A Long Day & Night

Am I the only one who likes to sleep in on Saturdays? Well, that was my plan yesterday but as usual my plans seldom come to fruition. I woke to the sound of Darren's cell phone ringing at 7:15 a.m. A person (who shall remain nameless) was calling to see if we were interested in buying a lawn mower they had found at a yard sale. Now first off, we most definitely don't need a lawn mower and secondly, who in their right mind is thinking of mowing the lawn at 7:15 in the morning? But regardless, the damage was done, and I was wide awake so there was nothing left to do but get up and get moving. The day never got a whole lot better......

At about 10:30 Darren called from Maysville (where he had gone to pick up some supplies for church) and asked if I wanted to meet him there and go to the Ceasar's Creek Flea Market in Wilmington, Ohio. The boys were all for it so I told him we would be there in about 45 minutes. Again, so much for plans. We got ready and went out to start the Durango and nothing happened. Not even a spit or a sputter. The battery was flat. Now this is usually not a problem since we have three vehicles so there is always a spare to get a jump from but not so this day. Our van is in the shop having its transmission rebuilt and Darren was driving the car so there we were. Lucky for us our neighbor just happened to pull in about that time and saw the hood up. He came over and gave me a jump and we were on our way...about 30 minutes behind schedule...but on our way nonetheless.

We went to the flea market and looked around. We didn't really buy anything except lunch and some ice cream but we enjoyed ourselves anyway. We came home about 7:30 p.m. and I headed for the pool a little while later to do some much needed vacuuming. I came in at 9:30 p.m. and decided to just let my hair dry and save the shower for this morning which is something I never do. I ALWAYS shower immediately after getting out of the pool but oh no, not this time. What was I thinking!?

I had just gotten in bed and laid down at about 11:00 p.m. when the phone rang. It was my mom calling from my sisters in Paducha. She was calling to tell me that my other sister, Alicia (whose husband is training to go to Iraq and has the 2 year old and new baby), had just called to tell them that she was at the ER in Carlisle with Eli (the 2 year old) and that they were transferring him to UK Med Center. My mom was upset that they were so far away and Alicia was all alone. Soooo I immediately jumped up out of bed (having had no shower and head still damp from the pool), threw on some clothes, woke Jarrod up so he could go with me, and headed for Lexington to meet Alicia at the ER at UK. They thought Eli might have appendicitis. Alicia said he just all of a sudden started screaming and holding his side. He wasn't able to walk or stand up straight and was running a fever. The ER in Carlisle felt that it was a probably appendicitis so there was supposed to be a pediatric surgeon waiting when they arrived at UK. Well, he (or she) might have been waiting but not at UK. We spent hours waiting for them to take him for a CT scan which finally occured at about 5:00 a.m. and they finally sent us home at about 6:45 a.m. The kicker is that we still don't know what's going on. They couldn't see the appendix on the CT scan but said that "it didn't appear that there was any inflamation around the appendix." The ER doc said that appendicitis is extremely difficult to diagnose in kids under 5 and that 90 percent of the time they don't catch them until they've ruptured. He said that while his blood count was elevated and he was complaining of abdominal pain that they couldn't be sure that it was appendix so they released him with instructions for Alicia to take him to her pediatrician's after-hours clinic to be checked again today. So we finally made it home (by the sheer grace of God I might add) at 8:00 a.m. this morning. I immediately went to bed and slept until 12:30 this afternoon. I had planned on trying to go to church this morning but it just didn't happen. Darren took Jacob and Noah with him and Jarrod and I were dead to the world. It felt really weird to miss church. The only other time I've missed church in the past 10 years is when I was in the hospital after Noah was born.

As of now Eli is still having bouts of intermittent severe pain where he screams and clutches his side and he still has a fever. Alicia called the after-hours clinic only to be told that they don't see ER follow-up patients and that she would need to take him back to the ER to be checked. So for now she is watching him closely and waiting. Please keep all of them in your prayers.

On a high note though Alicia and Eli got to see Rob for the first time in over a month yesterday. He was finally able to get his web cam working so they were able to have a good video chat. She said Eli was so excited that he was kissing the computer screen. I had to laugh at her because she said she looked awful. She told him that had she known he was going to get it working she would've showered and fixed her hair. I doubt he really cared or even noticed.