Baby Ethan in need of prayers....

Ok, our whole extended family has been in a serious state of freaking out/shock right now.

My aunt took Ethan to the doctor to his two month appointment Monday to get his first round of shots.

Typically, day after this babies tend to run a light fever and be slightly lethargic. (Little bodies fighting big bad - toned down - virus strains, it makes sense.)

However, Ethan was pretty much lying there not being very responsive or crying or doing much of anything, so my aunt (go mommy instincts!) freaked out and took him back to the doctor's office. The doctor really didn't like Ethan's breathing, etc, so she had my aunt take him right to the hospital and called ahead so they've be expecting him.

As soon as they get to the hospital (at which time my aunt is crying, etc, because nobody knows what's wrong with her baby) a team of doctor/nurses swoop down on Ethan.

(BTW to catch up on rest of Tueday story, my uncle's caught in LA traffic, so he takes him a long time to get to the hospital.

Either him or my aunt called her parents/my grandparents who call my family. We proceed to generally freak out and be sobbing messes because at this point the doctors think Ethan is in a coma- remember, TWO MONTHS OLD.

My mom and I stay up all night- we get the phone call about Ethan being at the hospital between nine and ten our time- finding her a flight across the country, getting her packed, prayed, cried, settle things here so the four of us 'kids' can hold down the fort until my mom can come back, go to the bank, pray and cry some more, decide we don't have time to go to the 24 hour grocery store, and get her out the door by 5:30 am Weds. Needless to say, sleeping definately wasn't on the list of things happening. I got my sibs off to school and then crashed until after noon.)

When they got Ethan to the hospital his blood sugar level was about 850 (should be around 150, poor sweetie), and it's since gone down to about 80 late last night (Weds), so the doctors were going to kill/cut down the amount of insulin he was getting through IV at that point.

Ethan's got eight IV holding posts (what is the name for these?) which lead (according to my mom) about 50 different wires, tubes, etc back to shunts in both his hands and both his feet. (I didn't have time to ask, but we knew going into this that doctors sometimes can put shunts in babies heads' as their skulls still haven't completely hardened yet, so he may have another one there and/or his arms.)

He was on oxygen since Tuesday, but his respitory readings were looking good, so the doctors took him off that around an hour ago. Ethan's been sedated since they got to the hospital, and I don't know yet when they're going to take him off of that. The doctors did let him off of those drugs a little yesterday (not enough for him to completely wake up, though) and he was moving his arms and legs around, which is apparently really, really good.

It's hard to imagine our little guy with so many tubs and things coming off of him, though, esp looking at the pictures. :(

My uncle texted me this morning that Ethan is "in stable but critical condition," which is not good, but still a LOT better then he was Tuesday PM when they took him in.

The doctors can't agree on whether or not Ethan has diabetes at a really young age (which would be weird, as he was only 6.5 lbs when he was born two months ago, generally only 10 lbs. plus at birth babies run the risk of diabetes this early generally) or not, but something's up with his pancreas one way or the other. He also was having trouble digesting proteins properly, so they have him on medication for that. Hopefully we get a diagnosis soon!

However, my uncle all of his vital organs are still in good shape, which is fantastic because babies/people tend to have their organs shut down with their levels get this far out of wack. (= completely non-medically termed explaination)

Having my mom this far away is a little strange- I had 1500 miles when I was at school, but she's never been this far away from my siblings in their lives which is taking some adjusting to. (Everyone has so far :knock on wood: been well behaved, though. Luckily older younger brother that likes to cause trouble and is SO VERY SEVENTEEN RIGHT NOW YOU JUST WANT TO KNOCK HIM OUT WITH A 2 x 4 UNTIL HIS BIRTHDAY is working prom this weekend, so he should stay in line for that.) Mom comes home on Tuesday now, and since Ethan only seems to be getting better, we shouldn't need to change this.

Thank you again for keeping our little guy in your prayers!

PS: My aunt texted me and Ethan's breathing tube is out and my aunt might get to hold him in an hour!!! :)

Edited with shots of world's sweetest baby, lol.

More family drama

So, my grandfather (who lives out west in a more mountain filled area with the rest of my extended family) was out cleaning/messing around with the pond/water feature in the backyard before the first serious winter cold front was due to hit yesterday.

Somehow- we're not sure on the whole non-pain medication induced story yet- he slipped/fell/? and managed to break both the bones in his right leg in a total of four places AND dislocated something that's not supposed to be yanked out of the socket in his ankle in one fell (ooooh, very, very, VERY bad pun) swoop.

Unfortunately, my grandmother is inside in another part of the house, and he can't get a hold of her.

God knows why, but he decides to snap his ankle back IN to posistion since his foot 'was going the wrong way'. :wince: (My grandfather is typically a sane, level-headed intellegent man. Let's assume the pain made him do it.)

Anyways, neighbor comes out to take out the trash (or something- most details in this story are a little vague yet), sees my grandfather sitting on the flagstone in an unnatural position and comes over to see if anything's wrong.

