Have to start somewhere!

This has been the longest gap I've had in blogging since I started blogging 1.5 years ago. Something will happen and I'll think, "I should blog about that." But then I also think, "I haven't blogged about this, that, or the other thing yet, so maybe I won't blog about it yet." It's the feeling I get when every room in my house is messy and I don't know where to start, so I just don't start. Also, things have been busy around here, so my down time has been spent catching up on my shows or something else immensely worthwhile.

One thing that helps me when my whole house is messy is setting a timer for 15 minutes and devoting that 15 minutes to one room. This idea comes from FLYLADY, one of my heroes. Anyway, I'm going to apply this principle to the blogging I need to accomplish. My posts may not be super-detailed, but hopefully, some of these events can at least get documented and that will have to be good enough.

I'm going to start with Canon's surgery last week. This experience with him in the hospital is what has made this month feel like it was sucked into a vacuum. How is April next week already? Anyway... here's the story.

On Sunday, Charlie stayed home from church because he was sick with a really bad cold and cough. Monday morning, Canon woke up and told us that his "tummy hurt" really bad and he could hardly eat any breakfast. So figuring he'd picked up something from Charlie, he stayed home from school that day. Paul took them to the store at one point and Canon had fallen asleep in the car on the way home and came inside and laid down on his bed (very unusual for Canon to nap) and proceeded to sleep nearly all afternoon.

I got home from work at about 5 and was helping Canon get a drink of water. Even the process of sitting up was painful for him, as well as any touching or pushing on his abdomen, so I wish I had paid more attention to that detail earlier on. We attempted to feed him some dinner but he kept throwing up. We let him sleep on our floor at bedtime to keep him nearby for any future puking. When I went to bed at about 11:00, Canon woke up wanting more water. His pain was worse and the red flags finally started flying for me. I looked up appendicitis symptoms on my blackberry and sent Paul down to the computer to do the same. Canon was also able to pinpoint where it hurt the most, which was right above his right hip. Paul and I decided we would definitely take him in to the hospital that night, even though Canon didn't like the idea. He kept saying, "Just take me to the doctor in the morning!"

We had Paul's dad come over to help Paul give him a blessing. Though Canon must have been in tons of pain, he was being such a trooper. Paul decided he would take him in to the ER in Orem (since it's always 10 times faster than at Provo). They were able to be seen right away and with an ultrasound, they were able to confirm that it was indeed, appendicitis. (good job, mom!) Though Orem's ER is faster, the hospital isn't as well equipped with staff, so they transferred them to Utah Valley (UVRMC) for the surgery. Paul would be able to give better detail about this part, but I do know that he went in to surgery at about 5 and Paul called again at 6 saying that everything was finished and Canon was in the recovery room. They did find in the surgery that there was a small perforation with a small amount of leakage, so they knew he'd need to stay in the hospital at least through the day and night (This is Tuesday now).

I got Andy off to school and Charlie off to Grandma's house for the day and came to switch Paul places. He needed to get some sleep in a bad way. From this point, there is little to report about Canon's hospital stay. It was night and day difference from the last time I had been bedside a family member in the hospital for VERY obvious reasons. There is no way to compare a mere appendectomy to Spencer's accident. Canon was responding very well to minimal amounts of medication, able to start walking around the pediatric ward quickly and remained in pretty good spirits throughout his stay.

He did whine about being lonely and was hoping ALL of his family members would come by to see him. We had to wait until evening, but when we got visitors, we got a bunch of them and Canon was thrilled. Here's a picture of him with Andy and his cousins Ellie and Will.
We were blessed to have every nearby living Croshaw family member stop by for a quick visit. Canon especially loved the balloons they brought!

Ultimately, we were hoping we could go home on Wednesday sometime, but because of the slight rupture, they wanted to keep him on IV antibiotics an extra day. We spent the time doing laps around the pediatric ward, playing the Wii or new DS game we got him, reading, and watching the Star Wars trilogy. At one point, Canon even said, "this place is awesome!" I guess if you have to stay in the hospital, hope you get to stay in pediatrics... they definitely take extra tender loving care of you there!

We did finally get to go home on Thursday morning first thing. Canon was very anxious to get home, as was I. The sleeping arrangements for the guest were less than stellar. Canon has made extremely fast recovery. We only gave him normal tylenol or ibuprofen occasionally if he started walking funny. He's practically back to normal at this point, a week + later.

Phew, one blog post down. A bunch more to come, but no promises when you'll see them.