Children

Okay. First of all the official story about Jimmy's hospital visit. Then the funny stuff.

Last thursday he woke up with a headache, but that was all so we gave him some ibuprofen and sent him to school. When Chris picked him up he said that his throat hurt and he was so tired he laid down in art club and even fell asleep. He had a fever so we snuggled him up on the couch and gave him more ibuprofen. this is around 5:30. So Chris left for his rehearsal and I was just sitting in the family room with the kids watching Arthur, when Jimmy got up to go to the bathroom. Immediately I heard him cough a lot and then start to wail-usually a telltale sign that he's thrown up-so I ran in to help but he said it was just his throat hurt so bad and he couldn't stop coughing (or crying). I went into the kitchen to find some cough medicine and before I could even find any he started choking and the strider started. If you've ever heard a child with croup you will know that sound. It is the worst sound I've ever heard and i will never ever forget or mistake it. If you haven't heard it, it's the sound a child makes when his windpipe has swollen nearly closed and he is trying desperately not to die from suffocation. Their mouths are open like fish out of water and the skin around their nose, mouth and throat sucks in with every almost-breath and they have a look in their eyes of fear and pain and confusion. I ran to find a steroid pill that we have for just these occasions, but it was too late for that so then I grabbed his albuterol inhaler thinking that might get more time to get to the ER, but he couldn't even take a breath of that either.

I called my friend Amy during all of this and kind of yelled/cried that I was taking him to the hospital and could her Dad meet me there to give Jim a blessing and take Zoe, and luckily she made me talk to him (he's an RN) and he heard Jimmy and said to call 911. I realized that he was right-Jimmy was too far gone and I was not in a state to drive him, especially since I didn't exactly know where I was going. So I called 911 and the dispatcher heard Jimmy over the phone and I immediately heard the sirens going. I put him at the front door to try to get the cold air in him (that helps croup) and had Zoe sit with him while I grabbed things I needed and when I got back she was saying a prayer for him-it was very sweet. The ambulance pulled up and they didn't even start working on him in the house, they immediately got him inside and in an oxygen mask. Amy came right after and I gave her Zoe-Zoe was VERY upset that she couldn't come help me, but I'm so grateful that she didn't experience the ambulance ride. It was incredibly traumatic for me, I can't imagine what it would have done to her. Jimmy kept throwing up through the mask and drooling because he couldn't swallow and the blood vessels in his face and eyes were bursting from the effort to get a breath. We were lights and sirens the whole way to the childrens hospital and I was thinking it was a shame that Jimmy wasn't in a state to appreciate that-he would have thought it was really cool. (I guess, if he was able to appreciate it, he wouldn't have needed it. oh well.)

So we got to the hospital and Chris was waiting for us. Jimmy actually responded to Daddy where he hadn't responded to any of us. Chris gave him a hug and Jimmy pulled him closer and booped his nose. it made me cry. They put us in a trauma room and there were never less than 10 people in there trying to figure out what was going on. It was obviously croup-that sound is unmistakable. But croup doesn't come on that fast, from 0-60 in nothing flat. And it certainly doesn't get that bad that fast. Also, he had the burst blood vessels, which they said could be hiding a rash, and he kept falling asleep and not responding-which could have been him exhausted from fighting to breath and relaxed from having oxygen, or something worse. So they brought an x-ray machine to make sure he didn't swallow anything and then decided to save his airway by intubating him. They took him to the OR so they could have everything around them they needed in case of-whatever-and they sedated him and looked around and took samples of everything and eventually decided they didn't need to intubate (thank goodness) but they were going to keep him sedated and in the ICU. He stayed in the ICU until late on Friday when they moved him to a regular room, and let me tell you-everyone was so much nicer and more attentive in the regular room! I was so glad to be there and out of the ICU. The final decision from all their tests was that he had something bacterial going on that he was fighting off, and then he got the croup on top of that, and all of a sudden his little body said that was too much and gave up to both at once. They sent us home on saturday, and he kept up the near constant sleeping until Sunday, and then Monday (except for the cough) you could hardly tell there had ever been anything wrong with him. He lost weight though-and that freaks me out a little. He feels a little too skinny now, and he has nasty bruises in several places from various IVs, but I'll take it. He's been in the hospital for croup before, but never this bad. I've never been so scared and worried.

Anyway, like I said, he's pretty much fine now, so on to the funny stuff.

When I went to tuck her in tonight, Zoe handed me a list of Laws she would like entered into the family constitution. I will reproduce it here for you in as true a manner as I can-including spelling.

Law$
1. no obgecting!
2. writing from 4:00 Am to 9:00 Pm
3. Bed-time 8:00 on week-days, and 8:30 on weekends!
4. no letter enspecting/snooping/spying!
5. 2 deserts after dinner!
6. More books!
7. More snuggling!
8. toy/pen/wand/pointer thing privlages at all times!
9. no Thomas/cars/incredables/meet the robinsens at any times!
10. no exepsions!
plese consiter these laws quickly.

nice doing buisness with you,
Miss. Hill

she actually wrote Zoe Hill at the bottom, but crossed out Zoe and wrote Miss.

I have the video from their Paragon Night (kind of a 'look what we've learned in social studies') and once we figure out how to upload it I'll post it. It's very very cute, and don't worry, I didn't film the 8th graders being appallingly horrifically illiterate.