Mar. 22, 2009 Doing The Wave
Elias, now 3 weeks later, is much sturdier on his feet, and does quite a bit of traveling along the furniture. Last night we captured a new skill on video, Elias doing the wave.
A friend in service asked if Elias was going to be another linebacker... Yes sir! He's rough and tumble just like Asher. Speaking of Crasher Asher - that boy has stepped up his crashing, he is Go Go Go from the moment he wakes - I can't wait til spring so he can RUN OUTSIDE! |
Comments (0)
Post A Comment!
Permanent Link
|
This poor baby gets so "manipulated" by his big brothers.. between the ear pulling and the funny bathtime hair do's.. they're going to have many many photos with which to torture him on his wedding day. |
Comments (1)
Post A Comment!
Permanent Link
|
Mar. 3, 2009 Elias Learns To Stand
Elias has only been sleeping for 180 minute sets.. which means I'm up 4 times a night to nurse him back to sleep. Last night he woke at 11, and I was exasperated before the night even started.. I told Rourke to go help him back to sleep.. they both fell asleep.
That's Janney's bed.. Rourke slept there with Elias until 2 AM.. Thanks Buddy! |
Comments (3)
Post A Comment!
Permanent Link
|
Jan. 21, 2009 Getting Ready For A Wedding
I think I'll keep this picture handy for when Elias gets married
But until then, I'm preparing us to go to another wedding in Tennessee. That means passports for everyone. 3 of us have them already.. 8 -3 = 5. Yes, I have had to arrange for 5 passports. That's five sets of paperwork, a guarantor to sign those 5 sets of paperwork, 5 photographs, and 5 birth certificates found.. add to that 2 trips to the passport office.. no 3, we had to do a retake on a photo... but I'm glad to say it's finally over. They're in the system. I should have those lovely little books in my hands in 2-3 weeks, plenty of time to get us to the wedding.
Oh, and joy of joys, Trent got a second bench seat for the van today, that means my 7 passenger van carrying 8 passengers - will now have 8 seats. Rourke won't have to kneel or sit on his boots anymore. I do think he'll miss that. But the benefit is, he'll have a seat belt again. Elias is just about ready to move to the front facing car seat, so we'll put that in the back, which will make flipping the middle seat down to get the back passengers out easier.
Can't wait for the wedding! |
Comments (2)
Post A Comment!
Permanent Link
|
Jan. 1, 2009 Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig
When we last visited the saga of the Wilson's, Little Elias was suffering from an injured or infected toe.. and the saga continues. After 5 days in hospital with IV antibiotics, his toe is healing, but is not yet fully healed. Let me show you a picture of it today.
We don't know yet if any of the bone is dead, but it seems the skin is regenerating - slowly. We have oral antibiotics for the next 7 days and have to see the pediatrician in a week. From there we'll re-asses and see if any of the bone is dead.. if so, he'll need it amputated. - I suppose that will require more hospital stay.
Staying in hospital is difficult. If you ever have a friend who has to stay in hospital, or stay with a child, be sure to visit - do not let your friend be there alone - it's very hard to survive for long in hospital. If your friend has to stay with a child, give her a break, tend to her child and let her go for a shower, or a meal outside the hospital, or let her take a nap. I fortunately had Stuart and Trent come help me. They would get up at 4:30 am and arrive at the hospital for about 6 am and they'd let me sleep from then to about 9. I wasn't able to sleep much through the nights. Elias sleeps with me, so in hospital I was trying to put him in the crib. He would wake 20 minutes later, just as I was falling asleep - so then I tried to nurse him back to sleep in the cot with me, but once he was asleep, I couldn't move. Parts of my body would fall asleep and it was painful. About 3 am I'd get up from the cot and try to sleep at the end of the cot, but that didn't work either. The chair was too vertical, and the floor was cold - believe me, I tried them all. Add to this the fact that a few parents went home at night, leaving their babies and small children to cry all night. The nurses are just too busy to hold a baby - they do tend to the necessities like feeding and changing diapers and medicines, but they can't sooth a crying baby all night.
