What Did We Really Do in February? Part 2 Happy Birthday, Jacob!

I can't believe that I completely forgot to post about the highlight of our month, Jacob turned 9!!! This is the last year that any of my kiddos will be in the single digits. Jacob's milestones are always bitter-sweet for me, I'm thrilled that he is growing and moving on to new stages, but he's my baby (probably my last baby).

This year we had another low key party for him, which only included the four of us and Papa and Grandma. We also celebrated at Papa and Grandma's house, since Grandma was in charge of his birthday treat. Jacob decided against a cake jam packed with dyes and thought he's like a pie instead. At first he wanted a graham cracker pie like Uncle Jason then at the last minute changed his mind and a lemon meringue pie. Our family believes the best lemon filing comes from Canada (their filing is also dye free) and Grandma hand some on hand, so she made his birthday pie.  Along with opening a few gifts from us he and his brothers spent some time playing outside and built a bonfire. As his birthday dinner he chose fried chicken, because we don't eat fried anything at our house.

School Daze

I know my title seems like so many others as all the kiddos get back to school, but this year that title is literally how our school year started of for me. I've been awake for roughly 25 hours straight, so when I dropped my boys off for their first day back to school I was in a daze. (I still am, so don't hold me accountable for spelling or grammar errors.) Last night was pretty much the same as it is for us every year; I double checked that all their supplies were in their packs (and labeled), clothes were laid out, alarm clocks were set, the boys were in bed earlier and had muffins baking for the morning. We were all ready and eager to begin another school year. Then thing took a turn I had not expected.

Yesterday Jacob had his first ever soccer game. He and his team had played well. They didn't win, but they played hard. Jacob hadn't expected so much running and with his allergies kicking in, he started to get a bit wheezy. No big deal, we've dealt with this before a quick breathing treatment and he'd be as good as new. He had been too nervous before his game to eat, so after his treatment we celebrated his first game with pizza. Then spent some downtime watching tv before preparing for school the next day. All the kiddos were in bed and all the "school stuff" taken care of, I went to visit with a friend across the street for a bit. As we chatted time got away from us (as it often does) and around midnight we called it a night. I peeked in on my boys before heading to bed and noticed that Jacob was starting to get wheezy again. I really didn't want to wake him, he had an exciting day ahead of him so I went to lay down. I had this nagging feeling to check on him that could not be quieted. I went back and watched my sweet child sleeping. His body was working harder than it should have to breathe and out came the breathing treatment again. I knew it was necessary but felt so bad watching him fight to stay awake enough to sit up for the treatment. Knowing he had his treatment that he would be able to rest more peacefully I went back to bed, it was one in the morning and I had to be up early. There was that feeling again that something just wasn't right, I had to check on him again. When I went to him his breathing hadn't got any better. I stood there on the ladder of the bunk bed for at least a half hour watching the way his chest moved and comparing it with the way his brother's was moving. His breaths were to shallow and to quick and his heart was racing. To reassure myself that he was fine, I woke my poor baby up and had him come sleep in my bed so I could watch his breathing. By this time his tummy had started doing what I could only describe as "the worm" it wiggle up his chest with every breath than his body did this kind of twitch. I really started to panic, this happened last time when his oxygen levels had started dropping. I kept asking him if he was okay, and he kept telling me that he was tired. Hating to keep waking him due to my own paranoia I let to sleep but kept an eye on his breathing, something just didn't feel right. Then he woke and asked me to call the doctors because his chest was hurting really bad.

It was around 3:15 am so the only option was to call 911 and they were here in less than five minutes. They said that he needed to go to the hospital. I called Papa waking him up at 3:30 in the morning to have him come watch my other boys so I could follow the ambulance. Papa doesn't live real close by and we couldn't sit and wait until he got here. I called my friend and she woke up her kids and came straight here. (I have the best friends ever <3). She stayed until Papa got here then had to get to work and her own kids off to school. I swear the scariest thing I have ever seen is one of my kids in the back of an ambulance.

