AJ- part 1092348839407

On Friday AJ had a 'routine' tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy/botox procedure. True to form, he was anything but typical. We were supposed to be in the hospital overnight for observation, but now it looks like we'll be here until at least Tuesday.

Here's the skinny on what's been happening. Friday night, AJ couldn't maintain his oxygen saturations. Normal is above 90, he was dropping down into the 70's. No worries, we just kept him stimulated, and had respiratory therapy in throughout the night to do treatments and suction him.

Yesterday, he took a turn for the extreme worst. His oxygen was bad, heart rate was around 170-190 consistently (normal for him is about 90), fever was above 102 all day, and he just looked *bad*. By 6:00 they were anticipating a move to the PICU. They did an EKG, full blood and metabolic panels, and chest xrays. There was a massive flurry of activity in his room. You could literally cut the tension with a knife. The EKG was abnormal, and though the bloodwork was okay, it was obvious that there was something big going on. They brought out the restricted use antibiotics for him, wrapped him in wet towels, and put him on morphine. From 6-midnight, we were in a terror filled situation. Around midnight, his fever broke. By this morning, his heart rate was down in the 120's. We'll know exactly what we're fighting once the blood cultures are complete. For now, we're in a much less scary place.

Most of all though, we need you to keep Bella in your thoughts. She was here with us all day yesterday, and the effect on her was awful. The panic that we, and the hospital, were in last night made an impression on her that has left my heart aching. She cried for several hours last night that she didn't want AJ to die. Thank God for the doctors and nurses... they were able to tell her in a way that made sense to her 5 year old mind about what was happening. Still, seeing the trauma this has put on her is killing me.

I'll update more as things change. I love you all. I miss you guys a lot right now.

Mireya in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Dancing

Mireya in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Hola familia!

We are so proud of Yeya, last week she finished up her summer theatre camp.

She had a speaking role as Foot Fishman. I will post some others videos of her dancing as well.

I miss you all and can't wait to see you.

Roberto

AJ broke his leg

On Friday, Bella, Curt and I went to Denver for a much needed 'mini-vacation'. Spent the day at Elitch Gardens... and it was an awful lot of fun. Unfortunately, AJ's day wasn't nearly as good, and about 3 we got an emergency text message from his nurse that he was crying non-stop and holding his right leg 'funny'. We left immediately, and rushed back down to Colorado Springs- talk about the longest hour ever!

We had my mom & Lucas meet us with AJ at the ER. When we got there, they were already in an exam room. For once I was really glad that the hospital staff knows us so well, because the care we get is always amazing. They did a quick examination of the leg, and decided to just do xrays, since AJ was crying so violently.

Sure enough, his right femur had a severe fracture in it. They heavily medicated him, and set it on the spot. Placed him in an open cast (a splint, really), and sent us home with vicodin and an order to see the surgeon on Monday.

Once again, AJ's guardian angel was perched firmly on his shoulder. The ER doc was a miracle worker, one who received quite a nice note from us last night. When we saw the surgeon yesterday, she looked at his post-set xrays and let us know that AJ wouldn't need surgery at this time... it's still possible later this year depending on how it heals, but for now, he's in a full cast (thigh to toes). Bright red and covered in doodles. :)

If any of you see a break whizzing by, stop and grab it for us.