Home Sweet Hospital

Wow. Where to start...
After a wonderful Thanksgiving in Houston with the in-laws, Jer and I woke up bright and early Saturday morning, beginning the 8 hr drive to Arkansas. Not wanting to listen to another 7 hrs of screaming baby, I decided to drug her. I figure hours of endless panic screaming has to be more harmful to her than 1/4 tsp of benedryl. It helped some and we only endured 2 ish hours of screaming, and it was broken up by 30 min naps, so it was much better!

We made it in time to do another Shaklee party at the lovely Banning household (Sam's godfather), had dinner with them (mmmm...deer...) and then crashed at the Weawers' (Sam's godmother).

Sunday we went to mass and headed out. This trip was even easier as I knew when to strategically drug Samantha to get longer naps. We made the trip in good time, hung out at my parents' place for a bit, then headed home. Sam crashed and Jer and I unloaded the car (ie grabbed everything and dumped it in the apartment).

We headed to bed, ready for a good night's sleep...

Skip to 3am when Jer woke up to puke.

Fast forward to 9am, he still hadn't left the bathroom. I had been trying to get ahold of his doc's since 7 and by 10 we finally got some meds that allowed us to get him to the ER.

They must have known we were coming, because they came out with a wheelchair when I drove up (turns out it was the ambulance entrance...ooppss) and after taking one look at him they admitted him.

Loooooooooooooong story short, his hemoglobin was at a 6.9 (average is 12-15) and they gave him 4 units of blood.
Just a little history- this same thing happened 2 years ago (he only needed 2 units then). Our experience at the hospital was a million times better this time than last time. Last time the nurse didn't like sticking people (?!?) and was waiting for a shift change (FIVE HOURS) to get Jer hooked up to fluids and blood. Plus, the doc's didn't listen to Jer when he told them which drugs worked for him and gave him tons of stuff that didn't work before they finally gave him what he originally asked for. This time they said "Ok, sounds good" and hooked him up within minutes.

Anyway, he ended up staying over night.

Tuesday I picked him up. There was a remarkable difference in him physically, even though his hemo was still only a 9. I noticed that his lips were RED!

Wednesday was somewhat normal, but we had Jer's surgery Thursday. Mind you, this had been scheduled for 2 weeks now. It was to fix the source of the bleeding. Unfortunately it wasn't soon enough (which I had been afraid of).

So Thursday I dropped off Jer at the hospital and then Sam at Jennifer's (pictures below) and then headed back while Jer was in surgery. It was suppose to be outpatient, but he ended up staying over night due to pain management and other small issues.

This morning Sam and I headed back to pick Jer up (pictures also below).

I also visited other family while we were there (more on that later).

They should give us frequent flyer discounts or something.

Look how much Audra's grown!

I got to watch them play for a bit before I left

but Sam ignored them

And came after me and the camera

I LOVE this grin. She'll only give it to me!
She is SUCH a ham!

Audra "dude, get your arm down!"

"Seriously..."

"...DOWN" (notice how Sam's oblivious)

They can both roll and would occasionally roll towards each other and get confused.

Audra giving mommy kisses

Sam giving me kisses.

Picking up daddy from the hostpital. He was in the Ped's ward. The nurse got confused when she came in.

dreamy eyed girl

She does this blinky eye thing now...she's so weird!

Boy it's been a long week.