Black Cloud

 Last week, I reported that we had started to see light at the end of the tunnel. In hindsight, it turns out, that while it appears we were at the end of that tunnel, there was another one right behind it. This week has felt like a cruel joke.

Monday, Elsie came home early from school with a stomach ache. While CC's chest pain has been feeling way better, both girls have been battling some stomach issues. After a little TLC, Elsie was feeling a little better and everyone went to school on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday was also my birthday and while I had to work and do all my regular adulting, it was blissfully quiet. 48 hours. We had 48 good hours and then the other shoe fell.

Thursday, just after lunch, I got a call from Elsie's school. They said she had hurt her arm at school and that I needed to come pick her up. When I got to the school, it was clear that she was in a lot of pain. I decided to take her straight to urgent care to rule out a break.

Unfortunately, at urgent care, rather than ruling out a break, they confirmed it. The said they couldn't cast it and we needed to head to the pediatric ER immediately. Because I am apparently living under a black cloud, I realized I didn't have enough gas to get to the hospital and I had to stop with my very distressed daughter and get some gas. I pulled into an overpriced station on the way and handed my card to the attendant, telling him to just put $10 in. He tried my card and it didn't work. He said I would need to go inside and talk to them. I told him I couldn't get my daughter out of the car and could I try a different card or different pump. He told me to scoot back and try the pump behind me. I tried a different card on that pump and it still didn't work. I don't know if it was their pumps or user error, but clearly a card wasn't going to work. Between Elsie and I, we had $4 in cash so I got $4 of gas a prayed it would be enough to get to the hospital.

We finally made it about 3:45 and the epic wait began. You would think when you arrive with an already diagnosed broken arm, that there would be some sense of urgency, but apparently not so much. We finally got in, they got her some pain med, and we did repeat x-rays. They told us that she needed to have surgery, but that couldn't happen until the next day, so they splinted her arm and sent us home. They told us to keep her as comfortable as possible overnight and report to the orthopedist at 9am the next morning. We headed home about 9pm (and got to make yet another stop for gas on the way). Oh, and because they didn't originally know if they would send her for surgery that night, they would not let her eat or drink anything all afternoon/evening.

Our waiting continued at the orthopedist the next morning. We were considered a "walk-in", but they did at least know we were coming and had a tentative plan for us. She had two breaks. One above her elbow that was not displaced, and one below that was displaced. After meeting with the orthopedist and discussing the surgery plan, we were sent to report at the hospital around 10:30.

We were told they had to work us in to the OR schedule, but it would probably be early afternoon and sure enough, about 1:15 they wheeled her off to get started. The first choice was to try and manipulate the bone into place from the outside. That was unsuccessful. The second choice was to insert a wire temporarily to push it back into place. That was successful. Because they were able to get it with "choice B", they didn't have to go with "choice C" or "choice D", which involved putting in temporary pins or a permanent wire or opening her elbow to correct the problem.

The surgery took a little less than 2 hours and then the recovery began. Elsie was in a lot of pain and pretty sad as she woke up. She was also pretty loopy. She kept pointing at the Trolls movie she was watching. When we asked her what she was pointing at she said "why is there two of them?". She was seeing double and it really made her upset. 

Eventually, we got her calmed down and only seeing one of everything and were able to head home and start the road to recovery. We came up from the basement of the hospital, where we had spent the day, and found a double rainbow welcoming us. It has been a brutal few days, on the heals of a brutal year, but I'm hanging on to that rainbow. Maybe the black cloud that has been over us will soon produce a rainbow. Closing in on 48 hours later, we have seen a big reduction in pain.

In the mist of all this drama, Merrick also had a big weekend. He had Homecoming. It was a rainy, windy, yucky day, but they still attempted pictures outside. They then went to a fancy dinner before heading to the dance. They stayed at the dance for about an hour before going to Merrick's date, Inez's house to watch a movie. At least Merrick had some fun this weekend.

