Preaching & Prescriptions: 2013

There is a lot more of our summer health (or lack thereof) to continue. But to be honest I don't really feel like detailing it much. I feel like once I get some of this down then I can go back to some normal blogging. I'll keep the rest of this concise.

I left off at July 13 when my parents arrived. The next week Aaron stayed in the hospital slowly improving. Big setback was when he developed 2 abscesses in his abdomen. This is not uncommon after a ruptured appendix but sucked nonetheless. He had to have more platelets and a CT guided needle aspiration of the areas. Then 2 more drains were left in.

He was finally discharged on July 21st, day 14 of his ~~imprisonment~~ hospital stay. He still had all 3 drains in and was on antibiotics but was good to get home.

Recovery has been very slow and has been hampered by 2 episodes of infection with Clostridium difficile. He JUST finished a round of antibiotics for it and are praying it doesn't come back again. If it does I am going to have him see a GI specialist for treatment as it is a difficult organism to kill.

Shortly after Aaron got out of the hospital Gabe came down with a GI infection called "crypto". Cryptosporidium parvum was in the public pool and he developed vomiting, stomach cramps, decreased appetite and pretty severe diarrhea. So that was a whole lot of fun to deal with! He got on the right anti-protozoal medication and improved.

A week after Gabe started treatment I started coming down with symptoms. Ugh. Suffice to say I spent a few hours in the ER one day. A few days later I spent the night in the hospital (August 6) for fluids and electrolyte/vitamin replacement. I ended up out of work for a full week and only worked very short hours the next week.

Andrew managed to stay healthy throughout it all!

It was a crazy month and made for a long, tough summer.

I don't believe I have ever gone this long without a blog post. Over 2 months! I am going to get back into it now that our lives are normalizing. I hesitate to actually say 'normal'. NormalIZING is much safer.

One of these days I'll get some pictures on here to give a visual to some of the last few months "events".

My goal for tonight is to try to get some dates down in writing.

Early Summer: Gabe loving swim team and swim lessons. Andrew loved swim lessons.

June 27th: Gabe hit in the head with a baseball bat at the neighbors. Trip to ER + 3 stitches in left eyebrow. No swimming allowed until stitches come out.

June 28th: Last day of swim lessons. Andrew falls off high dive and is caught one-armed by his teacher Emily Case. HUGE HUGE HUGE blessing... cannot even imagine the WHAT IF's surrounding this.

July 6th: Aaron starts getting some stomach pain.

July 7th: Aaron can't do much of anything all day. Is up all night puking.

July 8th: CrAzY day! Aaron is so sick he has to go to ER. Gabe NEEDS his stitches out before they are in too long. I have to be to work at 9am. No pharmacist = no meds for anyone on a Monday morning after a holiday week (I have no choice, MUST be there). Get everyone ready. Drop Aaron off at the ER. Take Gabe to his 8:30 appointment. No time to take boys to daycare so bring them to work. Keri B. takes them to daycare for me. Finally hear from Aaron. Dr. says gastroenteritis and he can go home. Once again Keri B. takes Aaron home from the ER. Once another pharmacist gets there take Aaron his pain pills. Communicate with him throughout afternoon - he is no better. Go home to check on him: getting worse. Call back to ER in Humboldt, they say to take his pain pills and try to relax: the pain will go away. They also tell me his CT scan was clear. Ask Aaron: he didn't have a CT scan. Leave work at 5 and come home. Aaron says we have to go to ER again. Dump boys on Kirchhoff's and head to Ft. Dodge for a different opinion. Have AMAZING care in the ER from Dr. Stoebe. CT scan completed, pain meds given. He has a big fever. About 8 or 9pm find out Aaron has appendicitis and needs surgery. At this point appendix was "in tact" so we opt to stay in Ft. Dodge for laproscopic surgery on Tuesday. Admitted to hospital with plans to see the surgeon in the morning after she speaks with a hematologist about Aaron's special blood. He gets antibiotics and pain killers. I get back to Humboldt about 11pm, pick up the boys, go home, to bed.

