Surgery for Shannon

Swollen from all the air that was pumped into her during surgery.

I must admit, to write this, will raise a few questions of my parenting, but those who know Shannon, and me, unsympathetic me, will forgive and move on.  On December 12, Shannon had the usual winter time flu: vomiting and then the diarrhea for a day or so.  Not much eating was going on for Shannon at that time.  After that day, and for the next two weeks, she kept complaining about her stomach hurting.  I told her it was first, from her throwing up and then from having the 'runs' (sorry) and then probably tender from not eating and every other kind of 'mom' advice I could think of.  We would ask if she was having cramps and she wasn't sure if it was time for that and then we asked if she was having BM's and she wasn't, so then we told her she had constipation and that was causing all sorts of problems.  Finally, I took her in to see our family doctor and the she said to try fiber/juices/bran and if nothing else came to, um, pass, to take her to the emergency room.  During all this time, Shannon still had a few days left of school and I didn't want her missing them nor did I want her to miss her finals, so that was always a tension talk waiting to happen and happen it did.  Although she did go to school, 2 of those days were spent in the nurses office finishing finals.  I will say, looking back, that Shannon was not Shannon and she was in a lot of pain.  But I am a mom who says 'Buck it up' often.. Probably more than my kids wanted to hear.  On Christmas day Shan had put up a good front and seemed to have a good Christmas and later Jill told me Shannon was really crying and I said 'That's it! Get to the car!'  I even warned her that she would not complain once about what ever they might ask her to do....pee in a cup - do it with a smile - poop in a cup - smile again, enema - let me just roll over for you, etc.  So off we went.  It was about 4 o'clock on Christmas afternoon.  We waited a little bit in the ER waiting room and then ushered back to the observation room.  They took blood and made Shan pee in a cup (smiling the whole while)!  The tests came back fine.  No urinary tract infection, no kidney problems.  Nothing.  An ultra sound test revealed liquid in her uterus so they thought maybe a ovarian cyst had burst, but it shouldn't be causing her this much pain.  Finally a C-scan (?) was ordered and by 10:30 that night we found out her appendix had ruptured and she had a lot of infection pockets throughout her abdomen.  She would need surgery soon.  They were thinking of sending her to Carden's Children's Hospital, but they got a doctor to accept her case here at Gateway Banner and so her surgery was hopefully going to be at 8am in the morning.  Huh?  Ruptured appendix?  Emergency, right?  'Oh, lets wait another 9 hours to operate, she can handle it'. I was shocked.  Anyway, 8am came and went, 10:30 scheduled time came and went, possibly noon, um, no, it came and went, and finally at 2pm she was wheeled in to the OR.  The doctor had told us that morning it would probably take 30 minutes, or if worse case scenario happened, it would be 1 1/2 hours.  It ended up being over 3 hours.  Her small intestine had been 'compromised' and basically tattered from the poison and 6 inches needed to be removed.  Shannon had been a very sick young lady.  Most of the staff here have said how physically strong she must have been to put up with the pain.  I'm sure part of it was because she was afraid of her mom telling her to 'buck it up'.      

She had several of her friends come by and visit her the day after surgery.  She has been asked to walk everyday, but she WAY over did it here.  She was trying to be too strong around her friends and then paid for it later.  

Sweet flowers from her Grandma Hansen.  

Sampson's outfit.

I want to add another small post about our sweet Sampson.  When he passed away, one of the questions you have is what will he wear?  There is really not too many options for 'micro' preemies.  So, I knew we would work on an outfit.  The smallest patterns you can buy are for Barbie/Ken dolls and he, Sampson,  was a smidgen bigger than that, so I bought the next size up which was a 15" doll pattern and I had to cut it down quite a bit.  A challenge to say the least.   Here is the  finished product.  

The shoes were from a newborn shoe pattern found on the internet and I 'shrunk' it down about 4 times.  I didn't care for the finished neckline although on the baby it didn't look too bad. The buttons are actually from  card making crafts and are super tiny but they were the perfect size for the shirt and shoes. 

Also, one more addition.  The shirt ended up being a little small, so I quickly sewed a 1" addition 'flap' that Jonathan added on Sampson's shirt right before they closed the casket.     

 I finished it in a day and into the night and then Jill almost didn't want to use it to bury him in, so I did a second outfit that Jill and Jonathan could have one for themselves to save.

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 I finished it in a day and into the night and then Jill almost didn't want to use it to bury him in, so I did a second outfit that Jill and Jonathan could have one for themselves to save.

Jonathan is probably going to be mad that I put this picture on my blog, but I just wanted to show the size!

Inside I wanted to give Sampson a heart from me! (That's a heart button if you can't see it well).

And life has been going on....fun Vinnie!

Okay, now for my heart finds.......

I know you all wait with anticipation on what I have found for this week: so here, my friends,.....

These first two came from a TV weather report.  I love instant taping of shows because if I think I see a heart while watching a show I can just rewind it and look.  Sure enough, two on one screen! 

And this was a lime that Jill found in the fridge.


And lastly, although sad, was a bird that had been injured somehow, we think shot with a b-b gun, and couldn't fly anymore.  He hung around the outside of our house for a few days, pooping everywhere.
Jill found him floating in the pool later on.  How he got to the backyard is a mystery to us.  So, thank you Mr. Bird.  You will be famous on my wall or in my photo book forever for showing us your lovely heart nose.

 

So much time has passed that I know I won't be able to remember LOTS of things that have been going on in the DeWitt household -but I'll try and remember some important stuff.   AND my Picasa picture storage, where I had many of my pictures saved, went kapootee on me and so now I will have to find my CD's and download my pictures from there.  

Yes, I know this was a month ago now, but, as you all know, Shannon and Allan were in the Mesa High play 'Oklahoma' and being a parent you are asked to help however you can.  Doug volunteered to help build some of the set and what he ended up with was this windmill.  Now this thing was to be 16 feet tall!  And able to be taken off and on stage quickly.  Doug made the fan blades and assembled them down at his work shop where they have tools that work with metal and the rest, well, it was built here in our driveway.  For many days, Doug and Jonathan worked at making some huge pillars (used in other parts of the play) and then this monstrous windmill. I screwed in one screw.  I'm sure the neighbors thought we might be digging for oil in our yard or trying to use the wind as our electrical sourse.  Doug also whipped up this ladder that attached to the windmill for one of the actors to climb on.  And to top it off, Doug hooked a motor to it so it would spin!!!  During most of the play it stands still, but in the dream scene it slowly spins and looks amazing.  For those of you who did NOT get a chance to see the play, it sounds as though it will be performed at the Mesa Arts Center in January!!  It isn't confirmed yet, because of licensing issues but be watching for more info!