a little bit of sickness to end out the year...

Spencer wanted me to "hold mine arm" the whole time...

Daddy got all the fluids in that were needed prior to the CT.

He didn't get much sleep in the 30-hour hospital visit.

Spence was really happy to be reunited with big brother Ben! 

So there's a chance that I've been avoiding posting to the blog because the content that I have to update the Jewett Family News followers about is not really all that wonderful...  Truth be told, we haven't had a day-- not-a-one-- where all four Jewetts have been healthy since this year started (and even a little before, as this post shows)...

Shortly after Christmas Spencer started complaining that his "belly hurt".  His complaints progressively got worse until he started bending over and clutching his belly, yelling and crying.  He didn't want to be picked up or comforted and finally we decided to take him to get seen.  Of course this was on a weekend so the Emergency Department was our only option.  There were so many sick people there.  We spent from about 11am to about 9pm at the Central Maine Medical Center's ED and following a few IV sticks, blood draw, a cath for urine sample, ultrasounds, and a CT- we were told that he had an intussesception in his small intestine.  He needed to get to Maine Med to see a pediatric surgeon.  So, we went to Maine Med and spent several hours in their ED while we waited for a room at the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital.  We got in there around 2:30am, and Spencer finally was able to get a few hours of sleep...

We met with the surgeon and his team and they sent him to X-Ray.  Spencer didn't have any of his bouts of screaming pain since the previous morning (when we took him to the hospital originally).  All of his tests were looked over and it was determined that all looked good and he could go home.  There's some gray area surrounding what exactly happened, and why he was in pain for five days then wasn't anymore, but apparently kids who get intussesceptions have spontaneous recoveries.  So maybe that's the deal?  Whatever.  At least he felt better and we could go home!

Oh, wait.  He felt better and was able to eat and drink to his heart's content.  And his whole family, including big brother, was there.  He wanted to stay at the hospital and play with all the cool toys!  He did NOT want to go home, after two days of begging to go home.  :)  He got over it pretty quickly and even picked out a pretty cool truck at Target on the way home.