Thursday, May 17, 2007

Yes, we know we've been bad about posting

Howdy!
We are surviving, and alive. We have had to carry Acer everywhere, even if we're not moving we have to have him up on our shoulders. This is, of course, exhausting holding a 30 plus pound child up on your shoulder. We even have to do this in the middle of the night when he wakes up, at that time my life is measured in moments, I count to two hundred for each position as I transition him from being way up on my shoulders to lying down in bed.
Thankfully this is not bothering the small of my back where I usually have issues, instead it sends the middle of my back into spasms. This is an odd blessing, but it still enables me to walk, and the small of my back pain immobilizes me. Don't think I've asked Bill where his sore points are, I'll have to do that. Though I think with his being sick, he just aches all over poor guy.
Bill is fighting some bug with antibiotics, I'm trying to dodge it, and Acer has the occasional run of snot not & gooky cough but it hasn't developed any further than that. We do need to keep our room warmer than either Bill or I like it, but if it keeps him from hacking, we'll sweat it out (literally)
Yesterday we were supposed to go to a local village to see what life is like but instead we decided to stay here & try to rest. We were letting Acer be nekkid butte boy, when I noticed his parts weren't centered properly. A little later that spot really started swelling and we put in a call to our guides while they were at the village (thank heaven for cell phones) As soon as they came back, they came up and confirmed what I was worried about, that it was a hernia. Mary, our local guide, got in touch with the head of the local urology department and he skipped lunch to come over to check him out. He tried to put it back in (while we had to hold him down, and he cried heart wrenching sobbing screams) He was unable to manually fix it there so both Mary and Dennis (our guide for the whole trip) went with us and the Dr to the local hospital. the Dr used his clout to get us dealt with right away & Acer's hernia was temporarily fixed. We have a compression belt for the trip home, but for now we're under instructions to keep him from crying and watch that spot carefully.
He's feeling a lot better now and is able to sit normally, not splayed out.
Evidently the orphanage knew about this, but we weren't informed. I could have kept better check on that area. Oh well.
We had a good night's rest last night, Acer only woke up twice and Bill & I each took one turn to get him back to sleep.
Please continue the prayers, especially now that we've added a new concern to the mix.
All for now, I actually have to go do yet more paperwork - yeah me!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whew...like colic but with a thirty pounder. Yikes.

John told me earlier today about the hernia. I've been thinking about you that much more and hoping everything is okay. We wish there was something more we could do to help. Know that you are in our hearts and minds, and we hope you all get the rest and health you need to enjoy the rest of your time in China.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and that middle of the back pain/spasm - My chiropractor calls it "mommyitis"

Anonymous said...

Carrying Acer everywhere = Two plus years of mommyhood compressed into a few days!

Hope you guys feel better soon!