It's Sunday and Friday came last week and the Canadians let Richard in this time.
So he doesn't have current plans to leave in a hurry.
Liam is recovering, we've done a second lot of ultrasound images as the first set didn't show an AV fistula, which they thought they'd seen on the CT scan, neither does the second set. I think this is a good thing, but I'm sure the surgeon would rather have his diagnosis confirmed and move on with solving the problem.
So we've had a quiet weekend around the house,Liam and Richard are building a model farmyard, and those other kiwis are coming over for dinner.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Days you can do without.
We (Christine, Liam,Madeline and Izabel) took a trip to Denver. We left Victoria on Good Friday and meet Richard at the Denver airport, where he had flown to from Texas. Saturday was a good day, set up things for Sunday, when Liam and Richard had skiing lessons. We went to Loveland which is about an hour out of Denver. They both enjoyed their lessons, Liam was worn out after his full day of skiing.
Monday we went to the downtown aquarium and the children's museum with friends from Santa Fe who have moved to Denver. Both places were great and the kids all enjoyed playing together at the park in between too. It was nice to catch up with their move and set up in Denver.
Tuesday morning was fine really, we did some shopping, got some activities to do in the hotel room the problems started with the scissors, Liam wanted to cut the game pieces out for one of the ladybug games, he is not clear about how, but the sicssors went into his right leg,behind his knee,so I think he was standing and sat down on the chair with the sicssors in his hand and sat on the sicssors. After he screamed in a more screamy way than normal I put Izabel down ( she was feeding) and walked around the couch to see Liam's trousers colouring with blood,I pulled them down and the blood was pumping from his leg, I automatically got him lying doiwn and put my thumb over the hole,too hard according to Liam, but I stopped the bleeding, then needed a phone. I couldn't reach the room phone but my cell was on top of the stroller next to me so I called 911 and spoke to the operator who put me onto the ambulance operator and dispatched some paramedics. Once they arrived I called Richard, he met Liam and the team downstairs once they had decide where to take Liam. Which changed from what they discussedwith me so they went to Littelton Adventist Hospital. Richard went in the ambulanceand I stayed with Madeline and Izabel planning to follow for the pick up once we knew where and when. The surgeon at Littelton decided that it needed the specialists at Childrens hospital, as it was now rush hour it was decided to take Liam in a chopper, Liam really enjoyed this, he wasin pretty good spirits most of the time.
The surgeon at Childrens called in a Specialist Vascular surgeon from University Hospital and they operated on Liam's leg at about 10pm, it took until midnight and they sutured his artery. Richard stayed with Liam, the hospital is really well designed for parents to stay with children. There was a foldout couch bed in the room and shower facilities and toiletries in the hospital, there is also accomodation for families to be able to stay,but out of the patient rooms.
Madeline, Izabel and I went up to the hospital the next day. Izabel wasn't allowed in PICU, (Pediatric Intesive Care Unit) where Liam was so Richard and I swapped who was with Izabel or Liam. Madeline missed Liam alot, she woke up in the night worried about where Liam was, so once she was in his room and they were drawing or watching tv together she was happy, she didn't really want to go back to the hotel that night. Liam spent two nights in PICU, but the second was because they were short of space on the regular floor. He keep the nurses entertained, they all thought he was delightful, especially as they are used to much sicker children. Thursday afternoon he moved to the sixth floor where his room even had its own full bathroom and xbox system. Each of the regular floors have an activity room with all sorts of games and toys and craft activites. We had visited the one on the eightth floor earlier in the day. Richard and Liam tried to play baseball on the Wii which was amusing. Liam's physio had given him a walker, like a mini zimmer frame and a leg brace. Thursday night Richard stayed again and friday morning we returned again and the kids played in the activity room on the sixth floor until about mid morning when they said we could take Liam home, mostly they were organising follow up care in Victoria.
The rest of the time in Denver was good, we visited with people and went for a drive and looked around Denver and its surrounds. Monday we got up at 4AM!!! to get to the plane for a 7am take off. They had to deice the plane which Liam found amusing. Then he, Madeline and Izabel all slept till about the last 30min before we arrived in Seattle. We had little cart meet up off the plane so we got to our connecting gate really easily and were on out flight to Victoria at 10am The local Ice hockey team, The Salmon Kings were returning after playing Frezno and were on our plane. Liam didn't realise until we were all leaving customs and hestarted asking about what was in the big bags (hockey sticks) then he was asking then all kinds of questions about sticks and asking everyone if they were a Salmon King, most of the team said hi to him I think.
