Very fun night with these super heroes!
Friday, October 31, 2014
Friday, October 24, 2014
Larry & Enoch Hospital
Anxiety has gotten the best of me again tonight. Unfortunately, I have spent many nights in sleepless anxiety as I struggle to find solutions to our overwhelming financial and health problems. The exceptional level of anxiety that I am feeling is a combination of our situation in general and the events of the past two weeks.
Two weeks from tomorrow I found myself at the ER with two of my family members. I had spent a very peaceful week at my dad's working on my book, Jill's Hope. I got home late Friday night to find a very clean and orderly house (which always makes me so happy). Larry and I had a disagreement on Fri. night and were up late hashing things out. He then woke up early to go get straw for the store. After a 30 min. drive to go pick it up, he was very discouraged to learn that it was moldy. He came back to Malad and hustled to make it to Enoch's football game that he was coaching in Pocatello. He was tense the whole way there because he was worried about being late.
When we pulled into the parking lot a few minutes late he started having stomach pains. As he lay there on the grass moaning while warm-ups were going on, he insisted that it must be the flu (I knew better, however, because I saw the color in his face change and I have learned the signs of a pancreatic attack). He received a priesthood blessing. Between the blessing and his adrenalin he was able to coach the entire game.
In the 4th quarter, Enoch took a really hard hit and suffered a severe concussion. He was mostly unconscious for the rest of the game that we ended up losing in the last 9 seconds of the game. At first the sports medicine doctor recommended that we just keep an eye on him for 3 hrs. and take him to the hospital if symptoms got worse. When the game ended and he was still unconscious, he recommended that we take him to the hospital for a CT.
Larry carried Enoch to the car and gave him a blessing. I drove him to the hospital and Larry got Enoch settled at the hospital after which he collapsed in pain and went into a full-blown pancreatic attack. I had both of them in the ER across the hall from each other. One of the nurses passing by ask me, "what the hell happened to my family". I told him that it was complicated.
Luckily, Enoch's CT checked out to be ok. and he was able to leave the hospital that night. It took him about 3 hours to regain consciousness and he slowly started talking and walking again. We then went to my friend, Jen's house, that is a 5 minute drive from the hospital. After getting Enoch settled, I spent until 10:00 at night running around getting us some clothes for the night (Enoch was still in sweaty gross football clothes) and finally finding a pharmacy that was open so that I could pick up his meds. Even though I was exhausted, sleep did not come easy as stress was once again getting the best of me.
Larry stayed the night in the hospital. They were finally able to get his pain under at about 2 in the morning. As always, he was very anxious to get home, but later regretted not staying another night or two in the hospital as he had a pretty rough recovery.
When we got home, I spent a good 4 days in a major depression. I could not believe that I was dealing with pancreatitis, AGAIN (we had made it almost four months without an attack)! In addition to the worry I felt about Larry being sick, I was just sick about Enoch's head injury.
It has been almost two weeks and he still has some dizziness and nausea. The Monday after the accident, he rode his bike to work and crashed on the gravel. Grrrrr! After experiencing and learning more about concussions I realized that he probably shouldn't have been working, riding a bike and should have taken a break from school. He has learned to take more time off and seems to be on the mend.
We played the same team last Saturday for the play-off game to determine who was going to play at the mini-dome. They kicked our trash (30-0). Our boys did not show up to play. I suspect that part of it was from the events of the prior week--3 of their teammates, including Enoch ended up at the ER for various reasons. The other 2 boys were cleared to play for the game, but Enoch was still recovering from his concussion. This was the first year that this team has ever beaten us in this league in the 3 years that we have been playing. I had such mixed feelings about the loss.
Larry and the other coaches have worked so hard to build a winning team and it was sad to see them end the season on such a downer. It was very hard to watch Enoch pace the sidelines knowing there was little he could do to help his team. He has been the highest scorer for the team this season and it really hurt our team to have him out for the game. I was relieved, however, that Enoch was not going to push himself to try and be ready for the play-off game if they would have won. I don't think he would have been ready to play and it would have been very depressing for him to have to pace the sidelines again.
After I brought the boys home from the hospital, my dear friend Madelin brought our family dinner for a few nights so that I could focus on taking care of my injured family. Unfortunately, depression got the best of me. My brain literally froze and refused to know what to do to help them. I was not able to cope as a nurse for my family again. I was burnt out!
I felt so guilty not being able to help Larry as he suffered. He slept in his office downstairs and just endured 4 days of trying to recover. On about the 3rd day Larry's Aunt called to see how we were doing. I poured my heart out to her about how hard things were. As I shared how difficult this was on our marriage, it was very comforting to me when she shared some stories from their own family and the statistics that a lot of couples end up divorced during crises because it is so hard. It made me feel so much better to just realize that this was normal.
The couple of things that we learned from this experience were that Larry needs to carry his anit-inflammatories, digestive enzymes and pain meds with him everywhere! I learned that I need to create a Stage 1 diet, Stage 2 diet etc. as a quick reference sheet for after he has had an attack. That way, if my brain does freeze, or I have to call someone for help they will know how to help.
