Parents Should Have Backups, Like Quarterbacks
 

I'm ready to call in the second string. The wife and I need a bye week.

My 23 year old is in hospital again, for pretty much the same thing as last Christmas. Searing headaches, diminished cognition, and...new this time out...a bit of amnesia.

He went back to the ER Tuesday night/Wednesday early AM for the second time in a little under two weeks. Again, Demerol and Tordal (sp?) didnt touch it. A CAT scan showed an increase in the size of his ventricles, so he was admitted, and now awaits the arrival of a nucleotide-based dye so that a shuntogram can be performed to ascertain the functionality level of his VP shunt. Yes, the same one that he had replaced in December.

All this caps off a month of having the two who still live at home back and forth from ER's for headaches, to follow up doctor appointments for same, and for in and outpatient psychotherapy for the youngest.

Sometimes it seems like there's no light at the end of the tunnel, you know?

Anyway, the wife and I will be spending the upcoming days in the hospital, acting as advocates, monitors and interpretors for my oldest. Wish us luck.

Good luck Elspode, my thoughts are with you and your family.

Hang in there, Elspode.

I admire you and your wife's dedication. You are obviously incredible people.

I wish you luck Patrick, and admire your strength and dedication.

El, energy to you and your family.

You can handle this Patrick all our strength to you bro.

They are going to do the shuntogram today sometime. I cannot recommend consecutive nights sleeping in a hospital chair and then having to go to work (although it is a very nice, reclining hospital chair).

The boy is actually doing quite well right now. I'm not sure if this is good or bad, though. I mean, he's comfortable and pain-free, but if he's not symptomatic when the test is done, then they probably won't find anything, send him home, and then we'll go through all of this again in another week.

When my daughter was in the NICU, there was a sleeping room available for parents. It wasn't much, but it was a least a real bed. Maybe there is something like that available? Would they let you bring in a cot to your son's room? No matter how old your baby is, it's terrible to see them suffer and not be able to help. My thoughts are with you and your family.

There was no sleeping room at CHOP when I was there for a week with my son, just a window seat/bench thing (which was actually more comfortable than the extremely narrow wooden benches in the ER). My sister stayed with us one night and slept on a conference table.

Oh, Els, my thoughts are with you and yours. hang in, hang in. This too shall pass. Peace to you.

Well, they put the dye in his shunt...and it didn't go anywhere. That was bad. The doc decided to wait an hour, and go look at it again. It had then done what it was supposed to do.

Diagnosis? Dunno. Maybe the shunt works, maybe it doesn't. As the kid is not presently symptomatic, he was discharged and is now home. But wait...there's more!

While my wife was sitting with my son, awaiting his discharge, the eldest stepson called from school to say that he had been suspended for five days for fighting...over a candy bar.

That was right before the middle kid called with a migraine requiring an ER trip. I picked him up, took him to the ER, and my wife came down and stayed with him while I went and got my son discharged.

We're all home now...but we're all real nervous.

Elspode,
My heart goes out to you and your family. I'm glad that you are home, it's somehow better to be nervous there I think.
My thoughts are with you.

As for the candy bar, we all deal with stress in different ways.
If others could see the stupid things my wife and I fight about when we are stressed, it would make a candy bar seem like high stakes.

Christ, I gotta check this area for threads more often. :(
Bummer, my friend. You nor the kid need this shit. I guess there's not much we can do to help except send you good vibes, each in their own way.
You know all you have to do is say the word and we will find a way to make things happen if you need it.
Last time you had just started your new job, are you more comfortable with that aspect now. Although your boss was pretty understanding before IIRC.
Play some music, it's good for your head.

Day Two without a serious trauma begins. The suspendee is being extremely contrite, servile and downright solicitous. We have been using him as slave labor, and he has been largely without complaint. Humility and penance are good things, especially for Mrs. Elspode, who has pretty much used up her stress credits at this point.

As we are both organizational officers and have a monthly meeting today, we've had to spend a lot of time prepping for our various responsibilities this weekend, but at least we were here and able to do it instead of holed up in a hospital room.

Eldest son has decided that he feels well enough to have a try at going to work today. Youngest is at his father's house, from which he usually returns sick, so the jury is out on that factor until this evening.

Our goal is a week without a major health crisis. Send good vibes, and thanks for the commisseration...

gosh, Joshua is only TEETHING and i'm shitting myself! i hope all goes well for the future!

As the Gods are my witness, when your child is older, you will look back fondly on the days that you only had to feed, burp, change, bathe, carry and teach them.