Jacob and I spent the next 3 hours in the hospital while they helped return his breathing to normal. I was still too shook up to sleep, as he slept I watched his chest. While there we also learned he had a double ear infection he hadn't complained about. We were sent home with a steroid, a script for his treatments, and an antibiotic.

While I wasn't sleeping at the hospital, Papa and Joey weren't getting any rest at my house either. I learned when we got home that Joey had been awake since the paramedics were at our house. He was all wound up between worrying about his brother and school starting in only a few short hours. Jordan was able to sleep until about 6 when Joey woke him thinking he needed to be at school by 7. Jordan was baffled that Papa was there as he had slept through all the events of the happened.

We made it home from the hospital just in time for me to run Jordan to school. Papa stayed to watch the boys for me seems they were wide awake. Papa headed back to his house (hopefully to get some sleep) as the younger boys were getting ready to leave for school.

While we had had a rather eventful night Jacob insisted on attending the first day of school, it's only a half day. My baby was safe and acting like himself so I let him go to school. We still managed to keep our tradition of first day pictures and mom seeing them off to school. For the younger two it also include seeing them to their classroom doors.

A huge thank you to Papa and to my friend Krystal for being there when we needed you!! You truly are blessings to us.

8th grade

3rd grade

4th grade

Jake Turned 8!

Yesterday, my Jacob turned 8!!! Every year we celebrate a bit differently depending on what the boys want to do. Some years we end up having two "parties" one at home on the actual birthdate and one on the weekend with the grandparents. February it seems harder to get everyone together for just on celebration especially when the weather tends to be unpredictable. Usually when one of their birthdays falls on a Friday it makes things easier to schedule, but Jacob wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese as his birthday activity. Have you been to a Chuck E Cheese or the like on the weekend, it's pure craziness. I try to avoid such places on the weekends. I have mentioned to the boys maybe we would play hooky on Friday from school and spend a couple hours celebrating instead, seems they would be missing school that morning anyways for doctor appointments. They were all for missing another day of school. We had a busy weekend planned and I wanted to find a way to make sure Jacob was able to get the birthday attention he deserved. Thankfully scouts was canceled on Thursday, which gave us a chance to celebrate a day early and still have the boys in school part of the day Friday. They have missed so much school already due to snow/cold days and preferred they be in school. Plus Jacob could still celebrate with his classmates and bring in his birthday treat. With a new plan in place right after school Thursday we headed down to Chuck E Cheese. There were more people there than I thought there would be but it was far from being crowed. We now have a spending time there to a science, while I order the pizza and find a table the boys head to play in the "tubes", once the pizza arrives and I round up the boys and we eat, then finally the get their tokens. Once the token are gone we cash in our tickets and head home. It seems to be the easiest way to get them out the door with minimal arguing. We discovered awhile back that if you bring in "good" report card that the kids receive a bonus 15 tokens per report card. So all the boys were granted their tokens from mom, bonus report card tokens, and Jacob receive some extra birthday tokens from the cashier.

Looks like A LOT more, but honest, there's only 8 candles

Friday, Jacob's actually birthday ended up being another snow/cold day and there was no school. (Of course it was! We had already managed to figure out a way to celebrate at a less crowded Chuck E Cheese) The down side to having no school on your birthday is you still have to wait until your party to open your presents. At ten in the morning Jacob started with the "When are they going to be here?". Joey had just learned to tie balloons so he helped me set up the party decorations. We had a small party just us and the grandparents for presents, cake and ice cream. Grandma and Papa were barely through the door when Jacob announce that it was time for presents. Amongst his presents he received a skateboard, an album to organize his massif collection of Pokémon cards, and of course more Pokémon cards. Seems it was just the six of us, we enjoyed a homemade cake decorated with Jacob's choice of rice paper (Pokémon).

After Papa and Grandma left we set up for one of bucket list activities and stayed up late watching a movie of Jacob's choice, The Jungle Book.

