Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Gomez's kidneys

When Gomez was 4 months old, he spiked a very fever in the middle of the night with no other cause. I called my mom to come over so we didn't have to wake Mars & take him to the ER with us. She came right over and off we went.

Gomez had no other symptoms. Just a high fever. So they sent us home and we followed up in the next day and week with trips to see his doctor and then specialists to find out what was going on.

It would turn out he had a kidney malformation of the ureters that caused a reflux that meant he would have chronic bladder and kidney infections. They put him on daily prophylactic antibiotics and waited to see if it would get better.

It didn't. So at 11 months, he had major kidney surgery.

Now I know many people who have kids with really serious illnesses and this is not that. All along we were fortunate and knew that this was a highly fixable and routine abnormality. I knew he'd be okay in time and with help.

Still, it's a lot to see your baby have his entire abdomen cut open. It's painful to watch your baby try to stand up and walk with 9 tubes coming out of him including an epidural. I'd never even had an epidural. It was terrifying to watch him not eat or drink because of the pain.

For the last 4 years, we've had ultrasounds for Gomez, first at four months to see how bad the reflux was, and again later at 10 months, then surgery, then more ultrasounds since to make sure the surgery was successful and to monitor the amount of scar tissue in his belly.

Every follow up ultrasound has come back with the doctor asking us to follow up in 6 months or a year. He's wanted to keep an eye on it. He's had concerns about the scar tissue.

This was the first one that Rob took Gomez in for. They got up and left the house at 7 this morning to take him to Denver to see how the scar tissue is doing, to be sure the ureters aren't leaking, to be sure he's okay. Meanwhile, Magnus and I had a special breakfast together at our favorite local spot. Then I dropped him at school, and went to work.

20 minutes ago, I got a text from Rob saying that Gomez is cleared. It's finally over. Gomez is fine.
I had no idea how much that little bit of worry existed. I didn't realize how much I worried that he could need to have additional surgery. I knew it was there but didn't think much of it, back there gnawing away at my stability until I read the text.

I literally can't stop crying from gratitude and relief. I think I might be worse at handling good news than bad news because I literally bawled at this news.

I wrote about his surgery in my book but the story wasn't really over until today. It's over. It's over. It's over.

What freakin' awesome news.

Amid my crying and celebrations, I received 2 additional texts from Rob.
#1 was a picture of the upcoming shows at a theater in Denver. We've been having an ongoing disagreement about whether you can refer to "Bone: Thugs in Harmony" as "Bone Thugs" which I argue is not okay and he says is. And they're coming to DENVER! So there was that picture.
and
#2 Gomez says his birthday is on the Fourth Bewakens.

So let's all celebrate by listening to bad 90s rap and eating cake. THE FOURTH BEWAKENS & I miss my uncle Charles, ya'll...

Monday, March 20, 2017

FREE Kindle copy Stop Licking That Today ONLY!

Stop Licking That is FREE today on Kindle. But it won't be for sale for long. I'm pulling it from the market after this week. Get it today while it's still available. (Also, Between Families is just $0.99.)
 
Here's the longer explanation. When I planned the release of this novel for spring, my schedule was set to be light. My plan was to promote this book during the spring and have it ready to rock as a great summer read.
Instead, my pay-the-bills full-time job has had me incredibly busy and I just can't promote this the way I'd like to. So that has meant treating this book as an afterthought and plopping some attention over to it now and again.
That's just not good enough. This book deserves my attention. It doesn't deserve to turn into a rotting fish tank which is sort of what it feels like could happen. See also the actual fish tank in my house which desperately needs a thorough clean.
In the interests of that, I'm going to pull it off the market temporarily until after graduation when I'll be able to devote more focused energies on writing & promoting. So, if you want the Kindle version, you can get it free today or for $2.99 the rest of this week. It'll go back up in summer when I can put it out on all platforms. The price will be higher. I'll send out another update when I'm up and running for summer. I will not pull the paperback. You can still buy that whenever you'd like.
Thanks for reading and understanding. I hope you get a copy while it's around and read and review it! And if you don't have time until summer, I certainly can't judge that! Because I don't either.
 
 
 And to thank you for reading this far, I'll tell you a funny story.
(Important info for this story: My husband's name is Rob. My dad is gay.)
SO last week I started having an autocorrect affair. It started with texting my mom. I texted her about Ron.
Her: Who's Ron?
Me: My LOVER!!!!
Her: Who's Ron?
Me: --...
Her: Who's Ron, your dad's boyfriend?
Me-OMG THAT"S SO FUNNY because that means my dad has stolen my autocorrect lover!
And then I picture an eye-rolling teenaged, snotty-cuss of a version of myself yelling "Jesus, Dad, I can't even have my own boyfriend!" *stomps down hall and slams door*
I did finally text her back to clarify who Ron is. No more mundane fake-lover that my dad is trying to steal.
 
Finally, my kids got 2 baby chicks to be kept at my mom's house. Their names? Sparkle & Fartrock. Happy Spring!
Peace y'all,
Karin