Two weeks from tomorrow I found myself at the ER with two of my family members. I had spent a very peaceful week at my dad's working on my book, Jill's Hope. I got home late Friday night to find a very clean and orderly house (which always makes me so happy). Larry and I had a disagreement on Fri. night and were up late hashing things out. He then woke up early to go get straw for the store. After a 30 min. drive to go pick it up, he was very discouraged to learn that it was moldy. He came back to Malad and hustled to make it to Enoch's football game that he was coaching in Pocatello. He was tense the whole way there because he was worried about being late.
When we pulled into the parking lot a few minutes late he started having stomach pains. As he lay there on the grass moaning while warm-ups were going on, he insisted that it must be the flu (I knew better, however, because I saw the color in his face change and I have learned the signs of a pancreatic attack). He received a priesthood blessing. Between the blessing and his adrenalin he was able to coach the entire game.
In the 4th quarter, Enoch took a really hard hit and suffered a severe concussion. He was mostly unconscious for the rest of the game that we ended up losing in the last 9 seconds of the game. At first the sports medicine doctor recommended that we just keep an eye on him for 3 hrs. and take him to the hospital if symptoms got worse. When the game ended and he was still unconscious, he recommended that we take him to the hospital for a CT.
Larry carried Enoch to the car and gave him a blessing. I drove him to the hospital and Larry got Enoch settled at the hospital after which he collapsed in pain and went into a full-blown pancreatic attack. I had both of them in the ER across the hall from each other. One of the nurses passing by ask me, "what the hell happened to my family". I told him that it was complicated.
Luckily, Enoch's CT checked out to be ok. and he was able to leave the hospital that night. It took him about 3 hours to regain consciousness and he slowly started talking and walking again. We then went to my friend, Jen's house, that is a 5 minute drive from the hospital. After getting Enoch settled, I spent until 10:00 at night running around getting us some clothes for the night (Enoch was still in sweaty gross football clothes) and finally finding a pharmacy that was open so that I could pick up his meds. Even though I was exhausted, sleep did not come easy as stress was once again getting the best of me.
Larry stayed the night in the hospital. They were finally able to get his pain under at about 2 in the morning. As always, he was very anxious to get home, but later regretted not staying another night or two in the hospital as he had a pretty rough recovery.
When we got home, I spent a good 4 days in a major depression. I could not believe that I was dealing with pancreatitis, AGAIN (we had made it almost four months without an attack)! In addition to the worry I felt about Larry being sick, I was just sick about Enoch's head injury.
It has been almost two weeks and he still has some dizziness and nausea. The Monday after the accident, he rode his bike to work and crashed on the gravel. Grrrrr! After experiencing and learning more about concussions I realized that he probably shouldn't have been working, riding a bike and should have taken a break from school. He has learned to take more time off and seems to be on the mend.
We played the same team last Saturday for the play-off game to determine who was going to play at the mini-dome. They kicked our trash (30-0). Our boys did not show up to play. I suspect that part of it was from the events of the prior week--3 of their teammates, including Enoch ended up at the ER for various reasons. The other 2 boys were cleared to play for the game, but Enoch was still recovering from his concussion. This was the first year that this team has ever beaten us in this league in the 3 years that we have been playing. I had such mixed feelings about the loss.
Larry and the other coaches have worked so hard to build a winning team and it was sad to see them end the season on such a downer. It was very hard to watch Enoch pace the sidelines knowing there was little he could do to help his team. He has been the highest scorer for the team this season and it really hurt our team to have him out for the game. I was relieved, however, that Enoch was not going to push himself to try and be ready for the play-off game if they would have won. I don't think he would have been ready to play and it would have been very depressing for him to have to pace the sidelines again.
After I brought the boys home from the hospital, my dear friend Madelin brought our family dinner for a few nights so that I could focus on taking care of my injured family. Unfortunately, depression got the best of me. My brain literally froze and refused to know what to do to help them. I was not able to cope as a nurse for my family again. I was burnt out!
I felt so guilty not being able to help Larry as he suffered. He slept in his office downstairs and just endured 4 days of trying to recover. On about the 3rd day Larry's Aunt called to see how we were doing. I poured my heart out to her about how hard things were. As I shared how difficult this was on our marriage, it was very comforting to me when she shared some stories from their own family and the statistics that a lot of couples end up divorced during crises because it is so hard. It made me feel so much better to just realize that this was normal.
The couple of things that we learned from this experience were that Larry needs to carry his anit-inflammatories, digestive enzymes and pain meds with him everywhere! I learned that I need to create a Stage 1 diet, Stage 2 diet etc. as a quick reference sheet for after he has had an attack. That way, if my brain does freeze, or I have to call someone for help they will know how to help.
I have learned that my sister, Janice, had sent out letters to mine and Larry's families sharing our story and asking for help. I know that we really do need the help, and I appreciate her love and concern for our family so much, but now I am really anxious for people to contact me because I am sitting here trying to formulate exact ways that they can help.
It is now 2:30 in the morning and sleep still alludes me. I will spend my time writing down ideas on how people can help.
It is now 2:30 in the morning and sleep still alludes me. I will spend my time writing down ideas on how people can help.
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