Most of you who read this know by now that, two days before we were to return home from our trip to visit my mom and family in Texas, Sam started screaming in pain. Following a harrowing night of constant screaming, blood, vomit, no feeding, and an ER visit with bad care, we finally found out, at Cooks Children's Hospital in Fortworth, that he had "intesuseption," a rare problem that means part of the colon telescopes in on itself. Untreated, the condition can lead to death.
Sam was given an IV - this took several tries, as his veins were flattened from dehydration - a sonogram, and a procedure to fix the problem, surgery was avoided and Sam was instantly better. I stayed with him overnight while Josephine - a real trooper - went back to the farm with my mom so they could pack our bags and we could make our flight the next day.
Sam was so brave.
Thank you to all of you who offered support and prayers while this was going on. It was so sudden and fast and all the procedures rushed (not to mention, we didn't have our cell phones!), so I was unable to call people as I would normally do.
Most of all, I have to say a big thank you to my mother. She and I tended Sam through the night together, taking turns holding him while he screamed, playing with Josephine, cleaning up the soiled diapers, floors, clothes. She stayed with him when I couldn't take watching him cry any longer as the nurses stabbed him with needles in his feet, arms, head. She calmed him down when no one else could. She was resilient, strong, amazing.
Sam is good! There is a possibility of recurrence, but at least we know what it is now. He is back to his smiling, babbling, happy self. And we are home after a wonderful trip.
More pictures of the fun parts to come!
The girl across the street of Great-Grandma's house had three little chihuahua-daschund mixes that escaped to our yard, and good thing - Jo fell in love with the little guys, and ran with them for several hours, way past dark! Here she is playing as a dog, hamming with Grandma, and then here's Sam - alert.
Josephine loves dogs. I didn't realize this, because we have a dog, and I figured her obsession with hugging, feeding, and riding him - none of which Billy takes too kindly at all - was just because he is, well, here. But next to the Texas farm is a river, deep as a wading pool, and along with She-Dog came other neighborly dogs, and Josephine was ECSTATIC. I have never seen her as excited as she was swimming and romping with the dogs in the water and sand.
Most of you who read this know by now that, two days before we were to return home from our trip to visit my mom and family in Texas, Sam started screaming in pain. Following a harrowing night of constant screaming, blood, vomit, no feeding, and an ER visit with bad care, we finally found out, at Cooks Children's Hospital in Fortworth, that he had "intesuseption," a rare problem that means part of the colon telescopes in on itself. Untreated, the condition can lead to death.
Sam wore his first pair of overalls, and Jo was in a new blue dress. We were all gussied up for church. I dropped him off in the nursery; she went to her little class. I went to the service alone, no kid, not pregnant, and actually wearing heels.
The other day, Sam watches Jo give me a kiss on my cheek.
