Ben was in the hospital!

Well as if May wasn't busy enough usually let's add in an almost 3 day stay in the hospital for Benjamin. 

Last Tuesday morning (May 14) Benjamin woke up with swollen ankles and feet and a swollen face. He had still been battling symptoms of his virus from the week before including a never ending headache but this was not good. I had Bill take Ben to our local ER while I got Jacob to school. I met Bill at the ER with Ben. Within 10 minutes of me being there, they said that they were going to transfer him to Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus because he had extremely high blood pressure, blood and protein in his urine and they thought they was something going on with his kidneys. 

We drove him to Children's ( an hour away) and within 10 minutes of being the ER, they took him for a CT scan since his blood pressure was so high. Thankfully, the CT scan and the EKG all came back fine. An ultrasound of his abdomen revealed that both of his kidneys were enlarged and that he had a pocket of fluid in his abdomen. 

They admitted him in order to try to get his blood pressure downs and to run more tests on his kidneys. 

Long story short Ben was diagnosed with:

Basically a virus he had (probably close to 1-2 months ago) decided to stick around and land in his kidneys. This made his kidneys release too much blood into his urine and meant not enough protein in his blood. This caused his blood pressure to rise (which was causing the headaches) and then the swelling. They said this is a very rare reaction to a virus and that in the future the likelihood of this occurring again is rare.

I will say this about the hospital. They do everything in their power to make it not too scary for kids. They have on demand movies (Ben watched "Smallfoot" 2 times, "Cars 3" 2 times and "Inside Out" 3 times), a wall behind the beds that the kids get to pick the color of...

art carts that come around 1-2 times a day for the kids to choose an activity...

and an ipad in each room that is programmed with age appropriate games for the patient in that room. 

Not that Ben cared, but they also have some great views out of the 11th floor! Pretty views of Columbus and the skylines.

Nationwide Children's is a top notch hospital in all aspects. 

Ben was released late Thursday afternoon from the hospital. We were sent home with a blood pressure machine, 2 different meds, and orders of a low sodium diet for Ben. We are still struggling to keep Ben's blood pressures down. This morning they were 140/98. That is very high for a 7 year old. The doctor already upped one of the meds on Monday to a higher dosage as it wasn't working like they want. I am currently waiting to hear back from the nephrologist about what they want to do. All I know is that this is very scary for me and I HATE that I can't make him better. 

Fifth Disease, sinus crud and a bomb threat

This has been the LONGEST week.

Started last Friday. Early in the morning, Ben woke up because he had thrown up in bed. He also started complaining of a headache and a belly ache. Ok back to bed for you and no school. He was sick all weekend again complaining of a headache and a bellyache. Do you know how much it hurts a mom's heart when their baby is crying and nothing seems to help. Tylenol and Ibuprofen weren't helping. The crazy thing was that there was no fever and there were moments he wanted to eat and he had no problems. Monday he was still not feeling well. So off to the doctor. Well, we stumped the doctor. He said that what Ben had was probably a viral infection of some kind and it would need to run it's course. They gave him some anti-nausea meds and said he could go back to school since he didn't have a fever. 

Well Tuesday morning, I was getting all the kids ready to leave and just as we were getting ready to leave, my babysitting kids said "Ben is throwing up." Sure enough, so I got him changed and left him with Bill and took the rest to school. Later that day, he started getting a rash on his face that looked like he had been slapped. I did some googling and it seems like our Ben has fifth disease, which is a viral infection. Ugh. Thankfully, he was feeling better Wednesday and I sent him to school.

However, Wednesday morning Rebecca woke up with a runny nose, a feeling of blah AND a fever. So home for her. I think she is dealing with sinus crud, maybe brought on by the extremely high level of pollen here. She had been outside the night before doing a service project weeding and mulching for her AHG troop. Bill also started dealing with sinus crud that same day. Thankfully, Rebecca's fever lasted less than 24 hours and she was able to go back to school yesterday. Bill is dealing. 

Then if that wasn't enough, this morning Rebecca's middle school was evacuated due to a bomb threat written on one of the bathroom stalls. REALLY???!!!! What is this world coming to? Thankfully, police and fire cleared the scene and didn't find anything. Rebecca is off doing a service project for her school today. I am wondering if it was a prank by someone not wanting to take part in service day. Today her middle school has their first annual service day. Where they are literally going to dozens of sites around the city to perform acts of service like weeding flower beds, picking up trash at parks, cleaning up flower beds at local elementary schools, baking cookies for fire dept., painting fingernails and playing bingo with members of a nursing home, etc. I think it is a really good idea. Thankfully, the bomb threat did not disrupt this and they were able to continue as planned. 

