Busy busy busy

We have been very busy lately!  I finished up my 4th clinical at the skilled nursing facility on Wednesday, May 4th. 

May 5th we drove to Ft. Worth for Bryan's (close friend of ours) graduation from the Ranch Management Program at TCU. 

The next day we had our families traditional "combine supper".  This is just a big cookout that my dad and uncle (who are in the farming business together) put on each year right around wheat harvest to cook for family and everyone they do business with.

Dad, cutting the meat

My dad, uncle Terry, and Caden

 

Sunday afternoon we headed to Lubbock because our friends, Bryan and Sarah, were scheduled to have their baby girl, Caroline. 



Bryan & Sarah with Caroline



Cody and Caden looking at Caroline in the nursery



We made it home Monday night, and Tuesday morning Caden woke up with a 103 fever.  He was sick off and on for a couple of days.  We were supposed to be heading to Lubbock first thing Saturday morning to await the arrival of our niece, Paislee Jo Elizabeth Coltharp. 

As it turns out, on Saturday Caden took a turn for the worst and was having a LOT of trouble breathing and had a fever of 105 (high fevers are nothing new to us. around Christmas he was sick a lot, even had a febrile seizure, and at one point had a fever of 106.1).  Poor baby was struggling to breathe and sounded like a panting dog so off to Clinic Care we went. 

While we were at the clinic for 4 hours, Caden got worse and worse.  His fever wouldn't come down with medicine, he screamed for about 2 hours straight, finally got so weak he could only lay on my chest and moan.  Before we left the clinic, they gave him a shot of antibiotic that the doctor said "is gonna hurt like hell".  After the shot, Caden became very lethargic which worried the doctor even more that Caden's body had just given out after struggling so much to breathe.  They then decided to admit him to the hospital. 

By the time we finally made it it to a hospital room and the nurses were checking him out, Caden was very hyper.  He was playing with EVERYTHING and flirting with the nurses.  At least until he got his IV.  He screamed through that.  Everyone asked me if that was hard to watch--it really wasn't, I was just so glad to know that he was going to get better.  Nothing was as bad as watching him earlier that day when he was so miserably sick and I couldn't help.  His crying over the IV quit as soon as I was able to pick him up again. 



Poor baby after he got the IV.  Notice his tiny hospital gown? 

   



  


We had a great experience with everyone at the hospital.  The only bad thing was Cody and I both trying to sleep on this small couch.   We had to wake each other up just to coordinate times to turn over.

 

Caden had trouble going to sleep both nights, but once he did he slept all night, even through the breathing treatments every 2-3 hours.

We were really starting to go stir crazy by Sunday afternoon.  There was only one other kiddo on the pediatric floor so the nurses got us a wagon and let us pull Caden down the hall.  He loved it-too bad we don't have a wagon for him at home.   Caden stole all the nurses hearts.  He really became such a ham around them.  They would call up their friends who were working other floors and tell them to come see him.  Of course the first thing they would all say is "oh my gosh, his hair!" You can't tell so much in these pictures, but his hair is out.of.control.  Guess he got that from his mama.






 

Caden's doctor seems to think that he initially had a virus which led to a bacterial infection which then set off some restrictive breathing (basically asthma, they just can't officially diagnose that until 2 years) and possibly a slight case of pneumonia.


We ended up being discharged to go home Monday morning.  We made it home from the hospital, I jumped in the shower and packed to go to Lubbock for week (I was supposed to be there at 8am for class that day).  I ate a quick lunch with Cody, said my goodbyes, and hurried along the 3 hour drive to Lubbock (with caffeine in hand since I hadn't slept much the last few days).  Once I got to Lubbock, I dropped off my bags at a friends house, and headed to Tech's library to take a mock licensure exam that I missed that morning (the same type test that I had to take 2 weeks early last summer because I was about to have a baby.  Thank goodness my professors are understanding!  They just kind of smile and comment on the amount of stress in my life.) Three hours later I finished that 250 question test  and went straight to meet up with all my PT school friends for much needed beer/margaritas!  Finally made it to bed at around 2:00am.

The rest of the week was full of 8 hour days of class, catching up with friends, visiting newborn babies (Caroline and Paislee) and of course GRADUATION-which I will post later.

Finally got to meet Paislee