Keeping Up With The Blog

*****Warning: This post is super long, and not very happy.  It's more for me to remember, so don't feel obligated to read on.

I've come to realize that I don't blog when I'm truly unhappy.  2012 was one of those years for me. A lot of hard things happened that caused me to make some changes in my life, and my blog suffered because of those hard times. Having Lia at the end of the year motivated me to keep up with the times in my life that need to be documented. I think I did pretty well with the blog updates in 2013.

I'm afraid 2014 is starting out more like 2012, and it's causing me to shut down and not keep up with the blog again. William was in the hospital for another week last week, and the experience was not only worse the second time, I'd say it was probably the worst week of my entire life.

On a Friday William's PE teacher told me that William didn't feel well enough to participate in PE that day. Hearing that made me worry. A lot. I started watching him more closely, and after that day, I could see he was in pain. By Tuesday, he came home from school and lay on the couch for the rest of the afternoon, so instead of taking him to school on Wednesday, I took him to his pediatrician.

The PA who works with his doctor thought William looked fine after doing a physical exam (I let him know the history with his kidney). He wanted a urine sample just to make one last check on him. He found blood in the sample, and said that because of William's recent hospital stay and the abnormal sample, I should take him to the hospital to get some more thorough tests. I asked him if it mattered where I went because I was not happy with Sunrise last time we were there. He told me Summerlin was fine.

So we went to Summerlin with a note from the PA about the recent lacerated kidney and abnormal urine sample. The note is important here.

I checked in at Summerlin Hospital, and the guy checking me in, who spoke bad English, kept my note. I asked if I should keep it to give to the doctor, and he said no he would keep it.

We sat in an pediatric er room for a while until a Russian woman came to get William for an ultrasound. She asked about his liver, and I told her he lacerated his KIDNEY. I thought maybe her bad English caused her to misread her notes, until the ultrasound tech told me they were getting an ultrasound of his liver. WHY?! He had a lacerated kidney!! I told her that also. Then for his ct scan, they were also concentrating on his liver. I was starting to lose it! Are all hospitals really this bad with communication! Where's my freaking doctor's note that says the boy has a lacerated kidney! I also told the ct scan people it was his kidney, and they said the scan should show both. So when the er doctor came in to tell me they could see a laceration on his liver,  I was angry, and told him there was never a lacerated liver - it was always a lacerated kidney!  And he told me, "well there's a lacerated liver now also." What the heck was going on with my poor William!

The next day, we had a lot of people in and out of our room.  All of them asked me how he lacerated his liver, and I had no idea.  Finally his doctor came in with about six other people dressed in scrubs to ask me questions.  All of them took notes.  My senses were screaming at me that something was wrong, but I had done nothing wrong, so I could trust these medical workers, right?  The doctor kept asking what happened between now and two months ago for William to lacerate his liver.  And I kept telling her I had no idea.  Then she did a small exam on him, and noticed a wart he has on his upper leg.  She said, "Have you seen this before on him?" I told her yes. "This is genital warts." She said.  "This needs to be looked into.  I'm going to have you talk to a social worker because I can see this is very hard on you."

So I talked the social worker who asked me the same questions about the liver and now about his wart. When we were done she said, "We have to call CPS about this." I was a little more worried about William's wart at this point.  But I don't use babysitters, and he doesn't play at other people's houses ever, so if he did have an std, it had to come from school or church, which I highly doubted. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted a test on the wart because I was sure it was not sexually transmitted.

I was given a lame excuse at Summerlin why they wouldn't test his wart - something like they didn't have the right test, but they said he would be tested after he got transferred to Sunrise.  That's right.  He got transferred back to Sunrise right after Summerlin called CPS on us, like they didn't want to deal with any backlash we might give them.  I now hate Summerlin Hospital more than I hate Sunrise.  Let's not test anything and make sure it's an std first - let's just call CPS and get rid of these people.  There's more damage that Summerlin did, but that will come later.

I was not happy when I arrived at Sunrise behind William's ambulance.  I did not want to be back at this hospital that I did not trust.  As soon as he got into his room, a resident walked in, and I got angry.  Here we go again with a bunch of random people walking in and out of his room all day long.  Then they told me he was not allowed to eat until they could figure out what was wrong with him.  All the same from before.  All he needed this time was too much IV fluid until his lungs and stomach filled up with water. I asked the resident when he could get a test on his wart so that I could show proof to CPS that he does not have an std, and he told me a child advocacy doctor would come in to test him.  We never did get that test.  Apparently Sunrise doesn't want to check things out for sure either.  

