Another Trip To The ER

This past Saturday Sam and I took a trip to the Loma Linda ER. He had been complaining of pain in his right hip for a coulple of days and suddenly was unable to walk. So off we went. I thought on the way out there that it would be a faily easy semi-short trip. It was a Saturday late morning, the BEST time to go to the ER (if you HAVE to go). We arrived at 11am and were in the back with the doctor by 11:30..told you its the best time to go. The Dr decided that she would run some x-rays to see if they could find any signs of new fractures. The results came back and as far as she could tell there was nothing. But just to be sure she called the orthopedics team to see if she could be missing something. So Ortho came down to take a look. They messed with Sams legs and decided that they wanted to do a CT Scan and run some blood work. So that was all done. The CT showed nothing out of the ordinary, BUT his blood work showed signs of infection. Now mind you it doesn't tell you what kind of infection or where the infection might be.
So now this brought up a whole new worry. Now they were thinking he might have an infection in his hip joint. So he had to have an ultra-sound done on both hips to see if there was any sign of fluid that could indicate infection. Long story short, there was no fluid so they still dont know why he is having pain and unable to walk. Plus they have no idea why his blood work is showing signs of infection. Now we just have to get an appointment with the ortho DR, who I do not like, to see if he can find out what the problem is.
Hey I bet you I can tell you right now what he is going to say..... He will say that it is because Sam is over weight and that if he lost weight that he would no longer have these problems.....

STOLEN MOMMY!!!!!

HELP! My mommy has been STOLEN!!!

OK so maybe she hasn't actually been stolen, maybe just borrowed. Sunday my friend Karyn asked me to go to Riverside with her on Monday to see her grandmother. I really wanted to go but I have to go to the district office to get Sam all set up at his new school. I was so bummed that I could not go on this adventure with my buddy. We love going on adventures and lately it seems we have just not been able to coordinate or schedules. So then my "friend" decided to take my mommy.

Hello she is MY MOMMY!

Actually I am very glad that she took my mom. I know she has wanted to go out and visit Karyn's grandmother and get to know her better.

BUT, Karyn better watch out. Her mommy may move down here one day. Then I will just have to steal HER mommy!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (suppose to be evil laughter)

It has been awhile but now I am back

I just realized that it has been over a month since I have posted anything on here. So i figured that its about time I did something about it. There really hasn't been anything exciting going on.

Thankfully Sam has been in relatively good health so there is nothing new to report there.

Gabi is running for President at her school. I am hopeing that she will become more involved this year. So far she seems to be. She has suddenly taken to getting up at 5:30 in the morning to go with my niece Amanda to workout. She has also decided that she wants to learn how to play soccer. I keep asking her what "his" name is. she has suddenly taken an interest in things at school and in fitness...there must be a boy behind it! She just laughs at me and says "mom there is no boy....at least not right now." Gabi and I are taking the marriage class at church. I hope that this will help show her what she needs to be looking for in a mate.

I am still watching the same little boy and waiting for the county to come inspect my home so that I can start advertising for more kids.

So there is my life right now in a nut shell. Hopefully I will be a little better about writing more often.......though I am making no promises.

Sams mini autobiography

Here is the autobiography that Sam wrote for the first day of school. I was really hoping that he would explain a little more about his condition or family, but this is what he came up with. We are now working on another one that goes a little deeper. Enjoy!

My name is Samuel Markus Bench. I was born on Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 1995. When I was just over one month old I was diagnosed with Osteogenesis Imperfecta. This means that my bones are fragile and tend to break fairly easy. This is why I use a wheelchair most of the time.
I have attended many schools. I went to pre-school at Wee-Care here in Hemet. I started kindergarten at Studebaker Elementary in Norwalk. Then we moved back to Hemet and I went to Whittier Elementary and then to San Jacinto Elementary. After kindergarten I went to Fruitvale Elementary for 1st and 2nd grade. We moved again and I went to Hemet Elementary for the first part of third grade. I changed schools during third grade because I was in a wheelchair Hemet Elementary was not set up for me to be able to get around easily. So I changed schools again and went to Bautista Creek. I stayed there through the 5th grade. For the 6th grade I went to Dartmouth Middle school. And finally last year I transferred to Riversprings, and am still here.
I enjoy playing video games. My favorite game right now is Battlefield II for the computer. I also have a Playstation 2, a GameBoy SP, and a Nintendo DS Lite. I really want an X-box 360 or a Wii. When I get older I would like to work on designing video games. I already have a few ideas in my head.

Update on Sam

WARNING SOME ITEMS IN THE BLOG MAY BECOME A LITTLE GRAPHIC. IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH YOU MAY NOT WISH TO CONTINUE READING.

As most of you already know Sam was in the hospital this past week.

It all started a few months ago. Sam woke up one morning and was unable to stand up let alone walk. He could barely crawl. I took him to the emergency room at Loma Linda thinking that he had a new broken bone in either his hips or his back. The doctor ordered X-Rays and also believed that he was suffering from a new fracture. When the X-rays were read they determined that he had no new fractures but that he was so badly constipated that it was pushing his spine out. The doctor prescribed MIRALAX powder and told us to follow up with his pediatrician in 3 weeks.

