Weekly Review May 20 '12

Hahaha...and I thought last week was a rough week, medically speaking.  I had no idea!  Most of you know by now that Frank had his appendix out this week.  I'll get to that "fun" story in a little while.  First of all, I wanted to go back to last Friday.  To my surprise, Frank insisted on going to the marriage class with me even though he was hurting a lot.  Scott went to spend the night with his friend David and Tanner went to a Seminary party, so Jared stayed with Seth.  Tanner got a ride home from the Seminary party and later he admitted that he had let one of the girls at the party paint his toenails!  That was something I had to document on film:

The crazy things teenagers do sometimes! 

Most of the things I had planned for Saturday didn't happen.  (I could say the same thing for almost every day this week.)  Frank was pretty much down most of the day so we didn't go on a walk or get any yardwork done and I skipped the baby shower I was planning to go to that morning so that I could stay with him.  I did clean the kitchen floor, helped Jared get some work done for scouts, and worked on planning a YW activity that I have coming up, but that was about all.  Frank sent Scott and Tanner on a mysterious errand which took a few hours--I knew it probably had to do with Mother's Day, but I couldn't figure out what it might be.  When they got back they mentioned that the car was making a funny hissing noise--Frank looked at it and said we were going to have to get it in to be fixed very soon.  Frank was supposed to speak in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, but by Saturday afternoon it seemed pretty apparent that he wouldn't be able to go so we called our bishop to warn him about that.

Sunday was mostly a restful day--the boys helped out a lot since Frank wasn't able to do much.  The boys got me a cute card, a chocolate bar and the Hymns on CD--that explained the long mysterious errand.  They had driven all the way down to the LDS bookstore by the temple to get that and they got mixed up at one point and ended up headed toward northern Virginia.  In Sacrament Meeting, the bishop called on one of the missionaries and a couple of the youth to share testimonies to fill in the time Frank would have spoken--Jared was one of the ones he chose and Jared did a good job.  (He made everyone laugh when he started out by saying he was going to have a little chat with his dad later!)

By Monday morning Frank wasn't doing any better (maybe even worse) so we called and got him an appointment to see our doctor for early afternoon.  (We actually tried to get him in on Saturday, but there was a mix up and the doctor on call didn't call us back until after visiting hours.)  By this time I was pretty certain that he had something else going on besides a kidney stone but I didn't know what.  When the doctor examined him, we realized that he was very tender on his right side--until then Frank hadn't really realized that he was hurting in that area as well as his back.  I said "could he have appendicitis?"  Our doctor looked at me and said "that's what I'm thinking."  So he sent Frank in for a CT scan.  We had Seth with us at the doctor and the CT scan wasn't right away (Frank had to drink some nasty stuff an hour before the procedure) so I decided to go get Scott and Tanner out of school a little early to stay with Seth while I took Frank in for the CT scan.  We were suprised when the scan came back normal.  Our doctor had him come back to the office to draw blood for testing and then sent us home with pain meds to wait for the blood test results. 

Earlier that day we had dropped the car off to be fixed.  I had originally planned to have Seth's friend Henry over to play that afternoon--his mom had a baby about 3 weeks ago so I thought she could use a break--and then we were going to take dinner over to his family when I dropped him back off.  I had to cancel the play date but since I had already put food in the crock pot that morning we were still able to take dinner over.  For family night we watched Phineas and Ferb--not our usual thing, but Frank was not up to doing much. 

Tuesday was a busy day.  I had a presidency meeting that morning.  I was going to do it over the phone, but Frank convinced me that he would be ok without me for a few hours.  The boys and I all had dentist appointments that afternoon.  By the time we got back from that, Frank said he was feeling very dizzy.  I told him we'd better call the doctor back.  The blood work had come back normal, but I was concerned that he wasn't getting any better and new symptoms were popping up.  So he called our doctor back and the doctor told us to go in to the ER to have a surgeon check him out.  He said in spite of the tests he still thought Frank might have appendicitis.  So we got everybody fed and I left a list of things for the boys to do and off we went.  (One of the boys in the ward took Scott to pick the car back up; sadly it cost about $1300 to fix it.)  We arrived at the ER around 6:30 and Frank did not get taken back to be examined until 8:30.  That was no fun for him or me.  They did an ultrasound of his liver, gall bladder and pancreas and they all looked ok.  They did more blood work which also looked ok.  However, the doctor that examined him talked to a surgeon who also suspected appendicitis in spite of the negative test results, so the surgeon asked to have him admitted so he could watch him and probably do a laparoscopy of his appendix the next day.  By this time it was 11:30 and the surgeon said he couldn't have anything to eat or drink after midnight, so they gave him a small meal to eat (he hadn't eaten anything since mid morning) and then got him up to his room.  I stayed until they had him settled in so I didn't get home until about 1:00 am. 

