~The Speth Family~: Halloween 2012

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Halloween 2012

An Ammon update first... Really, I should have John update because he has been living at the hospital since last Wednesday :) He's living on very little sleep, waking at all hours of the night, taking care of the little guy, working during the day when I get here and trying to do school stuff at night. Eating out is expensive so I bring him leftovers each day from the meals the ward is bringing us, but he's not eating as well as I think he should. Super dad :)

My schedule is pretty random. I wake up, get the girls ready, drop them off at three different places or get them to school and then come to the hospital. The days are filled with taking care of Ammon, making sure he gets several walks and wagon rides, entertaining him, playing trains and cars and doing art projects that the volunteers bring us, trying to get him to eat (begging, really) and all of that. Then I rush home, pick up all of the girls from here and there, go home, try to clean SOMETHING (our house is indescribable at this point), eating dinner, doing homework and projects and feeding Madelyn and returning dishes and library books and throwing in a load of laundry when I can...

We're a bit tired :)

Ammon is doing okay. Each day has been a little better. He is talking now - a lot happier, as long as they are not trying to flush an IV. His IVs have been troublesome so he's had a new one almost every morning. They took out his two remaining chest tubes yesterday as well as his pacer wires, which makes going for wagon rides MUCH easier. It only takes me one minute to load him now instead of five :)

We've taken a ride to the playroom, but the chest tubes kept getting caught on things and I was afraid we were going to pull one out, plus he's still pretty weak so we mostly wander the halls in the wagon looking for jungle animals and fish.

His x-ray showed some fluid on his chest this morning so they started IV diuretics again - which is a pain because his bowels are already clogged up and his sodium and potassium were finally looking more normal-ish. Occupational therapy keeps taking him down to the therapy room to play with the hotwheels track, but they haven't done much else with him yet. John has been taking him for lots of walks and he seems to be getting stronger...

Yesterday, after Kylie's Halloween parade, I brought the girls to see Ammon. As soon as they walked in the room he teared up. He misses them so much! It was a lot of stimulation for him, but he loves being with them. John had picked out a costume from the hospital stash earlier and took Ammon to the Halloween carnival and then when we got here we went Trick-or Treating :) That was a lot of fun :) Then we left John and Ammon with Grandma and Grandpa Spencer and went home so the girls could go to out neighborhood trunk-or treat and then to their cousins for soup and more trick or treating. It was a good (and exhausting) day.

We just turned in Ammon's Holter monitor so we should know by tonight if they are going to open Ammon back up and put in a pacemaker. If not, they will help us work on getting him out of here!

1 comment:

UnknownNovember 1, 2012 at 2:25 PM
Love love love these darling kids, I am such a lucky grandma. Thank you Ammon for being such a fighter, we love you... And love your three darling sisters too. Great job on the costumes Suzi you all look so great. Keep getting stronger little guy so you can come to grandma and grandpas house. You are in our prayers ALWAYS. Love G-ma Speth
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