Never A Dull Moment Around Here

Today I'm surviving off of many cups of coffee, we had a very late night last night. Yesterday Jacob wasn't feeling well. I chalked it up to having a fever and a really nasty cold. After a warm bath in hopes that the steam would help ease his breathing I sent him to bed with cold medicine and the vaporizer running. I kept getting an unsettling feeling and was checking on him every 15 minutes as his coughing seemed to get weaker. Every time I checked on him his wheezing sounds seemed to be more pronounced. When he was sleeping I could see his diaphragm jerking trying to move air, his whole upper body moving with each shallow breath he took. I kept asking him it he thought he needed to go to the hospital and he kept saying "I don't think I need to go yet. Let me sleep for a while". I know my kids pretty well, but they know their bodies better than I do and are really good about letting me know when something isn't right with them. Finally at almost 1:00 am I couldn't stop this nagging feeling that we needed to head to the hospital; I knew I wouldn't get any sleep until I knew for sure if it was just a really stuffy nose or something worse. I woke the other boys and packed them in the van and we drove down to the hospital. I know I said that if my kid was having problems breathing I would call for an ambulance, but I still had to take the other two with me; and for all I knew it could have just been a stuffy nose.



My poor baby finally breathing a bit easier.

Honestly, it drives me crazy when I take my kid to the hospital because I think there could really be something wrong them and they want to chit chat and get height, weight, etc. I'm thinking "my kid is struggling to breathe and you want to chit chat". We finally get into a room and  they inform me his oxygen levels are really low at 89%, they like them to be not lower than 95. They gave him some steroids and got a breathing treatment ready for Jake and he had a mini panic attack; he thought they were going to put him to sleep. *The last time we wore a mask was for his scope and he remembers waking up rough. After explaining that it was clean air and I wouldn't allow them to put him to sleep or poke him with needles he was okay  with it. After the treatment he was put on oxygen for a bit, then they rechecked him and gave him another treatment. They repeated this cycle for about an hour, before he finally started to respond. We started taking him off the oxygen for short periods of time and his levels would continue to drop back down to 90 after 7-10 and they would put him back on it. He was taken for an x-ray that came back clear, thankfully.

The other boys were wide awake and excited to sit and watch TV all night. They learned they are not fans of infomercials, lucky for them we found some old Three Stooges to watch for about 2 hours. All three were up the whole night, red eyed and wired. After five hours, 4 breathing treatments, and 4 hours of oxygen we were handed an at home nebulizer and a prescription.

When we got home around 7 everyone headed off to bed. The younger two would not be going to school today. Jordan on the other hand had to be at school (No school- No practice), he slept for a couple hours before going in for a half day. He really didn't want to miss his first team practice. We are all still in a sleep deprived haze, but managing.

I was afraid to look like naïve parent for taking my kid to the hospital in the middle of the night for what might have been just symptoms of the common cold. I just had to follow my instinct that something wasn't right. I know myself to over react in the middle of the night, I have a fear that my boys may go to sleep and not wake up. After talking with the many nurses and doctors whom we saw last night, I was informed that with the way his levels kept dropping so rapidly that if I had not brought him in we could have had a very different result this morning. I'm very grateful that I listened to my gut and to my child. I would rather look naïve or an over protective mother than to ignore something that could seriously be wrong. Mothers are give a gut instincts for a reason, we have to trust ourselves to listen to it.

WE HAVE A DIAGNOSIS!!!

Last week Jacob's GI called us back and we now have a diagnosis, he has Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome (CVS) also known as functioning vomiting. I've been doing a lot of research on it and we are extremely lucky!!! Most kid start having episodes between ages 3-7, but don't get diagnosed for a couple years, they have to pretty much rule everything else out first. Also many have extreme vomiting that's close to nonstop for days and end up in the hospital from dehydration and are incapable of keeping any medications, food, or fluids down. Along with the vomiting they seem to get a lot of severe migraines and sensitivity to light. After having an episode the are exhausted and need a lot of rest. Jacob does get some stomach cramping before vomiting like the other whom also have CVS but his only lasts for minutes (or less) while others suffer sometimes for hours.