Fast forward 3 weeks.

We met with Dr Kieth Sam's pediatrician and she proceeded to push and poke around on his stomach. She determined that though Sam had some relief and was now able to walk again, he was still extremely backed up. So over the course of a weekend she prescribed 2 enemas plus 2 bottles of Magnesium Citrate, Miralax, Dulcalax, and Bena-Fiber. He was to follow this up with a new X-Ray 2 days later. So we followed the DR's orders...POOR SAM!!!! The day after the X-Ray the doctor called me and said "you were not suppose to do the X-Ray till after Sam took all the medications!" I told her we did wait until after all the meds were done to have the X-Ray done. She informed me that none of the meds had taken care of the problem so she was going to refer him to a GI doctor at Loma Linda. I HATE referrals...they take FOREVER to get from the insurance and then Loma Linda takes forever to input them into the computer!!!!! So it took us almost 2 months to even get an appointment and the appointment was a month out form then! In the mean time poor Sam is suffering yet again.

Fast forward three months.

So on July 29th we finally got to meet with Doctor Shah the GI specialist. I really like this doctor. He sat down with us and explained every thing that needed to be done. Starting with the fact that he felt Sam needed to be placed in the hospital as soon as possible to get him cleaned out. He told us to go on home and get things ready to return to the hospital as soon as they called with a bed available. Well we didn't get called back to the hospital till the next afternoon. (much drama ensued in trying to get to the hospital, but I will save that for another post).

On July 30th Sam was admitted to Loma Linda University Hospital also known as our second home. As soon as we arrived they informed us that until they got Sam cleaned out he would not be allowed anything by mouth until he was cleaned out completely. He could not even have water or ice chips. They hooked him up to an IV and then had to insert a tube in his nose that went into his stomach, this was not fun. The only thing they gave him to make it easier was Benadryl. (I so would have been knocked out for days). Then they hooked up what looks like an IV bag to the tube in his nose and began to administer a medicine called GoLytely which the doctor said was like an enema only given a little differently. When Sam and I went to bed that night they only had one bag hooked up to the tube, but when we woke in the morning the doctor said that it wasn't working fast enough so they ended up hooking two bags up to it. Finally after almost 12 hours the medication started to take effect. Poor Sam, Poor nurses! It was awful. Sam had a commode set right next to the bed and had a very hard time making it the one step it took him to get to it. And every time he went the nurses would have to weigh it and clean out the commode. It was not a pretty picture for anyone involved. Especially a 12 year old boy! It took almost 2 gallons and about 52 hours for Sam to get cleaned out. They did a new X-Ray and said that he was finally clear. They also did an MRI to see if they could find out if it was caused by anything that he might have going on in his spine. We wont get the results of the MRI for two weeks. He was released from the hospital on Saturday August 2nd. And will now have to take Miralax for the rest of his life and they also started him on Metformin a diabetic medication to help keep him from becoming diabetic and to help him with his weight. As soon as we have more information I will let you all know!

Thanks for your prayers!

More Reason to Trust in GOD

For those of you who don't yet know what has been happening at our house the last few days, well months actually, here is a little update.

Sam is heading to Loma Linda once again. But this time it is not for a broken bone. Although they may ultimately find out that it is caused by the spinal fractures that he has.

A few months ago Sam woke up and could not walk or even stand up. So I took him to the hospital thinking he had broke something. They did x-rays and said that he hadn't broke but the problem was he was so constipated that it was pushing his spine out. There is no way I would have thought that he was having this particular problem being that he uses the restroom 2 to 3 times a day. So they put him on medication for 3 weeks and then he had to follow up with his pediatrician. So we went to the DR after the 3 weeks and she said that he was still very backed up so she put him on all kinds of meds, he had to have 2 enemas and drink all this nasty stuff. Then he had to have MORE x-rays. The DR called me and said that none of the meds had helped him. The poor boy was living on the toilet at this point he was going so much. So she referred us to a specialist at Loma Linda. It took us almost 3 moths to finally get in to see the DR yesterday. So now he wants him admitted to the hospital and they are going to put a tube down his nose into his stomach and try to flush everything out it will probably take 2 to 3 days to get him completely cleaned out. Then they will do an MRI and numerous tests to try and find out why this happened and to see if this is going to continue. Can we say "FUN"

They were suppose to get him in last night but they didn't have any beds available so hopefully they can get him in today.

And if this were not enough reason to call on the Lord, My van is not working and I am not sure how I am going to afford to get it fixed. But I will not stress over it. The Lord ALWAYS provides even when I don't see a way HE make it happen!

Car Issues

The other day I took the car in for an oil change and found out that I have a leak in the Coolant Reservoir. It is just a tiny little whole. Now I have a feeling that this will need to be replaced a lot sooner than I originally thought. I was driving home from the Dowalters this evening and the van is wanting to over heat. I wish I had taken Auto Shop in High School. I looked on line and if that is what the problem is I can get the part for around $8 at Auto Zone. What I know is going to kill me is having it installed! I am praying that that is what the problem is and that I can find a decent HONEST mechanic who can help me out with out costing me an arm and a leg.
Any suggestions?