The last 3 weeks have been crazy, hectic, scary, fun, and full of gratitude. Let's start back on Saturday, Nov. 21. We woke up early (5 am) for a lovely 12 hour car ride. We threw the kids in the car and headed up north to Cape Hatteras in North Carolina for my brothers wedding. The ride wasn't too bad and we made pretty good time and the kids did a lot better than I thought they would (especially since neither of them took more than a 20 min nap). My brother was getting married the day before Thanksgiving on the beach and my family had rented a huge beach house. Needless to say we had a great time! I was busy baking a wedding cake (white almond sour cream cake with butter cream frosting yum!), a grooms cake (chocolate cake with PB cream cheese frosting and a PB chocolate glaze yum!) and I cooked all the dinners for the week including Thanksgiving dinner. We definitely stayed busy and poor Ryan had to lock himself in a room and study all week for finals and a brief he's working on for his moot court competition, so he popped his head out for meals and every once in a while for a small 5 min break but other than that he was MIA. We had a lot of fun though and it was great to see and be with family and celebrate the last Hansen getting married and top it off with a mouth watering supper delicious Thanksgiving feast.
(Some pics we took at the wedding, we'll post more on the photo blog so stay tuned)
Towards the end of the week I had noticed Caleb's lymph nodes were starting to swell but wasn't to worried about it cause he wasn't running a fever and since he had his tubes put in last March they've always been a little swollen. By Friday night (the night before we left) They were severely swollen and he was running a slight temp. Saturday driving home he could hardly talk, was having problems breathing, and was running a temp of 103. He also slept almost the entire 12 hour car ride home. So we stopped by a drug store and picked up some Tylenol for him and I was planning on taking him to the Pediatrician on Sunday when they opened at 9 but by Sunday morning around 4/5 am of him not being able to breath all night I took him to the ER. We were there for 6 hours sitting in a little room and the doctor saw him once and then before we left they gave us a prescription for some antibiotics which didn't do anything for him.
After a couple days, there was still no improvement. Caleb's lymph nodes the size of a small orange sticking out of his neck, he hadn't eaten anything in days, he was still running 103 temp even with a constant Tylenol, Motrin regiment, and was not able to breath very well or even turn his head. So we headed back to the doctors (this time to his pediatrician) on Tuesday. They gave him an antibiotic shot in his leg and gave me a new prescription for a much stronger dose of oral antibiotics for him to take and said to come back tomorrow so we can check him. The next day (Wednesday, Dec. 2) there was still no change when we took him back to the Peds. The doctor gave him another shot in his leg of antibiotics and sent us to the ENT, who finally looked at him and said Wow he looks bad lets get him better. He took one look in his throat said he had tonsillitis and thought his swollen lymph nodes were hardening into an abscess. He admitted us to the hospital immediately. It was a long day of visiting doctors only to end up at the hospital.
(This is Caleb at the ENTs right before going to the hospital)
By this point all Caleb wanted was to go home. Poor guy had been pinched and prodded and poked by all kinds of doctors and nurses and was not liking doctors any more ... or hospitals. Luckily we have a children's hospital here and they definitely make the kids feel more at ease being there. Before his IVs went in they put numbing cream on his hand so it wouldn't hurt when they poked him with the needle and he got all kinds of presents. His favorite was a supper soft froggy that had an IV in his hand as well (he still carries that frog around everywhere).
We were there from Wednesday afternoon to Friday afternoon and Caleb was on constant antibiotic treatments. His white blood cell count was at 24,000 going into the hospital and when we left it had only dropped to 16,000. But his fever was gone and his lymph nodes were shrinking and he was doing so much better so they let us go home. He's still taking oral antibiotics twice a day for the next 14 days but he's almost completely back to normal now and he's eating again.
Ryan's mom flew out on Thursday Dec 3 to be with Sawyer while I was in the Hospital and she stayed with us for the next week. We are always grateful and excited to have grandma come. She of course sword fought Caleb everyday for hours, washed dishes for me and took us shopping! The kids got new warm winter coats since they had none and new tennis shoes. Ryan got some new jeans (since his all had holes in them and his last pair of new jeans he got 2 years ago for Christmas) and I got new shoes too since the only pair I wear on a daily basis are falling apart and were bought at least 3 if not 4 years ago. So we got spoiled, THANKS MOM!!!!! We were sad to see her leave this past Wednesday, Dec. 9 but we're looking forward to her return and Dad's in May for Ryan's graduation, YAY!
And one more exciting news was we got a new car yesterday! Well new to us. It was Ryan's parent's old car that they shipped out to us for Christmas (they got a new one) so we can fit all 3 kids in it now when Hadley comes in 5 weeks! Ahhhhh, I can't believe I only have 5 weeks left.
(This isn't our car it's just one I found online to post, but that's what it looks like with different wheels)
So again we got spoiled and are so overwhelmed with gratitude for the love and support we've been given and I know if it wasn't for our wonderful and loving family we wouldn't make it through this law school experience we're having here. Thank You, thank you, thank you again mom and dad, and also everyone else that gave of their time to help watch Sawyer while I took Caleb to all those doctors appointments and the first night we were in the hospital, you guys are the best!
