What a weekend!

Not only is this a post to let you know what when on this weekend, but it's a tribute to all Mom's in the world, especially My Mom and including me. The sleepless nights and unending worry, the healing hugs and sweet kisses, the worry wrinkles and the "it's all going to be ok" smiles. Mom's always make things better. On a side note, Dad's do too, in their own quiet special way; always sitting to the sideline waiting for their girls to look to him for support. The twinkle in the eye and the comforting smile - can't get by without you.

Jackson, Taylor (my niece) and I drove to Lubbock on Friday night to see my parents. My grandmother, who passed away in August, estate was settled, house was sold and my dad and his brothers completed the awful, gut wrenching job of deciding who gets what. Hard to comprehend how difficult this task can actually be. An entire house of memories that has to go somewhere and every paperclip has meaning, yet the logical side realizes that nobody needs stained tupperware, but it was Grandma's - it can't be trash. So, Mom's garage was full and we took the truck to collect our memories of Grandma that my folks decided they could part with. This really deserves it's own post that I may do someday. How do you take an entire life time and divy it up?

Jackson, Taylor and I jumped in Tony's F250 Crew cab, started her up,hearing the roar of the huge diesel engine and hit the road. If you have not seen this truck, it's HUGE. Big truck all around, but the lift kit and the huge tires just make it a mammoth. I can't even begin to explain how bouncy it is either. Tony has made some adjustments so it is much easier to drive, but keeping it between the lines can be a white knuckle experience due to it's loose steering. Uneventful trip, just miles and miles of bouncing through West Texas a total of 250 miles or so as we left from the River House in Weatherford. (Disclaimer: Tony loves this truck as do I, it's just does not ride like a Mercedes:-)

Got to Lubbock about 11:00 pm and put everyone to bed. Jackson really never went to sleep so when I finally wound down enough to hit the sack my self, I treated myself to sleeping with my boy - something I NEVER DO - it starts bad habits. He wiggled and squirmed and murmured in his sleep and finally just woke me up at 2:00 am burning up. I woke mom up to find a thermometer and he had 103 degree fever. Mom had just gone to sleep after helping my dad stabilize a super low blood sugar. Stuff my feet into some shoes, put on a coat over my jammies and back into the big truck to drive ACROSS town to the only 24 hour pharmacy for Children's Motrin. Seriously, Lubbock has ONE 24 hour pharmacy. Living in Dallas, I am used to things being open 24 hours on every corner. 45 minutes later, back at home, baby medicated, everyone back in bed, except mom's puppy Sophie who is in her kennel letting the entire house know of her displeasure.

Jackson continued to wiggle and sguirm and leak water from his sippy cup into the bed so Mom had to sleep in the wetspot, but I think I managed a total of three hours of sleep.

Saturday, we woke up and Jackson was retracting when he was breathing and wheezing. Looks like we had another case of pneumonia - just several weeks apart. Thankfully, I threw his Nebulizer in the Mammoth Truck for the weekend so we started breathing treatments that really didn't do anything. The poor kid sounded like he was panting but that didn't slow him down. He had alot of exploring to do at Nana's house.

We got the sorting of Grandma's things done and Jackson was still not any better. After his nap, he woke with another fever that would not break and was soon 105. Several phone calls to the after hours Pediatrician's office and we finally decided he needed to be on antibiotics which required a trip to the doctor. It's now 8:00 pm. And, of course, if the side walks roll up at 6:00 and there is only one 24 hour pharmacy, our only choice is the ER. We all load up in the mammoth truck as that's where Jackson's car seat is and bounced our way across town to the Emergency Room. Saturday evening at 9:00 pm. At least it would be entertaining. They got Jackson right into a room and the waiting began....

In the ER - trying to rest

Although I want you to feel my pain, I won't go into all the useless hours of sitting and trying to console an exhausted 2 year old and an exhausted mom and Nana. They put an thing on his toe to measure the oxygen content of his blood and that mad Jackson furious. It didn't hurt at all, but he kept pointing at it and saying OOOWWEEE. Then the stupid monitor set off some kind of alarm every three minutes so nobody could sleep while we wait for the slow wheel to turn that is all Emergency Rooms.

At midnight (3 hours after arriving) they finally decide that Jackson has to be admitted to the hospital. I think we had a very over cautious doctor, but Jackson was having such a hard time pulling in a breath, they did not want him to get so tired, he couldn't do it anymore and wanted Oxygen on the standby if he needed it. This is also the time, the put an IV in my baby's arm to administer some antibiotics and fluids. Nana sent me out of the room to go look at the freaks in the waiting room, but I could still hear my baby scream as they tried to find that tiny vein. AWFUL, AWFUL AWFUL. But am I glad I had my mom.

At 3:00 am (now 6 hours after we arrived), they finally moved us up to the Pedi floor. Nurses were in our room seriously within seconds of our arrival getting all the necessary info, alarms, bells, and whistles set up so we wouldn't sleep more than 3o minutes at a time. I know they are there for a reason, but seriously, how do sick people ever get better in a hospital when every 30 minutes some alarm goes off making you leap out of a crappy sleep anyway just to turn it off as it didn't really mean anything.

In our room on the Pedi floor- tyring to keep arm straight.
Everytime he moved his arm it made him cry.

In Jackson's room, there was one of those chairs that lay out flat to make a bed. They wouldn't bring us another one for Nana, so she slept on a window seal. Yes, my mom, sacrificed all comfort and made a pallet out of blankets and slept on a counter top underneath cold metal windows. I needed her and she never left my side - greatest mom in the world.

Jackson had an board taped to his arm to keep his arm straight for the IV to work properly, but every so often he would bend it, setting off yet another alarm to wake everyone up and straighten his arm.

Morning finally came, a very loud Resident Doctor came in, waking everyone in North Lubbock with his plans for the day which included more chest xrays, more antibiotics, but hopefully a discharge from the hospital. Jackson never required oxygen.

Waking up in the hospital. In the background you can see the ledge Nana slept on.

Now the wheels of the Pedi floor do not roll any faster than the Emergency room and it took several hours for them to come get Jackson for Xrays and even longer to bring the IV antibiotics. I took over mom's window seal pallet and took a nap while she cared for Jackson and could sit on something soft. I needed some rest in case we were discharged and I still had a 5 hour drive in front me.

Everything came out fine and we were finally free to go at 2:00 pm and the three of us were loaded back into the Mammoth, Grandma's memories boxed up and on the road to Dallas by 3:35.

Follow up visit to the Doctor this morning means we will do a steroid breathing treatment twice a day for the REST OF WINTER. This is a preventative thing to keep him from being "allergic to winter" (his pedi is kinda funny).

So, Jackson is now sleeping, still running a random fever every now and then, but hopefully on the mend.