Stress, Surgery, and Haircuts

The new year came out in a rush of things that I knew that we had to do, but that didn't make the last couple of weeks any less hectic.

And stressful. There was definitely heaps of stress mostly caused by one particular doctor's appointment for one of our younger kids.

I'm not saying which kid it is, because gastro issues aren't fun, but I will tell you what happened since we have quite a few kids and quite a few of the kids are still little.

I took one of our littles to an appointment at the Children's Hospital for an issue we've been dealing with since summer. This particular little kid has already had to go through three colonoscopy prep clean outs and I thought they were doing better. Definitely better than when we first got a referral to gastro.

The doctor thought otherwise.

The little progress that had been made over the last six months since the process had started, and three months since we'd last seen them, wasn't enough. Even with two daily meds that we faithfully give this child every, single, day.

We'd even gone along with the GI suggestions that are common with these types of issues to take this particular child to a therapist, to make sure the issue wasn't psychological, and had returned after a couple months of visits with a message from the therapist that they needed to figure out what was going on because he believed that it was 100% physical.

They ordered a three day colonoscopy prep clean out for the kid and I gasped.

To be clear, they'd just said to prepare a colonoscopy clean out every day for three afternoons and give it to this particular child. If it didn't work (as in have colonoscopy worthy results) by the third day, we were to call them, and prepare for a forth day.

We could stop at any time if the results looked good.

But she said to expect more than one day.

At the time, I thought three sounded so long.

A week and a half later I'm glad I didn't know what was ahead of us.

Three days passed. Little progress was made. I talked to the doctor on call because it was the weekend. He said to repeat the clean out for two more days and to call after the fifth day.

I sighed and we did it. Five days sounded impossible, but we were already three days in.

Days four and five weren't too bad. The kid was a good sport about it, faithfully drinking their sippy cups and on those days they didn't seem to mind it as much. But the drinks weren't successful in doing much either.

On day five I called back and gave them the news that we still weren't seeing anything like the results they wanted.

I carefully went over exactly what I'd done, and how exactly I'd followed their instructions for the third time, and then the fourth time, until they were satisfied that I really hadn't messed it up somehow and that it really wasn't working.

We needed to do a sixth day they said.

And the sixth day was when things got bad and the kid got sick and after that we were at the hospital for x-rays confirming there wasn't a blockage, it just hadn't worked. And my kid was hanging out with the x-ray guys who were giving them an action figure that they had found in the sticker box and stickers and what this particular kid really wanted, a rubber band that had fallen off of one of the rounds of stickers.

The next day I got the call that we needed to do three more days of clean out.

I may have begged and pleaded and said I don't even know how it's possible when this kid feels this sick at this point when drinking this stuff.

Isn't there any easier way? And I meant any easier non-surgical way.  There was not.

And they said, you have to, you absolutely have to, we need to complete the clean out.

Midway through last nights colonoscopy prep drink party, when this particular kid hit the wall and "couldn't" drink anymore I excused them from helping pickup toys (let's face it they weren't doing all that much anyway, mostly following the bigger kids around while they were doing their chores) if they finished their drink.

I hadn't really meant for this particular kid to be cleaning up when I said "okay guys, time to pickup" anyways. The kid in question flopped down on the couch and drank and drank and that pushed them through day seven.

We have two days left in this newest prescribed span of time. And then back to the hospital for another x-ray. I am so ready to be done and I know this particular little is more than ready for it to be done.

I'm so afraid that it isn't going to work (since it hasn't worked much so far) and that they're going to say we need to keep pushing through more days.



Meanwhile, in the midst of all this, Sadie had two big days.

Around the new year she started begging me to chop off her hair.

Are you sure? I said, mostly because in the past she's asked me to cut her hair and then changed her mind when it was done. This time I wanted to make sure that she was sure.

She assured me that she was absolutely certain and after giving her a chance to change her mind for a week, and being certain that she wasn't going to, I did what she asked.

She told me that I could record it and I'm so glad that she did because she was hilarious.

She kept telling me that she was "lightheaded" because she thought that lightheaded meant her head felt light from not having as much hair.

She's such an awesome kid.

And I'm really glad that she likes how it turned out.



The next day it was time for her surgery.

We got out of the car at her surgery, which I wasn't planning on vlogging in any way shape or form and she asked where my camera was and why I wasn't recording.

I told her I hadn't planned on recording anything, and she said that she wanted a vlog about her day and her surgery. I pointed out that I'd left my camera at home and she pointed to my phone and said "what about that."

So I laughed and filmed bits of her day, and she got her video.

And she lost her adenoids in a very successful, easy surgery where she had hardly any pain afterwards.

She was the most excited when the anesthesiologist told her that they would put in the IV after she was asleep with gas, because the IV was what she was the most nervous about beforehand.

And we're all pretty excited that she can now, for the first time in her life, actually breath through her nose.



In the midst of all this, my car ended up spending a few mornings at a tractor mechanic down the street from our house, where they drilled into the frame so that we could connect a new harness for Maggie, to the frame of our car.

She is little, but she's so muscular that she's outgrown the weight limits on most five point harness car seats. It took a bit for us to figure out what came next, but we finally got the special harness, and another special strap, and a special seatbelt lock and altogether it seems to be working.

The only problem was that the special harness had to be drilled into the car frame. But the guys at the mechanic place down the street can fix just about anything and they were able to move the brake lines and drill the harness hardware into the car and now she is set.

For now at least.

And she seems pretty excited about her "big girl" harness with a booster.



And during all of this while I was picking up a few little prize/treats at Dollar Tree I realized that they were putting out their Valentine's Day items already.

Now I don't know if this is the same everywhere, but where we are the seasonal items at Dollar Tree sell out fast. The cashier told me it's not unusual for them to sell out in a single day at the store I usually shop at near Maggie's therapy center.

Which is why, when I saw a mermaid box of chocolates I knew that I needed to stop then and there and change my plans from a quick trip to a quick trip getting the kids their little Valentine's Day gifts if I wanted to get them at Dollar Tree.

And I made a little video about it because Dollar Tree has some surprisingly neat stuff. Ours even had mermaid fabric pillows shaped like hearts (so I guess you know what Tessie's getting with her chocolates)!



And that is what has been going on with us and keeping me so busy that I haven't even been able to sit down and get out a blog post in the last two weeks.

I'm hoping the next couple of weeks will be a little less eventful.