This is Elias in his crib, Trent in the cot..
Trent helping me with Elias on Tuesday. See the ceilings - these are painted by past patients. Our friend Mya has a ceiling tile in room 3 from the last time she beat cancer (beat it twice!)
Merrie - one of the team of great nurses who took care of us.
Fortunately the Children's Ward has a Child Life Worker. - Teagan was wonderful. She organizes daily activities for the kids, and organizes volunteers to come help. They give parents some time off - and give the kids toys to play with to pass the time. All this and a playroom too.
Elias achieved some new milestones while in hospital. He got his knees up under himself and lifted himself onto all 4's for a few moments and practiced that for a few days, then he achieved another milestone - sitting.
Here he is with half his body up off the mat.
So we missed the last half of Chanukkah, but I did manage to do the basics.. latkes and sufganyot.
I want to thank you all for supporting us in prayer. Our God is a Mighty God and I know He's all over this situation. I never did break down in hospital (unless you call calling Stuart at 4:30am and telling him to come help me a breakdown - but I wasn't crying and hysterical). I did survive, and all the people I dealt with were great - I never lost my JOY.
And so, we will continue to play "This Little Piggy" with Elias' toes, and he'll dance a jig. |
Comments (11)
Post A Comment!
Permanent Link
|
Dec. 25, 2008 Follow Up to Elias' Toe Story
Tuesday I went to the local hospital and spoke to a very nice nurse who understood how frustrated I was, and took a long time talking to me and trying to help me. She said that they would definitely call on December 25 if there was bacterial infection in the swabs. She also suggested that I use a pen to mark the outline of the red part on his foot to be able to have a way to see if the red was growing or not.
Well, when I got home from talking to her, I marked his foot, but the mark I made was a much larger area than it had been before I had spoken to her. So I decided to take him to show her. We decided that he needed antibiotics and I was ok with that at that point. I went to get the medicine at the pharmacie and came home and tried to give him a dose. He spit the whole thing out. I tried again a few hours later - same thing.I tried calling the Phamacist and a friend for ideas on how to get the meds down - no success. After 4 failed attempts at giving him the antibiotic, I took him and the antibiotic back to the hospital. They tried, failed and so we had to think of another plan. I was prepared to stay overnight with him so he could get IV antibiotics, but there was no RN overnight so I couldn't stay. We tried to put a hep-lock in his hand so we could do iv antibiotics on an out patient basis, but after two failed iv attempts, he moved both times she got it in.. he's just so strong - it was on to plan C.
So now he's on a different antibiotic that he is swallowing, but I have to go back tonight for another assessment.
 |
Comments (22)
Post A Comment!
Permanent Link
|
Dec. 21, 2008 What A Way To Start A Day!
Elias had a rough day yesterday.. had a tough time nursing, and fitful sleep for each nap. I figured it was his ears. While at church I gave him chamomilia and arnica.. I came home from Church, gave him colloidal silver, garlic oil in the ears and hydrogen peroxide in the ears. I sat up-right all night holding him vertical.. and still he struggled with nursing and fitful sleep. FInally in the morning I asked Stuart to take him for a shower to clear his nose.. and when I got him undressed.. and took off his socks and shoes... I thought I saw a fluff of lint on his foot... but it was a BLACK TOE!
Ever hear a mama cry so loud it wakes the kids upstairs!! Stuart suggested we go to the hospital.. I was a mess, I could hardly get dressed. All I could think of was that we were going to have his toe amputated. I started the van, and Stuart called me to show me that the toe was pinking up... still black, but a pinker black.
I called the nurses at the health line, and asked her what to do.,. She suggested going to the local hospital instead of the city - which is where we would have gone. That was somewhat comforting.. she didn't seem to think it was urgent surgery .. the local hospital doesn't do anything other than triage and basic first aid.
