That's the way we get by.

Whew. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. Let's review.

Um, that's kinda awesome.

On Friday, September 13th, my company's president announced that we *might* be moving into this sweet historic building in Downtown Durham. The office buzzed all afternoon. Wouldn't that be cool?! 

On Saturday the 14th, Jonathan had to work all day because of a looming major project deadline. So the kids and I went adventuring, walking all around downtown Durham. We grabbed some breakfast at the Farmer's Market (after discovering a line out the door at Monuts), hung out with the Bull, and wandered down to the main library for story time. 

Coloring the dinosaurs after story time.

Coloring is serious business. She was there long after all the other kids had finished.

 That afternoon, we picked up a friend and went to play and explore at one of our favorite parks in Cary. My co-worker had some major dental surgery and I thought she might like some child-free time, so Evelyn got to play with Aria and we even went out for ice cream. Fun!

Buddies, Aria and Evelyn exploring the Black Creek Greenway

So then it was Sunday. Jonathan off to work, and the kids and I were off to Duke Gardens for some exploring.

Good morning, ducks!

Aren't the gardens beautiful? 

GOB pointing out all the ducks

Clucking with the hens in the new children's gardens!

When the novelty of chasing the kiddos around the gardens to keep them from picking flowers or eating gravel wore off, we loaded up to find some fabric to make Evelyn more dresses for school. She's lately decided that she haaaaates all varieties of pants. I can still convince her to wear "soft shorts" (bike shorts) and leggings, but if she had it her way she'd wear dresses and tights all day, every day. So we needed to make some more red dresses. Then we had to check out TJ Maxx, mostly to hunt for a crock pot after ours suffered an untimely death. No dice there, but I did find some kinda generic looking lamps for the sofa table in the living room. I thought maybe the bases could be spayed a fun color or something. So I texted Jonathan a picture to see what he thought. And that was when the fun began. 

Upon further consideration, I find them far too generic. The lamp hunt has gone on for almost 6 months now. 

Immediately after texting Jonathan, he called back. There was something in his voice that sounded off. He said he wasn't feeling well, and I could just tell something was really not right. I told him we'd be right there. So we got to Cary in record time, he hopped in the car, and off to Urgent Care we went. I thought it'd maybe take an hour or so... we got to Urgent Care at about 12:30 PM on Sunday. Jonathan went right back and the kids and I? We waited...

We read some magazines. 

We waited...

We played dinosaurs.

We ran around outside. We read books. We ran around in the atrium. We went to the bathroom. We changed Gideon's diaper. We waited. Jonathan texted from his room to tell us he was getting x-rayed. We waited. And then Jonathan emerged, looking as pained as he was when we got there, and we headed home.

The verdict after three hours at Urgent Care? Abdominal pain. Probably not kidney stones or gall stones or appendicitis. A prescription for amoxicillin. Instructions to drink some prune juice and magnisium citrate and rest. Um... ok? We dropped Jonathan at home and the kids and I ran to CVS to get his prescription and stuff.

We came home and he was in bed, still in pain. I turned on the TV to watch the kids and got to work cleaning the house. It was a disaster. While we were out all morning, the cat had puked all over. Like, all over. It stank. There were dishes, and laundry, and all the things I figured I'd worry about Monday when I was off work. Because, I forgot to mention, but Jonathan's parents were arriving Monday to stay with us for a week. And then, a few minutes after I started cleaning, they called to report that they were making record time and would be here in a couple of hours!

Almost simultaneously, I hear Jonathan in the the bathroom, doing his scromit. (He sort of screams when he vomits. It's intense.) Something is not right. He's still in lots of pain. I'm in the middle of cleaning and making the kids dinner. The kids haven't napped. The house is a mess. Jonathan's pain is getting worse. Stir the sloppy joes, call Urgent Care. They say go to the ER. Jonathan calls his brother for help. Feed the children. Try to figure out what's going on. Jonathan is in the car, in severe pain, asking to go. Now.

Go to the ER. Adrian meets us there to take the kids and we go in. It's... I don't know... 6:00 PM maybe?

Jonathan gets through triage and then we go back out to the waiting room with the masses and we - you guessed it - wait! Man, waiting in the ER with someone who is in a great deal of pain and we don't know why? That's one of the most helpless feelings I've ever had. I was *this* close to standing up and asking, "Is there a doctor in the house?" Finally, after repeatedly begging the desk nurses to help us, a room opened and we made it back to an ER room. And after maybe 5 attempts, sometimes with nurses digging around in both of his arms, they finally got an IV line in Jonathan and finally got him some pain meds. Finally. We could both breathe a little. It was probably 8 or 9 PM, so he'd been having waves of dull pain with periodic stabbing pain for about 9 hours straight.