The many things that Jacob has that other suffers of CVS have is some stomach cramping, the vomiting and of course that it seems to happen in a cycle. CVS sufferers tend to have attacks at the same time of day everyday and for about the same amount of time. Along with some of the triggers that effect other like eating cheese, only his is when he has too much cheese or cheese too many days in a row. Anxiety and excitement are also triggers for him; which would explain why running with his friends during recess would lead to him having an attack. Some people are triggered by chocolate, but I haven't seen this in Jacob yet, we normally don't eat much chocolate.

Jacob has never had a migraine as far as I know. He usually only vomits once or twice when he has an attack. His attacks has never exhausted him, usually after getting sick he'll continue whatever activity he was doing almost without missing a beat. His episodes recently have been just before bedtime and last approximately 1 1/2 weeks then he's episode free for about 3-6 weeks. Now that we know cheese is a trigger for him, I watch his diet more closely to avoid over doing it (he's like a little mouse, he LOVES cheese). Trying to have him not get to overly excited while playing is going to be challenging; he is a 7 year old boy, it's kind of what they do. He is aware that it is a trigger for him and I've been trying to help him remind him when he needs to slow down.

The onset of Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome can be at any age and can effect males and females. It was considered a rare syndrome, but it sounds like it becoming more common. I'm still trying to learn more about it. I'm just thankful that we now have a name for what has been going on with him, and that we're not alone.

I think by keeping a food journal and journaling when his episodes occurred helped in getting him diagnosed so quickly. That even before his first GI appointment we had checked for sensitive's or allergies to food though elimination diets. Jacob did have a couple misdiagnosis that others with CVS also had like acid reflux, seasonal allergies (or drainage from seasonal allergies).

He now take an antihistamine 3 times a day along with ginger root extract to ease his symptoms. There's no "cure all" for Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome. There are some research groups out there who are looking for answers and better ways to help those who have CVS.

Jacob's Trip to Children's Hospital

This morning Jacob and I got up early and headed down the Children's for a scope and biopsy, in hopes of getting some answers as to why he continues to have vomiting episodes. Things surprisingly went rather quickly. After driving around searching for a parking spot (for so early in the morning, the structure was pretty full), we found on finally on the 10th floor. We were running a few minutes late and I wasn't real sure as to where we needed to go. Luck for us, there was a nurse walking in at the same time and she walked us to admittance. The wait there was only maybe 5 minutes and soon we were on our way up to the waiting room. Again another short wait, we were able to play one electronic game of checkers before being called back. Once in our little room, we had a bunch of different people come introduce themselves and ask questions. Jacob got to change into some really unflattering pajamas, then we watched some cartoons for a bit. Jacob's doctors checked in with us and okayed for me to accompany Jacob to anesthesia. everyone was really good about making sure I knew what to expect and that Jacob know what was going on. Jacob was asked what smells he would like in his mask to help him get sleepy. He asked for pizza, then popcorn, and settled on strawberry because they didn't have his first two suggestions. At 9:00 they placed the strawberry scented mask on him and at 9:05 it was lights out. Thankfully it was very calm and Jacob didn't become agitated.  I went back to the waiting room and watched the monitor that updated parents on what stage their child was in. So I know that his surgery started at 9:18 and he was done and moved to recovery 1 at 9:30. I was called back to sit with him at 9:45. Jacob hadn't awoken gracefully. The poor little guy was so out of it and just wanted to wake up. He wasn't happy that he didn't have much control over his hand to bring the popsicle to him when he wanted. He became very aggressive when he insisted he had to use the restroom and we wouldn't give him privacy; he still was really wobbly on his feet. Around 10:15 Jacob finally fell back to sleep and slept until 11:30 when he woke as my sweet Jacob again.

