This morning Isaac was able to get up out of his chair without help.  He was still in pain, but at least he could move.  I gave him a medium dose of pain medicine, and that really helped him.  A little later, when I was getting ready to run an errand to the grocery story, he asked if he could go along.  So he had a nice outing and a walk around Aldi.  He’s looked a bit pained now, but has refused more medicine.  I’ll leave that up to him for now.  

Today is our regular pool day, and Isaac really wants to go.  I hope it will work out for this afternoon or evening.  

Update:

We had a wonderful time at the pool.  Isaac enjoyed sitting in the water, and he didn’t try to overdo the activity.  He also was able to get a shower, which was good, since he hasn’t had one since his appendix adventure started.  

Isaac took his money along and bought himself an ice cream treat at the snack bar.  He seemed to thoroughly enjoy that.

The rest of us enjoyed the pool as well. Michael’s sister, Natalie, is visiting from Georgia with some of her children, so they joined us there, along with Michael’s brother, Roy, and two of his daughters.  It was quite the family reunion right there at the State Farm Park.

When we got home from the hospital, Isaac claimed the couch and then fell asleep for a nap.  When he woke up about and hour ago, he was asking for pain medication, so I gave him some Tylenol.  Then I insisted he get up and head to the bathroom.  He was in so much pain he just sobbed.  I noticed that he seemed warm, so I took his temperature, and it read at 102.3 under his arm.  We called the doctor, and they said to give him some Motrin, and if his fever doesn’t come down in half an hour, he is to go back to the hospital.  So, we’ll see what happens.

Update:

Isaac’s fever came down below 100 by the time his half hour was up.  He was also acting much more perky and talkative.  He even had the gumption to go to the Bobwhite house for supper and socializing.  Everyone was glad to see him and had nice things to say to him.  I was grateful that Isaac was civil and responded politely to his loving family.

Now we’re home for the night.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Our family is reunited at home once again.  The whole gang came to the hospital to spring Isaac from his confinement.  It was hard for Isaac to walk away from the wonderful place where he was waited on hand and foot, with his own personal t.v., game system, and no one to pester him.  He liked ordering his meals off the menu.  He poured over the menu at great length this morning, and finally picked up the phone, called food service, and asked very politely for some Rice Crispies.  That was all.  They offered milk to go with it and he accepted that.  Several hours later Isaac was ready for another bit to eat, so he again looked at the menu and then called and asked for some bacon.  Just bacon.  I can’t help but wonder if the folks in the food service area are giggling at the funny kid in 412.

Tonight we’re hoping to go over to Bobwhite to enjoy a meal with most of Michael’s extended family.  All of his siblings will be there, so it’s almost like a reunion.  Isaac says he feels like going, so that will be nice.

Thanks again for your prayers and concern for our family.  Another appendix is taken care of!

A quick update on Isaac’s situation.

I (michael) spent the day with Isaac today. I started out a little disappointed that he hadn’t made much progress from the last time that I saw him, but by the end of the day he had exceeded my expectations.

When I first got there, he had no desire to walk at all, much less up and down the hall twice.  Christie had him walking a little bit, but I thought he needed to do more.  When he got out of bed, I coaxed him into heading the opposite way first, then turning around and heading for his original goal – making his trek almost twice as long.  Well, not only did he do that, but he did it twice – surprising me and even surprising himself a little too I think.

After we got him situated back in his bed, we started to play against each other on the hospital supplied Wii.  I think Isaac was shocked to find out how many movements that he takes for granted involve using his stomach muscles.  He wasn’t to be deterred though and before too long he was creeping forward on his bed so that he could better swing his arm.  Next thing I knew, he was sitting on the edge of his bed, hardly complaining at all about pain in his side.

The doctor came in during our decathlon Wii tournament.  He wasn’t happy with Isaac’s fever the night before, and Isaac’s lack of appetite so far, so he suggested that we stay another night and get checked out in the morning again.  Chances are he’ll send Isaac home then.

After the doctor left, the nurse came in and released Isaac from his I.V. Flush with his new-found freedom, he asked if he could walk down to the nurses station and grab a carton of milk.  I think he enjoyed showing off and loved the fact that he come move a little more freely.

