Independence Day

Our holiday was quite busy. It was a mixture of good and bad. We started off by participating in our subdivision parade. It was fun, but I hadn't really intended on being in it - only taking the kids up the street to watch. But the neighbors were going to be in it, and their little boy had one of those little cars, and Nicole rode with him. So it wound up not being that bad just pulling Jake in the wagon. At the end of the parade route, we get to an empty lot, and the firetruck that led the parade hooked up to a hydrant and gave the kids a massive sprinkler to play in.

Unfortunately, it was just too hot to hang out, and certainly too hot to haul both kids all the way back up the hill. So I called Rob to come rescue us.

Both kids were pretty worn out just from being in the sun, so we got home, got Nicole some lunch, and then when both kids were napping, we resumed clean-up. That's where things started to go badly. Rob had another seizure while we were cleaning up the kitchen. I was there, and managed to keep him from getting hurt. Jake was up by this time, and I think he could sense that I wasn't quite right, because he just started screaming for no reason (like I needed that on top of an unconscious husband). Anyway, I eventually managed to get Rob on the floor and then started working on Jake. Luckily Jake was calmed down by the time Rob woke up (it usually takes about 30 minutes).

He didn't want to go to the hospital, and he didn't want to cancel the party. So he just rested up until the time the guests were due. I asked my dad to do the cooking, and I asked our friends to be in charge of the fireworks. Rob was extremely wiped out, and wound up being pretty nauseous before the night was over, but the party went on without him, just as he instructed. The kids swam, and played in the back yard; everyone ate until they were stuffed, and then we all ate home-made ice cream (courtesy of my grandma) while we watched the pyrotechnics show.


I called in to work today, so I could stay home with him. We haven't heard back from the doctor as to what we should be doing about the medication. So until we've changed something, he's just as likely as yesterday to have another seizure.

This is so draining...

Where did February go?

Holy crap! Where the heck did February go? I meant to continue my story, apparently several weeks ago. But alas, it's somehow March.

Anyway, this is the last backstory post. Hopefully anything I decide to blab about in the future will actually be about current goings on. Not that anyone cares really, but who knows.

So it's Friday night (December 8th). Jake is 3 weeks old, Rob finished out the week at work, and the next day we were scheduled to host a party welcoming the new baby. My mother-in-law wanted a shower, but there we had an issue with the whole gift solicitation thing for baby #2. So we talked her into just a plain ol' party. Well, the party wasn't to be. In the middle of the night (around 1am), Rob started making some odd noise and convulsing. It woke me up immediately. I tried to talk to him (yell at him was more like it) and hold on to him , but I wasn't strong enough. He was thrashing around so hard that he fell completely out of bed. It took him a few minutes, but the convulsing eventually stopped. His eyes were open, and he was attempting to move around, but he was clearly out of it. He looked like a deer in the headlights. He had no idea where he was or who he was or even how to talk. He truly looked scared to death.

Once again I called 911 and some of the same guys that had visited our kitchen came again. It had been 5 weeks, but they still remembered him. Only this time, I was able to tell them that I thought he'd had a seizure. He eventually came to, but he was seriously confused for at least a half hour. They asked him his name, and after giving it some thought, he told them. They asked him his age. Again he responded with his name. They got him up into a sitting position, and it didn't take long for them to spot that something was very wrong with his right shoulder. At any rate, they packed him up and took him to the hospital.

After they were gone, I fed Jake, woke up Nicole, and took everyone to the hospital. It was a very long night. His shoulder was dislocated, for starters. But his arm was also broken. They put his shoulder back in the ER, and did another CT scan and some other tests. Once those were back, given that this was now the third incident, he was admitted to the hospital for observations for four days. I had left voice mail for Rob's mom once I was at the hospital. I figured she probably was sleeping and didn't hear the phone. But she had thought she heard her cell phone, and came as soon as she got the message. She took Nicole home and put her back to bed around 5am and stayed there until I got home with Jake.

After sleeping for about an hour, I got up, and proceeded to call everyone on our guest list and cancel the party. Then I called my mom. I asked her to keep the kids for a couple of days, since they weren't allowed in the unit Rob was in. So I packed up the kids and drove them out to my mom's house. Most of the next few days was spent at the hospital. Mom had the kids Saturday and Sunday. Rather than spend the night in an empty house for the second night in a row, I went out to my parents house and spent the night there with the kids. Nicole went back to day care on Monday, and my MIL came to watch both kids in the afternoon/evening so I could go back to the hospital.

The next several weeks were draining. Rob had surgery to repair the break at the top of his arm, and I spent every day running Nicole to and from day care so that I could concentrate on the baby and Rob. None of the tests that were done in the hospital revealed anything abnormal. So the doctors are just saying he has a late onset of epilepsy, and a regimen of anti-convulsives were prescribed.

Things eventually got easier over the next two months. There were lots of doctor visits (I still had OB follow-ups, and the baby still had check-ups), physical therapy, and just lots of driving around in general. Rob ended his medical leave around the first of February and started working from home. I returned to work on February 12th.

And now it's March. Where did all of that time go?