 I was able to talk with his doctor. He didn't see any damage during the scope and also seen no evidence of celiac disease. We were given some picture that were taken, Jacob is looking forward to taking them to school tomorrow to show his friends. Jacob is to stay on the Prilosec and was given a script for another medication to take 3 times a day.

I suffered along side with Jacob and hadn't had anything to eat and only a couple sips of coffee, so we were both extremely hungry on the way home. We stopped for Mickey D's, probably not the best choice but it was close and it what Jacob wanted. I was a little worried about him eating something greasy so soon after the procedure, but he didn't react to it. He's suppose to take it easy today, so we'll be watching cartoons and movies and vegging out.
 He's been doing well, since we left the hospital. I stocked up on popsicles incase his throat was sore, but he says it isn't bothering him. He seems to have a rough wake up, but bounces back quickly.

We don't have another appointment with the GI for awhile, but they'll be calling to follow up in a couple days. As much as I hope there is nothing "wrong" with him, I hope we'll learn why this has been going on and the best way to end it or ease it somewhat.

Thank you everyone for the prayers and positive thoughts.

Tummy Trouble (rewritten)

Five days into the school year and my Jacob is home from school, he vomited at school. Knowing it's school policy that he needs to come home I brought him home. It will take this school a while before they realize not to send him home unless he has a fever or looks sick. The thing is Jacob has been going through this for about the last 3 years. He has no fever or other symptoms of being sick and randomly vomits and then continues his activities. There seems to be no rhythm or reason to his episodes.

Three years ago he started getting sick shortly after eating and I had no idea unless I found the evidence. It would happen once or twice a month, then wouldn't happen again for a few months. I assumed he was eating too quickly or playing hard shortly after eating and didn't really think too much of it.  Over the years it started happening more frequently. This past year he seems to have settled into a pattern. For a while it would happen everyday right after lunch for a week or two. One day he had multiple symptoms at once. After lunch he went to recess and vomited, but also had a tightening in his chest, he panicked and started to hyperventilate and turned blue around his mouth. Not thinking clearly I left work (thankfully I worked in the lunch room and could be reached quickly) and drove him to the hospital (if it happens again I'll be sure to call 911; not sure why the school didn't do that before bringing him to me). By the time we got to the hospital his color had returned and his pulse ox. was normal and they sent us home with a clean bill of health.  I started looking for food allergies. If he had peanuts on a day he was sick, I'd remove peanuts and foods made in factories that processed nuts. There was no change after eliminating different foods. I would eliminate them for a week or so before moving on to the next food. We have tried gluten free, dairy free, peanut free, nothing with tomatoes (tomatoes trigger my GERD, so I thought they might be giving him trouble too). Regardless of what he ate he'd still get sick. I started carrying Benadryl around just in cause he reacted to something and turned blue. Then he just stopped getting sick, for about two months he didn't have an episode. Then when it started up again, instead of getting sick right after eating he would be fine all day then get sick just before bed. This continued for about a week or two. It didn't matter how long between eating and heading to bed. Then it just stops again. From my past months Google research it sounds like Cyclic Vomiting.

A few weeks back we visited with cardio and the GI. I was not very excited when the GI suggested that the vomiting could be caused from anxiety. Jacob is my least anxiuos child. He wasn't anxious at recess playing with kids he's known for years, or anxious about going to bed. Once he had an episode while we were barbequing with friends at the beach. I just couldn't see that being the cause. He recommended having him see a therapist, but also arrange for him to have a scope and biospsy. The cardio said the tightening feeling is most likely growing pains from his chest and ribs growing. They did an ultrasound and everything looks good (she did find a very noticable mummer). She doesn't feel that his vomiting episodes are connected to his heart issues. That after the scope if I still felt there was a connection that she would take a second look. 

Tomorrow we have to be at Children's Hospital at 7:30. Jacob will be the first patient of the day with a 9:00 appointment. We hoping to get some answers to why this continues to happen. We'd like to ask everyone to say prayer for him or send positive thoughts.