By the time Christie came to switch places with me, Isaac was ready to stay in his bed for a while.  I think I wore him out!

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers.  God has been very good to us, and Isaac seems to be well on the road to recovery.

9:00 pm, Saturday

Just talked to the doctor. Turns out Isaac might have appendicitis. We’re heading to the hospital now.

9:50 pm

Both Michael and I went to the emergency room with Isaac. They quickly examined him, but then told us that the emergency room is full and four people are in line ahead of us, so they would help us as soon as they can. Michael is tired, and I’m happy to stay with Isaac, so I came home to get a few things. I’ll head back soon and Michael will come home to sleep. We’ll update as we can.

10:50 pm

Michael here: The ER doctor came in and confirmed the preliminary diagnosis of appendicitis. They were going to talk to our pediatrician for surgeon recommendations. I’m going to try and sleep – we’ll see how that goes.

6:30 am, Sunday

I was able to sleep last night, slept well in fact. According to the updates from Christie, nothing is going to happen ‘until morning’. They gave Isaac a shot of morphine sometime during the night, and moved him to the pediatrics ward. Oh, they took his blood samples, lost them, and had to take them again – I’m sure that was lots of fun.

Shortly, I’ll be heading to Bromenn (Brokaw for all you old-timers) to allow Christie a break. Fortunately, this episode of appendicitis can be taken care of in town, so trips to the hospital don’t involve an hour-long drive.

10:30 am

Christie here, reporting again. Once Isaac was settled in his room around 2:30 am, I was able to get some sleep. There was a second bed in Isaac’s room, so I was very comfortable. I slept until 7 am and then decided to get up. Of course, I felt like sleeping until noon, but wanted to be aware of anything happening with Isaac.

It is interesting being the companion to an 11-yr-old, as compared to staying with Judah, a 3-yr-old. I’m so accustomed to helping the kid to the potty and helping with every little procedure, it was strange to hear Isaac talking to the nurse and to realize that I could just stay in bed with my eyes closed. Also, Isaac doesn’t fuss at every little thing, or cry when the nurse comes into the room, or throw fits when he’s tired. But he does look just as pitiful laying in bed, in obvious pain, with tears rolling down his cheeks every time his abdomen gets bumped.

Michael sent me a message shortly before 9:30 saying he had just dropped Isaac off for surgery. I’m glad Isaac will finally get some relief.

Surgery update:

Michael just called and told me he talked to Dr. Young, the surgeon. The appendix was ruptured, but it was contained, so they got it all out. Isaac will stay for a day or two, depending on how his recovery goes. He’s on the pediatric ward in room 412.

I’ll hang out here today, and then likely take some kids to see Isaac later this afternoon or evening. I know they’ll be eager to see where he is and how he’s doing. I doubt Isaac wants them to visit, but it won’t be for his sake anyway. No matter how prickly and obstinate Isaac is, his family loves him and worries about him. So he’ll have to tolerate a visit from his siblings.

11:30 am

Michael messaged me that Isaac is back in his room, but that he is in a lot of pain.

Here at home, I’m getting lunch ready for kids. Laura isn’t home from church yet. She is supposed to arrange for a ride home. I’ll be glad to have her back. She’s such a help when she’s here.

After lunch I’m hoping to take a long nap to recover from my short night. I think I’ll have the younger children take naps, too. Amelia is very weepy today, and Judah could use a nap. Maybe Miguel and Luke can stay up and watch a movie during rest time.

1:30 pm

The last brief message I received from Michael was that Isaac was sleeping peacefully. I haven’t heard anything for a couple of hours, so I hope that means that both of them are getting a much-needed nap. Now it’s my turn to sleep. Three of my fussiest munchkins are snoozing, so it’s a good time for me to grab some shut-eye. Thanks for your kind comments! It’s always encouraging to hear from folks in the comment section.

5:00 pm

I had a good nap, and now the children and I are getting ready to go to Walmart to buy a few goodies for Isaac, and then we’ll head to the hospital to terrorize the pediatrics ward.

