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Saturday, March 24, 2007

Fan F**king-tabulous....

You know, I am not usually one to cuss. In fact if you look back in this blog I have probably only used cuss words a handful of times. But people... this is one of those times!!

Today has been LONG!! Long and FULL of disappointments!! Let's start at the beginning, the very beginning, like oh say two o'clock this morning when my son woke up coughing. I tried to feed him thinking he was hungry but he just kept spitting the milk out. I knew that he had not eaten since 7:00 last night and I could hear his stomach rumbling but he would try to suck and he would just cough and then spit out the milk.

I tried three different bottles and three different flow nipples trying to find something that would allow him to get some nourishment into his little body. Nothing worked. Finally I took a baby syringe and was dripping milk into his mouth. I managed to get a half and ounce or so into him but he was still coughing and spitting and I finally decided enough was enough.

At three thirty I put him in his car seat and called my mom to tell her I was taking him to blank. It was about that time that he started to cough and everything that I had gotten him to swallow came back up.

So off to the emergency room we went. The verdict, Zack has bronchitis. They gave him a nebulizer treatment and we got him to eat about four ounces there and so they sent us home with a nebulizer. We got in the car a little before six and we were about 5 minutes from the hospital when I heard him choking. I pulled over real quick and saw that he had thrown up all four ounces down his front.

Okay... no luck there. So off we go to find a 24 hour pharmacy to get his medicine. I tried the ones in our town but had no luck so I had to go into Des Moines to find a Walgreens. We got out of Walgreens at 7:00 and I had to get Zack to daycare and be at Jake's court hearing by 8:30.

So I rushed home and changed and made it to the daycare at about 8:00. I basically threw him at the teachers and gave them a brief play by play of the nebulizer and such and off I went. I arrived at court right before 8:30.

Court was supposed to begin at 9:00 and they had told us to be there early so Molly and I sat in the waiting room and waited. And then we waited... oh yes and then we waited some more.

TEN THIRTY they came and got us. TEN THIRTY people!! I rushed around for NOTHING!! When we got into the court room we were talking with the lawyers and found out that the treatment center in Mt. Pleasant where we wanted Jake to go won't take him because he's on medicine. SO, now he gets to go to MECCA which is not as great.

Strike one.

And he may have to go to the MECCA in Des Moines, which is not as great as the one in Iowa City.

Strike two.

And the state will only commit him for 7 - 30 days even though his doctor said he needs 3 to six months. As the lawyers told us it is either this or nothing which would you prefer.

Strike three.

FAN F*CKING-TABULOUS!!!

So now I have to find a place that we can transfer him to once he gets out. AND I will have to figure out how we are going to pay for this place that we transfer him to. However, like I told Jake there is no point in him just doing the 30 days and then coming out and relapsing. That would just be a waste of everyone's time, effort and money. If we are going to do this, we need to make sure that we do it right.

So, about 11:30 I finally make it to work on my two hours of sleep. I got in and had JUST sat down at my computer when I noticed the server was beeping and our e-mail wasn't working right. So I went over to see what was wrong and noticed the e-mail system had crashed. So I tried to fix it with no luck and ended up having to reboot the entire server.

As soon as I finished that I decided I needed some lunch. I went to lunch with a co-worker and as soon as I got back I got a message that Zack had a fever and that they had only gotten two ounces in him all day (it was almost one by this point) and so my mom had gone and picked him up.

I called the doctor and they told me that I needed to take him back to the hospital so off I went to meet my mom in the ER once again. As I was walking out the door someone stopped me and said the e-mail was not working again. I caught one of the other tech guys and asked him to look at it as I bolted for the elevator.

When my mom pulled up to the ER I immediately noticed that all two ounces Zack had taken this morning were down his front so I was glad we were there. They gave him some anti-nausea medicine and then took some blood and gave him another nebulizer treatment.

After all of that we were able to get about three ounces in him and thought we were doing good until the nurse came back and told us that his potassium levels were high. SO... they had to take blood again and this time they were going to put and IV in so that if his levels came back still high they didn't have to poke him a third time.

It was at this point that I lost it. He cried and I cried as two nurses held him down to place the IV. They got the blood they needed but ended up bending the IV and had to remove it. Then it was more waiting.

Finally about 45 minutes later they came back and said that his levels were okay and they were discharging us.

At this point all I wanted to do was fall into bed. BUT NO... the DHS lady is coming tomorrow and so my mom and aunt thought that I should probably clean up my house before she got there so about 6:30 they showed up to help and they didn't leave until 9:30. At which time things had been picked up... but not really cleaned. (YES... my house was THAT bad!!)

When they left both back seats of my mom's tahoe were full of clothes. Katie and Jess are coming tomorrow to do the actual cleaning while I am at work. Someone just shoot me now!!

4 comments:

Lynanne said...

When it rains, it pours....it simply isn't fair. :( Deep breaths and take one step at a time... I can't even imagine what this must be like for you. Hang in there!

The DHS people have seen LOTS of messy houses, trust me. They are basically going to check that you have the essentials to care for an infant - water, heat, food, sewage/garbage disposal, etc and that there are no outright dangers (ceiling caving in over the crib, broken glass everywhere, etc). They may ask about childcare, carseats, access to medical care, etc. All of it is a formality. It takes MAJOR problems to remove a child from a home (for better or for worse). Whether or not you cleaned the toilets or vacuumed the carpets really won't matter.

Krista said...

Oh... this sucks. I wish that the state was more committed to getting Jake the help he really needs. It is so ironic that the system is not prepared to deal with the matter preventatively but they will see him a million times if the drug use leads to criminal behavior.

I hope thatZack is feeling better and you are able to keep food in him now. It is so sad when they are sick and so helpless.

I hope you have a better day tomorrow!

spellconjurer said...

I read your post yesterday Heather. I'm was just at a loss for words, because even if I had a child with a nebulizer (I did, asthma), even if I have had children with bronchitis, (I have)even if I have had a family member devastated by drug addiction, (yep that too), I have never had to endure a visit by CPS (our version of your DHS), nor have I had to take every single one of these trying situations and pile them one on top of the other like a dagwood sandwich. I was thinking about you while driving to work Sunday morning though. Our local pop/soft rock station has a slight spiritual DJ flavor to it on Sundays, with motivational blurbs in between songs. The DJ was relating a story of a woman who felt so tried by life. She said, Why me? and her pastor told her that God doesn't give anyone anything thinks they can't handle. The woman shook her head and said,,,,,,"Well I wish he didn't trust me so darn much". All I could think of just then driving along, was you Heather. Waves of caring and support are being sent your way from the east.

Tink said...

This isn't fair... You expect crappy things to happen to bad people. But not to good people like you. I'm so sorry things have been rough. You're doing a great job though! Hang in there girl.

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