A little while later, two Metro detectives showed up to talk to me.  I had to go to a special room, and they tape recorded our interview.  And guess what?  They didn't care about the wart at all. They were concerned about the lacerated liver. They wanted to know what happened to him this time to cause it, and I told them I still didn't know.  I then told them about my distrust for Sunrise Hospital, and about William being starved and pumped full of IV fluid until he couldn't breath when we were here before.  I told them that if there is a lacerated liver, it was probably there the first time we came, and they missed it because they are such a mess.  The two lady detectives seemed to be on my side and were actually very helpful to me after that.

He was monitored for a day or so, and then he was allowed to eat and be monitored some more.  We were now under the care of a urologist who was dumbfounded that William was going to school and was only told to take it easy for 6 weeks.  He thinks the kidney started to heal but then was reinjured again.  I asked the urologist why we didn't see him the first time we came to Sunrise.  He has a much better plan for getting William better this time.

By Tuesday we were ready to leave the hospital, and the general doctor came in to tell me that all doctors had cleared William to leave, and he just needed to be cleared by CPS and Metro.  So Kevin made phone calls to our CPS lady and one of the detectives to move things along.  The detective let us know that she was informed that the lacerated liver that Summerlin diagnosed and that caused me to be interrogated by the police never existed.  So a whole case was opened up to investigate possible child abuse and/or neglect because some idiot at Summerlin wrote lacerated liver instead of kidney on William's file, even though I brought a doctor's note in with me that said lacerated kidney on it.

Also, we saw William's pediatrician today.  He looked right at William's wart and said, "That's not an std.  That wart is very common in little boys."  Not sure why the doctor at Summerlin couldn't see that also.  I'm starting to think that most of the doctors we've dealt with at these hospitals have very little experience.

But the great news is we are still dealing with CPS!  Because William being on bed rest for two months and having to get an ultrasound and see his urologist once a week is not hard enough right now!  Even though it's been proven that I don't beat my child and that he never had a lacerated liver in the first place and he doesn't have an std, CPS still has to go through their check list of things to investigate about us before they are done with us.

To say I'm annoyed is a total understatement.  We would not be dealing with CPS if someone didn't screw up at Summerlin and also if they would have tested his wart before calling to tattle on us.  I thought Sunrise was a mess, but now I'm convinced that every hospital in Las Vegas is a big fat joke.  I will never take my kids to a hospital here again.  I'll drive to St. George or even all the way to Salt Lake before I let these circuses that call themselves hospitals treat my kids.

Celebrity Sightings (Update)

I've seen a couple more famous-ish people since the post I did a few years ago about celebrities I've seen.  And they've both been at the salon where I get my hair done.

The most recent happened today when I went to pick up my pricey shampoo from my sister-in-law/hairstylist who gets a nice discount for me.  I told her I would be there at a certain time, and I ended up getting there a little late, so I was waiting in the front area for her to finish up with a client.  As I was sitting there, I noticed a Mercedes SUV pull up to the front with three uniformed kids climbing out of it.  Soon after, the mom got out, and I totally judged her!  I immediately noticed her amazing body and thought, "Must be nice to have a lot of money for a personal trainer or liposuction or whatever her secret is."  As she walked in with her kids, I actually looked at her face and noticed that she was this pretty lady:

I already knew that my sister-in-law Emily cuts Steffi Graf's kids' hair, so I wasn't totally shocked to see her there.  Emily told me that when Steffi calls to make appointments, she says, "Hi, this is Stefanie Agassi..."  She even started speaking German to her son at one point. She's just a regular mom picking her kids up from school and taking them to get haircuts.  I felt bad for judging her since I'm pretty sure her amazing body doesn't come from liposuction.

Before Steffi, I was getting my hair done last summer, and after I got my hair washed, I saw this girl as I was walking back to my sister-in-law's chair:

That's Tierra from Sean's season of the Bachelor.  She must live here, or really likes to spend time here, because my friend just posted a picture of her at Cafe Rio by my house.  As I was getting my hair cut, I could see her in the mirror, and she kept catching me looking at her.  