Nice neighbor lady goes in to get my grandmother/ankle boot her now-ex husband used after he had some kind of surgery a few years ago. Somehow, she and my grandmother manage to get this on his foot (hopefully not doing more damage), and using a shovel- that's right a shovel... somethings in this life are too weird to make up- get him up onto one of those desk chairs with wheels and wheel him around the yard to the driveway/into the car.

Side note- obviously, simply calling 911/etc would not have been a reasonable suggestion at this point. Esp since my grandparent's house is on a hill and the driveway is rather steep. Can you imagine if they had lost control of the chair??? :post-situation freaking:

Both ladies take my grandfather to the hospital, where they do Xrays, etc. Unfortunately, my grandfather is allergic to the normal family of pain medications, so he nearly goes into shock from the pain before the nice nurses and doctors shoot morphine into him. :grrrrrrrrr:

Orthopedic surgeon is already slicing/dicing someone else, so he doesn't go into surgery until the wee hours of the morning.

Latest call from my grandmother is that they're sending him HOME late this afternoon.

My mind boggles because, given the amount screws involved in putting his leg back together, this was definately NOT out patient surgery. (But I don't have a PhD, so what do I know?)

So, anyways, prayers for my grandfather/grandmother.

(Funny side story is when he was in recovery and essentially 'high' on pain medication my grandfather apparently told the nurses just about every joke he's ever heard... which is weird, because he's a nice, fairly funny guy, but the meds made him into one of those crazy uncle's who never stops telling corny jokes, lol!)

Post Thanksgiving and other things...

Well, Thanksgiving in and of itself wasn't bad... Usual good food (which lent itself to equally good leftovers), weirdly warm weather, no work, got to sleep in/dress up, etc.

And, because it was Thanksgiving, Maggie came home! :hugs:

However... One stupid part with un-needed soap opera-type drama. (To skip that- and my slightly stupid story- skip down to where my text turns black again.

My teenage brother stole my cell phone when I left it on the counter for about sixty seconds to take the cranberry sauce from the kitchen to the dining room table. Just swooped in and nailed it without anyone seeing him do it.

I don't notice right away (being wrapped up in the food thing and knowing everyone else who needs a cell phone for any reason in my house already OWNS one and does not need to use mine) and when I finally do, I assume I left it somewhere and simply completely forgot moving it.

N0 such luck.

I pin point it down to this brother (after in-depth investigative reporting of the other suspects), and he, of course, totally denies it.

I am brassed off, but as he has finally gotten both taller then me and gained the ability to throw me across the room, obviously physical confrontation is not the best idea.

So, I get my little sister (shameless, much?) to essentially frisk him while in the guise of giving him a hug.

No such luck, cell phone has already been relocated.

It's late, everyone goes to bed, and I figure since there are no hammer's readily available in the house, my cell phone will be fine until morning.

Anyways, Friday early AM my brother has swim practice. (Silly me for forgetting, huh?)

At this point I think- without proof or confession- he sneaks the phone out of the house, because my mom and other siblings help me search his room in an extensively thorough manner that leaves everything back in its proper place.

Again, Baby Sis hugs Brother One when he comes back in house. No phone on him. (Or he's just got deeper pockets then we thought.)

Before Brother One leaves for alumni meet that afternoon, he is dumb enough to leave his cell phone on the kitchen table.

I snag it. (Would you have done anything different?)

Brother One then proceeds to use MY cell phone to call his- but I have silenced his phone, so this doesn't work.

:smacks forehead:

I mean, COME ON. Can we say DUMB move?

He then leaves for swim meet. Brother One's room is re-searched. Nadda.

So, ok. Phone is either in his swim locker or his car.

Hoping cell phone is stashed in his Camero- which has only so may hiding spaces- I patiently wait for him to go to bed/have time to drop off before I take the keys he left hanging on the front railing and sneak out to the car.

Car is searched.

I find a mostly used box of things I'd could have lived quite happily not knowing my brother had purchased/let alone USED (because I KNOW he was raised more responsible then THAT) in the glove compartment, but my phone is definitely NOT in the car.

Curses.

I go up, go to bed (since it's laaaaaaaaaaaaate by then). Crawl under covers, and- thanks be to God- my phone is mysteriously chilling between the sheets with me.

Needless to say, I gave his phone back to my mom- who knew I had it- and life went back to "normal".

So, yeah.

Thanksgiving, good.

Thanksgiving at my house this year... Not so much.

On the otherhand, no psycho relatives I'm not directly blood related to to deal with. :)

...Got enough of THAT at my aunt's Thanksgiving wedding last year, lol. ;) ;)

Hope everyone else had a less strange Turkey day!

And the entire point of having younger siblings is...

...An excuse to go see movies like this on the midnight showing when they come out. ;)

(Covers up the fact that I simply have a 'thing' for penguins.)