Newsy Update

A lot has been going on with the Klim family the past couple of weeks, hence the absence from my blog.  Where to begin….

It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Jackson.  He got some kind of cold bug and missed a whole week of school.  Apparently over half of his preschool class got this cold bug.  He was in pretty good spirits about it though, it didn’t seem to bother him too much.  But something was bothering him – more constipation.  He started having some bad days about a week ago.  One day he would be happy, calm, relaxed and pooping up a storm.  The next day he would be screaming in misery and not pooping.  I had my suspicions that he was backed up and should have followed my Mommy Gut but I didn’t.  Finally this past Wednesday I picked him up from school and he was just screaming.  His teachers said he had been like that all day.  The one big difference is that he had tears coming down his face, he rarely has tears.  So I knew right away he was in pain.  I started driving him home and planned to call his doctor, but as I drove I just kept thinking he needed to go to the ER.  The doctor wouldn’t be able to do anything over the phone and what we really needed was an XRay of his belly.  So I turned around and headed to the ER.  Sure enough the XRay showed he was backed up, and pretty impacted on the right side.  So he got another enema and some new instructions on medications (we now give him an Ex-Lax before bed and are pushing the fluids).

I did pretty well with this ER visit, I think I am realizing it isn’t as traumatic as it feels.  However, I did have a brief “Bat out of Hell Bitchy Mama” moment.  When we first got to the ER Jackson was just screaming bloody murder.  I was near tears.  It’s so hard to see him hurting and have no control over it.  They put us in a room at the very end of the hall where no one else was around.  After about 25 minutes of waiting for someone to come in to see us, all the while trying to calm Jackson down and having no luck at it, I picked him up, went back to the nurses’ station and started yelling at them.  There were about 5 people just sitting around talking and doing nothing.  I don’t remember my exact words but it was something to the effect of where the hell is a doctor or nurse, I came to the ER for “emergency” services not to just sit in a room to watch my son suffer, why hasn’t anyone given my son something for the pain, along with a few curse words.  They all just sat there looking at me like I was crazy.  Finally a nurse said she would see what she could do.  Gee thanks.  Shortly after that a couple of nurses came in the room and gave Jackson some pain meds which sent him into la la land.  It still infuriates me to think about this.  It is ridiculous that a child should suffer like that while so many people are just sitting around chatting.  In my opinion it was a total lack of respect for Jackson and his pain level. 

In addition to Jackson being sick, both Kevin and I have had some sick days.  I think we both got what Jackson had.  With our allergies added to it, it is taking us a while to get over it.  Monday at Yoga class I did a lot of inversions and by the time I got home my right eye had nearly swollen shut and I had a killer sinus headache.  All is well now, but our little family needs to get healthy!

My birthday was last week and apparently Jackson was waiting for it to surprise me with the best gift ever.  It was one of the days he stayed home sick from school.  We were just hanging out on the floor, he was rolling around, I was watching Ellen.  Jackson rolled over to the window (we have floor to ceiling windows) and was looking outside.  All of the sudden he took his right hand, placed it on the floor and pushed himself up to sitting.  He sat up for the first time all by himself!  I held my breath the whole time and cried tears of joy.  I waited almost 4 years for that.  It was awesome!  He hasn’t done it since but I know he will.  He has sat up in his bed before but only because he has had the weight of his blankets to hold his legs down.  This time he didn’t have anything holding his legs down and he did it.  That’s my boy!  Thanks for the best birthday gift I’ve ever gotten!

Today we got Jackson’s new stander!  Molina (health insurance company) finally approved it.  I will post pictures soon of him in it.  It also goes in the sitting position so it will be great to have that resource for him to get his body in different positions.  Hopefully it will help his body get this constipation problem worked out.

I spent another 4 days in Denver last weekend to visit my mom Sandy.  She is slowly declining but I am so thankful to have the time with her.  ALS is a cruel disease and I hate what it is doing to her body.  But when I say something to her about a memory we shared she always taps me on the shoulder to let me know she remembers.  She’s inside that shell.

Well that is what we have been up to out here in the Pacific Northwest.  I leave you this time with a quote that will hopefully make you laugh.

If your face is swollen from the severe beatings of life, smile and pretend to be a fat man.  – Nigerian Proverb