Day 362

No pictures from today. Spent the day wondering if Jacob was going to be able to come home tonight. Around 5, just as the boys were about to leave to go visit Jacob and Dad for dinner, we found out that he was coming home, but it wouldn't be for a while. Then around 6:30, Dad called to say that the cars window had been smashed in. So Scott and I set off on a rescue mission and made it home around 9.

Day 361

Poor Jacob had surgery again this morning. I went along, since poor Mom is still recovering from her own surgery. It broke her heart not to be able to come and take care of her little boy. :(

Jacob was super brave though!

After the surgery, Jacob and I played bingo with some hospital staff and other kids. We could call in by telephone when we got a bingo. We were the first "winners". :)

The view from Jacobs room was of downtown Portland. Scott and Juli came up for the evening and brought barbecue. I went home with them and Dad spent the night with Jacob.

Day 360

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas was interesting, to say the least. It started out with our usual routine of waking up early and opening stockings. After we were done opening stockings, Jacob said "My back feels weird." Daniel then looked at it, and knew that something was wrong. We then all looked at it, and it was obviously infected. Whee! *insert sarcasm*

Juli soon came over and we opened up presents until lunch time. We then enjoyed Scott's potato soup for lunch and S&J headed over to the Paynes to open up presents with them. Meanwhile, I headed upstairs to take a nap, and Dad went in search of a store that would be open on Christmas Day because of course, we couldn't find the thermometer and we figured we should know whether or not Jacob had a fever.

By the time I had woken up, Dad had arranged to meet Jacob's surgeon at the children's hospital  so the three of us left to head up to Portland. We met with the surgeon and he said that the surgical site needed to get cleaned out and Jacob should come back in the next day for surgery! Poor Jacob. 

We then headed back home, Scott had arrived right before us, and I finished wrapping presents, so that we could finish unwrapping them!

The boys who stayed at home had finished heating up leftovers from our Vietnamese Holiday Party, which made for a lovely dinner. And no clean up!

And then after a movie we went to bed!

Day 354

1. Jacob looking out at the hospital post doctor appointment.

2. Jacob and I enjoying our lunch in the kids wing.

3. What else? 

Today was interesting. 

When we woke up this morning we found out that poor Mom had spent all night throwing up in the hospital. Sounded just horrible. Then all the boys went off to their respective duties and Jacob and I headed up to the hospital for a post-op appointment. Afterwards while eating lunch, I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to go to my dentist appointment that afternoon, since no one would be home with Jacob, so I had to call and cancel. I felt so badly, but with excuses such as I'm still up at a hospital in Portland, and my Mom's recovering from surgery in the hospital and my Dad's with her so there's no one to take care of Jacob as all the boys are at work/school, I felt like I had a good excuse. 

After our lunch, Jacob and I walked out to the car, where, oh horrors, he fell down. I had been walking by him the whole time we were out and about, just as a precaution against this very thing, and then when we were about 5 feet away from the car, I started walking ahead so I could open the door, and he slipped on what must of been a water/oil mixture. It hurt him bad. (nice English there, eh?) So I helped him to the car, and then I went through the rigamarole of finding the number and calling the doctors office to get a hold of the PA to make sure there wasn't anything I was supposed to do. And of course the reception is spotty and the internet was slow. There wasn't anything to do so we headed slowly home.

Now for the past two hours I had been trying to get ahold of Dad/Mom to find out if we could visit them after the doctors appointment, but they weren't answering their phones. So we headed towards the hospital hoping someone would call back. However, Jacob hurt so badly and was feeling so nauseated from the muscle spasms that he wasn't up to it. It was really sad to drive by the hospital and not be able to go in!

Then we had to stop in OC, so we could pick up Jacobs pain meds, and of course our normal pharmacy didn't have it. Then I had to go to another pharmacy, and they had it but it wasn't going to be ready for a while. Well, Jacob was more then ready to be home, so I arranged to Tyler to pick it up on his way home and we headed home. 

Once home, we got Jacob resettled on a mattress with a foam pad on top so he would be super comfortable, and I worked on dinner. I also had to keep trying to get him to drink a little so we could get pain meds down so he would feel better.

Tyler and Scott came home and we had a little dinner, and then Tyler headed up to the hospital to bring Dad a fresh change of clothes. By this time they had decided that Mom needed to spend another night as she was still having a hard time eating. 

Later that evening, once everyone was home, we facetimed Mom and Dad. Everyone was piled on Jacobs mattress so that he could see, when I realized that he was not looking well, at all. So I shooed everyone off, and grabbed a bowl. Well, the second I sat down next to him, he started to ahem, up chuck. I was able to swish the bowl under him and catch it all! And let me tell you, it was a really good thing. Because, drumroll, please. He was lying in front of directly eye level with, the Christmas tree. Yes The Tree. And he would have covered the Christmas tree with throw up. And what do you do with a tree decorated in such a way? So far no one I've asked has ever had to figure that out, and I pray I never do! So yeah, after we realized what had just barely not happened, there were huge sighs of relief and Praising the Lords. Whew.

The never ending day ended finally. Andrew and Daniel both slept in the family room with Jacob (I asked one to volunteer and neither one wanted to miss out) and I watched Toy Story (1&2) with them until 1am or so, when I determined that Jacob wasn't going to throw up the latest round of pain meds. Whew. Well, that's all folks!

(Full disclaimer... I'm actually writing this on 2/12/13.. but believe me, this is what I would have posted if I had felt up to it.)

Day 353

1. A beautiful light snowfall fell this morning and then slowly melted away. I took a walk in it with Tonka when it was still falling. 
2. Our huge pin oak got trimmed! It went from a shaggy beast to a work of art. Don't know why we didn't do this years ago!
What else? Mostly just taking care of Jacob and doing household chores. Mom went into surgery this afternoon for a disc fusion and disc replacement in her neck. She was having a really hard time waking up afterwards and is in a lot of pain, so she's spending the night. Rather a sad evening.  

(Full disclaimer... I'm actually writing this on 2/12/13.. but believe me, this is what I would have posted if I had felt up to it.)

Day 348

1. Huang's US Culture bingo sheet from a class at Intel. Huang is a fellow student of Tyler's at PSU. He's from Vietnam and is here on an Intel scholarship. This was the third weekend we've had him over and it was fun as usual. 

2. What else? Jacob had a post surgery appointment up at the hospital. 

Huang and I cooked a Vietnamese style dinner. Yum!

Day 343

1. Andrew, Daniel and I brought Chinese takeout for dinner to the hospital and then stayed to watch the Dark Knight Rises. Things were up in the air as to whether Jacob was going to come up today, but it was finally decided he needed another night. Tyler hung out in the morning, and Scott hung out in the afternoon but left before we got there. Poor Mom was so exhausted from the past two days that she had to sleep all day (and ended up sleeping most of Sunday too) and couldn't come. Which made her extremely sad. 

Day 342

1. Tonka helping me move the sheep's electric fencing.

2. At the hospital to visit Jacob... we loved how each floor had an animal assigned to it.

3. Jacob and his brave smile. And his menagerie of stuffed animals.

4. Jacob and I hung out while others ran errands/did other stuff. 

5. Jacob was on the squirrel floor.

6. I loved the horse floor!

7. The Brave Bot wall. Jacob got his very own bravery bot.