Daddy's Down

It's been a week since posting again, and things are much the same. Lots of hockey practices, lots of church play rehearsals, too many therapy dates and doctor appointments, and way too many Webkinz lying around. Laundry and cleaning are constant with no results to be seen. Cook, eat, clean, cook, eat, clean. *sigh*

Bob has been home this week working diligently on his Christmas display. All the kids have been enlisted this year and have had various jobs. I was even assigned stringing of mini mega trees that I could complete in the house while Tubby helped by handing me lights and the "sticks"(zip ties) I needed. Pots of coffee have been guzzled by my husband as he has been bundled in his snowsuit and special arctic explorer boots, working the days and nights away in the cold.

That all caught up to him today.....he came down with horrible, intense stomach pains with which caused him to double over and barely be even able to move. His whole intestinal system had stopped sometime yesterday afternoon. He needed to go to the ER....and wanted to go all the way to Glencoe (?!?!?)....and was planning on driving himself. Seriously, the man could not even straighten up enough to look forward, and thought he was going to drive 20 miles? He did have enough common sense left to finally submit to my driving him instead.

That was the longest 25 minute drive I have had in a long time. Bob was hardly able to stand the pain, and it seemed like Glencoe was getting farther away than closer each minute. Tubby sat behind me, with a very concerned "Da-da?" coming from his sweet little mouth every few minutes. "Daddy has owies," was all I could say. He seemed to understand. Besides suffering through too many kidney stones to count(I stopped after 12), I have never been with someone else who has been in so much irretractable pain. It is awful. It is scary. You feel so helpless. There is absolutely nothing you can do. Except get to the hospital.

A little bit of morphine and some reglan provided a small but welcome respite for my poor husband. Blood work and an abdominal CAT scan came up negative for all the serious things they were looking for. What was discovered was a hiatal hernia with lots of reflux (we are still marvelling on how a CAT scan picked up reflux). If everything else continues to turn up negative, perhaps Bob can avoid a very unwelcome scoping procedure.

He's had a bad day. The pain has remained severe, with some small relief with medications. I guess it will just take time for everything to calm down so that the inflammation and gastritis can settle a bit. It was not fun to see my husband in a hospital gown....he's not suppose to get sick....he needs to keep our family going. When Daddy is down, then what do we do?

We prayed for Daddy. The kids wanted to visit him, but poor Daddy was not in any state for visitors...he had all he could do to just concentrate on making it through every minute. We went to Target and bought frozen dinners (the kids thought that was SOO cool!) and a new movie to watch tonight. We filled up our gas tank for less than $40 and got the truck washed. We mindlessly ate our dinner, and the kids played one of Jonny's new video games. We watched Wall-E, and the three littlest fell asleep on the couch. I am now awake by myself, hoping my husband is starting to at least feel a LITTLE better. I guess that is what we do when Daddy is not around.

But we didn't put up any Christmas lights today....we're sorry Daddy, but we CAN'T do that without you. Please get better soon! We love you and miss you very much!