone.

I have had an insane week or two--I don't know how long its been. Isaac had a fun thanksgiving program and most got to see the video when we went back to minnesota. The trip was great. I haven't celebrated thanksgiving with anyone except Isaac and Zoey in the last eight years so it was a bit overwelming to have four celebrations. Very yummy:). Also while I was there I had my 15 year class reunion and that was fun.

However, while we were there Isaac got his usual MN cough. I thought nothing of it and figured it would be gone by now. I didn't give him any meds today and he didn't get sent to the nurse's office for a mint to calm his cough. Well I went to pick him up from Active Kids and he was crying and freaking out cuz he lost his voice. His breathing wasn't great, but I calmed him down and we went home. The doc's office was closed, but I got the ER to call her. We decided to start steroids in the morning for croup. Well he threw up and had another lack of breathing attack all while not being able to talk to us. So we went to the ER, had a breathing treatment and a few xrays. I find the whole "let's stay at the hospital" thing incredibly irritating. I suppose its not to be fun so you don't want to come back soon but come on. The ER wasn't bad but the nurses on the floor could really be more attentive. I know we are not the only ones here, but could they attempt to get things done when we get up here? They said they would bring in his meds and a popsicle (since he has had nothing to eat since lunch)right away before he is sleeping for the night. Two hours later (after 11pm she brings the meds and of course has to wake him)and doesn't bring him a thing to eat. What time does she think a sick 7 year old goes to sleep? She aslo told me she would bring a cot-I told her it would be fine when she suggested it but I really don't think its comming (got a pillow and blanket at 12:30). And since I'm venting--its freezing in here, cartoons weren't on while Ike was awake, the shows I wanted to watch were over after he fell asleep and I still get to clean up after him. I have to wonder if they would have even known he threw up if I hadn't said anything. Also if he is taped to a pulse ox-- is it really necessary to wake him every couple of hours to take it on the other hand? Really? However, as frustrated as I am, Ike is doing much better now than when we came in. He has croup and his airway is pretty swollen. We are going to swab him in the morning to make sure he doesn't also have strep.Hopefully he will have a good night and most of the inflammation in his throat will go down by the morning so he can go home. But probably a couple days off school. He has been great even though plenty freaked out. Don't think I'll sleep much and just watch reruns of the late shows.