First Snow!!

Continued...

I woke up around 7 a.m. yesterday when I heard Landon in the bathroom...he was barfing again. Poor kid.  He slept all night with no sickness and bam as soon as he wakes up - it continues.  I again got him set up on the couch and I'm happy to report that he hit the bowl each time :) it's the little things!

We didn't have time for sickness today (had to miss a 2nd birthday party due to it) - it was SNOWING!!  As soon as I told Landon it was snowing, he says "are you serious?", haha!  Yes, buddy I am.  He perked up enough to go out and play in it for about 20 mins after Zane woke up!

He sure looked good in these pictures...but the sick-saga continued for much of the day unfortunately. Then all of a sudden around 5 p.m. - he was over it and was hungry!  He ate two BBQ sandwiches and plenty of crackers...all stayed down and he even went to school today!  Woohoo!  So glad that was a quick one.  NOW, lets all hope, pray and cross our fingers that Zane doesn't get it; my worst fear!

You may notice my poor neglected rag-a-muffin child Zane wearing size 5 snow pants (he's a 10) and a too small jacket and tennis shoes because he doesn't have any snow boots.  It didn't phase him one bit, but I couldn't stop laughing at his high-waters, poor kid!  We didn't have ANY snow last year, there was no reason to go out and buy snow gear, so he had nothing.  Landon of course has all of Zane's hand-me-downs, so had no problem being prepared!  You'll be happy to know that I ordered Zane new boots, snow pants and a winter jacket and it all should be here this week - because they are predicting more snow next week; yahoo!

Turkey Trot and Barf

This past Saturday was the annual Turkey Trot hosted by the elementary schools in the Snoqualmie Valley.  Last year was our first year participating and both kids did the 1k.  This year, Zane decided he was too good for just doing the 1k and asked to also do the 5k.  I told him that I wouldn't be able to do it with him as I'd need to watch Landon, but he didn't care (who needs mom anyway)!  He didn't know anyone else running it (but ended up meeting up with some buds a mile into the run) - that didn't stop him, nothing did!  He was all over it!  He did decide that next year, he'd opt out of the 1k though as he thinks he exhausted too much energy during that!  His 5k time was around 35 mins - not bad especially since he was goofing off 1/2 way through it with his friends!  I love his passion!

Did I mention it was pouring down rain the entire morning?!!

First off was the 1k...

Time for the 5k... 

And he's off...

Finishing with his friend J.D.

  

Ben, J.D. and Zane

At 9:00 am while Landon was running the 1k - I never would've said that 5 hours later he'd have the stomach flu...

We were headed to a birthday party in Kent when he started giving me the signs that he wasn't feeling well.  I know this kid all to well and he gives very tell tale signs when he is getting sick and especially sick with the stomach flu.  We stopped at the party and I left the kids in the car while I ran in the gift real fast and then quickly headed back home...I was praying that he would not barf in the car; thankfully he didn't.

I got him set up on the couch with all of the necessities...a towel to lay on and a bowl close by.  He missed; ugh.  When he was done, he said "I didn't even know that was coming", poor buddy!

He ended up falling asleep in this position...I put him to bed about 6:30 p.m.

To be continued...

Sick Day for my #1

When Zane was little (started around 6 mos old), he'd get really bad wheezing when he developed a cold.  We spent many days/nights in urgent care and at the doctor trying to get it under control.  He was on multiple inhalers and finally we got our own nebulizer for home - which helped greatly in cutting down our visits to urgent care.  He ended up being diagnosed with "cold-induced" asthma. He would be fine all year until he developed a cold and then it was game on for the asthma.  It sucked.  I was told by his pediatrician that he'd outgrow it by the time he was probably 5.  And I'm happy to say that for the most part he has!  It is VERY rare that he needs his inhalers or nebulizer now and that's great...but because of that...I am not good at keeping up on the rx's for them - oops!