Light in the Tunnel

This week has been interesting to say the least. Last Friday, Carrigan's chest started feeling better. It was such a blessing because it had been so long since that was the case. But then the other shoe fell. Friday afternoon her stomach started to hurt. We then endured several days of extreme stomach pain. On Monday, we ended up back at the ER to have her checked for appendicitis since her pain was primarily on her lower right side. The trip to the ER was once again a waste of time and money. They told us that it wasn't appendicitis, but they didn't know what it was.

The next several days were a blur of pain meds, gritting our teeth, and just trying to get through. On top of that, Elsie started reporting pain in her bladder and pain when going to the bathroom. This meant missed school for her and yet other trip to the doctor.

It feels like we have been in the dark tunnel for so long and on Thursday we started to see the light. While Elsie was still home from school, CC started to feel better. She went to school. She went to volleyball. She came home and she didn't fall apart. Instead she said something she hasn't said in forever, she felt good. Since then, it has been more of the same. She has had a few brief periods that her stomach has hurt, but mostly she feels good. Elsie has also started feeling a little better.

Yesterday, CC went to her volleyball game and it was so amazing to see her run around the court. She had energy and seemed like her old self. To say that this a weight off is a huge understatement. It has been so long since we haven't felt like we were in complete survival mode.

As I typed this CC and Elsie were just running around the house. All of the sudden CC just stopped. I could tell by the panicked look on her face that something wasn't feeling well. She said her chest and stomach hurt, and she felt really hot. Looks like we aren't out of the tunnel as we hoped. At least we had a glimmer of light. The light is there and hopefully we can continue to move towards it.

Fall Break-ish

This week was the closest thing we get to a fall break. Elsie and CC had conferences and Friday was a state-wide in-service day. That meant that Elsie had Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off of school. Carrigan had Thursday and Friday off and Merrick had Friday off. While I worked on Wednesday and Thursday day, we still managed to have some fun on Friday.

Friday was a big day for Merrick. He turned 16 a little over a month ago and now is allowed to start dating. He has a girl that he likes and has been hanging out with but hasn't really gone on any official dates with her. Friday, they went to a pumpkin patch together. Not only that, but before they left he asked her to homecoming. Merrick was definitely nervous to ask her. As he got out of the car he said "I think I'm going to throw up". He is definitely his dad's son. From my perspective, she is the perfect girl because her family is moving back to Spain in a month and a half.

As for Carrigan, she had a birthday party on Friday for one of her friends. They went to a trampoline park. Thankfully, she felt up to going. She has unfortunately since developed a really bad stomachache from her pain medicine she has been on, but at least for a day, she got to go be a kid and fun with her friends.

That just left Elsie. She really wanted to go to Dave and Busters. By the time we got CC off to her party, we didn't have long until we had to get Merrick from the pumpkin patch so we decided to hang at the house until he was ready to be picked up and take him with us. Dave and Busters was a fun time as always. Elsie always favors the experience games over the ones that give tickets. That's just fine by me.

It wasn't much of a fall break, but at least a solid day of fun.

Healing

 As I think about this week, I think about all the time and effort that has been put into healing. For Carrigan this week has definitely been a mixed bag. We had missed school, sleepless nights, a missed game and practice and horrible panic attacks. On the other hand, we had PT appointments, exercises, effort, and periods of hope.

This weekend in particular has been a positive one. It didn't start out that way with CC not feeling well enough for her game on Saturday morning, but then a switch flipped mid day. She wanted to choose dinner, she wanted to go the store and help make her dinner idea, she was dancing around and telling jokes. This morning the glimmer continued. She's playing with Elsie, dancing around, being silly. I don't know how long this will last, and it's definitely a lot for the boys in the house who have gotten used to a more subdued CC, but for me it represents hope, something I haven't felt in a while.

I also have been working hard this week on healing my ankle. Sometimes, that also feels like an impossibly long road, but I can already see how far I have come and I know we will get there eventually.

Yesterday, Merrick had a fight of his own. His basketball game yesterday afternoon was not going well. They were down by 15 and, after an injury in the first half, they had no subs. They were exhausted but he (and they) continued to fight. The game ended in a tie. Overtime ended in a tie. They ended up winning the game in sudden death after Merrick got the jump ball to start the sudden death period.

Life has been hard lately, but we continue to fight and not give up. Maybe that is the family theme of the week.

