Blogger Dropout

That's what I feel like....a complete dropout. 

I haven't updated my family blog, or this here gem in a long time.

So instead of excuses, I will just give you a bullet pointed list of the reasons (excuses) to my absence.

• After our hospital stay, we were just recovering when my husband was in a car accident.
• He's fine, he's fine, (big deep breath) however our trusty little car was not. 
• Our car was declared totalled
• We had to wait for the VERY KIND citizen who called the accident in, to call to police back and support my husbands side in saying that he had a green light. Insert no fault of ours.
• The other person (elderly man with a dog in the car headed toward IKEA ((that damn store makes everyone stop looking at where they are going and stare in amazement)) decided that since he has nothing better to do with his life he is contesting the citation therefore my husband has to go to court
• Meanwhile....we had 6 days of the insurance company to pay for a rental car. After that, we were on our own.
• Therefore, we had 6 days to research/find/buy another car.
• Also, that meant we had 6 days to find a money tree or win the lottery or sell our bodies for dollar bills.
• You see......when you drive an old, yet trusty car that is already paid off....it is really priceless.  Yes, I know it was old and not worth much, but to us, it was priceless.  But even though the accident was not our fault, all the insurance company will do is slap a price on your car you totalled and pay you off.  Unfortunately, what our car was worth isn't even close to enough to buy a new car.  Shitty.
• Oh yeah, and insert a CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY within those 6 days to find a car.  Um.......impossible?
• Somewhere in all this mess I realized that Bradley has not the 8 teeth I thought he did, but 11.  Um, hello bad mother who has no idea what's going on.
• B also pretty much will hold a conversation with you now.  All mumble of course.  But a full conversation none-the-less with pauses and voice inflection's.  He's so stinkin cute
• So now with the new year approaching, and oh yeah, a new car, hopefully I'll get back on track.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Tiffany

Our Hospital Stay

I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to write about this, but it is something I definitely wanted documented.  Over Thanksgiving week we had a scare with Bradley and had to stay 24hrs at Children's Hospital in Cincinnati.  Neither my husband, parents, friends or myself had ever heard of what happened to Bradley, that's why I thought it to be so important to blog about it, just to spread awareness.

Bradley had what's called an Intussusception.  It is a problem in the intestine and it's described as "telescoping" because the intestine starts to invert on itself similarly to what collapsible telescope does.  It is most commonly caused by a child starting to fight off a cold, or being sick, and the glands swell in the intestine just the same as the glands that swell in your neck.  The swelling of the glands in the intestine push on the intestine walls and can cause it to start telescoping on itself.  Once that happens it continues to get worse every time peristalsis tries to push the waste out.  Thus, it is very painful and normally reported to cause spurts of pain every 15 to 20 minutes.  If untreated it results in lack of blood flow to the intestine, to no blood flow, to eventually death if untreated for 2 days or more.  (Let's not even go there, ummm k?)

The week prior to Thanksgiving Bradley had his first ear infection.  He was put on meds on Sunday.  On Monday I thought he was getting better.  On Tuesday things went downhill fast.  He woke up in the morning and would not eat.  Would not stand.  Would not walk.  Would not even sit...I would sit him down and he would just lean forward and put his head on the ground.  Also, and this is another telling symptom, when I would pick him up to hold him, he would tuck his knees up under him and would not let his legs dangle down. The whole time he was moaning in pain.  I knew right away he needed to be seen.  Long story short I took him to the doc, and she immediately told me to go downtown to Children's. 

Treatment:  With an intussusception you are admitted to the surgical floor just in case they can't fix it without surgery.  This was very scary. However, most are treated with an air enema.  Where they basically create a seal around the rear and the pressure of the air can just pop the intestine right out again.  If this process doesn't work they use a barium enema.  Finally, they resort to surgery. 

Very thankfully Bradley's was fixed on the first attempt of an air enema.  We are so thankful to all the Dr.'s and nurses that are so skilled.  It was a traumatic experience but truly made us understand how blessed we really are. 

As always, some documentation photos.  These were all taken AFTER the procedure was done and he was in a much better state.



There is something just so sad looking about those hospital cribs and all the wires and tubes.

 The genious that checked us in gave B a peach gown.  We got tired of everyone calling him a her so finally a nice nurse gave us a rockstar blue scrub shirt.

 One of the hardest parts was watching/dealing with B having an IV.  He pulled on it but finally adapted to doing things one handed. 

 Checking out his cool gear.  He actually enjoyed pushing that thing around the halls and flirting with the nurses.

 Exploring the room.

 Chiling with Dad

 Back to his old self again!!

Tiffany