He spent yesterday and today home sick with a pretty bad cold.  This morning he woke up crying and saying he couldn't breathe while he was coughing his brains out.  I knew he could breathe since he was talking, but the doctor described it to me one time as it feels like an elephant is sitting on his chest when that sort of attack happens.  Yuck.  Zane also has a tendency to develop pneumonia very quickly - so once I realized all of his inhalers and the albeuterol for the nebulizer were way past-due, I decided to take him in to get checked out - mainly to make sure there was no pneumonia starting.

Thankfully no pneumonia - but the doctor did say he was very impressed with his wheezing, ha.  He added another medication to the albeuterol in the nebulizer and Zane was not a fan - apparently it tasted horrible.  But he soldiered through.

O2 was down to 90 - that is technically hospital bound numbers...but thankfully
the nebulizer was able to bring it up enough, but not too 100.

LOVE that I get to work from home now when I need to if the kids are sick or whatever!

Gotta get this kid well for his birthday!!

The Last 24 Hours

This post is going to be long and it's going to leave you with more questions than answers - but trust me; I have many questions myself and am working on getting answers for them and once I have them, I will share them here.

7:30 p.m. last night my grandma (who lives with my mom) called to tell me that something wasn't right with my mom.  Now that isn't saying much since my mom has a lot of issues that I will not dive into here.  I asked what was going on and she said she didn't know, but she (my mom) was crying, said she couldn't talk and then took off.  I tried calling her to no avail (again, normal for her not to answer my calls).

8:00 p.m. I called my brother to let him know something was up with mom, but I wasn't sure what. He has much better luck getting her to answer his calls (this is because he just shoots the shi* with her and I call her out on her issues black and white).  So he tries to get a hold of her.

9:30 p.m. I get a voicemail from my brother (my phone had been left upstairs to charge) and he found my mom by for some crazy but awesome reason he thought to call Valley Hospital.  There she was. She had driven herself there - she was have excruciating headaches for the last two weeks and now was having problems speaking.  They triage her immediately, get a cat scan and see that she has severe bleeding on the left side of her brain and instantly transport her by ambulance to Harborview for possible emergency surgery.

10:00 p.m. My mom calls me on her cell phone from the ambulance (ha) and informs me of what is going on.  I tell her to have someone call me immediately if they do surgery tonight.  I stay up for hours waiting by the phone (as does my brother)...nothing.

6 a.m. this morning my brother calls Harborview - they will be doing surgery today, but not sure when.  A lot of swelling in her brain and a lot of blood.  The source?  We don't know.  Possible stroke, but they aren't thinking so.  Aneurysm?  Probably not, would've killed her already most likely. Head trauma?  Most likely.  Apparently (unbeknownst to my brother and I) my mom has been having problems with falling when she gets up in middle of the night to go to the bathroom and 3 times in the last two weeks has hit her head hard on furniture in her room.  But why is she falling??  That is the million dollar question.

11:00 a.m. today, my brother calls me to let me know surgery would be at noon and he was stuck in Olympia.  I called my mom and she was obviously upset and scared - I let her know I was leaving work now and would be there before she goes in at noon.  I bolted out of work and realized that Harborview was only 7 miles from my work - yahoo, not bad - took me 15-20 minutes!  Got up to her ICU room and watched her doze on and off from her meds and froze my butt off sitting under the a/c vent!

2:00 p.m. nurse FINALLY starts to take her down to the pre-op room, I follow of course.  I say a
"see ya later" and a "you'll be fine" and off she went and off to the waiting room I went.  They have a monitor in the room to let you know where your patient is in their surgery based on a code they give you.

3:30 p.m. monitor finally changes to "Surgery Began" - so I sit and sit and sit.

6:15 p.m. she's out of surgery and in recovery.  Dr. reports that they had to drill a couple holes into her scull to drain the blood and actually had to remove a small piece of her skull to alleviate some of the swelling, but they have already been able to put the piece back.  She's awake, responding to commands and doing OK!  I won't see her until tomorrow...

So again, the million dollar question is what is causing the bleeding and IF it's the head trauma due to her falling - why is she falling?  I will be running up to the hospital on a lunch break tomorrow to take her purse and cell phone back and check in on her.  My brother and grandma will be going to visit tomorrow night and I'll go again this weekend sometime.

