Day 404 - Not exactly how we planned

We began our spring cleaning (although Patrick calls it decade cleaning, as we are cleaning out boxes we have had in our garage since the move 7 years ago) yesterday, so we had a truck full of junk for the dump ready to go this morning.  After 2 loads to the dumb, we were ready for Ryan's labs in town.  We headed in, got his labs and some extra ostomy supplies for his belly, lunch and a few other things, then headed home.

Of course, the minute we pulled into the driveway, we got a call from Seattle.  We are wondering if we might have freaked out some of them with the whole 'fistula' thing over the weekend, because they were concerned that we were not being observed in the hospital.  After all, with most people, a fistula is a big thing.  There are risks of infection and concerns about why it's occurring and complications that are possible.  And here we were, just going on with our lives, like it was no big deal.

So, they asked us if we would bring him into the hospital for 48 hours of 'observation' and IV antibiotics, just in case.  (Funny thing is that we expected to do that on Saturday evening, but better late than never?)  We called over to Benefis and got it arranged to get us 'directly admitted'.  Most people go through the ER, which is appropriate, but in our case, since we knew that we would be admitted anyway, we'd rather just skip the whole ER thing.  I called up the pediatric floor, and when the nurse answered, I gave my normal spiel:  "Hi, this is Cheryl Simpson, I'm Ryan Simpson's mom... Do you know who I am?"  It sounds funny (and even funnier as I'm writing it), but it usually lets me know how much I need to explain before getting to the reason for my call.  Tonight, I was so fortunate to have the answer be, "Yes, I totally know who you are.  What is going on with our buddy?"  I explained that his fistula had re-opened and that the doctors wanted us admitted and she asked if that was the same thing he did last summer where the intestine popped through his belly... I love my nurses... just saying!

We finish getting Kathryn packed for her trip to Italy, and headed into town to the hospital.  We were given "Ryan's room", which is awesome.  Although I chose not to stay with him tonight, they have a second bed in the room, just in case I wanted to stay.  We got him all settled, and chatted with the hospitalist on call tonight.  He's totally cool, although a bit annoyed that the Xbox had to go through updates before he could play.  Ahhh, first world problems...

And so begins our 48 hours of observation.  We'll head back in to the hospital in the morning (and find out which of our nurses drew the short straw for who gets to take care of him!) and see how he's doing.  I expect that he'll be fine, just a bit bored.  But you know us... no complaints!!

Thank you all for the continued prayers and good thoughts!  (And an extra prayer for Kathryn and the entire Great Falls Community Choir as they travel to Italy for a performance tour!!  So excited for them!)