Spring Break beginning

March was a busy month but nothing compared to what the rest of the school year is going to be like. Event after event, Appointment after appointment and then....Graduation!! Something I'm really not ready for but....ready or not here it comes!! Which is why I was so excited for Spring Break, it meant rest before the true chaos. We originally had plans to go to Disney World for 2 or 3 days but due to finances (and the fact my 17 yr old didn't want to go) we decided to cancel Disney for Spring Break and when my daughter is on her senior trip we would take our son for his birthday, just the 3 of us! Little did I know no matter what I thought we were or weren't doing, rest is NOT what I would get!

Spring Break began on Friday, March 25th which also happened to be my husbands 55th birthday. The kids spent the day hanging out with friends and then we all went out for dinner to celebrate Marks day. Everything seemed fine, nothing out of the ordinary. Having coffee and reading the newspaper Saturday morning I noticed my husbands right hand was very swollen like something bit him and he was having a reaction. Of course he tells me no big deal, it's a bug or spider bite and it will be fine tomorrow. Ok, true, he has had a bite do that before. He decided Saturday night if it wasn't better Sunday he would be willing to go to Solantic (walk in clinic). Sunday morning his hand looked as if a glove had been blown up and put over his hand up to his wrist. The Dr. at Solantic told him with just looking at it that it was a staph infection and he could do something but that it would probably not work, or go ahead and go to the ER. Believe it or not Mark wanted to discuss it and get my opinion. Really?! You have to ask?! Uhmmm of course we are going to the ER. Thankfully it was not too long of a wait and we were back in fast track seeing the ER Dr. With out touching it she confirmed it was a staph infection. Lancing, draining, and meds are all typical procedures but as the ER Dr. Collins lanced it she said "oh this is MRSA", she could tell by how it was not draining (Yuck I know) She took a culture of it, put him on an IV antibiotic and with a marker outlined the red inflamed area from his fingers to his forearm. When the IV was done we were released and told to come back to the hospital the next day (Monday) around 7am to have it reevaluated, or right away if it went outside the line she drew.

Monday morning we wake up early to get ready and were sitting reading the paper and having coffee before time to leave and I notice a 1 1/2 inch wide red streak all the way up Marks arm. I decided we needed to leave immediately and for once he didn't disagree. We only waited about 15min in the ER and they took us straight back to a room, by 9am they decided he would need surgery and admitted into the hospital for IV meds for MRSA, they were certain that is what it was but the culture takes 48 hrs to confirm. They go ahead and start prepping him for surgery, the typical stuff, EEG, IV fluids, blood work, x-rays, etc... Then they come in asking all sorts of random questions and hooking him up to leads and a monitor to watch his heart and let us know his heart is affibulating and needs an echo cardiogram, he may be having a heart attack. WHAT?! He asked me to call a few work partners and let them know what is going on. By 10am he is getting ready to have an echo cardiogram and they don't let him go in a wheelchair but they take the whole bed. Oh Lord this can't be good! While I was in the echo waiting room 2 of his co-workers come up and sit with me yet still I am not freaking out. That is sooo not like me! We all go back to the ER room and the Infectious Disease Dr. Myer came in to let us know everything that was going on. He has MRSA, waiting on results to find out the strain but because it moved so fast they are going to start giving IVs of vancomycin, one of, if not THE strongest antibiotic available and crank up the pain meds. While waiting for a room he discusses with co-workers what needs to be done for the next 2 days and asks them to notify clients that he was expecting to meet with this week. Eventually, his Co-workers leave, They move us to a room and we wait, now he must have a MRI on his hand to determine what type of surgery he'll need. He goes for his MRI and I go down to the cafeteria and have a nice hospital hamburger for dinner! (blahh) I remember feeling very disoriented but still not freaking out, did a little talking to God about getting him through this and as I looked around at the few others down in the cafeteria I for some reason worried about their situations and asked God to be with them as well. Then hurried up with my dinner to get back to the room. I waited and waited it seemed like he was gone forever and had I known it was going to take so long I wouldn't have hurried back to the room. Appoximatly 3 hours later Mark is back and another co-worker (Ryan)comes in to check out for himself what is going on. Evidently the other 2 co-workers were certain Mark was on his death bed and let everyone else know it. The Orthopedic Surgeon came in and let us know he didn't have to do the deep surgery but he can no longer wait for the cardiologists clearance for surgery. You can't have surgery if your heart is freaking out, so he asked Ryan and I to leave the room because he had to cut him right here, right now to let out the infection. They pumped him with morphine and out we went. I was really glad someone else was there for me to talk to in the hallway, even though I had just met Ryan a few minutes earlier! It wasn't very long and they let us back in the room. They had him so drugged on morphine he was shaking and scary looking and yet still in a lot of pain. MRSA is EXTREMELY painful, not to mention having just been cut open while awake when typically you would be under anaesthesia for what they did. After a while, Ryan left and I hung out till 11pm but really needed to get home since my kids have never stayed home alone overnight and I was sure they needed some personal reassurance everything would be OK. (To be continued....)

My sons X-Box has been broken for a few days and he was convinced it was broken forever with his favorite game stuck in it. So today I finally took a look at it, wiggled a few wires, checked all the plugs and Waaa Laaa....I am the most awesome Mom in the world! They have no idea what I did or DIDN'T do but have made up their own idea of how it was done! He and his friend have told everyone how amazing I am for fixing the X-Box! I love it when my kids and their friends think I am great!! For the rest of the day they do everything I ask! lol Makes for an inflated head too but that's ok cause I needed a refill anyway!!

The Blog Begins

Everyday is full of random, unusual, exciting and sometimes not so exciting thoughts and events. So rather than let them go by with just a slight chuckle, or tear I wanted to share with the rest of blogland a day in my not so normal life. A day that sometimes consists of laying around the house as if I have nothing else to do, volunteering at my kids PK-12 school, dealing with life changing experiences or running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get things done because I procrastinated till the end!