I should get pictures with the people I see, but I feel bad bothering them.  I'm sure Tierra probably loves the attention, but I bet Steffi doesn't.  And if I was taking my kids to get haircuts, I wouldn't want some random stranger bothering me for a picture.  So instead I write about these sightings on my blog so I remember who've I've seen.  It's fun living in Vegas and seeing some famous faces every once in a while, although one of my former students just ran into Brooks Forester in Utah.  It would be fun seeing some famous Mormon faces up there. :)

Catch Up

With two trips to Utah, a week-long hospital stay, and a 9th birthday party, November was crazy.  But I think I got mostly caught up with this blog today.  I have a bunch of pictures from Lia's first birthday, but they will have to wait since six posts in one day is enough for me. :)

Lia

Lia is 1!  Her birthday was on December 10th.  I missed writing her 11 month post - November totally got away from me.  So here are some new things Lia has started doing in the past two months.

• She waves at you when you tell her hi.  She'll also wave when we are leaving somewhere and telling people bye.  Sometimes she'll even say "ba ba" (like bye bye) as she's waving and we're leaving.
• She's learned "no no."  She'll keep saying "na na na na" over and over again if she's not happy about something that's happening.
• She likes to open drawers and pull everything out of them.  Her brothers' bottom dresser drawer is her favorite.  She goes in their room and pulls all of their pajamas out of their bottom drawer.
• She also likes to pull all of the toilet paper off the roll.  One of my nicknames for her is Busy because she is constantly moving and looking for something to get into or a mess to make.
• My other nickname for her is Dolly because she has looked like a doll to me since the day she was born.
• She still loves to go up the stairs.  She's gotten a little better at going down the stairs backwards, but she's still not quite mastered it.
• She has stood by herself a few times, but she has not tried to take a step on her own yet.
• She likes to use bar stools as her walkers:

Here she is having the time of her life after Rebecca's birthday party with the couch pushed out of her way.

• We got her a push toy from Sam's Club for her birthday, and she enjoys pushing it and being pushed on it:

• She's very snuggly and prefers to be held most of the time.

My baby is one, and time went by so fast!  But I knew it would just like it did the other three, so I'm glad I took the time to enjoy her as a baby.

Braden

Braden is a hoot!  This kid cracks me up every day.  Here are some things he's done lately that I need to write down and remember.

Over the summer, I went with my mom and sister up to Salt Lake to pick up some overhead projectors for my sister's school.  While we were there we took the kids to Temple Square.  Braden DID NOT want to go to Temple Square and protested the entire time walking there from the parking lot saying, "I don't want to go to the Temple."  We walked into the Tabernacle, and all of the young readers in our group read the sign outside out loud that says, "Visitors Welcome."  And Braden said in his most grumpy tone, "No, it says the Temple is closed!"

He likes to do this with his shirt all the time:

He reminds me of Beavis and Butthead.  "I am the great cornholio!"

He is the only kid who sits in the third row of our car, and he likes it that way.  We tried making either of the older two kids sit back there, but they got lonely.  I think he finally asked if he could sit in the very back by himself, and he's never complained.  On the way to taking William and Rebecca to school on Monday, he asked for a blanket.  I got him one, and when I looked back at him during our drive, he looked like this:

I had Rebecca snap a picture.

He adds an s to possessive pronouns.  When talking about Lia, he'll say something like, "Lia needs hers bottle."  I don't correct him because I think it's adorable. 

I didn't put him in preschool this year, and I was offered to join a Joy School co-op, but I declined.  I want to enjoy the little time I have left with him before he goes to kindergarten next year.  He's stubborn and grumpy, but I totally get him because he's just like me.  I've loved being home and being around him all the time.

William

William spent a week in the hospital during November.  My visiting teachers came over, so I sent the kids out to play on the trampoline.  He came back in crying, but I thought he was just trying to get out of finishing his homework.  He kept crying so I sent him to bed.  In his bed he started screaming in pain, and he got up and threw up, so I called Kevin.  Kevin came home from work early and took William to the emergency room.

The CT scan showed that William had a lacerated kidney.  The hospital transported him to Sunrise Hospital in an ambulance because with their new children's wing, they could better treat his injury.

When we told doctors that his injury happened on the trampoline, they didn't believe that a trampoline was enough to do the damage that was caused to his kidney.  We had been in Utah the previous weekend, and William had a minor accident on my parents' ATV, so we're thinking that's what caused the injury and the trampoline just aggravated it.