No ETA on how long she'll be in or what rehab will be needed after...I pray it's not much.  She just started a new job 2 weeks ago and is very stressed about losing it.  They are being very nice and are very worried for her, so hoping to God they hold her job for her and let her recover without making her feel rushed.

So that has been my last 24 hours in a nutshell...

Sick

This family has been through the ringer over the last week with stomach bugs, ugh.  Last Wednesday, Zane, Josh and his friend Daniel hiked up Rattlesnake Ridge and had a blast!!

They all had a great time!  Once they were home, Zane was full of energy, telling me all about the hike! He finally settled down enough to head off to bed...just for a few hours and then he barfed all over, ugh!  

Zane slept the entire next day away (in my bed on my side; thanks kid)!

The next morning, Josh was sick, so he assumed it was something they ate after the hike.  Then Friday night and Saturday morning Landon was barfing.  Now we knew it was a bug lurking!

Some of us use barf bowls for hats (this is before it was used).

I "knock-on-wood" never barfed, but had been feeling nauseous everyday since Thursday - today (Tuesday) is the first day I have not felt nauseous.  It's a good thing I know that I can't get pregnant again or I'd have been convinced that may have been my issue this last week - it's been terrible!  I have eaten hardly anything (thanks to that, I'm fitting into clothes I haven't for a very long time, haha - if only that part would last)!  We thought we were through the thick of it.  Then last night happened.

Zane's appetite hadn't fully came back since last Wednesday, but that was nothing to be alarmed about - I mean, it's been almost a week since I've been able to eat -  we weren't concerned at all.  He went to bed last night and about 30 mins later this kid barfed more than any child I've ever seen in my life - it was seriously like the poltergeist was in his room or something - so, so, scary!  Thank the Lord he made it all to the trash can!  I obviously let my boss know immediately that I wouldn't be in today.  Called Children's and got some direction from them...gave Zane some anti-nausea meds and was up every 2 hours (all night long) checking his blood sugar and getting him to sip Sprite to keep the blood sugar up. Thankfully, he was never sick again.  He woke up this morning and it's like nothing ever happened. He is 100% back to himself - most of his appetite is back and he's just happy as a clam! I really hope this bug is finally over...it's been pure hell.

Stomach bugs and Type 1 do not mix well at all - it's seriously one of the worst illnesses a person with Type 1 can encounter.  I avoid anyone who has had a stomach bug in the last 2 weeks like the plague and won't take Zane near anyone's house that has had it in the last 2-3 weeks if at all possible.  I just don't want him to get it.  Thankfully, he's only had it 1 or 2 other times in the last 3.5 years he's been diagnosed and I hope it's a long time before it happens again.  When they cannot keep any fluids down, the body builds up ketones which are essentially poison in the blood stream and the only way to rid of them is by a. fluids and b. insulin.  Problem is - if they cannot keep fluids down, plan (a) is out.  If their blood sugars are silly low (which his were), then you cannot give insulin which means now plan (b) is out.  You aren't left with much now except a trip to the hospital to keep your kid alive.  I'm happy to report, we did not end up there last night (although, I was certain we would).  We were able to keep Sprite down him all night and were able to flush the ketones out!!  His blood sugars have not returned to normal yet (which is normal after a tummy bug) and his body is not absorbing the carbs he's eating, so they are not effecting his blood sugar, so he is not receiving any insulin for the food he's eating yet (again, normal after a tummy bug).  It's almost like he doesn't have Type 1 right now - he's eating freely and getting no insulin for it - I wish it could be like this forever, but soon - his body will readjust and he'll be back on insulin for everything he eats!

Here is what his CGM has looked like almost every night - this is showing his blood sugar trend and remember that for him to be safe overnight, he needs to be above 130 at least (this was taken right before bed the other night): 

I have done more cleaning and laundry in the last week than I think I do in a month!

We are so thankful we made it through this one and really hope that that's it for our family for awhile - especially for Zane!  Thanks to all our friends and family who checked up on us over the last week - I think we'll all survive after all!