Breathe

It's probably going to take several posts to fully update from the last couple of weeks. Here's a short recap, so the next time I'm posting I won't forget any of the fun.

• Another trip to the ER
• Two trips to Bear Lake (about a day and a half total)
• I've been sick
• Will's been sick
• Sam got stung by a wasp
• The ex moved in down the street and is now in my ward.
• More doctor visits and tests for Will

It sure felt like a lot more was going on, but probably because it all happened pretty much at the same time. I'm ready for boring. When does boring happen?

(July 23, 2008) I'm just going to update this post because this all happened so long ago. We decided to go up to Bear Lake for the 4th of July. We got up there Wednesday night, pretty much in time to put the kids to bed. We woke up early the next morning (because Will doesn't sleep as well when he's not in his bed). We had breakfast, watched some kid show, and then I told Mike we should go on a walk. We were getting ready to go, and since I'm so fast I was playing with Will on the bed. He was laughing and crawling away from me. He tripped over his hands or something, and ended up faceplanting into the pillow. Mind you, he was on his hands and knees, so it was about 6 inches. I don't know if it just scared him, or if he strained his neck or what, but I picked him up right away and he started to cry. I could tell he was starting a breath-holding spell, so I started blowing in his face to snap him out of it. [Breath holding is a reflex that about 5% of kids have when scared or in pain. Some kids just do it when they're really upset] He didn't start breathing, and then his eyes started rolling. Mike was right there at this point, so I handed him over (Mind you, we don't know what's going on right now because this has never happened before). Mike thought he might have been choking, so he was sweeping his mouth and hitting his back. Will was going limp and was unresponsive, and we started to panic. Bad. He came to after about a minute, so we put the kids in the car and drove straight to the Bear Lake Clinic. We were trying to leave Bear Lake West and a couple of old people were stopped on the road in their vehicles chatting. In all the years we've been there, this was the ONLY time we've ever seen people block the road. Mike stuck his head out the window and yelled at them to get out of the road. They looked at him kind of funny, and then resumed their conversation. He yelled again that we had to get our baby to the doctor, and then they finally moved. Seemed like an eternity. I know they didn't know, but Mike never yells unless something is really wrong. We sped to the clinic and went straight back to see a doctor (with a lot of stares from people in the waiting room). They said they didn't know what had happened, but one possibility was that his heart stopped, causing him to lose consciousness and stop breathing, and that we should have an EKG. They could call an ambulance for us, but it would drop us off in Evanston or Logan. He recommended going to Primary Children's ER to have them check him out. Mike went back to the cabin to grab a couple of things, but we left pretty much everything there. I threw up in the car as we were leaving the parking lot, and then again about half way down to Salt Lake. I felt awful, but I also felt compelled to look back and check on Will every minute while he was awake, and every few minutes while he was asleep. It took us 2 hours to get to Primary Children's. Mike's dad met us there to take Sam, and we stayed for several hours. After a CT scan, an EKG, and waiting forever, they finally determined that he just passed out from a breath holding spell. That was it. We were scared out of our minds. The most terrifying thing a parent can experience is when something happens to your child and it's out of your control. And it was just breath-holding. Will is turning out to be one expensive child. Holidays are CANCELED.

We went to a follow-up appointment with Will's pediatrician and I mentioned that Will wasn't a very good eater anymore. He sent me up to Primary's (again) to have his blood drawn to make sure he wasn't anemic (and yay! he wasn't!!), and he also told me to take him to a pediatric GI specialist to make sure he doesn't have some kind of stomach issue (like reflux or a blockage). It's common that a stomach problem is the cause of a good eater turning into a bad eater. Since I made the appointment, Will's appetite has actually improved, and he's been putting on a little weight.

We went back to Bear Lake the week after the initial trip to get our stuff. We ended up having a nice mini vacation and hanging out with one of Mike's high school buddies and his family.

We were enjoying a nice, quiet evening on the deck one Sunday just before Sam went to bed. Sam jumped onto one of the deck chairs and was immediately surrounded by a swarm of wasps (or was it hornets? I can never tell). Mike jumped up as fast as he could, grabbed Sam (who was now screaming in pain), and we all ran inside before they came after us. Poor little Sam got stung on his foot. Thank goodness for Web MD. We fixed up his sting (amazingly he only got one), and he went right to bed. There was a wasp nest on the underneath side of the chair, and Sam jumped right on top of it. There was also one behind the chair on the wall. We also had three inside our grill, and two on the front porch. The ants have been bad this year too. I think we need one of those bug barriers. It's been so bad this year, not sure why. One of the nests in the grill is back. We're firing it up tomorrow...wasp roast!