The whole way there I prayed.. I prayed about Lazarus, and how he was restored from the dead, about that fellow that fell from the window, about Jairus' daughter. If God can restore them from the dead, surely he can restore my little son's little toe.
Well, the end result is, we don't know how it happened, but somehow it got pinched. It's full of blisters, and the black part is now red/purple. She (the Nurse Practitioner) lanced the toe to let out the pressure from the fluid. The whole metatarsal arch of his foot is swollen, and he has big blisters on the front of his toe, and the very tip is .. well she said it was like a big blood blister.
The only thing I can think of is that somehow his sock pinched his toe, or his shoe.. who knows..
I gave him some arnica while I was there.. and when we got home I put arnica ointment on.. Boy, you can see the difference in minutes after putting the arnica ointment on, swelling significantly decreased. I'll keep doing that.. but I'm so blessed that Adonai has saved my baby's toe.
And now we're off to a Chanukkah party at church.
~~~~~~~~~
we got to the Chanukkah party and immediately left to go to another hospital..oh my.. the toe ballooned again and popped and the skin fell off.. the Dr says it's an infection.. the first two Dr.s didn't know what it was. The final diagnosis - which I don't believe - is that he has an infection that manifest in a way that looks like a scalded foot. The swelling got so bad, it popped, and the skin is completely off his toe. His foot got swollen all the way back to the heal.
He gave me a prescription for an antibiotic that I can't use because he has to have an empty stomach - when does a baby have an empty stomach 4 times a day for 10 days!.. So the Pharamacist was trying to get in touch with the Dr to get a new prescription.. but I couldn't wait for the prescription to be filled, my kids were in Sedley at a Chanukkah party and I had to pick them up ... I missed the whole party!
I'm so tired
~~~~~~~~~
Ever try to get test results? It seems I must be some fraud trying to gain secret information - not a mother wanting proof that my son needs the antibiotics. After asking about 6 people for the results of the two tests done - both were swabs of the fluid that came out of his blisters - neither test will give results for another 48 hours.. excuse me.. let me re-clarify. The ones taking Sunday morning (8:30AM) were not sent to the lab in the city until today, meaning they will be cultured tomorrow morning and then we have to wait 48 hours from tomorrow morning to see if there are bacterial growths,... um.. let me see.. 48 hours from Tuesday morning makes it .. Thursday - OH YA ! Christmas - wonder if my Dr will be willing to search for those test results for me on Christmas morning?!?!?
So the final conversation I had was with the completely rude and arrogant paediatrician who quoted that he had 10 years of education and 40 years of experience, and that he knew more than me.. and that he wasn't going to argue the point, that he's been on call for 72 hours and he's too busy to argue with me.. and ...Yes, there's a strong chance he might not have a bacterial infection, and a small chance he might.. but if he does, and I don't use his medicine, he won't be held accountable. He also said that because I refused the intravenus antibiotics, that these oral antibiotics will probably cause diarrhea ... - then yes - THEN my baby will most definitely BE SICK!!] So I agreed, I didn't want to argue so I hung up. I don't suppose I'll ever get those test results
Oh, and this lovely ARROGANT Dr. even said that the pharmacist knew nothing about the medication.. that he knew more.. (um.. aren't pharmacists the ones who study medicines???)
Elias is not sick, he has no heat at the injury sight, no streaky lines, no crankiness, no crying, no temperature.. the boy is fine.. he has what looks like .. you know when you get a bad blister on the back of your heal, the bubble pops, the dead skin is white and hanging and underneath is flaming red skin.. it's sensitive to the touch, but livable.. well that's what he's got on his whole pinky toe. When I was in Sports Medicine in college, we would put vaseline and a "donut" of Dr. Scholls moleskin so that the friction was removed. So, I'm putting colloidal silver and calendula ointment on it.. and leaving it open to the air to heal. |
Comments (5)
Post A Comment!
Permanent Link
|
|