I have been off all week. I am just done. I don't know what it is. All the stress from the last year, that there seems to ALWAYS be something wrong, etc. I will say that my hubby surprised me with a bouquet of sunflowers this morning that gave me a smile. 

Hope everyone has a good weekend.  

More updates--- Charlotte's Web, Easter, etc.

Happy Thursday! Yesterday, I said that I would continue the update to get my caught up to the present so here is the continuation....

I somehow hurt my shoulder which ended up with my at Urgent Care and getting a sling. The doc thinks there may have been a small tear but wanted me to take pain medicine, a muscle relaxer and a steroid first to see if that would help. Also gave me a lovely sling. I couldn't let that sling stop me though...

We had parks to explore....

and a play to attend. Rebecca tried out and got a role in a local community theater troupe's play of "Charlotte's Web." She had a small role as a fairgoer but had a blast with everything. I think the acting bug has bitten her hard. 

We celebrated Easter by coloring Easter eggs....

and waking up early on Easter to find that sneaky bunny had hid their baskets in the closet of doom upstairs. It took the kids 10 minutes to find them this year. But they were all thrilled with their goodies. 

We went to Sunday Mass on Easter. We got there 25 minutes early in order to get a seat as all the "Christmas and Easter" Catholics would come out of the woodwork to attend. 

We had an Easter cookout and egg hunt at my parents' house. It was a little too chilly to eat outside, but a fun day none-the-less. 

And this past weekend, Rebecca attended her final 6th grade dance and her dad chaperoned part of it! LOL 

Those were definitely the highlights of the month so far. We have had some lowlights as well... we found out we are being audited by the IRS (definitely a headache); I was physically getting sick by watching 2 of the kids that I babysat because of the stress they caused. I gave their mom my notice but said I could watch them until the end of the school year. Well she, thankfully, found someone who was willing to take all 3 of her kids for the summer and started with them this week so to keep that spot. I am perfectly okay with it as my stress level is doing much better. So in a way that was a lowlight in that I am losing that income, but it is a highlight because maybe that means I won't be as stressed. 

So here we are at May. Life is already filling up with to dos for the end of the school year and summer plans. We have already had 2 end of the year concerts that I will blog about maybe tomorrow, with more things on the horizon. 

Hope everyone is having a great Thursday! 

A month and a half later....

I am still here. Busy, but here. I pop on here at least once a day to read other's updates but I haven't really had time to sit and make a posting of my own. I would like to get back into blogging at least a couple times a week, but we shall have to see how that goes. ( And I keep getting asked by my husband when am I going to update my blog? So Bill, here you go! LOL) Also thank you to a couple readers who emailed me to make sure life was okay. I truly do appreciate it! :)  

Let's see what has been going on.... Last time I wrote my sister had been diagnosed with adrenal gland failure and after spending over a week in the ICU was home. She is continuing to improve and in fact looks and says she feels better than she has in over a year.

She is back to grad school and although still is trying to figure out the best meds and diet, is doing 1000 times better than in March. We are so very thankful! 

What else went on in March....

Rebecca had her spring choir concert in which she had a small solo! She has really grown to love choir and acting.

We celebrated my mom's birthday in March as well with dinner at my parent's house. The kids loved playing with their cousins. (Yes my parents still have temporary custody of my niece and nephew....)

What else went on? Well, we enjoyed some sunny days outside...

Rebecca "Marie Kondoed" her room....

Rebecca took to drawing anime styled characters outside...

We took a long hike at the Brown Family Environmental Center...

We celebrated Ben's 7th birthday with presents, McDonalds for dinner and time to play on a new playground in our town. 

Jacob made dinner for he and Ben one night while I was not feeling well....

We had Ben's birthday party with family, including  a wrestling themed cake...

And somehow I injured my shoulder that weekend, resulting in wearing a sling for a week and a half and being on meds for the pain. Still have no idea what I did. It still hurts a little bit if I overuse my arm, but is about 90% better. 

Well, this post is getting a little long so I will stop the update here for now. There has been more which I will write about again next time, including Easter, Rebecca was in a play, and I stopped babysitting 2 of the kids I used to watch, the IRS hates us, along with other fun stuff. I hope everyone out there in blogland is doing well and hope everyone has a wonderful first day of May!