Fish

We are so proud of our little fish and what stronger swimmers they are both becoming!

Mitchell is now in station 8 (out of 10) and is learning butterfly stroke and how to do turns while lap swimming...he would like to do swim team at some point so he is getting some great skills for this!

And today Collin was so excited to pass into Station 4 and is learning the crawl stroke.

Both Chad and I enjoy swimming and its great to see the boys excelling in the water.

What a Difference

What a difference a week makes!

We are so blessed with Collin's continued recovery! Below are some pictures from when we were discharged on Monday.

We were discharged Monday and sent home on oral antibiotics for two weeks as our out patient treatment.

Another 6 day hospital stay for one of the Bunger's. and we were discharged on July 22nd which was exactly one month after Chad's cardiac event.

We've had one follow up appointment with Dr Duff, our fantastic pediatrician. Next week we go back to Children's Mercy for a follow up appointment with the Infectious Disease Clinic.

We have appreciated all the love, support, thoughts and prayers for Collin and our family. We have felt them all and are truly grateful. We also continue to praise GOD that our family of 4 is healthy and back together at home.

50%

What are the odds of....

50% of your household being hospitalized for an extended period of time?

How about half of your family taking an ambulance ride....and all in the same month no less?

I'm sure odds are slim, but it has happened to our family in the summer of 2013.

What started as the on set of a cold and some strange leg pain, soon snow balled for Collin into a hospital admission last week. By the time we were admitted, he was having severe pain in his left leg (behind the knee specially) that was so acute he was unable to walk. He also began to spike a high fever in the hospital. Lots of tests, blood cultures and scans were done. After finally staph in his blood stream, we were transported via ambulance to Children's Mercy in Kansas City.

I'm not going to lie, it has been a long and traumatic week for Collin. Blood draws and IV lines are no fun for most adults, so you can imagine what this would be like for a 5 year old. But he is such a brave young man and once he started feeling better with IV antibiotics , he began acting more like himself and charming all his nurses any chance he can.

So far, Collin's acute illness and quick rebound have left the specialist scratching their heads. We have been very thankful that all recent tests have been clear of staph! However, the question of where this originated is still a mystery. 

Tomorrow we will meet with a team of Infectious Diease specialist to determine what our next step of treatment will be and hopefully talk of discharge for Monday as well. After almost a week in the hospital, we are weary and ready to have our family reunited once again.

We are so thankful for the care if Collin's pediatrician and the medical staff at both Mercy Regional and Children's Mercy who have taken care of Collin and helped in his recovery!

And while hospital stays are no fun...we had an unexpected surprise on Saturday where Collin was able to hang out and play with many celebrities who were in town for a charity benefit for the hospital!

Before this last picture Collin heard Wilmer's voice and said "that sounds like Handy Manny!!!" Wilmer and everyone else laughed (which embarrassed Collin) but he thought it was so cool he recognized his voice like that.

Other than that, he had no clue who these fun adults were, but enjoyed the cool play time.

Thank you so much for your continued thoughts and prayers for Collin. We hope to have this staph gone...and keep it gone so we can have our healthy and happy boy back at home very soon.

When You Go to the Movie with Your 8 Year Old

When you go to the movie with your 8 year old, you get popcorn with extra butter.

If you get popcorn with extra butter, the 8 year old will also need a slushy. When you order your 8 year old a slushy, you learn that you can mix slushy flavors and the large size is "only" 80 cents more. And since you've already paid an arm and a leg for movie treats for you and your 8 year old... You think "why not?"

When you sit down with your extra large bucket of popcorn with extra butter and the previews start, you think. We'll never possibly even eat half of this popcorn....think again.

When you go to the movie with your 8 year old, he will have to be reminded what movie we came to see in the first place after 20+ minutes of previews.

When you go to the movie with your 8 year old, he will read all subtitles and any words on the screen during the movie out loud at full volume.

That slushy you upgraded to a large for your 8 year old has been emptied 10 minutes into the movie and he is now scamming drinks from your own over-priced soda.

