So Much To Say, So Little Energy

As I sit here, tired enough to fall asleep as soon as a lay down, I need to blog as this has been an eventful week, both bad and good.

It started on Sunday when it was very good to see Traci, Courtney and Skyler return home safely from camping with her parents. I was sore from cleaning and doing a lot of stuff around the house (inside and out). They got home about 7:00 in the evening so it was later than expected, but they were home safe and that's really what matters.

Monday night was not fun (less fun for Traci) as Skyler was suffering from Croup. If you click on the link you can get the general information. It's a really horrible sounding cough and breathing. You can't miss it if your kids ever get it. Courtney had it before so we knew what it was when Skyler got it. After some time in the closed-up bathroom with a hot shower running (so she could breath in the steam to help her breath better), she fell asleep about 10:00. She started coughing again a while later and Traci took her outside for fresh air, which was recommended by the on-call doctor if the steam didn't work/last. She fell asleep while Traci was holding her outside. So she laid her down and opened a window in her room for the fresh to keep coming in. This helped and I don't think she woke up again until the morning.

Then came yesterday! About 12:50 in the afternoon I get a call from Orchard Dale where my mom works and it's the kind of call you don't want to get. They tell me that my mom got injured at work, an ambulance is on it's way to take her to the hospital and they think she dislocated her hip. I got the call from her school because they couldn't get a hold of my dad, who it turns out had just gotten on the phone with my grandma at the time. Needless to say I got an adrenaline rush and couldn't concentrate. After getting a hold of my dad right after that call, and after the school got a hold of him too, I headed to the hospital. I arrived there about 2:15 or so and she is still in a lot of pain as she hadn't been seen yet. She was finally seen and they were able to give her some Morphine. Within a half hour or so another dose of Morphine was administered as the first shot hadn't done much. At that point they took her down to x-ray and quickly confirmed that her hip was indeed out of place. They brought her back up and she was still in a lot of pain, granted they had to position her leg for the x-ray. Since the two doses of Morphine had almost no effect still they brought in the good drug: Dilaudid. This knocked her pretty good as she started almost falling asleep a few minutes later and it was only 1/4 the dose of one of the Morphine shots. Anyway, they wound up doing a closed reduction, which just means they put the hip back in the socket without needing surgery. They put her completely out for this. And while she was out, the doctor moved her leg around after he put it back in to see what would force it to pop back out again. So he explained to us the movements he did and at what angles the hip would pop out again. Pretty creepy, but he warned us he would do this before he took her in.

A little background to help clarify the significance of the dislocation. In June 1990, my mom had her right hip replaced and it was expected to last 10 years. Well, it made it 18 years. During a routine physical/hip check up this summer, they discovered the lining in the socket was starting to wear thin, which meant it could crack if something wasn't done relatively soon, and she might not know when it cracked. So they decided they should go in and replace the part that was wearing thin. Therefore, they really only replaced 1/2 the hip this last time, which was just August 19 (10 weeks ago). While she was putting books back on the shelf in her library, the hip went out and she went down. Nobody else was in the library with her so she wound up laying on the floor for about 20 minutes before a first grade class with their teacher came in, unable to get across the room to where her work and cell phone both were, due to the pain. The teacher had the kids wait outside while she called the office and 911.

Long story long, she was able to return home last night. I got to drive her home since my car was the easiest and safest one available for her to get in and out of (due to angle restrictions on the hip). We got her home just after 11:00 last night. By the time I got home it was about 11:15 and after catching up with Traci since I hadn't seen her all day, I finally made it to bed about 12:30. Needing to get up at 4:30 as normal for work this morning, that makes 4 hours of sleep, or what I refer to as a nap. (I know that's a long nap, but it's no where near a full night of sleep.) She was resting at home today and Traci took the girls to see her. Courtney was very worried about her last night. She asked if she was going to die so we had to explain that she just had a boo boo and would be fine. Poor girl.

While I was at the hospital, Traci gave me some much needed good news. Courtney has another audition this Saturday! This will be her first audition for print (i.e. magazine ad). Her previous two auditions were for commercials (i.e. tv). We both think it would be easier for her to start off in print and then go into commercial, but we're not the agent, and if she lands a commercial, great! Needless we're excited for the continued opportunities her agent keeps finding.

Finally, as I mentioned, I get up early for work as I try to get there around 6:30 in the morning. Being on the 7th floor (of a 20-story building) looking southeast, I have gotten to enjoy the sunset for the past several weeks. Today, with all the clouds, it was just too beautiful to not take a picture so I took the picture you see below with my cell phone. It's not great resolution and you can see the reflections in the window, but it's still beautiful. It makes me appreciate the beauty of God that is around us that we may not always appreciate. Lately I've been sure to take a minute every morning to enjoy the view of the sunrise since my cubicle is against a window. I hope you enjoy it.

Ok, now I'm going to relax and spend some time with Traci. (No work tomorrow...woohoo!!) We'll see how long I last considering I've had a 4 hours of sleep in the past 42 hours. zzzzzzzzzzz...