I woke up right after 6:00 on Wednesday morning and discovered that Tanner and Scott had not woken up for Seminary.  I woke them up and they hurried and got ready to go--they made it to the chruch for the last couple of minutes of Seminary, I think.  I let them take one of the cars since I knew Frank wouldn't be going into work.  I got the other two to school and then went to the hospital.  I got there shortly before the surgeon came in to see Frank.  After examining him, he said he still suspected the appendix was the culprit.  He was quite an interesting guy, by the way--very exuberant and talked a mile a minute!  We decided to go ahead with the procedure to look at the appendix.  The way the surgeon put it was "if it even blushes or winks at me, I'm going to take it out."  He said he would look at the gall bladder too.  He originally hoped to get Frank in for the procedure in early afternoon, but apparently they had a crazy day in surgery and we ended up waiting all day--they didn't get him in until about 7:30.  When I came out to the family waiting room, I found our bishop there waiting for me.  He was hoping to get in to give Frank a blessing before the operation but it was too late by then.  He did come back after the surgery, along with our executive secretary to give Frank a blessing which I appreciated--they didn't get him back to his room until around 10:00 so it was a late night for them.  And they gave me a blessing, too, which I really needed. 

Anyway, the surgery wasn't long; only about an hour.  I went to the cafeteria to get something to eat and then realized that I couldn't really eat much because my stomach was in knots.  The surgeon talked to me after the surgery and he did take the appendix out--it was a little long and a little coiled.  He said he was about 85% sure that the appendix was the source of the problem.  Frank was pretty groggy that evening but I waited to leave until he was all settled in his room.  I had to run to the bank after that to get some cash out for Scott so I didn't get home until about midnight.  For some reason I woke up shortly after 5:00 and didn't go back to sleep so Thursday started early.

The boys, meanwhile, were being troopers getting their homework done (Jared had a big project due on Thursday), feeding themselves, and taking care of Seth.  I took Seth to my friend Michelle's house Wednesday after school--her daughter Camilla is Seth's age so they enjoyed playing with each other.  Scott picked him up there after he got home from school.  What a blessing that Scott has his driver's license!  The boys wanted to go to YM Wednesday evening so I had to scramble around a bit to figure out what to do with Seth.  They were having a special RS activity that evening also (I was supposed to sing in a group for that and help with a table display--didn't happen though) so I finally arranged for the boys to take Seth to the nursery that was provided at the church.  My friend Cyd agreed to be responsible for Seth while he was there since the YM were going to be playing games at a field a few blocks from the church.  It was crazy, but it all worked out.

When I called Frank's room on Thursday morning, he answered the phone and I could immediately tell, just by the quality of his "hello", that he felt better.  He confirmed that he did feel a lot better when I asked him.  He was very sore from the surgery, but the other pain was gone.  I was pretty relieved about that!  I got everyone to school again and went to the hospital to see him.  The surgeon stopped by again and said that he could be discharged that day.  We thought it would be afternoon, but again everything took a lot longer than we thought it would and he didn't end up getting home until 8:00 that night. 

Meanwhile, I went back to the school at 10:30 for Seth's class operetta.  He looked so adorable in his costume (he portrayed William McKinley).  Here he is:
        

Here he is with his friends Shade & Ryan:

And now with his friend Luke too:

Here he is on stage:

The theme of the operetta was "Who's on the Money".  The kids portrayed different people in American history who now appear on different coins and dollar bills.  Seth's part went like this: "I was the 25th president of the United States during the Spanish American War.  I'm on the $500 dollar bill.  Cha-Ching!"  He did a great job.  The whole operetta was well done and the kids were so cute.  I laughed my head off at Seth, who could not sit still for long and kept hiding behind other kids and dancing during the songs instead of singing and doing the actions like he was supposed to do.  (I was actually afraid he needed to go to the bathroom because he was so wiggly.)  His teacher is retiring at the end of this school year after 43 years of teaching!  So at the end of the operetta they did a little song for her (as a surprise) and presented her with a tree to plant in her yard.

As part of the play, she had each child paint a "store front".  Here is Seth, holding the store front for his Lego store:
 

 After the play was over, I took Seth by the hospital to visit Frank briefly.  Look, he actually has a smile on his face!  (First time we'd seen that in days...)

 I'm so glad my appendix is out!



After visiting Frank, Seth went back to Camilla's house to play again.  The car had been having more problems after Scott picked it up so I took Scott out of school again to help me drive it back to the shop.  Then Scott left me at the hospital because he needed to run errands that afternoon after school.  He had prom the next day and he still didn't know what he was going to wear.  He was able to find a nice vest and a tie to match his date's dress.  He also got his hair cut.  Doesn't he look nice?

    

After his errands, Scott came to get me to take me home for dinner, which our RS president provided for us (it was yummy too--and there was lots of food).  Then he went back with me to pick up Frank.  We are grateful for the care Frank received at the hospital.  He had some great nurses taking care of him.  He gave them our email address so they can contact him to get Marriott hotel discounts in the future!  We had a couple of interesting conversations with various hospital employees while we were there--they noticed Frank's Book of Mormon and a few asked us some good questions.  Frank was glad to come home but he was exhausted by the time we got him settled in bed at home and in quite a bit of pain.  I was pretty bone tired myself.  It is very nice to have him back home, though.