7:00 pm

Wrangling six children through the flashlight isle, the toy isle and the candy isle at Walmart is most certainly deserving of a medal, or a certificate… or at least an admiring glance. Having a complete stranger tell you that your three-year-old is running around the parking lot is enough to take away that feeling of accomplishment though. (Judah can really move fast when I’m not looking!)

We found some fun treats and treasures to take to Isaac, minding the fact that we don’t want to add clutter to his life and that he doesn’t need piles of candy to aggravate his tummy. We found a cool flashlight, some glow-in-the-dark silly putty (that I hope will get thrown away soon) and we picked out some small packages of Isaac’s favorite candy. When we walked into Isaac’s room, each child presented one of the gifts. Isaac actually said a nice thank-you to each of his siblings. (Being sick always brings out the best in Isaac.)

Laura got permission to stay with Isaac for an hour or so while the rest of us came home. We’ll put some kids to bed and I’ll gather a few things for my overnight at the hospital, and then Michael will take me back and pick Laura up.

Isaac is still in pain, but I think he’s ok as long as he doesn’t move much. The nurse brought him a Wii game system to play with, so he’s really set up nicely. Since his release from the hospital depends on how he’s feeling, I think Isaac will be slow to recover. How could he be in a hurry to escape his own personal t.v., game system and his own private room???

1:00 pm, Monday

Isaac had a good night. He’s still in a lot of pain when he moves, but when he is still, he can sleep without trouble. Today the doctor’s orders were to get Isaac out of bed, so this morning I had him walk a little way down the hall. When Michael took over, he got Isaac out walking a couple of times. Any exercise he gets will really help him during his recovery.

Isaac is also allowed to eat some regular food now. Yesterday was jello and popsicles. Today for breakfast he chose yogurt, granola and fruit, and his Grammy brought him a strawberry smoothie as a treat.

We don’t yet know when Isaac will be coming home. It’s interesting to me that the other children are eager to have Isaac home, even though Isaac is often very hard to live with. Family dynamics are funny things.

Yesterday Isaac woke up feeling nauseous.  Turned out he spent the whole day heaving and miserable and not keeping anything down.  He spent the day on the couch, sleeping a lot, and being very easy to live with.

This morning Isaac was feeling a little better, and he has been able to keep food and drink down.  He hasn’t eaten much, and his energy level is still very low, and his gut hurts from so much “exercise” yesterday.  But he does seem a little better.  I’m getting spoiled having such a mellow Isaac around.  I’ll know he’s feeling better when his siblings start complaining and telling on him.

Michael has been fighting a tickly throat and some congestion for several days, so it wasn’t a great surprise when he woke up this morning feeling quite a bit worse with those symptoms.  He spent a long time in bed, but the noise of his rambunctious children (yes, his children!) finally drove him from bed.  By this evening it seems that Michael is doing ok, and is at least not any worse, so I’m hopeful that tomorrow will be better for him.

This morning I slipped away to the farmer’s market with Miguel and Amelia. We walked all around, and I bought some sweet corn, tomatoes and beets.  The sweet corn was especially for Michael.  The tomatoes were for me, and the beets were for Laura.  When I got home, I cooked 8 ears of the corn, thinking that Michael and Isaac wouldn’t be eating any, but Michael could not resist the lure of fresh, local sweet corn.  It was nice that he perked up at the sight of the corn.

Late this afternoon Michael decided that a little exercise would probably benefit both he and Isaac, so he dragged them both off to Walmart to walk around a bit.  They had a short list from me, so that helped direct their shopping a little.  Isaac finally begged off the exercise and went back to the car to rest, and Michael finished his shopping alone.

While they were gone, Luke and I baked brownies.  This is my second attempt to compare homemade brownies with the Aldi box mix for brownies.  The first time I tried a recipe I found online called “Best Brownies Ever”.  Sounded promising, but in the final taste tests, the “best” brownies lost to the Aldi brownies.  This time I put up an older recipe I’ve had for a while called “Chewy Cocoa Brownies”.  These stood more of a chance, because they were a recipe I got from a friend years ago.  Sure enough, the contest is much closer this time around.  We haven’t yet declared a winner.  Aldi sure makes a good box mix!

