Attack of the Forty Foot Virus!

This has been the year! Both Mad Dog, Lex and I have found ourselves in the capable hands of the folks at St. Vincent's Hospital  . Not that I don't love the nurses in the emergency room, but I don't need to see them anytime soon. 


This morning Mad Dog woke with extreme back pain and he was pretty sure it was a kidney stone. For anyone who hasn't had one, from my understanding it hurts like hell. Because of this pebble Mad Dog made his way to St. V's at 5 AM this morning on his own, leaving me with the Monkeys to get to school. He spent the day in emergency room 19 (the one I spent December 19th in) with the fine emergency room nurses of St. V's (all of which I love) and was released this afternoon with the stone still waiting to pass and handful of prescriptions to fill. 


He's doing much better now. Still waiting and watching his meds, making sure to take the next dose before the last one wears off.  Right now he is trying with all his might to make a chart/schedule of what/when he takes stuff. If only Loki didn't want to be his nurse. She is crawling all over him. 


On a separate note regarding the Health Care Industry, I was talking with my Daycare Provider today about the H1N1 vaccination. Yes, Mad Dog and I are getting Lex and Loki vaccinated. I have heard the argument that the FDA rushed the vaccination through and there are concerns about the use of it, but lets think about this logically. This is not a new radical type of vaccination, it is based off previous vaccinations. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but in the case of Mad Dog and I don't see a reason why Lex and Loki shouldn't have the shots. Also, with both of us working where we do, Mad Dog with the public and me in a corporation that has people coming and going from places all over the US/the World, we can't guarantee the environment the kids will be in.  Also, I can't count on the fact that the other kids attending Day Care will be getting them either. Lex and Loki are usually healthy kids, and with the cases of H1N1 in healthy children is on the rise, I don't want to worry. If you want to see what the virus does/spreads check out NPR's Flu Attack! Lastly - if Mad Dog (one of the Tin Foil Hat Brigade) thinks its okay, with all his research, I feel okay about it. 

People can send out all the information on the virus, the proper way to wash your hands and how to cough into your arm, but if people don't take personal responsibility for their health and themselves it doesn't matter what they share with this friends, families and coworkers. I have have finally caught the cold/cough that the kids and Mad Dog have finished with. I'm 2 weeks behind them. I think part of my luck in fighting off the sickness in our house is my new diet and focus on health. 


Or maybe I'm full of it and it's all an amazing marketing scheme by the health industry to sell more anti-bacterial gel, vitamins, cold meds and tissues. Oh, shoot did I clean the keyboard with Lysol . 

You say ER, I say OR - Lets call the whole thing off!

I don't know if my body has decided to wage war on me, but if it isn't and this was just a conflict I'd hate to see if a full attack. In the past 6 months I have had officially 3 surgeries. My c-section for Loki, my emergency DNC 8 days after Loki and now an emergency Appendectomy last Wednesday. 

Monday night, after a wonderful Memorial Day with Mad Dog & the kids, I had some cramps in my abdomen. I chalked it up to menstrual cramps and took something for them and went to bed. About 3/4 AM I work with vomiting, which continued through the morning until the early afternoon when I had nothing but dry heaves. Unable to keep even ice chips down, I knew I was on a downward spiral and dehydrated. I took a cab to the St. Vincent's Medical Center in Worcester, with the basic thought that they would rehydrate me on an IV and send me home. Mad Dog stayed home with the napping little ones. 

Around 5 PM I was taken into the ER and they started the painstaking process of trying to give me an IV. (Please not last time - 28 tries!) I was examined and an IV was finally put in place. My brother-in-law Brent drove out to stay over and watch the kids while Mad Dog joined me at the Hospital. I was sent for a Cat-Scan. It was more than clear it was my appendix. It was bad and they needed to find a spot for me in surgical rotation the next morning. I sent Mad Dog home while I waited for the Surgical consultation, and I was moved to a room. Mad Dog came to visit later that morning. 

After a morning consultation, they decided I couldn't wait until a possible spot that afternoon, but needed it now. I was sent to the OR and prep with Anesthesia. The Surgeon offered to call Mad Dog once everything was finish, and to let me know how things looked. I remember being wheeled into the OR and being move to the table. 

It would seem that when the Surgeon called Mad Dog, that the words perforated and gangrene were mentioned. My recoveries from both my c-section and the DNC were much faster overall. I couldn't get my head clear of the drugs they gave me and couldn't get myself up and about nearly as fast as with the other 2. I was released Friday and am unable to pick up anything over 10 pounds (sorry Loki-girl). Between the great help of Mad Dog's Mother (I can't say enough good things about her), Brent and my brother Kevin we have managed. 

To add to all this, Friday when I was released we received a call from Daycare that Lex was sporting a wonderful temperature of 104.9. Yes, to add to ever thing else not even 1 hour after being released we had this coming our way. The temp came down with some Mortin, but spiked again in the middle of the night. With Mad Dog's Mom here over night to watch Loki Mad Dog & I took Lex to the ER at St V's at 2AM (just 12 hours after I had left there).

Lex currently doing perfectly fine. Fever gone and making as much trouble as he can for the rest of us. He is confusing my new "boo-boo" with my Baby "boo-boo".  We have made it very clear that there is no baby with this boo-boo.