So today is tuesday again and I called the pediatric surgeon who we'd been referred to,since they hadn't called yesterday, and those were my instructions. She saw us today, 11.30 was the appointment at 12.30ish we saw her and she was concerned about the strength of the pulses in Liams foot, Sooo we went to Victoria General for a CT scan, and the vascular surgeon. He was not pleased with the results, there appears to be a connection bewteen the vein and artery, so tomorrow we go for ultrasound to confirm that finding then we see him again to decide how to proceed.
Monday we went to the downtown aquarium and the children's museum with friends from Santa Fe who have moved to Denver. Both places were great and the kids all enjoyed playing together at the park in between too. It was nice to catch up with their move and set up in Denver.
Tuesday morning was fine really, we did some shopping, got some activities to do in the hotel room the problems started with the scissors, Liam wanted to cut the game pieces out for one of the ladybug games, he is not clear about how, but the sicssors went into his right leg,behind his knee,so I think he was standing and sat down on the chair with the sicssors in his hand and sat on the sicssors. After he screamed in a more screamy way than normal I put Izabel down ( she was feeding) and walked around the couch to see Liam's trousers colouring with blood,I pulled them down and the blood was pumping from his leg, I automatically got him lying doiwn and put my thumb over the hole,too hard according to Liam, but I stopped the bleeding, then needed a phone. I couldn't reach the room phone but my cell was on top of the stroller next to me so I called 911 and spoke to the operator who put me onto the ambulance operator and dispatched some paramedics. Once they arrived I called Richard, he met Liam and the team downstairs once they had decide where to take Liam. Which changed from what they discussedwith me so they went to Littelton Adventist Hospital. Richard went in the ambulanceand I stayed with Madeline and Izabel planning to follow for the pick up once we knew where and when. The surgeon at Littelton decided that it needed the specialists at Childrens hospital, as it was now rush hour it was decided to take Liam in a chopper, Liam really enjoyed this, he wasin pretty good spirits most of the time.
The surgeon at Childrens called in a Specialist Vascular surgeon from University Hospital and they operated on Liam's leg at about 10pm, it took until midnight and they sutured his artery. Richard stayed with Liam, the hospital is really well designed for parents to stay with children. There was a foldout couch bed in the room and shower facilities and toiletries in the hospital, there is also accomodation for families to be able to stay,but out of the patient rooms.
Madeline, Izabel and I went up to the hospital the next day. Izabel wasn't allowed in PICU, (Pediatric Intesive Care Unit) where Liam was so Richard and I swapped who was with Izabel or Liam. Madeline missed Liam alot, she woke up in the night worried about where Liam was, so once she was in his room and they were drawing or watching tv together she was happy, she didn't really want to go back to the hotel that night. Liam spent two nights in PICU, but the second was because they were short of space on the regular floor. He keep the nurses entertained, they all thought he was delightful, especially as they are used to much sicker children. Thursday afternoon he moved to the sixth floor where his room even had its own full bathroom and xbox system. Each of the regular floors have an activity room with all sorts of games and toys and craft activites. We had visited the one on the eightth floor earlier in the day. Richard and Liam tried to play baseball on the Wii which was amusing. Liam's physio had given him a walker, like a mini zimmer frame and a leg brace. Thursday night Richard stayed again and friday morning we returned again and the kids played in the activity room on the sixth floor until about mid morning when they said we could take Liam home, mostly they were organising follow up care in Victoria.
The rest of the time in Denver was good, we visited with people and went for a drive and looked around Denver and its surrounds. Monday we got up at 4AM!!! to get to the plane for a 7am take off. They had to deice the plane which Liam found amusing. Then he, Madeline and Izabel all slept till about the last 30min before we arrived in Seattle. We had little cart meet up off the plane so we got to our connecting gate really easily and were on out flight to Victoria at 10am The local Ice hockey team, The Salmon Kings were returning after playing Frezno and were on our plane. Liam didn't realise until we were all leaving customs and hestarted asking about what was in the big bags (hockey sticks) then he was asking then all kinds of questions about sticks and asking everyone if they were a Salmon King, most of the team said hi to him I think.
So today is tuesday again and I called the pediatric surgeon who we'd been referred to,since they hadn't called yesterday, and those were my instructions. She saw us today, 11.30 was the appointment at 12.30ish we saw her and she was concerned about the strength of the pulses in Liams foot, Sooo we went to Victoria General for a CT scan, and the vascular surgeon. He was not pleased with the results, there appears to be a connection bewteen the vein and artery, so tomorrow we go for ultrasound to confirm that finding then we see him again to decide how to proceed.
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