Children’s has a medium set up for patients to receive email messages from friends and loved ones. Anything you send will be hand-delivered to Jonathan. Click here if you’d like to send him a message directly. He is a great reader, and loves to get mail of any variety. Thanks, Everyone!
Jonathan’s hospital stay
First, we appreciate everyone’s thoughts, prayers, offers of help, and other expressions of love that have poured in over the past couple days.
Jonathan and I arrived at Children’s Medical Center yesterday afternoon and were treated to the least tortuous, least degrading, easiest admittance process I have ever experienced (and I’ve experienced about 20 of them). Interestingly, the gentleman signing us in was apparently in training for Mr. Universe or something, and his biceps were probably bigger than my thighs. But I digress.
Jonathan was doing very well, particularly given he was running a 103 degree fever. Once we were settled in a room (and a nice room at that, think LDR), we had a nice long consultation with our hospitalist. She was pleasant and competent, traits shared with pretty much everyone at Children’s. She then ordered a battery of tests, and Jonathan made me proud as he kept his composure while they poked, prodded, measured, x-rayed, and bled him through the evening. Along the way he enjoyed a dinner of french toast and bacon, cried after spilling his hot chocolate (and not from the hot liquid all over himself, but because he was enjoying it), took in a view of Pete’s Dragon, and generally did very well. Tricia dropped by late in the evening for a nice visit that coincided with the administration of the antibiotic via the IV installed earlier, and then Jonathan settled in for some sleep. I settled in for “sleep”, as I was on this couch-bed thing that was roughly equal to a balance beam surrounded by some squishy couch material.
The night went reasonably well, though there were some rough patches as Jonathan broke his fever. This morning he had no fever, which was fantastic, but didn’t last. The hospitalist came by again, with the surprising report that the x-ray hadn’t really shown any pneumonia. So next up was a CAT scan and then a rousing game of Battleship, followed by the return of the fever and some lunch.
So we have test results drifting in, but no real resolution yet. The hospital stay has been very pleasant, but we would like to be home. And I suppose that’s a good thing.
What’s Up Around Here
Last night saw very little sleep for most of us as Jonathan relapsed with high fever, and Josiah fought a very nasty tummy bug, which he continues to fight today.
This morning after seeing Jonathan our pediatrician made the decision to hospitalize him, because he did not like the direction the pneumonia was taking. Jonathan is now checked in, and they are running a series of tests to rule out anything worse, in order to determine proper course of treatment. He is under the care of a very competent and compassionate doctor, and we are thankful for the attentive care he will receive, though we miss him terribly at home.
For his part, Jonathan was quite nervous about the prospect of hospitalization, so prayers for his little heart to be calm, and for his little body to heal are all very appreciated.
We are thankful for our sweet Grammy, who has come to be of help. Her presence has cheered us, and the house is a fresher, cleaner, more delightful place to be since her arrival.
I will try to post updates here as we have them.
Passing Notes
This was written in very big letters, and handed to me earlier this morning while I was in the midst of a phone conversation. We have tried to teach our children not to interrupt us unless it is an emergency, but I guess they assumed a written message was a good way to get around that rule:
“Jo has a Stinky!!!”
and then in tiny little letters at the bottom of the note:
“(pe yu)”.
I wear my sunglasses at night
The latest from Nicolas, this one on the long range weather forecast.
Nicolas: Dad, guess what.
Jay: What’s that?
Nicolas: The other week (note: that means “next week” in Nicolas-speak), it’s going to be sunny the whole week. The whole week. Even at night, it’s going to be sunny.
Monday morning haiku
the watermelon
a sweet red juicy delight
meets frugality
Preliminary Recap
We are still alive after one of the more exhausting days we’ve had this summer. I wish we had pictures of the sale to share with you, but as anyone who’s ever held a garage sale knows -this was our first! – everyone stays busy enough to make documenting the event in photos pretty much a nonpossibility. Add four children into the mix who need watching on top of hordes of folks trying to shop all at the same time, and you are busy, busy!!
But we are really thrilled tonight despite what feels like utter exhaustion. The benefit sale was a stunning success, and I do mean stunning, thanks to our many generous donors, lots of enthusiastic shoppers, and more than a few hours logged by the humble workers during the preparation and execution of the sale. Sandra is much, much closer to her goal than she was yesterday. The final tally is not quite in, so I will hold off on posting any totals. But we are grateful for how well the day went, despite an inauspicious and quite rainy beginning!
Our children, in between light saber duels and visiting with the other kids who happened along today, enjoyed a real lesson in commerce, as they operated their own lemonade and cupcake table. They served up treats and sweets in the heat with smiles, and did a great job counting change for their many customers. Young Nicolas definitely won the award for most persistent salesman as he worked the unsuspecting crowd for buyers, but they all three worked quite diligently, and at the end of the day, each contributed some to Aunt Sandra’s goal, and had leftovers for their piggybanks.
So…what a rewarding and fun day! And now, if you will excuse me, I am going to pop myself into my jammies, pour some red wine, and munch on a yummy dinner with my favorite guy (you know, the one in the marshmallow suit!) before falling into what I hope is a deep, deep sleep tonight!
Mumblings
Not much blogging going on this week…we’ve been a little preoccupied with other things…
* After a week of high fever, accompanied by a terrible cough, one of our cherubs has been diagnosed with not only pneumonia, but asthma. This is new territory for us as parents, and while we are not happy to learn about the asthma especially, it answers a lot of health questions we’ve had about this child for years, so in that way it is a helpful diagnosis to finally have.
* Our wood floors are experiencing “cupping” – not surprising after the record rains we’ve seen this year, but the issue may be indicative of other problems as well, so we have some serious investigating to do…and much of that under the house. Jay is so glad he purchased those disposable hazmat suits!!
* I am also spending lots of time this week helping my little sis gear up for a ginormous benefit sale to help her with her Team in Training Goal. We have received such generous things from many, many families and are in the process of sorting, categorizing, and pricing. Lots of fun, in a crazy sort of way…it’s been great to see Sandra almost every day this week as we work on this project together.
Maybe we’ll be back in a few days with pictures and a recap of the sale…
Matthew’s Baptism
Today, much extended family gathered to witness Cousin Matthew’s baptism. What a joy to see this sweet baby boy welcomed into the church. He is a delight and blessing to our entire family, and we are so grateful for him.
After the service, we were treated to a wonderful lunch, and had fun visiting with family and stuffing ourselves with delicious pizza. Baby Matthew was more than happy to pose for the camera…you can see his pictures, along with some other photos we took during the day here.
Welcome, Baby Isaac!
Today Abigail, Jonathan, my brother Peter, and I took a day trip to College Station, and had the joy of meeting our newest family member, two-day-old Isaac Davis. He is just perfect, and so snuggly – I forget how tiny newborn babies are, and what a sweet thing it is to hold them, especially when they are related to you! We were all so thrilled to meet Isaac face to face, and congratulate the proud new parents. Andrew and Jamison received us (and lots of other visiting family members!) with such love and graciousness, despite very little sleep for them in the past few days. Here is a picture of them enjoying their new baby boy:
Thanks to Uncle Peter for the much-appreciated adult company on the trip, and thanks to Jay for keeping our two littlest guys at home today so I could make the trip. Since I couldn’t post every picture we took while we were there visiting, here are several more shots of Isaac and some of his adoring fans.