One of the hospital staff came by to see how Judah was doing and to give him a new toy, brand new in the package, just for him!  She got it all opened and gave him all the pieces.  Much to my surprise, Judah actually was interested in the toys and he played with them for some minutes.  I never thought I would take such joy in seeing a child play with a toy.

Most of the time Judah is very quite and doesn’t say anything.  So when he does talk, we all stop and lean in to hear what he is trying to express.  Once when several nurses were in here gathered around the bed, Judah spoke very quietly.  We all stopped, leaned in and said, “What did you say?”  He had to repeat it several times.  Finally we understood he was saying, “You’re in my way.”  I guess our little invalid doesn’t like having his t.v. shows blocked from view!

Update:  2:00 pm

I walked with Judah to the operating room and turned him over to the staff there.  They said it will take about an hour and a half to do the whole procedure of putting in the drain and the more-permanent i.v. line.  So now we do more waiting.  It’s amazing how slowly a day can crawl by.

Update:  6:00 pm

Judah is done with surgery.  His drain is actually coming out his back side rather than his front side.  I was able to go be with him in recovery, but that was kind of hard.  He was not happy and every time anyone checked on him he fussed and threw a little fit.  He so much does NOT like the new i.v. in his arm.  But it just has to stay there.

We are now back in the room, and Michael is here to take the next shift.  He brought Laura and Isaac with him for a short visit, and I’ll take them back home with me when I go.

For those of you who like technical details, here is some of the surgery report, as best as I can remember it.  The doctor only found one of the two abscesses that were thought to be there.  The one area that “disappeared” could have a variety of explanations, but most likely it was a misdiagnosis due to the intestinal area being so inflamed and the contrast liquid not being able to penetrate it.  But they did get the drain put into the second area, which was closer to the back, so that’s why the drain comes out the back.  Unfortunately they didn’t get much stuff to drain out, and they’re not sure why.  Might be caused by the fluid being too thick to drain.  If it doesn’t look better by tomorrow, they’ll give Judah a shot of something to help the drainage.  

As you pray for Judah, a specific request would be that he would be more comfortable.  He really doesn’t like having the i.v. in him or a blood-pressure cuff squeezing his arm.  Also, his abdomen is swollen and inflamed and painful.  It hurts him to do much of anything other than lay still.  Fortunately, he is able to sleep, and he dozes off many times during the day.  

Right now Judah is not up for visitors.  Perhaps when he is feeling a bit more perky he will welcome interesting friends and family.  But for now he’s very grumpy and fussy.  

I’m relieved the surgery is over and am looking forward to going home and taking a break from the hospital.  

This morning Judah still seems to be in quite a bit of pain. I keep waiting for him to feel good enough to smile or joke about something, but so far he hasn’t smiled. He just lays quietly in his bed most of the time, not saying anything.

Any time a nurse comes in with a syringe in her hands, Judah starts to fuss and object. I think he’s worried that they are going to pump more stuff into his stomach like they were doing yesterday so they could get the CT scan. I guess that was more bothersome that we realized. Fortunately they don’t have to do that today.

The doctor did decide to go ahead and order a drain put into the abscess. That is scheduled to happen this afternoon. He said they’ll put Judah under general anesthesia. We’re hoping that draining some of the junk out of his insides will help him start to feel better sooner.

Meanwhile, the nurse offered to bring him another shot of morphine. I thought that might be nice. Sure enough, now Judah is laying very quietly watching t.v.

His hair is still wet from his sponge bath, and he’s looking so little in his big bed.

Thank you all for your concern and prayers.

This evening Michael and I traded places. My parents came over to the house and my mother stayed with the children while my father drove me to Peoria. The first thing Judah said when he saw me was that he wanted me to hold him. So I crawled into bed with him and held him for a long time. The poor little guy is still so quiet and subdued. He hasn’t smiled at all, and he hardly talks at all. He dozes off periodically and then wakes up very fitfully.

Michael let Judah watch a movie on his iPod, and that seemed to please him for a while, but soon he was dozing off even with the iPod in his hand.

I’m hoping to have news soon of the CT scan results. That will tell us what’s next for Judah.

Meanwhile, Michael is heading home to rest and take a break from the hospital scene. He’s had a very long day.

Update: 9:00 pm

I just got a report from the nurse who talked to the doctor who is currently in surgery. He says that the report showed a perforated appendix with an abcess. For right now, they will not do anything other than keep Judah on antibiotics. The nurse says that the doctor will probably come by in the morning and talk to us. So I guess that’s all for tonight.

Update: 10:00 pm

Much to my surprise, Dr. Pearl did stop by once he was done with his other surgery. I was so grateful. He gave me a quick rundown on Judah. The appendix is perforated. A small abscess has formed. The abdomen is very inflamed. For now Judah will just be on antibiotics. If that works, he’ll stay here for as many days as it takes to make sure everything is ok. Then, in six weeks he’ll come back to have his appendix removed. If the abscess gets larger, they’ll most likely insert a drain. If none of these things work, surgery will be the next move.

After Dr. Pearl left, Judah fell into a deep enough sleep that he was snoring. That was nice for me to hear. But after a while, he suddenly woke up and seemed to almost be sleep-talking. I tried to soothe him and settle him, and he did finally quiet down, but then he woke up again a few minutes later. I couldn’t help but think that he was in pain and having a hard time dealing with it. So I went out and asked the nurse if there was anything he could have for pain. She checked and said, “Yes! I’ll come give him some morphine.” What a blessing! She came in just as I was getting Judah to the potty. She helped me settle him back into bed, get his tubes all rearranged, and she put the shot of morphine into his i.v. Within five minutes Judah was fast asleep in his bed. What a blessing. The nurse said the morphine will only last a few hours, but hopefully it will help Judah fall into a deep enough sleep to stay there even when the morphine wears off. So that means I need to get to sleep now that things have settled down.

