Around 4:00 am last Monday (Sunday night/Monday morning), one of the triplets was stirring and I got up to go put a pacifier back in. That worked and I stumbled back to the bedroom to crawl back in bed. This typically happens several times a night...so, no big deal. But this time, Melissa was just coming out of the bathroom and stood there holding her lower back (right side) and said, "I think I need to go to the hospital." Melissa has a pretty high tolerance for pain, so I took this pretty seriously. Lower back pain, especially right side, pointed to appendicitis. Well, I had two options for getting her to the hospital. Either call 911 or call someone to get them to come over and help. I guess the other option was putting all four kids in the car with us to take her, but that wasn't really an option with 4 sleeping children. So, when things get bad at 4 am, I called my mother-in-law! Leslie was over in a flash, with her dog Shadow in tow, and ready to help out.
By this point, it was a little after 4:30, so Melissa and I debated whether it would be less trouble for Leslie to take Melissa to the hospital or stay at the house with the kids. If she'd stayed at the house with the boys, all of them would be up really early and she'd have pure chaos on her hands. However, since we elected to have her take Melissa to the hospital, and I stayed home with the boys, they obviously slept until 7:15!
Anyway, Melissa went to the ER and found out that it was a ~6 mm kidney stone. They gave her pain meds and sent her home to try to pass it. They also said she'd need to see a urologist in the next few days just to be safe. She was pretty drugged up, so Leslie and I stayed around the house for the day to deal with children. Chase was in camp at the YMCA this week, which meant he needed to be dropped off between 8:30 and 9:00 and then picked up between 12:00 and 12:30.
By Monday night, Melissa was feeling much better. She was tired, since she didn't sleep much the night before, but generally felt OK. She took some pain meds and slept great. On Tuesday am, she had just a little discomfort, but didn't even take pain meds. I headed off to work. Tuesday afternoon, she was able to get in to see a urologist at the last minute, so Leslie watched the boys (I was at work and couldn't get home fast enough). Long story short, the urologist told Melissa that the people at the ER were absolutely insane. This kidney stone was 9-10 mm (yep, a full cm) and there was no way that she was passing it! Surgery was scheduled for Wednesday am first thing.
My Mom (Nana) made the drive from Winston-Salem on Tuesday night to help with the boys on Wednesday. Melissa and I left the house at 5:15 Wednesday morning to be at the hospital by 5:30. Her surgery would begin around 7:30. Leslie had stayed over the night before, to help tag team the boys with Nana. Of course, the boys decided that today would be a good day to get up early, so around 5:30, Graham was ready to play. Leslie brought him into the bonus room to lay on the couch with her. As soon as he fell back asleep, Jack decided he was ready to go as well. Leslie wouldn't get anymore sleep that morning! Other than getting up early, the boys were well behaved for the Grandmothers!
Melissa's surgery went well...just as the doctor expected. He went up through the ureter, busted up the stone and then pulled out the pieces. It was in fact HUGE he said. Melissa was awake by 8:30 am and other than some nausea from the anesthesia, she felt relatively well. We were back home by 11:00 am, just in time to help Nana and Grandma feed the babies their mid-morning bottles and cereal.
Next was the other wrinkle for the day...or rather, the next few days. At around 7 am that morning, the roofers arrived. Yes, we're getting the house re-roofed. Well, here's a piece of advice for anyone considering getting a new roof. Wait until you have a reason to be out of the house for a few days. Roofers banging on the top of the house when you're in the house sounds like a bad hurricane or tornado coming through...and trees falling on the house...constantly...for about 2 and a half days!! It's really loud! And really annoying! And even more annoying when you're dealing with 3 infants and a 3 year old and Mommy is recovering from kidney stone surgery. Ahhh....good times. The house now looks great, but it was poor timing to say the least!
Thursday was the easiest day of the week, I guess. Melissa was recovering pretty well. Still uncomfortable as they left a stint in her ureter...which by the way, she was to pull out via the attached string on Friday morning...FUN! I went to work on Thursday morning while Leslie stayed at the house with Melissa and the boys. Nana had gone back to Winston-Salem on Wednesday night. I came home at lunch time and relieved Leslie as she had afternoon plans.
On Friday morning, Chase and I had did our standard McDonald's run before I dropped him off at camp. It's become our Friday morning staple...Hotcakes and Sausage! Then Melissa and I took the triplets to the doctor for their 6 month doctor appointment. Technically, they are now about 6 1/2 months, but that's when the appointment was scheduled, so whatever. Their appointment went great. They got the next round of shots and handled them pretty well. They are all growing really well. Jack is still the biggest at 17 pounds, 5 ounces. Graham is still the smallest at 16 pounds, 4 ounces. And Anthony is in the middle at 16 pounds, 9 ounces. For comparison's sake, Chase was 16 pounds, 7 ounces at his 6 month appointment (also at about 6 months and 2 weeks). See comparative growth charts below...kind of interesting huh?
Kind of interesting that Jack is so tall on a percentile basis and even Graham has caught Chase for this age.
Anyway, to cap off a crazy week, on Friday afternoon, I got the dreaded vasectomy. That answers the question we always get..."so, are you going to try one more time for a girl?" Absolutely not!!! The procedure went well and was uneventful. I intentionally planned it for the weekend of the PGA Championship, so at least I got to sit around in the recliner and watch some good golf all weekend.
So that was our week in review. Good times huh?!? Here's hoping that the coming week is less eventful!!
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