Fall Fun and Falling (Not So Fun)

 Friday the kids had the day off of school. Because our weekends are so busy, I knew we were not likely to have much time for a pumpkin patch this year and this day off might be our only chance. Jeremy decided to take the day off and I used some flextime at work so we could all have a fun day at the patch.

The day started off rough for our CC girl and I didn't think we were going to make it, but she ended up rallying. We headed out, stopped for an early lunch and made it to the patch before noon. It was the perfect day for a pumpkin patch adventure. It was sunny and warm, but not at all hot. The crowds were also small because most kids were in school. It was awesome.

We started the day at the corn maze, but I'm sorry to say that after a long time of wandering, the exit we found was actually the entrance- we failed. We planned to come back and try again at the end of the day, but that wasn't in the cards.

Over the the next serval hours we visited the petting zoo and fed the animals, rode slides, played in the nut house, jumped on the jump pad, did the ropes obstacle course, played miniature golf and played on the inflatable obstacle course.

Unfortunately, that is where things took a turn. Through a series of events that one of my children may have had a direct role in (but I won't fully rat them out), I ended up falling backwards off a climbing tower and re-rolled my ankle. The reaction was immediate and severe. My ankle ballooned to about 3 times it's normal size within seconds and they had to call for a ATV to give me a ride to my car. It was an abrupt end to an otherwise fabulous day.

This is definitely a set back I didn't need and, truth be told, I am having a hard time taking it in stride. I guess the silver lining is I know exactly the PT exercises I need to do and I am making a plan for a very quick recovery.

Oh, one other thing. Elsie had her annual Fun Run at school this week. I was at the office so Jeremy stepped up to go cheer her on. It was a great time, as always.

Another Week Gone By

What to report on this week? As I look through my pictures of the week, I don't see fun things, I see real life. I see pictures from work events, pictures of receipts from bills paid and activities registered for. I don't see much that makes for a fun and exciting blog.

This week was actually really difficult. CC was not feeling well. Lots of tears were shed by her and by me. She has started having panic attacks and that compounds the situation. Tuesday, we were both at our breaking point and we ended up at the ER, just to leave without answers once again. Thankfully, we had a great follow up appointment with the doctor on Wednesday and came away with some solid action steps. We are not over this, not by a long shot, but we started having a few glimmers of hope later in the week.

Adding to this, work has been crazy for both Jeremy and I. He was only able to work from home one day last week and I had multiple evening work activities for the second week in a row. I just have to make it through one more week of September and then work should calm down significantly for me. 

While this week was tough, we ended with some fun yesterday. It was another busy Saturday. We had a volleyball game, a soccer game, and two basketball games. We never have a shortage of things to do.

Next week, Merrick is scheduled to take his driving test for his license, so stay tuned for more on that next week. Fingers crossed for him!

Fall Sports

 As promised last week, I'm here today with an update on the kids' fall sports that are now in full swing.

Merrick- Merrick is playing fall basketball. He tried out for two club teams, and made both teams, but decided to play for a team that our family friend put together. They will be called Willamette Select. They started practicing this week and games start next week. He is pretty excited for the fall season and thinks his team is going to be pretty good. I don't have any game pictures yet, but I do at least have a picture of the jerseys.

Merrick is also assistant coaching Elsie's soccer team, the "Fire Pugs". He is really pulling his weight as the assistant coach this year. Jeremy got caught at work on Thursday and Merrick ran practice all on his own. The girls did not make it easy on him, but he held his own!

Carrigan- Carrigan is doing both dance and volleyball, when she is well enough to participate that is. Dance is Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and volleyball is Tuesday and Thursdays with games on Saturdays. She is very busy and we are working REALLY hard to find out what is going on with her and get her feeling better so she can keep up.

Elsie- Elsie had her first "Fire Pugs" game on Saturday. While it did not go the way we would have wanted, she had a great time. She is loving having her dad and brother as the coaches.

As for Jeremy and I, we are just trying to keep our heads above water. We have both been really busy at work. On top of that, helping CC is becoming a full-time job in and of itself. It's a busy season for sure, but we will get through this. We always do.