Tomorrow only some of us will go to church.  Not sure who quite yet.  Depends on how Michael is feeling in the morning.

Today was a slower day for all of us, but it was nice.  I napped, cooked, and also sorted through a few more piles of things.  I sure am looking forward to getting our stuff all situated!

Based on Bethany’s comment about serving quick oats with milk, I decided to try an experiment this morning. I put some quick oats in a dry cast-iron pan and toasted them over a medium flame. Then I put them in a bowl, poured milk over them, and drizzled them with honey. Wow! It was delicious! It reminded me of granola, somewhat.

The only child I could convince to try this new treat was Judah, and he emphatically agrees with me that it’s delicious. No one else is even tempted. Laura’s only comment when she walked into the kitchen was that it smelled like popcorn. She also wondered if perhaps a person could put dried fruit on their toasted oats. I think that’s a fine idea.

Antique high chairs are nice for lots of reasons.

If nothing else, they help you understand why people invented newer chairs with the thing in the middle to keep kids from sliding out the bottom.

When I was growing up, milk and cereal was a rare treat. Money was tight, and there were more frugal options for meals than the expensive boxed cereals. As a child, I remember gazing at a bowl of cereal and milk and thinking it was a true luxury item.

Once, on a school field trip to the local jail, we were told that the prisoners only got cold cereal for breakfast. It took me a minute to realize that “cold cereal” was actually “milk and cereal”. I was in awe that prisoners got to have such a wonderful breakfast! I thought it would be more fitting if they were served hot oatmeal.

This attitude toward milk and cereal has carried over into my habits as an adult. Cereal is purchased only as a special treat, and milk is not dispensed freely. With a family our size, a box of cereal lasts for only one breakfast, if we’re lucky. So when a friend at church said that her children ate cereal every morning for breakfast, I asked in amazement how she could afford it? She replied that the children only get one bowl of cereal, and if they’re still hungry after that, they eat other things. What a concept! It never occurred to me to limit portion size. I always just stood back in amazement as the children consumed bowl after bowl.

With that plan in mind, I put on my brave face, steeled myself against the frowning price labels, and put a couple of boxes of cereal in the cart next time I was buying groceries.
“One bowl only!”, I told the children the next morning. They scarfed down that bowl and then looked at me with pleading eyes.

“But I’m still hungry”, they said.

“Sorry. Eat something else.”

Amazingly, they survived.

As you might imagine, cereal quickly became a favorite, easy, breakfast option. I think my grinch heart grew two sizes!

I’m a different woman now. Last night in the store, I picked up eight boxes of cereal to stock my bare pantry shelves. When we got home, I told Amelia to pick her four favorites to put out for breakfast. This morning, the kids excitedly got their bowls and made their selections.

And then something happened that has never happened before.

Miguel was sitting on a little step-stool, using the first step as his seat and the second step as his table. I don’t know how it happened, but halfway through his little breakfast, he tipped over backwards, and his bowl of cereal landed squarely on his chest. Milk and cereal was dripping all over his face, neck and bare tummy. His bowl was still sitting on his little chest, and there were puddles of milk and cereal on the floor around him. Faithful Mac was on the job instantly, licking up the milk and munching the cereal bits. I first scooped the precious cereal back into the bowl off of Miguel’s chest, and then wiped off the crying boy with a towel.

My children have made many messes in the past twelve and a half years, and there have been some interesting ones! But this one makes the record book for being the first of its kind here.

Now I’m left with the dilemma of how to get milk out of the cracks between the boards on the kitchen floor. Mac did the best he could with his pink tongue, but he couldn’t quite reach all the way down. Any suggestions?

Today we made less than ten dollars at our sale.  Perhaps it was because it was rainy this morning, and the sun didn’t shine and allow us to set our sale out until after 10 a.m.  Or perhaps it was because one of our signs blew over at some point, directing fewer customers our way.  All in all, it was a good indication to me that I need to be done with the sale.  So now I’ve started giving away the leftovers.  Anything left by 5 pm or so will get packed up and hauled to the mission.  It feels good to be done.