The Last Few Days of Summer Vacation

We had an eventful last week before school started.

Monday, 8/27

Swim lessons - Elissa's last of the Summer - then we just hung out for the day.

Tuesday, 8/28

Zach's last day of swim lessons while I took Elissa to get her hair cut. She wanted to have it short, so I took her to my hair dresser. It turned out really cute. :-)

  

  

Next I took the kids to meet Elissa's teacher at Eagle Day. Her 3rd grade teacher is Mrs. Severeid.

Then the kids were excited to go to Nana's for the night!

When I dropped off the kids, Zach felt a little warm. He seemed in good spirits, so Nana said she would watch him and see how it went.

Wednesday, 8/29

Nana took the kids to the movies and then shopping for some new school outfits. They had a really fun day together.

Zach was good. He just had a reduced appetite.

Thursday, 8/30

Zach got up and he seemed like he was moving slow. I felt his head and he was hot. He was running a 102 temp. The kids were supposed to go to the dentist that morning and I had to call and cancel. He ended up having a high temp all day. We gave him a luke warm bath before bed to help bring his temp down. I stayed up later so I could continue to check on him and give him another dose of Tylenol before I went to bed.

Friday, 8/31

Zach woke me up at 4am saying that he had thrown up. Poor sweet boy. :( I got him and his bed all cleaned up, gave him some more Tylenol and put him back to bed. Then he came back in at 6am telling us that he couldn't sleep. He got into bed with us and slept till 8am. He was still running a 101-2 temp all day. He threw up again around 9am when I gave him Tylenol. I ran to the store to get him Fresca. He was able to keep down a few sips. Then at 3:30pm he was sleeping and I hadn't taken his temp for a bit, so I did. The first swipe was 104, then 105, then 104, 104, 104. Ok, I'm ready to take him in. Darin was working from home, so I asked him to run him a luke warm bath while I called to talk to the nurse. She was on the edge on whether I should bring him in and I decided I didn't want to go another night with his temp this high.

I took him to convenience care.

The doctor looked at him (he temp was down to 102) and found that his right tonsil was really swollen and had white pockets on it. She showed me and it looked horrible. We both figured strep. They swabbed his throat and it gave back negative. Then she took a blood sample to check for mono. That came back negative. Then she proceeded to tell me, "there could be an infection behind the  tonsil and there could be an abscess. The danger is that it could swell up and block his breathing….so I could give you a broad spectrum antibiotic or you could go to the ER. I recommend going to the ER to get it looked at further." She gave him a dose of medicine to take away his nausea. Then...

I went to the ER.

I walked in and it didn't seem too crowded, so I thought it would go pretty fast. They got me right into triage and I thought that was a good sign. They sent us back out into the waiting room and said they would get us in when a bed opened up. Zachary did so good hanging out and he actually was hungry, so he ate a bag of chips and some pop. I was glad that he was keeping down this food. I told him when we left that I would take him to McDonalds. Well a couple of hours later we were finally called back. But not before a man collapses and all  nurses have to rush to his side and get him stabilized. That was quite a sight for Zach. :)

We got our room and waited for the ER doc. He ordered an X-ray. We waited for the X-ray, took the pictures and waited for the doc to read them and get back to us. The X-ray didn't show enough, so now her ordered a CAT scan. We waited for the CAT scan, took the pictures and waited for the doc for read them and get back to us. He agreed that there was an abscess and that he would need to talk to the on call pediatrician to see what he wanted to do. More waiting. After midnight we got word that we were going to be admitted.

We got moved to the Mary Bridge area of Good Sam.

 

 I sent off an email at 2:30am to the grandparents letting them know what was going on. Then I went and tried to get some sleep next to Zach.

Unfortunately, Zach pulled out his IV as he was sleeping. :( So at 5:30am the nurses tried to put his IV back in. They were unsuccessful twice as they fished around for a vein each time. Poor guy was so, so brave. I almost broke down just watching. They decided to not try again and have the morning nurse do it who was very good. Larry, the morning nurse, did an excellent job. I called Mom at 5:30am to ask her to go to our house and stay with Elissa so Darin could come to the hospital. We figured Zach was going to have surgery later in the morning.

Daddy got the the hospital at 7am and brought his iPad and "friends" (rescue bots). :-)

The ear, nose & throat (ENT) doctor came in and wasn't certain that it was an abscess. He decided NOT to have surgery that day and to instead put Zach on antibiotics and steroids for the day and then re-check him again on Sunday morning. That meant another day in the hospital, but so much better then having surgery.

I went home around 10am to have a shower and get a little bit of sleep. When I got back around 2pm, Darin & Zach were walking the halls and playing in the family lounge. Zach was obviously feeling better. And he was eating and drinking and holding it down. So great!

By 5pm he was exhausted. He zonked out. Grandpa Frink & Grandma Myrna came in a little after and Zach was out of it. He woke a little to say HI, but wasn't very happy about it. We took a pic and he went back to sleep. He didn't wake up again until 7am Sunday morning.

Darin went home around 7pm, Mom took Elissa home with her and I stayed with Zach for the night again.

The ENT came in Sunday morning, looked at Zach's tonsils and said it wasn't an abscess. His tonsils were already looking better. He had a bad case of tonsillitis. He would give us a prescription and we could go home. Woo Hoo!!

We were discharged by 9am.

It didn't take Zach long to get back on the computer to play his lego games (after a shower) when we got home.

We had a quiet rest of the day. Well except Elissa calling me from Grandma's house begging me to let her have a kitten. There was a free one next door at a garage sale. The tears flowed when I said No. She asked if she could call Nana and see if Nana would keep the cat and then she would go visit it a few days a week. :) I said No. Nana already had a cat. She begged Grandma to take it. I really wanted to tell her yes, but we have friends that are allergic and a dog is enough. She even got so desperate that she said we could sell Newman - poor dog! I think she shocked herself when she said that because later she didn't want me to bring that up. LOL!

Monday was our last day of Summer vacation.

We wanted to make it a relaxing beach/pool day. So we got to the pool at 11:45am. They hadn't even got the cover off of the pool yet. We helped them do that.

Zach was at the pool for an hour or so and I found him slumped over the side of the hot tub. He was one tired boy. I asked him if he wanted to go back home and he said Yes. So Darin took him home and I stayed with Elissa and her friend Kendall. Their friend Olivia even showed up for awhile.

We were at the pool A-L-L day.

A 3pm we transferred to the beach.

We played for 2 more hours there. More of our friends showed up. Zach even came back out to play with his friends.

Here is the last bit of sand art the girls made just before we left at 5pm.

It was a very CRAZY last few days of Summer!