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We did not have any time to rest after the marathon birthday celebration: Christmas time was upon us. In fact, the season had started even before the big party, with Keegan’s school Winter Wonderland on December 5th. This annual event includes vendors, food trucks and, most of all, snow! A small slide is set up for inner tube fun, and a minuscule area is covered with snow for snowball fights and sloshing around. Keegan could hardly wait till I picked him up, and we raced toward the snow slide…despite that, the wait was pretty long. Fortunately his friend Aiden (yes, the same kid he is constantly fighting with) was waiting as well, so the time passed by much more quickly.

The day after his party, we got 0ur Christmas tree and we decorated the house. Online shopping was also well under way. It starts to look a lot like Christmas…

I was settling in my usual holiday stress (I do not like the holiday period, AT ALL) and getting ready for two more weeks of running around, and crazy holiday stuff. This year, however, the “happiest time of the year” turned out to be everything but.

On Tuesday night, December 9th, Matt, suddenly started feeling a really strong pain on his shoulder and back, aggravated by the fact he was having trouble breathing. We waited out a bit, but when it did not got any better, I decided to take him to the ER. It took some convincing (typical guy), but we finally got Keegan up, and made it to Sharp ER by midnight. We were really impressed by the efficiency: by the time I parked after dropping him off, he was already on a bed, blood test and EKG done. No bloody people waiting in an overcrowded waiting room, no long form to fill out. it was all very clean and efficient. The ER doctor suspected pulmonary embolism (blood clots in his lungs), and after various tests, CT scan, x-ray, ultrasound, blood tests, the hunch turned out to be true.

It was a long, scary 4 hours, and amazingly, Keegan was pretty good for most of the time, despite being woken up in the middle of the night. By 4am Matt has been admitted to Sharp Memorial Hospital. This hospital has been recently renovated, and I remember reading about the project, and how they used the latest techniques in patient care, including lots of natural light, feng shuei, etc. I even thought, then, that I would have liked to be in that hospital, if need be. I guess my “wish” got fulfilled. The hospital was really beautiful: large, private rooms, with a wide window, allowing lots and lots of natural light. Each room had a private bath with shower, a sleeping couch, TV with various channel and also relaxing music, free internet throughout the hospital, and a keyboard to use the tv as an internet center. Toiletries were provided, as well as sheets and towels for relatives, slippers, socks, etc. More than once I called it the hotel, instead of the hospital.

We were also fortunate to be assigned a room in the new wing, facing west, overlooking the city, and with a small view of the ocean. The sunsets were absolutely spectacular and we saw quite a few of them.

That first night, Keegan and I got home by 4am, after making sure Matt was settled in his room and comfortable. I made a few calls, and of course, called in sick at work. I also assumed Keegan would have been late for school, and made sure to warn his teachers, but at 7.30am, he got up, and absolutely insisted he wanted to go to school right then. I drove him there, and he seemed happy to have his normal routine untouched. He immediately went to rehearsal for the Christmas show.

I tried to make arrangements: my friend Daniele, informed of what happened, immediately offered to keep Keegan overnight for as long as I needed it, so I could spend the night at the hospital. So Keegan got two sleepover in a row with Gaia. I spent most of the day at the hospital. Everyone was absolutely wonderful, and made us all feel comfortable. As a “care partner” I was given a bracelet that gave me free parking and access to the snack room. Alternative medicine services, like holistic massages and reiki was also offered, and Matt took advantage of it almost daily.

The final diagnosis was multiple pulmonary embolisms, probably caused by an acute pancreatitis that caused pleural effusion (liquid in the lung cavity) and the forming of a large pseudo-cist.

In this scary time, we were amazed to see how many people offered to help. Pretty much any parents of Keegan’s friend offered to take him at any time I needed, and our babysitter offered to watch him any time, for free I assume. (-:

Also, we are so deeply grateful to our families, who immediately put their own life on hold to help us. Sue flew in from NC within 2 days of Matt’s hospitalization, and even extended her ticket when Matt seemed to be doing worse. Mike, came in the weekend before Christmas from Virginia and stayed till Christmas Eve. And Jim and his family drove down from San Jose and stayed till Christmas day. My sister flew from Italy on the 26 and left on January 5th. We really don’t know how we could have done it without their help, especially as far as Keegan is concerned.

So, a very sincere and huge THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts. And thank you for all the prayers, thoughts and positive energy that was sent our way, from friends, family and strangers alike.

With all the help, we were able to have someone at the hospital with Matt most of the day (and often night) and Keegan also received plenty of attention too.

Aunt Sue spent lots and lots of time playing with him, and just entertaining him. She even took him for a full day of Legoland fun. He finally won his fear of roller coaster and rode them all, multiple times.