When you go to the movie with your 8 year old, he will asks questions about the plot of the movie. A lot. 

You will attempt to answer these questions while whispering, which will lead to more questions from your 8 year old.

Your 8 year old will point out that certain people in the movie are not making good choices and wonder why they would do that. You will gently tell your 8 year old to be still and watch the movie. Many, many times.

To your astonishment, you will discover halfway through the movie that your 8 year old has been able to talk and at the same time consume 3/4 of the popcorn with extra butter. You will find this out after he tells you his tummy doesn't feel well.

When you go to the movie with your 8 year old, you will laugh at clever moments in the movie and then have to explain them to him because he had no clue that the Lone-ranger  has a storied history and isn't just the latest Johnny Depp/Disney collaboration.

When you go to the movie with your 8 year old, he will exclaim "I KNEW IT!!!" When the true villain is revealed. And then he will want to talk about how he knew it. A lot. All the While, the movie continues to play and he misses another key part of the plot because he was talking. So you will have to explain this part he missed. Which will lead to... You guessed it, more questions.

When you go to the movie with your 8 year old , you leave with a gut ache from a days worth of calories consumed in one setting and a little boy on a sugar rush excitedly asking you what your favorite part of the movie was and why.

But....

When that 8 year old takes your hand while walking out and starts to plan your next Mommy/Mitchell movie date.... It all becomes worthwhile.

Change of Scenery and What's Next

We were very excited when the doctor cleared Chad for a short trip to North Bend, NE last weekend for a get-together at the Croghan Cabin!!

I think we were all needing a change of scenery....especially Chad who hadn't left the Manhattan city limits in over two weeks.  We had a great time and got to see so many of our dear friends from high school and college.  And our kids had a great time playing with each other as well.

I haven't blogged much about running recently for obvious reasons.  And while I have no plans to throw in the towl on running....for the first time in awhile, I have no plans to run another half marathon in the near future.  I had already decided last year at this time that I would NOT be training for another fall marathon for 2013.  While I did enjoy the actual race last October, the training in the summer time was brutal and I almost 86'd the whole thing several times because of the heat....it just wasn't fun. 

Right now, I would like to look at running another spring half marathon sometime in 2014.  I need to get back into a more regular routine of running again as well.  It does so much for me....not just physically, but for my mental state of mind as well. 

So....I've pondered on changing the title of blog the several times....but my journey to another half marathon is out there, just not determined as of yet.  Thus, I believe the title will remain. ;)

Internal Alarm

Chad had his 1 week post hospital check up today and can return to work Monday!

He still has several restrictions which include no running until his next stress test with the cardiologist and swimming is still out for another week as well, but his recovery has been amazing! Today the guy from Medtrac was there and as he came in and greeted Chad, he flashed something over his chest where the ICD is, and an alarm sounded....from inside Chad's body. Then the machine on the counter began printing off all if Chad's heart functions from the past few days. CRAZY!!!!!

It was a quiet 4th for us at home.... Mostly! And no, we did NOT purchase this, much to Mitchell's dismay!

As you can see, we have polar opposites at our house when it comes to fireworks.

But he made it to the fireworks show last night for the first time ever! Sure, he and I sat in the van with the windows rolled up and he wore his protective ear wear....but it was progress!

Hospital at Home

Per doctor's orders, Chad is spending this week at home recovering.

The doctor said to think of this week as a hospital at home with lots of rest prescribed ... and maybe some video game time too. ;)

Leo seems to be following the doctors orders as well. Too bad he can't be doing this when its everyone else's bed time instead of tearing all over the house at the speed of light....

Saturday we spent some time at the Discovery Center with Collin. He needed some time and attention from us after all of this. While both boys did fairly well with all the chaos of one week ago...the extended time away from mommy and daddy coupled with lack of consistency with routine took its toll with our little dude. 

It's been a rough few days with him at times, but I can't really blame either of them considering what has gone on. And having daddy home and recovering well is great medicine for us all.