P.S. Bethany’s comment below reminded me of a conversation with the children right before I left for Peoria. I told them I was going to spend the night in Peoria, and Isaac asked if I would bring him a souvenir. I said, “Like what?” He said, “How about whatever it is that they’re going to take out of Judah?” I replied with shock, “His appendix??? You want Judah’s appendix as a souvenir???” Isaac laughed and insisted that was exactly what he wanted.  I haven’t yet had the courage to mention it to Dr. Pearl.

Judah has been sick since Sunday.  Finally, after three long days of thinking he just had the flu and would get better, we decided to take him to the doctor today (Wednesday).  Turns out, he’s a pretty sick little boy.  Our pediatrician thinks it might have something to do with Judah’s appendix, so he sent him over to Peoria (with Michael) to be admitted to the hospital there.  Our local hospitals do not have a pediatric surgeon, so these cases get sent to Peoria, about an hour away.

We are waiting now to hear a report from Michael about what the exact diagnosis is.  I’ll post updates here as I get them.  Thank you for your prayers for our sick little boy.

Update: 1:00 pm.

Michael called from Peoria with an update.  He says that the doctor there is treating Judah as if he has a perforated appendix, giving him antibiotics and fluids.  He ordered a CT scan, and that’s supposed to be done in about an hour.  If the scan indicates the appendix as the guilty party, Judah will have surgery to have it removed.  

We don’t know how long of a stay all of this will entail.  If surgery is needed, I’ll probably go over to be with Michael.  My folks have offered to help by taking me to Peoria and staying with the kids while I’m gone.  (My mother-in-law is rather sick today herself, so that’s why I hesitate to ask her to take care of the children while I’m gone.)  We’ll just take it one step at a time.

Much to my surprise, we still have our baby bird, alive and well. After a few days of not giving him a name, Laura finally asked if she could name him “Frizz”. I thought that would be fine, so Frizz he is.

Isaac, Laura and I share the feeding duties for little Frizz. He gets fed every 15-20 minutes or so throughout the day, and then he goes through the night without eating. By morning he is voracious and ready to eat again very eagerly.

Every evening, as I say goodnight to Frizz, I say to him, “Well, you’ll most likely be dead in the morning. Good night, little bird.”

But Frizz continues to defy the odds, and the children are asking over and over, “Do you think he might live?” I can’t argue with the fact that he’s getting bigger and stronger and more lively all the time, so I answer, “Well, he might.” Still, we must be prepared that the little guy might not live.

I’m curious to know what kind of bird he is. Maybe a Robin? No matter what, we can’t keep him once he’s able to fly away, so that is definitely out of the question. Until then, we’re having a lot of fun being parent birds.

Yesterday I found a baby bird in the front yard. Knowing it was a bad idea to adopt it, I carried it into the house anyway while I tried to decide what to do.

The children helped me look outside for a nest it might have come from, but we were unsuccessful. So I did a little research online to see what folks suggest in caring for baby birds. Turns out, wet dog food works ok, so I soaked some of Mac’s dry kibble and have been feeding the little “pinkie” with tweezers.

I keep warning the children that the odds are against the bird surviving. But since the option of tossing it back outside on it’s little tail didn’t appeal to me, we’ll at least try to keep it alive.

Must to my surprise, the baby bird was still alive and kicking this morning. We can’t help but get our hopes up.

So, Happy Mothers Day!

Thank you, Cousin Shai, for the very cute outfit for Lilly! I especially like the little pants with the tail sticking out so saucily.

As you might remember from a previous post, I’m on a chicken-bone adventure. The first stage of boiling the whole chicken and removing the meat from the bones was complete days ago. I finally purchased the sodium hydroxide (“Draino”) to work on stage two. Yesterday I decided to procrastinate no longer. I found a large glass jar, put all the bones inside, filled it with the drain stuff, and put a plastic bag over the top secured with a metal canning ring.

We were amazed that the chemical started eating away at the bones immediately. The bubbles were fizzing up and looking quite toxic. But what the instructions I’m following failed to mention is that the reaction between the bones and the sodium hydroxide causes quite the foaming froth. Fortunately the smell of the chemicals had already prompted me to move the jar outside to the deck, so when the foam finally pushed through a hole in the baggie and started shooting in a huge arc all over one part of the deck, it was nice to be able to just hose it all down. So glad that wasn’t in the kitchen!!!

So, if you try this experiment at home, take measures to allow for the expansion of the chemicals as they react with the bones.

I left the jar outside all afternoon and all night, and this morning brought it inside to drain. I poured it into a metal strainer and rinsed it all very thoroughly. The bones are amazingly clean. I laid them on a paper towel and now we will wait for them to dry completely before we start the final step of assembly of the skeleton.

This is a fascinating project, but definitely time consuming. I’ll be eager to hear if you decide to try it!

Yesterday I was able to show off my baby to my Aunt Chris. What a treat.

P.S. Yes, Alicia, you’re right! Aunt Chris is my mother’s older sister. She has been a dear auntie to me, but doesn’t often get to visit this neck of the woods, so it was a real treat to get to see her in Peoria when they came to see their granddaughter in a regional gymnastics meet.

Amy, you’re right, too! Amelia wore this same outfit. I saved my favorite things from Amelia’s babyhood, and I’m tickled to get to use them again. You have such a good memory!

Tonight was our annual Arts Alive event for the homeschool families of our church. What a special time it was!

Here are the photos from tonight.

Laura was asked to create the poster for decoration, and she worked very hard on it. I was so pleased with her final result.