Family Life – Page 69 – a hippie with a minivan

AAHHHHHHH!!!!

I just need to scream… wait I need to do it again… ARGHHHHHH!!!!!! Ok starting to feel better….

So yesterday we kept Colin temp under control and he actually was doing a lot better… In the morning I went to the pharmacy and stocked up on everything that I could imagine so that I will never see a seizure again… a new thermometer, tylenol and Motrin so that if one doesn’t work, I have the ther to alternate with.
I am am REALLY not a fan of giving medicine o even controlling a fever, but with Colin ad his history of fever spikes and having trouble controlling them I don’t ever want to take the chance again… I also picked up the prescription for antibiotics for his sinus infection… again another thing that I would have second guessed but with hi white blood cell count so low his body is just not strong enough to ward off such an infection without a big and long fight… so I welcome the help…
Anyways… he got a first doase at the hopital on sunday, we gave him three doses yesterday and yesterday he started throwing up and had diahrea… we wondered if it was just the virus progressing…
This morning when we got up he had hives and instanty realized that it was a reaction to the antibiotics (penicillin) so I brought Xavier to Daycare early, got them to give him breakfast and headed for the hospital. We waited about 5 minuted for Triage and were coded a priority 2, so we would go pretty fast…. (the waiting time for a priority 3 was about 18 hours!!!!)
About 40 minutes later we got in to see a doctor, got a new precription for a new antibiotic, codiene and benadryl to get the reaction under control and we were out the door…
I passed by a new clients home on the way to the pharmacy and she bought a wrap that I had in stock, answered a few questions about breastfeeding and headed to the pharmcy again….
Got the meds, came home, gave it Colin (2 of them have 10ml doses) ad then he threw it all back up a few seconds later… Arggh…. gave it to him again and he finally kept in down…..
And to top the day off… I started my Period… Like I really needed that today….
But, hey… it confirms my chart and when I think I ovulated….

And then the storm hit…

Well…. The weekend was long and hard…
Like I said in my last post on Friday, Xavier was coughing and Colin was feverish.. Well…Colin was sitting next to me and was falling in and out of sleep according to the little “ticks” he was having (you know he ones…when you fall asleep too quickly and feel like your falling… However, at about 6:15 the jumps became methodical…. Three in a row.. quickly I turned him around and what I saw scared me to death… his eyes were rolled back, and his face looked like it was made of plastic and I instantly realized that he was having a seizure. I got up with him in my arms and called 911…
An ambulance was on the way but wouldn’t be at our home for another 20 minutes…While talking to the operator I laid him down and waited for him to stop seizing. It felt like an eternity but it really lasted about 4 minutes… he finally stopped, I placed him on his side and he just laid there, whining and in a trance…
Simon got home…
I told him what happened and he stayed next to Colin while I got dressed and ready and waited for the ambulance, they finally arrived and we took his temp under his arm and it was just under 106 (about 41 c)… we got to the hospital, he was given “Tempra” to get the fever down and a preventative amount of Ativan (so that he wouldn’t seize again)
Simon, of course stayed home with Xavier…
We were admitted to the hospital… IV, tests and all of the whole yucky part that goes with it…
Friday night I was alone in the room, the same bed that he was in over year ago, for 5 days, at just 2 weeks of age, also because of a high fever. I rocked and nursed him for a few hours but he wouldn’t even close his eyes… at about 2am a nurse told me to lay down with him… he fell asleep a few seconds later, nestled next to my breast.
He slept until about 8:30 which gave us 6 hours of very uncomfortable yet good sleep… Saturday was a rough day… he was feverish and lethargic, not eating and could barely keep his eyes open. His day was highlighted by a visit from daddy and big brother Xavier and I got some clean clothes, a few essentials and the laptop to keep me company.
He was going to stay another night for sure but he was trying to get around more and kept on getting tangled in the IV and he was nursing quite a bit so I asked for them to take the IV out, or at least unhook it so that he could have some freedom to move…
The doctor said no saying that because his fever was so high they were scared that he would dehydrate… especially because his fever was still above 40…
I compromised with him saying that I wanted it taken out if his fever went below 40, he said OK hesitantly… the next time his temp was taken he was a bit below 40, I had them call him… They waited a bit longer then I would have liked but after asking again if they had called a few times it was finally taken out.
Two other babies arrived in the room on Saturday.
It was actually really nice.
One, in the morning, was with an anemic, non-weight gaining, refluxy 2 month old that slept all of the time, they had been in the hospital for a few days, where at home for 24 hours and then was readmitted…the mom left a bit to get some rest and the grandmother stayed a few hours and rocked her the whole time and we talked quite a bit… The other, a 10 month old little girl in for observation after her Walker (illegal in Canada BTW) fell down the stairs with her inside, arrived at about 10 pm…
After the 3 kids were asleep we stayed up talking…
Because we knew we would be up at midnight anyways, and it was already late, it seemed to make sense…it almost felt like we were having a mini pajama party (in a very unusual circumstances)… just talking and gossiping…
Like I predicted, Colin was up about 10 minutes before midnight and I laid down with him to sleep… At about 1:30, his temp was taken and it was about 39 (102), they gave him Tempra, and an hour later I woke up with him boiling next to me… It had went up to 40.8 (106)… We tried giving him a bit of Advil but it wouldn’t go down…
I had him drink some water and walk in the hall a bit and About half hour later his energy spiked for the first time in almost 2 days…
At 3am he played in the playroom for about an hour, doing a puzzle, playing with a stacking toy and the kid computer terminal… I saw my little boy come back to his normal self…
At about 4 I decided to make him fall asleep again… It worked and he slept until 8:30… he would have slept more but they needed to take blood… he was soaked in the morning and almost cool to the touch… his temp had gone down to about 36.5 (97.7)… And until 2pm he had no fever, was back to his normal self, and we had gotten the OK to go home *IF* his fever stayed away… But at 2 pm his fever was again at 39.5 (103).. More tempra, a good nap and he was up again playing and in a great mood but still has a high fever…
I made my mind up though that we were going home… fever or not…
The Results of the test finally came in today also…
It is most likely a nasty Virus…
The virus attacked his white blood cells making them almost dangerously low (his body is not equipped to attack another virus or bacteria) which is why he is also starting a Sinus infection. So Antibiotics to help him get rid of the infection and blood tests next week to make sure that his counts are up…
I was told that his body seems to be very susceptible to having very high fevers and developing them very fast. (given that this is the second time that he has been hospitalized for high fevers that can’t be controlled well) and susceptible in the future febrile seizures…
Anyway… I left the hospital at 8:30 tonight and I am so happy to finally be back home….

