The Last 2 Days of the Year

 In the ER we had been told to follow up with an orthopedist in 10 days.  We told them we already had an appointment with one on the 30th at Primary Children's to check his hip.  They said that was perfect.

Still not feeling healthy but well enough to keep the appointment, we drove down and used Ben's new chair which was awesome!

They did Xrays on both his hip and his arm.  Both looked good and so they casted Ben's arm.

He did not like that...I don't think it was hurting still...he just wasn't in a very good mood.

We then met up with Merill and Nancy at a gas station on Foothill who had come down to meet us.  They had some things for us and we gave them their Christmas gift.

Then of course I had to stop at Trader Joe's.

New Year's Eve was pretty low key as we still didn't feel well enough to gather with family.  Matt was off with friends.  We had the cider and threw the confetti and then we played a quick game as we waited for Matt to return.

Welcome 2025!

Hoping it's a pleasant one.

Christmas Eve/Christmas Day

Christmas Eve morning...

One of Matt's wins from the auction the night before was a head massager.

He tried it out on Ben...

Abby had had a long night I guess...

Andy and I met James at The Book Table late that morning to show him the wonder of the upstairs puzzle selection.  He had never been up there and when we found that out the night before we made a date :)

Then Andy and I needed to finish up some last minute shopping.

When we got back home I sequestered myself in the  bedroom to do a whole lot of wrapping.

At one point,  Andy came in for the thermometer...he thought Ben had a fever.

Turns out he had a pretty high fever and ended up really lethargic and horizontal on the couch for hours.

Andy stayed home with him that evening as I took the other kids to the dome.  When the pizzas were done I grabbed some for Andy and ran it home and then went back out to Young Ward for a couple of hours of games.  There was more sickness with the Birrell clan so Jo ended up staying at the dome for some time to try and avoid it.  It was fun to have him there that night.

When we got home the kids got their new ornaments from their stockings.

I had prepped them that their mom doesn't know how to buy small ornaments and to be prepared for some big ones. (Josh's was reasonably sized this year but they haven't always been)  I told them I hope they all end up with big homes so they will have big trees and their huge ornaments won't look out of place :)

The next morning, we got a slow start with some people sleeping in and others...well, I don't know why else but we ended up not opening gifts until 11.

Matt wore his shirt he had made at his theater Christmas party...so classy :)

Josh in his new desk chair and a sibling gift of a stuffed banana.

Where Ben's fever had seemed to abate the night before, it was back full force Christmas morning and he obviously wasn't feeling well.  We tried to open his stocking gifts with him but he wasn't interested and just hedged.

Abs and her new Berks and Matt and his recipe book by Old Time Hawkey

When we were all done, Ben came up for air and we opened one or two of his presents with him before...

...he pitched forward suddenly and went into a hard seizure :(

Poor guy!  Probably induced by the fever.

When he came to I noticed a kind of rash on his forearms and was curious if it was more widespread than that so I took his sweatshirt off to check.

He was not a happy camper.  He kept yelling no over and over.

I felt so helpless...I couldn't tell what was wrong.  Was he just so miserable from being sick that he was mad?  It seemed like something else was wrong but I didn't know what!

I left his shirt off since he was so hot.  He finally calmed down and stopped protesting whatever it was that had made him mad.

As he sat there and did a little with his toys, Andy noticed that he wasn't moving his right hand.

As we looked closer, it also seemed to be swollen.  We gently probed and sure enough, he didn't like it one bit.  Did we have another broken bone from a seizure?

After a bit he seemed a little chilly so I  very gentle put one on and then he fell back asleep.

Through the morning I realized I was feeling a little off as well...just a little congestion so we texted Mom and it was decided we would all stay home but that Mom would prepare some of her brunch for us and Andy would go pick it up.  We also decided that after we had eaten, Andy and I would take Ben in to Instacare.

So, at about 2:30 we loaded Ben into the car.

We left these three figuring out one of our new games...

We drove to the Instacare on 4th north since it is IHC and found it to be closed.  I had just assumed Instacare would be open on Christmas day.  We googled to see if any in the valley were open.  It said that one in Providence was so we drove back the way we had come and found that one to be closed as well.  We knew of two others pretty close by so we drove by them, both were closed, and then, without any other options, drove up to the ER.  Our two reasons for not going there first were we were worried it would take forever and we didn't want to pay more than we needed to.

Well, the first concern ended up not being a problem.  Within 30 minutes of checking in, he had already been tested to see what he was sick with and had his Xrays!

They wheeled in a portable Xray machine and quickly got things taken care of.

After a bit they came in and said he had broken both bones just above his wrist.  They were buckle fractures, so not too bad and would probably heal just fine without any intervention.

They also said he tested positive for Influenza A.

He was so exhausted...he fell asleep so easily while we were there.

As I sat there next to him and he was breathing heavily I could smell his sickness but stayed put since I was already feeling the beginnings myself.

They came in and splinted his arm.  He was a trooper for that process.

Then he fell asleep again while we waited to be discharged.

We were there a total of about 2 hours and 40 minutes...not bad for all we had done.

Testing positive for the flu, we knew at least Ben and I wouldn't be going to Park City the next day like we had planned.  We wondered if maybe some of the others could go a few days later if they stayed healthy.

While we were in the ER the kids ended up loving the new game that Andy had picked out for the family...Betrayal at the house on the hill.  They were super excited about it.  When we got home we tried to salvage the evening by playing some more games but it didn't feel very festive.

By the end of the night I was feeling achy and more congested.  I realized the terrible headache I had most of the day Christmas Eve was probably the beginnings of my illness.  Abby started feeling something somewhere in there as well.  The next 2 days Ben and Abby and I spent most of the day in bed.  Andy and Josh started feeling sick by the 28th but neither of them seemed to get it quite as bad as the rest of us.

Matt had had a scratchy throat a couple of days before Christmas but it never really turned into anything.  He seemed to escape the flu.  But the rest of us had all the aches, chills, congestion etc.  It was quite miserable.  Mom and Dad and a friend brought soup and Merill and Nancy used DoorDash for the first time to send us some as well.  It was not at all the holiday break we had been expecting and Andy wanted a redo but we tried to make the most of it when we felt well enough to do so :)