finally, an update....

In our last installment of the family saga, Isaac was in the hospital, recovering from surgery necessitated by a rare illness. This week, the soap opera of our lives continues. Last Thurday, Annie got a mosquito bite, which, being a kid, she scratched. It got infected. On Saturday, Eddie put her on antibiotics and lanced it to relieve some of the pressure. On Monday morning, my mom took her to the pediatrician, who told her to take Annie to the hospital. She arrived at the hospital at 11am, expecting quick outpatient surgery. She finally got into the ER at 10:30pm. That might not seem like such a big deal, but she couldn't eat or drink anything for all that time, and if you know Annie even a little bit, you can be sure that she got her drama queen thing working and milked it for all it was worth. The upside of already having one kid in the hospital was that we could wait in Isaac's room and didn't have to sit in the waiting room for 12 hours. It was a very quick procedure. I sent her off to the operating room, ran across to the next building to pick up some McDonald's for Eddie and me, and by the time I brought the food to Isaac's room, the surgeon was roaming the halls to let us know how it had gone. He said that his new slogan should be "Dr. M-- faster than McDonald's." Anyway, he said that he's pretty positive she also had MRSA and that there was no way that Eddie could have gotten all of the pus out because it had gone really deep. She's well on the mend-- she has to take a nasty antibiotic three times a day and she needs to bathe frequently, but she went back to school today with a great story to tell.

Isaac has been getting better, but very, very slowly. He stopped spiking fevers, stopped sweating profusely, and started being able to eat normally. His bloodwork is slowly returning to normal. Yesterday he had another MRI to see if the doctors had gotten all of the pus in his femur with the first surgery, and unfortunately there was a reaccumulation (I think it's because the antibiotics weren't working full-force yet, so this was pus that got there after the first surgery) so he had another surgery last night. Fortunately, the surgeon was able to use the same incisions and the same hole in the bone. Today, Isaac stretched his leg straight for the first time in nine days, which doesn't seem like a big deal, but it made my day. I think the surgeons are hoping that he'll gain a little bit more range of motion in that leg before they send us home, but it should be just a matter of days now. Best case scenario would be tomorrow, but I think it's likely that we'll stick around until Monday.

So what do the next few months look like for us? He'll have physical therapy, but I'm not sure how often. We were able to coordinate with our regular pediatrician to do the follow up visits. We'll have a home health nurse at our house at least once a week. Eddie and I will be giving Isaac IV antibiotics three times a day until Christmas. We're not quite sure how long it will take for him to get mobile again, but we're confident that it will happen.

Our family and our ward and the community have all been great. Our neighbor has been taking the kids to and from school. My visiting teachers are driving Maren to and from the hospital so she doesn't have to spend all of her waking hours crawling on the floor of Isaac's hospital room (she took her first steps there today!). Isaac's preschool teachers totally overwhelmed us with hugs and love when I went in on Friday to pull him out of school. My mom and godmother both extended their trips and Eddie's mom is coming to take her shift next week. My sister-in-law in Alaska sent me a beautiful box of chocolate (how did she know I've been practically dying of my chocolate cravings while in the hospital?). Bryce and Annie's teachers made gift bags for all of our kids. It's been hard on the other kids. Maren has been stuck to me like glue, and Annie has perfected the art of the major guilt trip. Bryce has been hanging in there, but I know it's hard on him too. Pretty soon though, Isaac will come home and life will start to get back to normal. Until then, I won't be around so much, but I really appreciate all of your prayers and well-wishes. But you probably wouldn't want to be hanging around me much anyway-- we seem to be under a black cloud and you might get struck with some lightning intended for me or something.