Wow - 2 years since we last blogged on this website. Sorry guys! Life is busier than ever with an active toddler running around the house. Harrison turned two in May. He is one active little guy. He has a great vocabulary for his age. He truly talks non-stop. I don't even know how many words he can say but I do know it is quite many! We moved from our house in Chattanooga in January 2006. We live in my parent's basement apartment again. It's a little cramped but we are making it work. It is a blessing to have it. We are able to focus on paying off our debt and once that is gone, we will save a huge down payment for a house. We plan on building our house and it will be the final house we have. We want to build on my parents property because we really enjoy this area now. We have grown to love gardening and all of the things country living allows.

We both missed work today. Harrison was up ALL night long. We woke up about every 1.5-2 hours screaming, crying and thrashing around. This started at 11 when he joined us in bed. We believe he has a stomach virus because of the output in his diaper. Anyway, he is doing better today. He didn't take a nap and won't eat much but he is playing and getting into stuff as usual. I stayed home to take care of him and because I probably had about 2 good hours of sleep last night. Chris mainly stayed at home to catch up on rest. We are house sitting for Chris's parents for the next two nights. Well actually he is house sitting alone tonight and Harrison and I will join him tomorrow. His truck "Mater" is going back in the shop tonight. We took it last week to have a oil leak repaired - nearly $500 and now we are having a radiator leak repaired - which will be around $150. We spend $500 on my car last month for new tires and servicing. I'm tired of car repairs. He will need to replace his cracked windshield and do a small tune up and change his brakes but that can wait until next month. I think Mater will run good after that. I sure hope so! We won't ever make any traction with our debt if we keep having to fix his truck. We only paid $3,000 for it so I guess this is to be expected. It's less than a car payment.

I've spent the past 3 days catching up on scrapbooking Harrison's first year. I'm on week 7 of his life...I guess you can say I'm really behind. It's moving fast considering the amount of pictures we have of him. I'm hoping to have his first year completed by the end of July then I will start his 2nd year. Well, Harrison is ready for me to hang out with him so ta-ta for now. ~Alicia

Our stay at the hospital

On July 4th about 8:30 pm we took Harrison back to the ER because his lump was really red and he had a temp of 101.2. We took him to TC Thompson's Children's Hospital this time. Upon admisson they immediately took blood and urine samples from our little guy and started an IV. His CBC was 34000 and the doctor told us a normal CBC is 10000. They did a CT scan and x-rays. The ER physician, Dr. Kelly, was great and was very upfront. She gave us the worst case scenario so we knew what we were facing. Basically Harrison had an abcess on his left side on his ribs. They intially thought it might be attached to his spleen and thought his little spleen might need to be removed. Thankfully this was not the case...Dr. Kelly called a surgeon. The surgeon resident thought he saw a small bite on the abcess but wasn't sure. They admitted us to the hospital around 3:30 am on July 5th. Harrison wasn't allowed to eat after 12:30 since he may have needed surgery. They decided to hook him up to IV antibiotics right away. When Dr. Carr, the surgeon saw him on Tuesday morning around 8 am he decided to drain the abcess. They gave Harrison a local anthestic and drained it. It was the most pitiful thing ever. We have never heard him cry like that. Thankfully he was allowed to nurse right after that so he quickly forgot about the pain and was glad to eat after 8 hours. Dr. Carr told us that he would keep an eye on the abcess and it may require surgery. He got a ton of pus out of it. They said we may never know what caused the abcess...maybe a bug bite or maybe where he scratched himself. They sent his blood off to see what kind of bacteria was infecting him. He was monitored all day Tuesday and his temperature went back down to 98.6. On Wednesday morning Dr. Carr looked at his abcess and decided it would need to be surgically debrided/drained so he couldn't eat anymore prior to surgery. They also determined he has a staph infection. I thought that staph infections were caused by being dirty. Evidentally we all have staph bacteria and Harrison's entered inside him or under his skin. Our pediatrician said there is an aggressive strand that causes boils and abcesses so I guess that is what happened. I couldn't hold him at all prior to surgery because he smelled milk and couldn't understand why I wasn't feeding him. He had his surgery at 1:30 pm and it lasted about 30 minutes. When we went to recovery to get him he was pitiful because he was still under anthesia. He looking like a little sleeping angel. He had surgery on his 2 month birthday :( Well his surgery went well and we got to go home about 7pm. He goes back to the surgeon on Friday to has his wound unpacked and then we should be back to normal. The amazing thing about this stay is what a trooper Harrison was. He was so brave and such a good boy. He really didn't cry that much (and he got poked and prodded a lot). I don't know if he could understand any of it but he was such a brave boy. I hate that any of this happened but we are relieved that it was not as serious as it could have been and it brought us closer together as a family. We had a very pleasant experience at the hospital and are thankful for the wonderful doctors and nurses that took such good care of our precious baby. Thank you for all the prayers for our sweet boy.

Scared pt.2

So everyone knows what's going on with my buddy now. It's my time to add my two cents. I'm with Alicia in that this is one of the scariest things I've gone through in my life. There is a very good possibility that we're totally over-reacting, and if we are GOOD. I'd rather over-react to something like this than under-react. All my life Mother has said, "just wait until you have kids of your own, you will understand". I think the fear we have in our hearts now set's that statement more true than ever, I understand! Knowing that something is wrong with Harrison breaks my heart, knowing there is nothing I personally can do to help him hurts even more.

Back last week when he had a little tummy virus, Alicia took his temp rectally, I stood beside him. I put my finger in his hand and he grabbed a hold tightly. When he shed a tear he was looking into my eyes. I just looked back and said "I know buddy, I'm here and everything is going to be OK". Now, even though he doesn't seem to be in any pain, I can't look him in the eyes and say it will be OK. I don't know. I try not to think about it when I'm around him, because I don't want him to get the vibe that something is wrong.

I know Alicia is having just as tough of time with this as I am. We have talked about it several times a day since we discovered it on Friday. How we wished we had reacted sooner, how we wished it weren't a holiday and we could take him to see Dr. Jones today, how we wished there was something we could do. It helps a little to let her know I'm having the same feelings, but it still doesn't set my heart at ease, nothing will until I know he is going to be OK.

I feel badly that we haven't kept up with this blog any better than we have over the past month. Some days just don't seem long enough for such a thing. However last night when Alicia was really having a tough time dealing with this, I said, "why don't you go write Harrison a letter, so when all of this is behind us, and he is old enough to understand, we can let him know how much we loved him even back when he was two months old." Then I checked our e-mail to find out she put it on the blog. I'm glad she did that, now you can see what we are going through, and if we don't seem like ourselves, this is why. I got to work this morning, and I can't stop thinking about him, about that lump, about Alicia and how much pain she is in.

I know blogs aren't suppose to be structured in any way, but I know this one is poorly written and all over the place, but I had to spill my guts for a while, and I'm glad I have this to do such. Hope you could read this, and it's not too scattered.

Love to all,
CHO