July 9th: Drop boys off early at Rachel's and head to hospital. Surgeon is making plans to give Aaron platelets before, during, and after surgery. She decides to call Mayo hematology. They suggest single-donor platelets and give us the option to come up there for surgery. Discuss with surgeon, she is confident surgery will be fine in Ft. Dodge. We decide to stay in Iowa for surgery. Single-donor platelets must be ordered from Des Moines so no surgery until the afternoon, after the platelets arrive. Surgery starts about 2pm. Takes a while? I think I see him about 4pm. Looks like crap but surgery went well. Appendix was "burst" so that is a concern for infection and complications from abscess formation during recovery. Started on another antibiotic. (So far Zosyn + metronidazole). Post-op PCA is stopped and the nurses were pushing pain pills (hydrocodone/apap) instead of injectable (fentanyl or morphine). Aaron is okay with this... makes me nervous. He still has fever. Jan S. works for me all day long. Burmeisters have boys after daycare. They bring them to me in Ft. Dodge at hospital. They visit dad and we go home.

July 10th: Pretty good day all things considered. Aaron is up and moving, eating, etc. Still has fever. Pain is OK sometimes and not OK other times. Nurses still pushing those STUPID pills even when he asks for injectable. GRRRR. Grandma Mitzi, Uncle Jon, and Auntie Nancy arrive to see Aaron. I had day off work.

July 11th: HORRIBLE DAY! I decided to go to work since the 10th was an OK day for Aaron. Nancy and Jon leave in AM to head back to MN/ND. Gma Mitzi keeps boys in morning while I work. Takes them to Rachel's for the afternoon and she goes to visit Aaron. Gets there and he is in a TON of pain. Can't hardly talk so she leaves. Meantime I am at work texting Aaron, finding out things are not good. Ready to leave work but need to figure out care for boys after daycare ends. Pretty much the worst time ever. Andrew is being awful at Rachel's... can't find care for them... don't know when/if Gma is coming back from Ft. Dodge.... don't want to dump boys on her if she wants to be with Aaron... need to get carseats to Rachel's.... finally get it figured out that Gma will come back to Humboldt so I can be with Aaron. Get down to hospital about 4:30? Aaron is in bad shape. Can't move, can't talk due to pain. I have to take charge. Nurse just came on, knows nothing. Dr. was just there about an hour before. Aaron is able to tell me that things turn worse after Dr. Miegge was there. Nurse comes in and examines him. Hemmms and haaass. I ask questions finally she says she will call the doctor back up. Dr. Miegge comes back (quickly!) and orders up a CT scan. Give him back his PCA after I asked for it. He gets morphine going and is able to move and talk a little. Has to drink oral contrast for CT... makes him feel even worse. He gets through the CT and then pukes. A lot. Feels somewhat better and is able to rest a bit. CT results are good. No ruptured intestine or signs of abnormal bleeding. Surgeon thinks his gut wasn't ready for all the food/fluid that he took in. Back to liquid diet, minimizing intake. Adds another antibiotic (fever persists) (Levofloxacin) and some GI motility/nausea meds (metoclopramide and ondansetron). Leaves PCA in place for pain relief. Kent and Dee were there. Also Pastor Sieveking stopped by. Kent and Dee took me out to supper after all was calmed down. It was a much needed diversion and probably the highlight of my whole week.

July 12, 13, 14: These days all blur together for me. Aaron makes slow progress. Dr. Lee (nephrology) was consulted and had some great ideas to help get all the fluid off Aaron (he was very puffy and up 25 or so pounds from admission). He gets albumin IV and Dr. Lee stops his ramipril and Diovan to give his kidneys a chance to work on their own (without outside influence of the ACE and ARB). Reason for albumin is Aaron's protein is low due to the low protein diet he had been on for the last few months prior to admission. The protein can help carry water out of the body... so a good catch on Dr. Lee's part.

Somewhere during these days Aaron gets really goofy from the morphine. It was making him feel pretty bad and he was goofy in the head from it. We got that stopped and IV fentanyl and some pain pills re-ordered. Had some confusion again with pain meds... had to be persistent and assertive to get that sorted out. Ugh to pain control! Was def. the hardest battle for me while Aaron was hospitalized. Fever persists throughout.

July 13: My parents arrive. Gma Mitzi leaves to go home. Takes Andrew with for adventures on the farm. Gabe does not want to go so I don't make him. Plus it is his last weeks of swimming and he has his first swim meet coming up the next week.

CAN'T WRITE ANYMORE TONIGHT. WILL CONTINUE LATER!