Amen, Patrick. Too, too true.

I've been offline for a week due to my computer going wonky, so I just now saw this thread. E, hope the entire household feels better very, very soon.

We've about made it to the end of the day, and so far, so good.

Guess that's all you can do, make it to the end of each day. I sincerely hope each one gets easier. :thumbsup:

I almost wish I were carrying him again...
I say ALMOST though...

And here we go yet again...
 

My eldest is back in the hospital. My wife took him in to the ER at 8:00 last night, again complaining of massive headache. CAT scan shows his ventricles to be enlarged, meaning shunt failure once again. He has been admitted, and is in considerable discomfort. He is largely incoherent as we wait for his surgeon to get things rolling. I'm not very happy about things at present, as his doctor has not yet seen him, and he's been there for 17 hours so far. Further complicating things is the fact that I *cannot* be away from work today or tomorrow, leaving my wife having to tend to him (we don't leave him without a parent when he's in the hospital...his cognition is too poor for him to adequately participate in his own care and decision-making) on about an hour's sleep.

Meanwhile, the suspended kid and the anxiety-plagued kid are at home alone.

Shunt once again replaced, eldest son once again recovering. His mom is on hospital duty until Friday when I get off work, then I'm there for a day or so.

Mrs. Elspode is about to fold. Seriously. She's done nothing but deal with the kids' various illnesses, emotional problems, school problems and everything else unpleasant and offspring-related for the past six weeks. She just went to bed after 24 hours in the hospital with my son, and nearly 40 hours awake on one hour of sleep. I had to drive her home, then pick up the 18-year old and go back to the hospital to get her car. As soon as we got home, the 14 year old made disturbing statements and then puked like a fountain for ten minutes.

Everyone is now asleep except for me.

Just keep swimming...just keep swimming....!

Jesus Effing Christ on a popsicle stick!!! If I could bundle energy up and ship it to you FedEx, man I surely would. Isn't there any way to get a permanent nurse on duty with a cell phone to ask you the important questions??

My kid is a Medicaid case, and besides, no one knows him like we do. I'm sort of anal about all this, but truly, there have been *so* many mistakes made in his care over the years that I am 100% certain that he wouldn't be at all well off without our direct observation and intervention.

Case in point...my wife called me a little while ago to inform me that Steve's neurologist had called this morning to report that the MRI taken on Tuesday, when compared to the one done last year showed distinct enlargement of his ventricles. Well, hell...if we'd actually known that on Tuesday, when the MRI was done, we would have had the procedure done almost a day sooner, and he wouldn't have had to endure the terrible headache and descent into incoherence. I mean, the dye test on Friday was inconclusive, so I think some urgency should have been associated with the MRI result, but by the time we got that info, he'd already gone into complete shunt failure and had the revision done. So bad stuff happens all the time. This is actually minor. I could make you a list, but frankly, it would piss me off when I started thinking about all the medical stuff that gets overlooked or brushed aside.

On the bright side, when you get through this episode, that's it. This is the fix, the final fix, no more trouble. Life will be good again. You'll be making music again. It's in your Cellar contract that you only have to put up with limited bullshit. Smooth sailing now. I'm convincing me and I hope you. :)

Obviously, Bruce is Right!
 

Doc sez Steve can go home tomorrow (well, to my home for a week or so, anyway). Last night in the hospital. Yay!

Finally! Get some proper sleep man.

Would I lie to you, my oldest and dearest friend, if it didn't involve money or sex? :headshake

Ack!! Just checked this area and found the thread. PM me once in a while, eh?

Glad things are working out for you! Sending positive energy to you AND Mrs. Patrick, and hopefully all will be quiet for a while to let you recharge and save up for the next crazy bout.

My love to all of you.

Steve continues to do well, and we're going to make his haircut far less humorous tomorrow night. Unfortunately, this will involve essentially buzzing off all his lush blonde locks so that the stubble on the shaved part has half a chance of catching up. We'll buy him a hat to celebrate.

He will go back to his apartment on Saturday, and back to work a week from today. Man, is he resilient.

Thanks for all the good vibes, everyone. For those who doubt miracles and the power of prayer and energies sent, whatever their source, I can point you to my kid's past 13 years of life. That should pretty much clinch it.

Practice makes perfect, you've got the routine down now. Probably a new ulcer to keep score. :(
But that's all over now, man. Make a right at the second star, then on till morning. Wheeeeee! :grouphug: