She's Home!

Haley was discharged around 1:30 pm today. She's home, napping on/off, and watching a little tv. Thanks for your prayers & wishes everyone!

Haley

This is Friday evening in the ER. Haley has had her blood drawn, had the CT scan, and if you look at her left arm, it's ready for an IV. Moriah is giving her a hug.



This is immediately before the surgery outside of the OR. I think the time was around 12:15 am (Saturday). The doctor & nurse gave Haley a little black bear. Dan was trying to convince her that she would not remember any of this. But, she says she does.


This is Haley on Saturday afternoon, probably around 4:30 pm. She was not looking too well, and she still had quite a bit of pain. She went back into the bed after about 15 minutes in the chair.



Here's Haley on Sunday morning, around 9:30 am. She's looking better and is doing better with the pain. Her IV will come out sometime today, they'll have her walking a little more, and maybe she'll come home tonight!

Acute Appendicitis

Well, I will probably go into more detail about the Unity Experience at a later date (suffice it to say, we realize now why many people opt to use an ER 35 minutes away instead of the one in their own backyard).

Friday, around 4 pm, I called our pediatrician to get a "second opinion" of what I thought MIGHT be a possible appendicitis in Haley. She looked green. She couldn't stand without feeling dizzy and nauseous, she had a fever, and her side ached.

Around 4:20, the pediatrician's nurse called and said it'd be a good idea to go the ER and get Haley checked out. So, by 4:30 pm we were there. Within a few hours it was definite that she had atypical acute appendicitis and she was prepped for and emergency appendectomy.

(Note the time....All the details left out here might come in another post)

By 2 am, Haley was finally without her very inflamed appendix, which was also wrapped around her colon. No wonder she felt so horrible all day.

So...there she is for another night. We hope to bring her home Sunday and perhaps everyone in our household will get a nice long nap.

Oh...she asked if she could keep her appendix in a jar.

Nope.

It has to be examined in a lab.

Bummer.

Update in Pictures

so, it's been three weeks or more. Oops! Here are some pictures from Halloween, November 1st in Mason City, and some from around here:

How Many?

Ok - so it's been a few days now. I've recovered from the outcome of the election and am ready to vent again. I won't lament, weep, wine over the outcome of the presidential election. It was quite obvious that the people spoke and the people are now getting what the people asked for. Change (as in quarters, dimes, and nickels, right?). Hope (ain't just a small town in Arkansas). So, the next 8 years (the girls remind me it's only a 4-year term, but I've already conceeded 2012) will be a long ride.

Let me direct you to this site http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/All_Agencies/index.shtml
where you can look up information on any of the ______ federal agencies. The fill-in-the-blank isn't for a colorful adjective, although I'd probably agree with your choice. It's for a number. If you would like to spend the next 45 minutes actually counting the number of departments, email me or post the number.

Is it necessary to have this many?

Every administration has added some department or beefed up spending. Reagan added the US Department of Education (mistake, by the way). Clinton directed more spending in the Department of Defense. Bush added the Department of Homeland Security. What will Obama add? Unlike families' budgets or even a business' where when we add some spending, we obviously eliminate spending elsewhere (you know - to BALANCE our budgets), I have a grave feeling that our elected officials won't be taking the same approach.

I'm not an economist, but I remember some basics from Econ 101, and I'm pretty sure this "bailout" government intervention into our economy is only going to prolong the recession. If the banks, auto industry, and manufacturing industries are allowed to "fail" naturally, the economy will bounce back, and rather quickly. People, especially Americans, are resiliant. Yes, there will be unemployment for a certain amount of time. Politicians are so fearful of that that they will do anything to avoid it - even risk the economy by enacting emergency funding.

It all comes back to those _____ politicians (this time, choose a colorful adjective). If anything needs to be stopped, capped, regulated, it's them. Put term limits on all of them, not just the executive branch. There should be no such thing as a "professional" politician.

So, how many departments does a nation need?