Carnival

Life has been a carnival lately. Actually this year became a carnival starting from January and it hasn't stopped since. Here is what has been going on just in the last two weeks:

Dave woke up one morning and got up on the roof to put on snow gems. Snow gems keep the snow from sliding off our metal roof in huge sheets. He got the job half done when his drill died so after it charged for a little while he got back up to finish the job. It was shaping up to be a great productive day until David fell off the ladder. The last thing he saw was the writing on the top step that said "This is not a step". Yes, he stepped on that step and fell 8 feet or so gracefully onto his back and he did this:

Snapped his humerus in half. I saw him do it too. It scared me when he landed. I'm really glad that x-ray is of his arm and not his head though. We thought the arm was the worst of it... it does suck pretty bad because Dave, being the handy man that he is, earns his living with his hands and this break means he can't work like he usually does. Great.

After a few days, David started to have incredible pain in his abdomen. We thought that maybe it was gas built up from taking Lortab and his bowels had slowed down a bit. That was pretty much what some of the pain was but then when it became absolutely unbearable (and Dave isn't a wimp about pain) we went back to the ER and they did a CT scan and found this:
A huge ginormous right kidney that has been partially obstructed apparently all his life and slowly became dilated and practically unrecognizable as a kidney. His fall of the roof must have caused the partially obstructed kidney to become completely obstructed (probably from edema or a clot) and Dave's abdomen was starting to resemble a woman in third trimester. We were sent to Radiology to get a Nephrostomy tube placed to drain the thing. Here is David before the procedure. He could barely walk. Couldn't eat. Couldn't sleep. Couldn't drink.


I was able to slip away while we waited for the Doctor to have time for the procedure and I went to the kids' Halloween Parade at school. Here are the costumes we came up with (I didn't have time to be creative):

Lou borrowed a Snow White dress from cousin Stella

Ray was Frankenstein's Monster

and little D wore Ray's costume from last year.
I think he is a ghoul but he couldn't wear the mask at school.

Meanwhile David was getting a fever waiting for the procedure.

Finally they placed the tube in his back.

Shauna helped drain off 1500 ml of urine from his kidney. To put that into perspective, on average a normal kidney only has 3-5 ml's of urine in it at any given time. The rest is usually draining to the bladder. Dave is seriously messed up.

He felt quite a bit better after the procedure and has been feeling better ever since...but now we are waiting to get a Nuclear Renal Scan done (when I hear that I see dollar signs in the sky) and after that we will know whether he needs surgery to take the kidney out or surgery to unobstruct/reconstruct the kidney. Either way it all means surgery. I kid around with the kids that for Christmas this year we are all getting kidney pie.

After the procedure, by default I was the pumpkin carver. Usually this is Dave's job. The kids made it easy for me though because they pretty much just drew triangle eyes and noses and nothing too fancy.

So now...I really want life to slow down.

But it hasn't yet. I have been working more at the shop and spending less time at home. The kids have been good sports coming to work with Dave and I when necessary. Lou has been having Daddy withdrawals and lots of tantrums lately. She is used to climbing all over him and she can't do that now. I think she is a little lonely and I also think she is jealous of me too because I have had to be Dave's left arm- helping him bathe, get dressed, tie his shoes etc. Lou argued this morning with me about clothes Dave should wear.




It has been interesting lately in a carnival sort of way. In a carnival that you never want to visit again because it's horrible sort of way.