This was great for Keegan, who seemed to be taking the situation pretty bad, as expected. At first, he did not even want to talk about it, with me or anyone, which is an extremely rare and worrisome event. He did not even want to visit dad in the hospital, but slowly warmed up to it, especially when he found out they had ice cream and frozen lemonade there. He could not really stay longer than 1 hours, but we tried to take him there as often as possible. Occasionally we even spotted a wild rabbit outside, and it was funny watching it hop around the hospital ground.

playing the patient in daddy’s bed

Good thing he could keep his normal routine at school, preparing for the big show and doing all sort of holiday related activities or drawings.

preparing the Christmas present

is this Frosty the snowman?

They talked about international holiday traditions and even had an international feast. Too bad we had we leave early for his annual check up, but he got to bring a plate of dessert with him.

Keegan is the kid upside down on the bottom wearing an Italian soccer uniform

For the school gift exchange, this year they chose Silly Socks. Every kid brought some silly socks, all wrapped up, and the kids took turn choosing them. Keegan got some monster trucks ones. He was pretty satisfied with his choice.

Keegan brought his Christmas gift at the hospital, for daddy to open. It was very nice. He painted a wooden tray and wrote a sweet message on it. He chose the wrapping paper: orange because it is his favorite color and blue because it is dad’s. He punched out the bells on top. So cute!

His school finished on December 18 (why on a Thursday??? I really would like to know) and it concluded with their annual Christmas show. It was a little bittersweet, because Matt could not be there, but fortunately I met a couple of parents there that really cheered me up. The kids were adorable in their matching holiday pj. Keegan had to goof around, of course.

Getting him to stay still for 1 picture was almost impossible. It took a good 8 shots before getting the photo below.

Matt ended up spending two full weeks in the hospital. We had lots of ups and downs, hope and disappointments. We even had a big scare with two days of 103 fever. The worse part, though, was the not-knowing when he would be able to get out. While we were at the hospital, a quick storm brought a beautiful double rainbow: we took it as a good sign.

Many friends and acquaintances sent their good thoughts and prayers, and Matt’s cousins sent some gorgeous flowers. We brought them to the hospital, and filled the room with their fragrance…maybe a little too much, because by the end of the day Matt was sniffling. So, back home with me they came. Good, so I got to enjoy them fully, for more than two weeks.

Keegan was slowly getting used to the fact that Matt was not feeling well, and finally started to talk about it, with me and his friends. He even started expressing his feeling, and saying he was a little mad because this was supposed to be the happiest time of the year, but it wasn’t and he had so much to worry about. I saw it as a positive sign: he is finally processing what happened.

On his first day of vacation, he went to work with me. He did not mind it too much, because he got to watch 2 movies, and eat ice cream at break. He even got to scribble and draw on our board. So funny, he is so small, you can barely see his head above the computers.

That weekend, Jim and his family arrived in San Diego. It was great, because Keegan really gets along with his cousins and he spent lots of time with them. He even slept over their hotel, his favorite Embassy Suites. What a relief he could have some fun! And fun they did.

hot tub time

cousin love

pillow fight!

The following week we enrolled him the the YMCA camp. He was not too thrilled, but I really needed to have him do something during the day. Oftentimes, he still met up with his cousins afterwards anyway. Camp took him to Boomers for mini golf, Solid Rock for indoor rock climbing, Laser Tag, and at the zoo. You can’t really complain about that.

After two very long weeks, and some very pointed questions (and requests), finally, on Christmas Eve, they decided that Matt could go home. We could not have asked for a better Christmas gift! We were also very lucky because that day, our nurse was Melanie who was one of our favorites. Everyone has been great, but she always went well beyond her duty, and was also a very sunny, positive and fun person. She spent lots of time to teach us what we need to do at home and how to make sure everything went well.

She loaded us up with lots of medical supplies and finally we were ready to leave by 4pm. We loved the hospital, but we were SO GLAD to finally go home.

goodbye memorial Hospital

Keegan spent the day with the cousins, fortunately, since there was so much to do.We met the home nurse  and learned how to use the equipment, we got all the supplies and medications…except painkillers. By the time we noticed, the main pharmacy was closed, and at 8pm we began the odyssey to get painkillers that included a wrongly written prescription, begging with the hospital staff for a new one, a drive over to get it, and almost an hour at the pharmacy while the pharmacists was checking, verifying, contacting the doctor and finally filling ti. You would think I was trying to buy drugs…oh wait, oxycodein is misused as a drug! I finally made it at home by 11pm with the precious stuff…but it was all worth it. Matt is home!

welcome back home Matt

I stayed up to wrap and get the presents ready. I did not even looked at what time it was, but I got it done. Christmas can now begin!

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