He has been so stable...

That was the conversation Billy and I had recently. No ER visits. No crisis. While things are still nutty at our house, they were a calmer version of nutty. :)Ah, but the calm before the storm...

Will thought he was up to the three days of academic testing that our kids take in the spring. Three days this week he got up earlier than normal to go to King George (35 minutes away) and hang out with his friends and take a Stanford 9 exam. So, by Wednesday morning, he was looking tired but said he felt fine. I hate when I ignore instinct. He was actually running around with his friends when I picked him up. It was the most activity I had seen from him in more than a month, and the other moms commented on how good he looked. Will commented on the fact that Joseph Bentz beat him when running and how weird that was. (Not that he is supposed to be running, mind you! Hello? Doctor said no faster than a walk until this neck was fused!)

So I picked him up, dropped him off at home, then headed to Fredericksburg for a meeting. When I arrived home at 7, he met me at the gate and refused to let his brother (who was holding a 44 lb bag of dog food) through the gate. He wasn't teasing. He was just being mean. Shoot. I take one look at him, and I don't even say hello. I order him to let Cam through and then to get the bp cuff and stethoscope and meet me in the kitchen. Yep. 92/38. Grrr...So, I call Brooke, our fabulous nurse, and she drives to my house at 8 PM to access Will's port and start the IV. (This nurse is amazing. She didn't tell me to go to the hospital because she was off for the day, she just said, "I will be down in 45 minutes. Get the Emla Cream on him.")

Fluids started by 9 PM finished at 3 AM. I deaccessed the port, then collapsed in bed. This morning, he is no better. What???? Take his bp. 110/44. Grrrr...Call Brooke, call the doctor, and eventually head to the ER.

So, we have a different nurse than usual. (I did call Diana and ask if she was working tonight...but darn! She worked last night.) But the doctor sees us walk in and said, "Hey! You weren't taller than your mom last time!" It is good to be known...but not necessarily here. It does make life easier in that I don't have to explain everything and basically tell them what I need them to do, but it means that we are here way too much.

So the new nurse was a bit confused as to why we need fluids, but she got the IV going. I warned her that he would likely bottom out partway through. She didn't believe me. Until she experienced it. I hate being right sometimes. She ended up walking with us to the bathroom because she thought he would pass out. He didn't. He just likes to scare everyone. :)

Here we sit. We played three games of backgammon before his bp crashed, but now Will is watching a movie (Yes, the ER bag was ready to roll.) while I catch up on email and the blog. We will see in an hour where we stand when the IV is finished. I imagine we will be discharged and sent on our merry way until the next little crisis evolves. This could be an interesting summer...and not the good kind of interesting. How do you keep a kid who always needs fluids hydrated in the summer??? Somehow, I can't help thinking that we're gonna get to know all the ER nurses really well. :(

You're a Little Pink...

At dinner Saturday night (after a two hour baseball game which we lost by one point!), Ben looked at me and told me I looked like an Indian. So, I posted to my facebook status, "Ever seen a blonde Indian?" and Chris, my very quiet 15 yo, posted, "Now I have." Well, obviously the sun had gotten to me, because I looked at him and said, "Now you have what?" Ooookayyy. Well, now. Guess I am a blonde Indian. :) It was like I had sunburned my brain. Goodness.

So while I recover from the lovely effects of excessive Vitamin D, I am pondering how to keep the deer out of my garden. Billy is not thrilled with the concept of planting a garden with time I don't have only to feed the animals I don't wish to feed. I have nothing against Bambi...until he enters my garden. And last year, every Bambi in AP Hill thought it was Thanksgiving every doggone day! At 9 am, there's this doe just lookin' at me while she munches her way through the green beans. Well, now. It's time for her to move to greener gardens!

So today I stopped at CFC to find out how broke I would be if I bought fencing. Well, let's just say that that isn't looking like a viable option. Since we're such law abiding citizens and we don't hunt out of season, I guess we need to find another option...one that doesn't involve dogs since my lab is afraid of the dark (really!), and one that doesn't involve vast financial resources...Oh, and the spray you can use where you have to walk over to your neighbors and tell them you really didn't have anything dead residing in your garden...well, my throat kinda swells when I use that, so that one is out too. Surely there are other viable options out there..

Do We Really Need to Go?

Before we put William through this trip two weeks after major surgery, I called and asked if we really needed to go. I was told yes.

Well, the reality is that we did not really need to see Dr. Cohen. As a matter of fact, he told us that we should not return until after the next surgery. Until that then, there is really little that he can do for William. So, while he is running another series of labs, there is really no news at this point. Is this frustrating? Yes. Is there anything we can do about it? Nope.

So, we are currently infusing William and will return in the morning for additional labs that Dr. Cohen wanted to run after the infusion, and then we will likely head toward home.

I don't know how well William will tolerate the drive home. The air conditioning in the car is not functioning and the back of the seat hits his head at a challenging angle. We have pillows to help with the angle, but the windows will be open and that may create issues for his allergies. So, this could go swimmingly or this could make for a long day. If necessary, we will stop and finish the drive on Wednesday.

So, we have nothing substantial to report, but we should be home in the next couple of days...and we get to stay there for a few weeks before returning to Ohio. The funny thing that happened today...the Census Bureau called today to confirm the information I submitted on our form. This is what happens when you have a larger-than-the-average American family. But they wanted to know if we all resided in the same house April 1. I so badly wanted to say yes, but no more. Most of our children reside in Virginia, but three of us actually live in Ohio. :) But I didn't...that would have only prolonged the agony of the phone call.

We are headed home! Again!

The Windy City

Cleveland is is like being at the beach without a heater. :)

Mike, our pilot yesterday, was chatting about how the wind always blows in Cleveland. It does. Cleveland is right here on the lake, (Our hotel is a block from Lake Eerie.) and the wind is incessant. So, apparently, they decided to put their airport right on the edge of the lake. Not kidding. Yesterday Mike landed his plane in 25 mph cross winds. It made for quite the ride there at the end...better than anything Kings Dominion offers. It was a gorgeous place to land, Mike did an amazing job of landing well, but the descent was a bit like a rollercoaster. :)

So we landed, and the gentleman who assisted Mike offered to drive us to the hotel. Apparently he is also a private pilot who works weekends for extra money to support his habit. He has been into Richmond and said, "You guys had a race there yesterday." Yep, we sure did! So, the quick ride to the hotel (3 miles) was over, we checked in, and unpacked. Time for food.

We head downstairs, and the shuttle driver took us to Tower City which is an amazing structure, but we just aren't shoppers. The driver asks if we are going to the game. Hmmm....baseball. Free afternoon. How much is it? "Oh, cheap!" he says.

Off we go. Come to find out, some of the better seats were half-price, so we got really great seats for very little. We were ten rows from first base. It was a lot of fun...hamburgers, Diet Pepsi, and three hours of baseball.

Here is a question, though, for baseball fans. If there is no hit, but everyone points over toward third base and the runners advance a base, what happened??? I have never seen that before, but...it happened. I had turned to tell Will something and missed whatever it was, but it drew lots of reaction...

Oh, and the other cool thing...there is actually someone on the Twins team with a batting average of 1.00. Really. Ramos, the Twins' catcher, doesn't miss an opportunity to connect with the ball.

So Billy arrived safely, we grabbed dinner (I do not want to see another hamburger again for a very long time!), and we headed back to the hotel. We were in bed by 11, but I don't think anyone slept well.

We leave soon for breakfast and the doctor. Yes, there is some trepidation, but we go with the knowledge that we are where we are supposed to be doing what we are supposed to be doing....