The next day, thanks to the G-8 summit at Camp David, school was cancelled.  What a blessing that was for us--we were all able to sleep late!  They said the traffic would be horrible in Frederick County that day, but we didn't have any problems in our neck of the woods.  Of course, we avoided getting on the roads that they said would be problem areas, so that probably helped.  The only thing different for us was that we saw a lot of helicopters going by overhead throughout that day and the next day too.  We didn't get any good pictures of them although some of them flew quite low overhead.  Here are a few of our attempts:
 

Once we got up, Friday was really busy--we had a lot to catch up on.  The boys helped a lot by doing a lot of cleaning and other chores.  I took Scott to get a corsage--luckily we were able to find one!  We picked the car back up (another $100) and then Scott went home while I did all the shopping.  By the time I got back home I barely had time to help Scott iron his clothes for prom before we had to be out the door.  Jared stayed with Frank; I took Tanner with us because I was dropping him off at his firend Ryan's house to spend the night.  Then I took Scott to another home where several couples were meeting to have dinner before the prom.  The parents were invited to come to take pictures as well.  Here is Scott with his date, Valeria:
   

It took a while for the whole group to arrive so I had to wait around a while.  Here is a shot of the whole group:

Here's the girls:

Here's a close up with Scott's date on the left:

And here's all the boys:

They had a nice catered dinner, apparently, and then went from there to the dance.  Meanwhile, I went back home and grabbed some dinner (pizza provided by one of my visiting teachers) and then took Jared and Seth with me to the local annual Greek festival.  I wouldn't have bothered except Jared needed to attend an ethnic festival to pass off one of the prerequisites for a merit badge class he was taking the next day.  The line for the food was way too long but we did get some Greek pastries (there was a much shorter line), listened to music, toured the Greek Orthodox church, and Seth got to try out the moon bounce:
 

As you can see, he enjoyed it!

We finally got back home and the boys went to bed but I had to stay up to pick up Scott.  He couldn't drive himself because for the first 5 months they have a 12:00 curfew.  After the dance his group went back to another girl's house to have breakfast.  I ended up picking him up around 2:00 am, so it was another late night for me.  (We saw a lot of police cars on the way home too.) 

I think Scott had fun at the prom, but I could tell the next day that something was bothering him.  He finally confided that he was very disillusioned by the behavior he had seen in a lot of his friends--the dancing was apparently very suggestive and by the time he left the breakfast, most of them had started drinking.  He said he was very uncomfortable and wanted to just leave a lot of the time.  To sum it up, he said "I lost a lot of respect for a lot of my friends last night."  I feel sorry that he had a bad experience but I think it was a good learning experience for him too.  He said he knew some of his friends did that kind of stuff but it was really hard to see them actually doing it.  I told him I am sorry he had a bad experience and yet I'm glad he was uncomfortable in that kind of situation, because he should be.  I'm just glad he is so strong and doesn't do that kind of stuff himself.

Yesterday was kind of a hard day.  (Hahaha--like the other days of this week were easy!)  I was really feeling the effects of all the stress and late nights.  I had a lot to do but couldn't focus to do any of it.  By early afternoon when I hadn't accomplished much of anything, I decided to take a nap.  That helped a bit--I was able to get the budget caught up that evening.  Scott slept late, of course, and then that afternoon he worked another band show from 4:30 to 10:00.  Tanner came home that afternoon from Ryan's and then went to a regional dance that evening.  Jared had his merit badge class (Citizenship in the World) that afternoon.  I was supposed to drive and chaperone the dance but there was no way I could leave Frank and I was exhausted too so thankfully they found someone else to drive in my place.  My other visiting teacher provided dinner that night, which we really appreciated.   

Frank has been laying low since getting home, of course.  He has been in a lot of pain and he is totally wiped out from a week of pain and then the stress of surgery.  He gets up and moves about a bit every day but it hurts him to do that and he is very tired afterwards.  It has been a bit of a challenge to keep our bouncy four year old from hurting Frank.  When I first got Frank home I was explaining to Seth that if he wanted to hug Daddy, he had to do it very gently.  I was tickled when Seth immediately started blowing kisses at Frank instead of hugging him--how cute is that?  Frank didn't make it to church today, of course, but this afternoon we went on a short walk around our court.  It is just going to take some time for him to recover.  He will be working from home the next couple of days at least and maybe longer.  He can't drive in to work until he is off the pain medication.  Maybe by the end of the week he will be able to go in for a part of the day.  His boss has been very understanding (he had his appendix out himself several years ago) and they are going to allow him to take time off now even though he doesn't have vacation days accrued yet.  That means he probably won't have any vacation days this summer, but we don't have much choice and we are just glad they are being flexible about it. 

I went to Sacrament meeting today but then came home to stay with Frank.  I took a short nap which I really needed--I still feel wiped out too.  I have missed so many YW meetings and activities the last few weeks, though.  I have really missed the girls and hope things will get back to normal soon.  (Whatever "normal" is!)  Please remember us (especially Frank) in your prayers.  I know you have already been praying for us, and we really appreciate it! 

I am hoping this week is a LOT more low key and restful than this last week has been.