Moving On

Enough about infections and hospitals, and we're not even going to talk about my cold. Let's talk about Lent!

I got to go to Lenten services last night and, even though I can't actually sing, it was GREAT! And today I found this little tidbit about eco-friendly things I can give up during Lent. I've actually already done a lot of them. We have water delivered in re-usable jugs and each have our own bottles to take to school with us, we use cloth grocery bags (and I even found cool produce bags on Etsy!), we signed up at GreenDimes (now Tonic Mailstopper) a year ago and now rarely get a catalog, we use re-usable towels for cleaning and cloth napkins for eating, we don't dry clean at all (if it's not washable I don't buy it!), and if I could find recycled TP or paper towels, I would certainly buy them (we buy recycled notebook paper, if that counts, and no paper gets recycled without print on both sides).

But I find that I am almost to the bottom of an industrial-sized powdered Tide and I am once again considering trying a green laundry detergent. I know a few of you who actually read this blog are also doing your parts to save the Earth. Any recommendations? I need one that REALLY CLEANS!

Recuperating

Caleb and I enjoyed a quiet day at home today! I kept thinking we were going to do things like, oh, grocery shopping (everything in the fridge was bad), making a trip to Costco. Caleb wasn't having it. He wanted to stay in his house, in his pajamas, and play with HIS toys! I was happy to oblige.

So instead, I called all of Caleb's teachers (three of them), did three loads of laundry, cleaned out the fridge, washed the fridge, washed all the containers that had decaying food that were in the fridge (can you tell my household has suffered from neglect since my mom's surgery?), and read. Oh, and I drank three doses of Airborne and sucked on zinc/echinacea lozenges all day because I am definitely NOT getting sick, in spite of what my body is hinting.

Tomorrow, we return to reality. It will probably be ugly since I've been out for a week. I don't care. Our boy is home, and walking, and getting better every day. It doesn't get much better than that!

Home again, home again

THANKS BE TO GOD!!!!

Sunday Update

We are still in the hospital! I spent last night, which was much better with just us in the room. I imagine things will start getting crowded again tomorrow, but we hope to be out of there soon.

We are getting quite the education when it comes to labwork. Caleb's CRP was 2.5 when he was admitted and has decreased to 1.3 (normal is 0). Also, his ESR has declined from 18 to 15. These are both indicators that the antibiotics (Ancef, in case you're interested) are working. The biopsy is still out waiting to grow something, so we don't know which specific infection we're dealing with, but since the Ancef is working, it doesn't really matter. The attending orthopedist will be back tomorrow and will deliver the final verdict.

Scott is on night watch tonight so I can go to work tomorrow. We've had visits from our youth pastor and Caleb's godparents (both sets, actually). I'm home on shower break and will be heading back with Nikki to take dinner. Caleb is doing suprisingly well considering it's been nearly a week since he's played outside. He watches movies, punctuated by different activities (I am getting REALLY tired of Go Fish, but he's getting lots of practice with his sound-"Go fffffffpish!"). Children's has a great playroom, but it's closed most of the weekend. He and Scott are there right now playing air hockey, which has been a huge blessing since it allows him to be physical with his arms while he is off his feet.

Thank you for continued prayers for a speedy recovery so Caleb can come home!

Before heading back to the hospital...

Here are some of the things I am grateful for this morning:

• Proper diagnosis for Caleb. It almost didn't happen and that most certainly would have made things far worse. This is definitely an answer to prayer.
• My wonderful husband who let me come home and sleep for 8 1/2 glorious hours last night!
• My wonderful mother who, less than three weeks after HER surgery, came to the hospital yesterday to sit through Caleb's procedure and then took Nikki and her class chinchilla home with her to spend the night.
• Franck and Susan, who relived Caleb's hospitalization at five weeks last night when they came to visit, dinner in tow.
  
• Ronnie, who also came to relive Caleb's hospitalization. ;)
• Mich for walking with me when I got home at 9:30 last night. It felt GOOD to move and be outside!
  
• All our wonderful friends and family who are, as one friend put it, sending up a "chorus of prayers" for Caleb. They're working!!
• My clean bathroom. I know it seems petty, but I feel better. :)
• That my child will be well in a few weeks, and that we are not one of those families with children so accustomed to IV poles that they use them as scooters. God likes to give me good doses of perspective. I feel very, very blessed.

Happy Saturday!

Caleb Update with Details

I thought I'd add some more details here for those of you who have been kind enough to send love and prayers for Caleb.

Thursday morning we arrived in the ER at 9:00 am. We were seen within 5 minutes, but sent back out because they were busy. 15 minutes later, we went back in and they put us in a bed. They ordered x-rays and labs. The machine that analyzes labs was broken, so we sat there until 3:30 waiting for results, although x-rays came back negative right away. At 4:30, we were discharged and were walking out the door when we were stopped by the nurse. She said the attending orthopedist was alarmed by Caleb's slightly elevated white blood cell count and wanted him admitted for an MRI. Because Caleb had eaten at 5:00 (after starving all day), the MRI needed to wait until this morning. At 7:00, we were finally sent to a room.

This morning, Caleb had an MRI (which involves general anesthesia in children). When we got back to the room after Caleb woke up, the nurse came rushing in to tell us not to feed him-that he would be going into the OR. I called Scott and my mom. The orthopedist finally got out of surgery and told us they would only be aspirating fluid from the bone to find out what type of infection they were dealing with. This happened around 11:30 (also under general anesthesia). Caleb finally got to eat around 2:00 this afternoon.

Right now, we are waiting for the results of this afternoon's procedure, but in the meantime Caleb is on IV antibiotics and will be hospitalized at least until Sunday. Scott is spending the night with him tonight so I can get a good night's sleep. At Children's, they feel it is appropriate to stuff three families into one room with no bathroom (the one for the patients is down the hall, the one for parents is around the corner and WAY down the hall). Between the fussy baby in our room, the kid with the acute appendicitis who arrived at 11:00 pm, and Caleb awakening in pain, little sleep was had last night. Hopefully the boys will fare better tonight (they had the whole room to themselves when I left!).

So that's the whole story. Thanks for your prayers and good wishes. We are so fortunate that the orthopedist recognized what was going on. Otherwise, we would probably have had an abscessed bone to contend with. We have proper diagnosis-now we just need healing. :)

Update from Children's

We arrived in the ER at 9:00 am and finally got a room around 7:00 pm. The orthopedists cannot rule out osteomyelitis, so Caleb has to have an MRI tomorrow, which entails general anesthesia. Hopefully, we can get the test done, read, and be out of here by noon. Or maybe I'm just fooling myself.

On the bright side, Caleb is perky and happy as long as he's not walking.

Thanks for your prayers. Keep 'em coming!