I have to say, for being our valley's children's hospital, I was very disappointed with Sunrise.  We were there to make sure he had no internal bleeding.  I guess the kidney is encapsulated, so it should heal on it's own as long as he wasn't bleeding out of it.  They found out right away that he had no internal bleeding, so I thought we should be able to go home and have him take it easy for a while.  But we had some surgeon come in and tell us that he thought that they needed to take care of his constipation before we left. ???  If he's not bleeding internally, then constipation is something I can take care of at home.  Constipation isn't something that needs to be treated at a hospital, in my opinion, and with all of the medicines they kept giving him there, I'm pretty sure they caused the constipation.

As we had him there taking more medications to clean him out, he started to get more sick.  I could tell he was in a lot of pain and morphine wasn't working to ease it, and he started to get short of breath.  With the residents who were there, I probably saw 15 different doctors in the span of a few days.  We never had the same doctor twice.  I started to feel like I was playing a giant game of telephone with these people.  Each came in with a different version of what was going on with William according to what they had heard from a previous doctor. And instead of working together with a plan to help him get better, each new doctor came in with a new plan.  It was so frustrating to watch my son get worse and to see this mess of doctors who weren't doing a thing to help him.  Kevin called it a case of too many chiefs and not enough indians, and that's exactly what it was.  Not to mention that he was being starved since they couldn't decide whether or not they wanted him to have surgery, but they had to keep his belly empty just in case they decided at the last second to take him to the OR.  By Tuesday, after being there since Thursday night, I was angry and in tears.  I even had the thought that my son was going to die under the care of this incompetent hospital.  By then he was taking really short breaths, and his lungs and stomach were full of water.

They finally moved him back up to the pediatric ICU where he could get more intense treatment.  As soon as he was moved up there, his doctor noticed the amount of IV fluid he was getting and halved the amount saying, "He doesn't need that much fluid."  After about an hour, I could instantly see a difference in William.  He was breathing better and he was not in as much pain.  With the 15 doctors we saw downstairs, none of them noticed that they were giving him way too much IV fluid that was filling his lungs to the point where he couldn't breath.  And the saddest part of this is that Kevin mentioned to one of his nurses that she should stop the IV (this was when they were letting him eat).  Obviously she ignored him.

As soon as he was stable in the ICU, they asked if we wanted him moved back down to general pediatrics where we had been.  We said no.  He was discharged directly from the ICU a day later.

I will never go to Sunrise ever again.  I could probably even sue them for malpractice if I wanted to, but I'm just going to stay away from there and tell my friends to do the same.  I was prepared to drive to St. George next time I need hospital care for my kids, but two friends have told me that Summerlin has a wonderful children's hospital, so we will go the next time.

on his way home after being in the hospital for a week

I'm glad this is over, and my William is home. Hopefully we won't have to deal with hospitals again any time soon.

Rebecca

Rebecca turned 9 on November 22.  She's been asking for a Monster High party all year long, so we had one for her this year.  We actually sent out her invitations the day William went to the hospital.  The thought crossed my mind that we should cancel the party, but I knew we couldn't do that to her.  We had a plan just in case William was still in the hospital for her party, but he ended up coming home right before, so everything worked out okay.

We started the party with musical chairs and pizza.  While the girls ate pizza, we let them decorate their cupcakes.

Here are two cupcakes that Kevin decorated to match the Monster High theme.  If he wanted to, he could seriously decorate cakes for a living.

We had an indoor piñata since it was raining outside.  And then Rebecca opened her presents.

My mom had been at our house since Wednesday helping with kids so that Kevin and I could stay at the hospital.  She stayed for the party and then went home to southern Utah right after the party ended.  It was so nice to have her here to help all week.

handsome boys

A few things about Rebecca.

• She is in third grade and loves her teacher Ms. McCullough.
• She started taking gymnastics at Mirabelli Community Center this year, and she loves it.  Her cousin Jessie teaches the other class that is held during the same time as Rebecca's class, so she gets to see her every week.
• She is an AWESOME big sister.  She always wants to help with Lia.
• She has been taking piano lessons (from me), and she finished her primer level books.  She just started level one books.  Practicing is not one of her favorite things to do right now, but I have a reminder in my phone to make her practice every night.  I always tell her that she will be glad as an adult that I made her play the piano when she was young.
• She loves everything Monster High right now.  Kevin and I think the dolls are really weird, but if we don't buy them for her, she buys them using her own money.  I guess there are worse things she could be into.
• She finally got her ears pierced last month.  We were at the mall and decided while we were there, she could get them pierced for her birthday.
• She loves her dog Guillermo (she claims he's hers).  Here she is with him and his cousin Beans (my brother's chihuahua):

We're so happy to have this spunky girl around.  Happy 9th Birthday, Rebecca!!