Funny things that come out of Xavier’s mouth…

– Daddy? Where does Fire come from?… I know! Dragons!

– Xavier takes of hit hat outside… Simon asks him to put it on again… Xavier doesn’t and Simon asks again… Xavier looks at his Daddy…. “Where’s Your Hat Daddy?”
…. his hat stayed off….

Playing with a lizard the other day…
“That’s a lizard!…. look a lizard!… it’s…it’s the Lizard of Oz!…..”

Another sad day… another little story

The very day that we arrived in Montreal back in 86 we went to see the fireworks. By chance we met up with an old friend of my mom’s from way back when… He was married at the time and they just had a baby… however, the relationship was far from good at the time..
Within a few years his marriage had fallen apart and I started to see him more and more often at our home. It was good, I liked him a lot and he was very respectful, of me and my mother.
When it was time for us to get a new apartment he asked me if I would mind if he moved in with us. He explained that he had not yet talked about it with my mom because he wanted my opinion first… with that move he got my respect and he became a very important part of my life, and within a month or two we were living as a family. I was in my early teens when he came into our home and quickly he became a father figure for me. He was a real “Dad” We had fun times, long talks, laughs, spats… he gave advice, looked out for me, presented me as his daughter, chauffeured me around… everything that I expect a “real” father would have done…
The thing about Roger was that he was just an amazing man…he was always the center of attention, he was always the one that everyone wanted to be with, he was the life of the party, he was a walking encyclopedia of music and sports, he was intelligent, he was street-smart, he was honest and thought good of everyone, he was hard working, he was sensitive, he was always there for the ones that he cared for, he was one of the most amazing men that I have had the honor of meeting in my whole life. All of these qualities made him loved by everyone and his job of barman was just a perfect match…
A few years ago he was diagnosed with Hep C… it scared him and he didn’t do the things that he should have done to get things under control… he was scared to leave a lifestyle behind that had been part of him for so long… At that point the relationship with my mom had also deteriorated and things were just a bit off for him… Not long after, he was diagnosed with cirrhosis and a tumor that was the size of a large orange was found in his liver that was beyond treatment.
He was given 9 months to live.
He was a grandpa, he was ready to leave a part of his life behind, he was ready to live better an healthier but it was too late…
He started on a experimental treatment that would help buy a little more time and through it all there where many ups and downs… He was so proud of me and he was so much in love with Xavier. They had an amazing relationship and they had a very special connection. Xavier loved his “Pops”
Soon after I found out I was pregnant with Colin, in the spring of 2004, Roger was going through very rough times. He was hospitalized a few times because his disease was affecting his brain making him confused and delirious, it had been a year that he had been diagnosed and we thought that he wouldn’t make it to summer… Summer came and so did cottage time and his spirits and heath rose… he was in good enough shape to enjoy the time that he and my mom spent up north, he was in good enough shape to help us put some paint on the walls, he was in good enough shape for us to have a great summer with him, I regained the hope that he would meet Colin… In September he was there when Colin was born and it was one of the happiest moments of my life…
However, his health went back down as the weather got colder, we celebrated his birthday on Oct 4th, we had a great Thanksgiving supper (the first traditional super that I have made) and we talked on the phone more and more often as we saw each other less and less as he got sicker… On Dec 7th of last year we talked on the phone, laughed and said I love you and during the night he took a turn for the worst and died in the hospital the next day…
It has been a year today and I miss him more then anything.. I still cry every few days, I still talk about him often with Xavier and Xavier still remembers him vividly…¦I don’t want him to lose that…
The world lost an amazing man one year ago today….

It’s beginning to look a lot like Xmas….

We had a productive day today…
The kids let us sleep in until 7:30 this morning… but even with the late start on the morning (and yes, 7:30 is late compared to the time that Colin usually wakes us up) we got the house work done by noon… even cleaning up spots that we never have the time to get to….
We then got the Xmas lights put up outside while the kids had their naps and we were just finishing when they both woke up… Then the Xmas tree went up… With Xmas music in thebackground, Xavier, and even Colin, helped put decorations on the tree, and I got the stockings up too…
Both kids are in awe of the lights that are hanging outside of their window…
And tonight we are ltting Xavier stay up late to watch the Wizard of Oz with us….

It’s beginning to look a lot like Xmas….

(….though the Sushi I made for supper kind of ends it on a weird note LOL…
but hey! it’s Saturday and Sushi is my favorite Saturday meal 😉 )

Anyways…

Here are some pics…