He passed out. I searched the room high and low for a way to turn off the blaring TV. I finally flagged down a tall nurse who was able to jump up high enough to shut it off. I turned off the lights and turned on some calm music on Pandora and waited.

They decided to do an ultrasound. The best guess was pancreatitis, but they weren't sure why he'd have it so they needed to check for gallstones. Luckily I got to go with him. It was cool to get to see all his organs, but also hard to see him in a great deal of pain even with the pain meds, because they were poking and pressing on his abdomen. And because techs can't tell you anything, I was also terrified that he was full of tumors or something and they just weren't telling me. I'm sort of a castrophizer sometimes.

Prepping for the ultrasound

After the ultrasound we went back to the room in the ER and... waited! It was maybe 10 or 11 PM. Adrian had stayed with the kids at our house and gotten them to bed and everything, and Jonathan's parents arrived after their long drive from Kansas. Our nurse came in around midnight to let us know that Jonathan was going to be admitted to the hospital. I asked if that would mean he was going to move out of the ER, and she said, "Yes, but I can't say when a bed will open." So I ran home to shower and get us things we'd need for a hospital stay. I got back to the hospital at maybe 2 AM and when I checked in at the ER, they said that he'd been admitted to the hospital so he probably wasn't there. Then they checked again and said that no, he was still in the ER. So back I went. He was still there, and the nurse explained that getting out of the ER after you're admitted to the hospital is all about politics, and he had a bed but then someone gave it to someone else, and our nurse and her charge nurse were trying to find a nurse upstairs who was on their side and get him a bed, and on and on. It sounded complicated. We just asked for more pain meds so Jonathan could keep resting, and we waited.

At about 5:00 AM, they said that Jonathan had a bed! It was in the orthopedic ward, not really where general medicine (who would be his doctors) are housed in the hospital, but our ER nurse said she'd talked to the new nurse and that "she sounds like she's ready for him, and she's awake and alert." That seemed like a weird thing to say. But I was just happy we were on the move. We got upstairs to the 6100 ward and met Kathy, who was SO nice. She got Jonathan all settled and then turned to me and said, "Oh honey, you must be exhausted. Can I get you a water?" And she had a blanket and pillow and sheets for me?! Amazing. So, so nice. I needed to leave the hospital by 6:30 or so to get the kids up and to school, so I didn't really sleep, but I at least could breathe a little. And Jonathan was on better fluids and morphine. And in a real room!

Duke Chapel as seen from room 6122

So it was Monday. I got the kids to school and then went to a meeting that was kind of a big deal. I was exhausted. Went back to the hospital and Jonathan was there, still in pain, still not allowed to eat or drink anything. I stayed with him until it was time to get the kids and take Evelyn to ballet, and then the next couple of days involved just running back and forth between home, work, school, and the hospital.

Flowers from Kimley-Horn

We were *so* lucky that Jonathan's parents came when they did. Without them, Jonathan probably would have just stayed alone in the hospital most of the time. Not that he couldn't have done that, but I just think that it's so much better to have someone there with you in the hospital. Even when I was there, there were still times when we'd page the nurse and she wouldn't come in for an hour or two. There were meals delivered when the doctors had said he couldn't eat or drink anything, there were questions about tests that had been conducted and the results never communicated to Jonathan/us. So he asked me to be there as much as possible, and I was. He had a CT scan, a contrast CT, an EKG, and lots and lots of blood tests. They were basically just ruling out everything they could, and nothing seemed to be amiss except for his inflamed pancreas.

GOB fell asleep at the dinner table. We were all a little tired. 

Finally, on Wednesday, Jonathan was released from the hospital. I was back at work, so his parents picked him up and took him home. And we all tried to rest and recover. And by that I mean clean, and pack, and take the kids to school and pick them up, and clean some more.

... so we could spend the weekend at the BEACH! Amazing! We visited Ocean Isle Beach for the first time and we were oceanfront with our own walkway to the beach. And now I see why people do that. It's so incredibly convenient and easy to go back and forth to/from the beach with young kids when you don't have to pack and haul ALL.THE.THINGS. to and from every time. You can just go out and walk on the beach with your coffee in the morning. You can send kids back to the house to grab something. Seriously, I think it's spoiled me now. But it was a really nice weekend.

Kite flying

Oceanfront house! Aaaah this is the life. 

Gideon and Edison being wild toddlers. 

Linus, the coolest kid on the beach.

Our last morning at the beach.

On Monday, it was back to work. Richard and Terry headed out early Tuesday morning, and we were back in the swing of things. Trying to catch up at work and home. It was a long week. But we're thankful that Jonathan's feeling better. And we just try not to think too much about how much that hospital stay will cost. I'll fill you in on that another day.